What is Lead Generation Strategy?

A lead generation strategy is a combination of tactics that attracts a MOFU audience and takes them a step ahead in the funnel or converts them into leads. The aim is to inspire them to take the required action that has been decided by the brand. The required action can be entering the contact details, signing up for a newsletter or following them on social media. The lead generation strategy consists of four components:

• Lead Capture
  It is a way to collect information from a lead. The information includes name, contact information and qualifying details like, business website, number of position, state, country, job title.
• Lead Magnets
  It’s the second step that steers the chances to become a lead.
• Lead Qualification
  It is the process that analyzes the leads’ info and determines whether they are a good fit or not.
• Lead Segmentation
  The last step is to sort out leads based on the provided details: job title, lead magnet attracted them, pages they visited on your website.

Let’s check out the top lead generation strategies and examples that will help you to capture leads quickly!

Top 5 Lead Generation Strategies and Examples for 2021

1. Create Gated Content
2. Create a Value-packed Newsletter
3. Host an Event
4. Provide a Freemium Product or Free Trial
5. Target Top-of-funnel Keywords

Create Gated Content

Gated content is an online stuff that is only available to users who fill out required information in exchange for the resource. The Gated content is kinda locked and is not available unlike any other blog posts or landing pages. To obtain the content, the user has to complete a short form. Gated content is a powerful lead generation strategy as it attracts high quality leads that are interested in topics that are related to your brand in exchange for free information. 

The examples of gated content are: 

• White papers
• E-books
• Guides
• Reports
• Courses
• Worksheets
• Online tools

Example: Hubspot is a perfect example in using Gated content as a lead generation strategy. They have a special resource section on their website which is full of gated content. The users can use the resources after they fill out the lead gen form.

Create a Value-packed Newsletter

A value packed newsletter that is distributed weekly or monthly can be a great way to send out information to your targeted prospects. It encourages users to stay in touch with your brand and get updated with latest news and features. The newsletters can also be used to drive buyers further down the funnel. You can include information in the newsletters like,

• New blog posts
• Updates about your products or services
• Special offers
• Upcoming events
• Recommended reading from other thought leaders

Make sure to add CTA at the end of the newsletter to encourage buyers to take the required action. 

Example: The famous business coach, Marie Forleo, uses her “MF Insider” newsletter to provide value and drive prospects. The newsletter is full of knowledge and provides lots of value. 

Host an Event

Hosting an event online or offline is also a great example of lead generation strategies. The webinars and events attract and encourage your target audiences to give the asked info via event registration. The live events are a great opportunity to connect with your users in real time and solve their queries, learn more about them and guide prospects through the sales funnel.

• Webinar
• Workshop
• Seminar
• Meetup
• Conference

These are some of the examples of live events. 

Example: One of the perfect examples of using events and webinars as a lead generation strategy is Content Marketing Institute. CMI regularly hosts live and pre-recorded webinars to capture and generate leads. 

Provide a Freemium Product or Free Trial

Providing a free trial is one of the most popular ways of lead generating strategies. The freemium products and free trials attract qualified leads who are still thinking about buying the product. Free products also allow you to convert the users and move them through the sales funnel. Further, you can offer them tempting offers, paid features and delivering drip email campaigns that promote the features of paid products. 

Example: Trello, project management software, offers a free version of their tool (with stripped-down features) to generate leads and drive free users toward paid plans.

Target Top-of-Funnel Keywords

Targeting keywords that your target audience frequently use at the top of the sales funnel, and using those keywords in different ways is also a way to capture leads. The TOFU keywords can be used to drive the potential users towards leads magnets and encourages them to provide the asked information. 

The TOFU keywords can be targeted in various ways: 

• Create evergreen content that is optimized for the target terms.
• Develop an on-site blog strategy around the target keywords.
• Target the terms in pay-per-click marketing.
• Guest blog on sites that have a high share of voice for the target terms.

And make a note of following the SEO rules to boost your chances of showing on top of the google page. This will help you to show your brand to a large number of potential buyers.

Example: SmartAsset, a personal finance tech company, targeted a top-of-funnel term they knew their target audience was searching for. They created useful, valuable content around the topic, which helped them rank for the term.