Lead Marketing: This Is How You Generate New Customers From Your Leads

Lead marketing is a promising way of generating new, relevant customers from prospects. In this article you will find out how to proceed and what needs to be considered when marketing with leads.

What are leads anyway?

A lead is a prospect who has given their contact details to a company. This can be, for example, his e-mail address or telephone number. A lead usually has a problem or a need and is looking for relevant information – or they already show a concrete interest in a product or offer.

Why is lead marketing so important?

As a rule, interested parties need some time to be able to decide on a product or an offer. In sales and marketing, one speaks of a qualification: A lead or interested party must first find out about a topic and become aware of the solution to a problem before deciding on a specific product.

Lead marketing is about picking up potential customers at the precise stage in the buying process where they need this information. The goal of lead marketing is to convert the prospect into a qualified customer. In addition, the company provides information and added value tailored to the needs of the interested party.

Benefits of Lead Marketing

• Leads get the information they need in their phase
• The company acts as an expert and creates authority
• Interested parties are bound to the company even before they have decided to buy
• The brand positions itself as a solution provider and generates trust among interested parties

This is what the lead marketing process looks like

As a rule, lead marketing always follows the same process: Unqualified prospects, who only become aware of a problem, gradually become qualified buyers. The company appears relatively early and tries to position itself as a solution provider as early as the problem awareness phase (keyword: lead generation).

However, lead marketing requires a sure instinct. The first step is only about satisfying the needs of a prospective customer and not yet actively promoting your own product. For example, if a user searches for “What to do against impure skin”, they first want tips and information. A company can deliver this content in the form of content articles, downloads or videos, for example, and in return request the user’s email address. Only in the second step should it place its own products.

Lead Marketing Steps

1. Lead Management

First of all, it is important to set up lead management company-wide. All measures that a company carries out to develop real customers from anonymous prospects are part of lead management. Lead management is therefore a fairly large field and must therefore also be given the appropriate resources internally. Only then can you start the process and set up lead generation.

2. Lead generation

Lead generation turns an anonymous prospect into a real lead according to the definition above. You’re trying to collect an email address or phone number from the contact at this stage. This works best when you offer them relevant content and value. Examples of this are webinars, videos, guides, white papers or e-books.

3. Lead Scoring

Lead scoring supports you in making the qualification of a lead visible. Not every lead is equally valuable. The Lead Score indicates whether a lead is engaging with your content, how relevant they are to your business, and how likely they are to purchase. If the score reaches a certain number, sales can take over and actively address the lead. 

4. Lead Nurturing

Once you have implemented the lead generation measures and set up lead scoring, the qualification of the leads is crucial in itself: the so-called lead nurturing. You provide a lead with relevant content to bind them closer to your own brand. You can set up e-mail routes and automatisms to personalize the content.

Also Read : Marketing Leads: Know Them, Generate Them And Take Advantage Of Them.