Lead Generation: The basics of where you get your customers

Curious about lead generation? Learn the science behind attracting people who might be interested in what you offer. In this article, we explore the absolute basics of lead generation theory, how to define your leads and how to reach your audience depending on its characteristics.

What is Lead Generation?

In the competitive world of business, acquiring new customers is essential for growth. Lead generation is the foundation of this process, identifying individuals with a potential interest in what you offer.

Types of audiences

The concept of Lead Generation opens up a classification of the audience. Hence, in marketing, audiences are categorized based on their familiarity with your brand, which marketers refer to as their “temperature.” Here’s a breakdown of warm and cold audiences:

Warm audience

They have already shown interest in your service or product, making them more receptive to your messaging. Typically warm leads are current customers, previous customers, referrals from customers. They’re the people you already know that you can close on a sale.

Reaching your warm audience

Your warm audience consists of individuals who have already interacted with your brand in some capacity, making them more receptive to your messaging. Here’s how you can effectively engage them:

1. Personalized communication: Leverage your existing relationship by personalizing your communication.
2. Exclusive offers: Reward their loyalty with exclusive offers or discounts.
3. Cross-sell and upsell Opportunities: Identify cross-sell and upsell opportunities based on their past purchases or interactions.
4. Request feedback and reviews: Foster a sense of community, and valuable insights for refining your product.
5. Referral programs: Incentivize them to refer friends who could benefit from your products.

1-to-1 to a warm audience is called warm outreach. This can be done by phone calls sms, direct messaging, and email., 1-to-many to a warm audience can be done by sharing and posting content on social media

Cold audience

A cold audience is a stranger to your product. They haven’t interacted with you before, making them a bit frosty to your outreach efforts. However, with the right strategy, you can warm them up and turn them into leads. This is done through advertising and cold calling.

Reaching your cold audience

Engaging with a cold audience requires a different approach, as they’re unfamiliar with your brand and may be more resistant to your messaging. Here’s how you can effectively capture their attention:

1. Targeted advertising: Reach specific demographics or interests that align with your ideal customer profile.
2. Content: Create free valuable, informative content that addresses pain points or interests relevant to your target audience.
3. Lead magnets: Offer content such as free software, pdfs, templates, or toolkits, to entice cold audience to engage with your brand.

1-to-1 to a cold audience is called cold outreach. 1-to-many to a cold audience is done by paid advertising.

Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) vs. Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs)

SQL and MQL are stages in the lead qualification process, which helps businesses identify potential customers who are most likely to buy. Here’s a quick breakdown:

• MQLs: Shown interest in your product or service through various marketing efforts.
• SQLs: Deemed ready for direct sales engagement.

Low vs. high-quality leads

You can evaluate any lead to your ideal customer persona, if you have created one. This way you can see if your lead is high quality or not.

Characteristics of high-quality leads

1. Engagement: Actively interact with your brand across multiple touch points.
2. Intent: Demonstrate a clear interest in your product or service.
3. Fit: Align with your ideal customer profile and are likely to benefit from what you offer.
4. Readiness: Likely to convert into a sale.
5. Value: Potential for long-term, profitable relationships with your business.

Characteristics of low-quality leads

1. Lack of Engagement: They show minimal interest or interaction with your brand.
2. Unqualified: They don’t fit your target customer persona.
3. Ambiguity: Their intent is unclear.

SublimeStart can help you through Online Marketing

Lead generation isn’t about forcing yourself onto your cold audience, it requires a strategic approach to get the most value. Our system is works by performing marketing through the following funnel:

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