Inbound Lead Generation or Outbound lead Generation doesn’t matter the form it takes; Lead Generation should be important to every marketer.

And as a competent marketer, you also need to be conversant with the trends involved in the lead generation process. One direction to keep tabs on is the Inbound and Outbound Lead Generation changes.

To keep proper tabs on Inbound and Outbound Lead generation, you must first understand what they are. Then, like many other marketers, you can choose between Inbound and Outbound Lead Generation.

However, before we get to all that, let us look at what Lead Generation is and why it is so important.

Lead Generation

Lead Generation is the activities needed to generate interest in a product, service, or brand among customers to turn their interest into sales. Traditional marketing techniques in the past were adequate for attracting customers. However, the increased competition and abundance of informative content have made traditional marketing inadequate for the task.

Lead Generation, therefore, helps companies make up for their inadequacies. You can use lead generation regardless of the type and size of the business you are running. And according to trusted marketers, they believe that Lead Generation is a key pain point for companies. This is a result of the complexities involved in determining a good Lead.

Email marketing is a vital part of Lead Generation. Marketers can generate quality leads that enable the company to educate and encourage prospective clients through email marketing and reach out to qualified leads.

When you apply Lead Generation methods to your company, you increase the brand relationship with customers and brand awareness, generating qualified leads for your company.

Over the years, Lead Generation has evolved. It used to be just a means for finding customers in the early stages of their buying process. At this stage, the buyer is researching what product to use, and the company must find a way to reach this buyer before he gets swayed by the competition. This contrasts sharply with the typical method of getting customers through mass adverts. Nowadays, marketers want their buyers to find them, not the other way round.

Lead Generation: How does it work?

In Lead Generation, two significant processes are very pertinent. These processes are essential regardless of what type of Lead Generation you are working with. These two are applicable in both Inbound and Outbound Lead Generation. They are;

1. Generating traffic to your site
2. Collecting contact information

It would help if you found ways to get customers to your website as a marketer. And not just regular customers, but customers with a particular need that pertains to your service. There are many ways to achieve this. This usually depends on your company’s budget and the goals of your company. Here are some ways you can drive traffic to your company;

– Offline Events: While lead generation mostly happens online, some parts can be initiated offline. Conferences, trade shows, and industry events are examples of offline ways to meet potential customers and tell them about your brand or product. You don’t necessarily have to host these events or sponsor them. You can be a guest in one that has already been organized and still achieve the goal of increasing the awareness of your brand.

– Social Media: Driving traffic through social media is an almost perfect strategy. With the growing influence of social media platforms such as LinkedIn and Facebook, social media marketing is practically a vital strategy for any marketer. These days, social media is beginning to rival search engines in the amount of traffic generated. It’s a platform waiting to be exploited.

– Search Engine Marketing (SEM): The most common way internet users do their research is through search engines. Due to this reason, Search engines such as Bing and Google are massive sources of traffic for many websites. Companies pay these search engines to display their ads in search results to take advantage of this.

– Search Engine Optimization (SEO): This involves getting traffic through search engines similar to what goes on in SEM. However, SEO follows a different route. Instead of paying for ads, you optimize your content on your website or blog to take advantage of Search engine algorithms. This makes your content very visible as they become the first thing customers see when they do related searches.

– Display Ads: In this method, you create content – videos, images, or texts. The content will then be purchased on relevant websites. This generates traffic to your actual website. Typically, this is done through models called Pay-Per-Click (PPC).

Once you pass this stage, we can assume you are already getting visitors to your site. But it is not enough to have these visitors; you now have to convert these visits into leads. Here you get to convince these customers to share contacts with you. These customers must first be interested in your product before submitting their contact information. This is often done through an incentive called Lead Magnet.

Many lead generation strategies will help you achieve this such as;

– Landing Pages: Your product should be your best Lead generator. Your product should be solving a core issue that the visitor is facing. Once you achieve this, it should be compelling enough to get visitors to provide their contact without any added incentives. It is imperative to ensure your product is always presented most attractively. This is where Landing pages come in. A good Landing page will provide educative content that will convert visitors to customers. Marketers need to be aware of Landin page optimization techniques.

– Content: To get visitors to provide their contact information, you have to entice them. And content is an almost perfect way to achieve this. It is common practice to provide valuable content to visitors and have them provide their contact information. The content in this instance can be a case study, white paper, or even an infographic. The content should provide information relevant to your product; for visitors to access this information, you require them to provide their contact information.

– Webinars: This is a live video session in which prospects can view and participate. The length of a webinar can vary depending on the marketer’s goal and company. However, webinars take a lot of time to organize but keep in mind that they are also efficient ways to create awareness, create leads, and then convert the leads.

Once you have generated a lead and the visitor fits your Ideal Customer Persona, this lead becomes a Qualified Marketing Lead (MQL). At this stage, the digital marketing team proceeds to nurture the lead. This ultimately leads to the visitor making an inbound purchase; this purchase can be made on the company’s website or by reaching out to the sales team.

Now that you have an idea of what Lead Generation entails, the next step is choosing what type of Lead Generation you want to use. We would talk about Inbound Lead Generation and Outbound Lead Generation, their differences, and their benefits.

Outbound Lead Generation

The first stage of Lead generation is driving traffic or attracting visitors to your site. With Outbound Marketing, you can move this traffic by putting out information and messages on your brand or product to a large audience. Most members of the audience did not solicit this information. You, as the marketer, have chosen the timing and location of the interaction between you and your audience.

Outbound Lead Generation typically entails pushing the idea of purchasing your product or service to the audience. And this is done utilizing a one-way communication channel. It is usually an expensive endeavor that interrupts the lead with the information it is promoting.

In Outbound Lead Generation, there are types of Leads. These are;

– Marketing Qualified Leads (MQL): These leads have shown genuine interest in purchasing your product. Their intent can be measured through their engagement with your company; this includes – engaging your content, visiting your website or blog, and in some situations, downloading marketing materials.

– Sales Qualified Leads (SQL): A Sales Qualified Lead is a Qualified Marketing Lead that has reached out to the company’s channels to make a purchase. The lead is ready for the next stage.

Strategies for Outbound Lead Generation

Considering that Outbound Lead Generation is all about making the first contact with prospective customers to promote sales and marketing information, here are strategies to help you achieve this.

– Social Selling: Marketers nurture leads by having a reputable personal brand. LinkedIn is one great platform to achieve this. Marketers employing this strategy share helpful content that adds value to prospects.

– Cold Outreach: Cold calls and Cold Emails are effective forms of cold outreach. Both conditions have been around for years, and while they can be annoying, they are also effective. Marketers create a list of potential customers and call or send emails to these prospects. These calls and emails have to ensure they highlight the product’s benefits and how it can alleviate specific issues the opportunity might be having.

– Content Syndication: Marketers republish their content on a third-party site. This is an effective strategy as it exposes your content to a new audience. This ends up driving traffic to your site.

Benefits of Outbound Lead Generation

1. Easy to Sustain – This is because typically, all you need is one type of content that will be mass distributed.
2. Initiating – Outbound Lead generation is relatively simple to start, generating leads as soon as it is initiated.
3. New Audience – More often than not, the information or message you put out will be viewed by people with little to no knowledge about your brand.
4. Control – You are in charge of where and when the audience communicates your message.

Now, let’s take a look at Inbound Lead Generation

Inbound Lead Generation

Unlike its Outbound counterpart, Inbound Lead Generation is focused on getting customers to reach out to your company. This is the crucial difference between Inbound Lead Generation and Outbound Lead Generation. The methodology involved ends up pulling your customers to your company.

Inbound Lead Generation does not sell the company’s product to the audience; instead, it sells the idea of a solution to the audience. It achieves this by educating leads about the company’s products and services. This form of Lead Generation allows for customer communication and is very reliant on valuable content generated.

Like in Outbound Lead Generation, we also have Inbound Leads. These include;

– Marketing Qualified Leads – A lead that has some engagement with content. However, they are still cautious. At this point, the best step to take is to make more content available for them.

– Sales Qualified Leads – These Leads have openly expressed their interest in making a purchase.

Strategies Involved in Inbound Lead Generation

– Content Marketing
Content is at the heart of Inbound Lead Generation, so it is only right that Content marketing is a key strategy. You need to ensure that you create content that educates and interests your audience. This will help you build a solid reputation and drive traffic to your blog. Examples of content include; Articles, Videos, Infographics, etc.

– Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
With the number of internet users using search engines, it will be incompetent not to take advantage of Them. SEO enables your content to reach a wider audience using search engine algorithms. Some ways you can take advantage of the algorithm include; answering the questions your audience might have, using target keywords, using internal links, ensuring your visitors have a great experience while on your website, etc.

– Social Media Marketing
A lot of internet users make use of search engines, and a lot of internet users are also on social media. A lot of internet users spend more time on social media than on search engines. And just like you can’t fail to take advantage of Search engines, you should also try to take advantage of social media. Social Media platforms such as LinkedIn and Facebook are great options. If your brand is targeting a young audience, Tik Tok should be your go-to social media platform.

Benefits of Inbound Lead Generation

– Inbound leads are easier to convert. This can be because they decided to contact your company.
– Positive results are almost assured
– It is cheaper to implement
– Helps establish your brand as a dependable source in the industry

Difference between Inbound Lead Generation and Outbound Lead Generation

There are many differences between the two types of Lead Generation. These differences include; 

– Inbound Lead Generation is designed to attract Leads. The leads are attracted by the educational content offered. Meanwhile, Outbound Lead Generation goes after prospects. Their strategies involve them putting out mostly unsolicited information to the public.

– Inbound Lead Generation lets prospects control the engagement. Options pick the time to reach out. Outbound Lead Generation determines when the customers view adverts, receive cold emails, and do not place regard for the prospect’s wants.

– Outbound Lead Generation typically has finite and short campaigns. A lot of time, the end being an effect of expenses. And the assets used in these campaigns can’t be regained. With Inbound Lead Generation, investments tend to have a longer life span.

 When to use Inbound Lead Generation

Inbound Lead Generation is best in the following situations;

– When you are willing to be patient to get Leads over a long period
– When you want to be patronized by a wide range of customers
– When you want customers to have a proper relationship with the company
– When you want to get new leads using content creation

When to use Outbound Lead Generation

– It is best used when you have an adequate amount of funding to spend
– If you favor one-way communication
– If you want quick results

Conclusion

There are a lot of things to consider when making the decision on which type of Lead Generation to make use of. Both Inbound and Outbound Lead Generation are effective in for generating leads. They do have their limitations, so it is up to you to choose what you can live with.

RELATED: The Ultimate Guide to Inbound Marketing

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https://www.roboticmarketer.com/how-to-generate-leads-in-2022/
https://www.randallreilly.com/build-a-full-proof-system-for-generating-leads/
https://www.sender.net/outbound-lead-generation/