Let’s start off with a definition of lead generation. Lead generation is identifying prospective customers and collecting information from them to later convert them to a customer. For example, you can collect leads from members of your target audience by having them fill out forms, call your business, attend an event, and more.
Since lead generation is all about gaining more customers, it should be prioritized since it plays such a crucial role in your business’s overall growth strategy. In fact, 91% of businesses say that lead generation is their most important goal and 53% put half or more of their overall budgets towards lead generation efforts.
If you feel like lead generation has been a constant uphill battle for your business, you’re not alone. In fact, over two-thirds of businesses say that generating high-quality leads is their most prominent challenge.
However, when you have this big list of lead generation ideas in your toolbox, you can turn that challenge into an opportunity for quick and easy business growth! Plus, if you’re ever still in a bind for leads after trying these lead generation ideas, our solutions are always here to help you maximize your business’s lead potential!
Don’t let your marketing budget stop you from taking advantage of top lead generation ideas. Here are some totally free ways to generate leads for your business:
1. Post regularly on social media
We know that users spend a lot of time (over 2 hours and 25 minutes per day) on social media and turn to sites like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok to discover new businesses. In fact, over half of social media users are on these platforms to research products and services.
So how can you turn a social media user into a lead (aside from running ads)? One way is by regularly posting engaging or educational content. Another is by promoting your business’s products, services, and sales. Either way, getting into a regular social media posting cadence ensures your business is at the top of your followers’ feeds when it matters most.
Try to stick to the 4-1-1 social media rule, which means your content should be a mix of both promotional and educational posts so that you don’t come off too sales-y. When you regularly post genuinely helpful content for your audience, you’ll be more likely to secure leads from social media over time.
Need some help coming up with social post ideas? Try our marketing calendar with free monthly social media calendars.
2. Create and manage your Google Business Profile
Get local leads right from Google with an optimized Google Business Profile. This is a proven lead generation tactic, as 56% of actions sourced from Google Business Profile listings are website visits and 24% are calls to a business.
To get started, claim your Google Business Profile listing, and build out your listing from there by including assets like photos, contact information, and a strong business description.
3. Manage other listings sites
Your Google Business Profile is only one piece of the puzzle when it comes to generating local leads. 93% of people are influenced by information found on business listings, and 68% of consumers would stop working with a local business if they found incorrect information on its listings.
All your local directory listings should be in order to catch all your potential customers on their preferred business directories. This can help you generate leads from folks who may not have known about your business but came across it through your listing profiles.
The more online directories your business is listed on, the more opportunities you’ll have for people to discover you, which can generate leads for your business. However, with that also comes the challenge of managing multiple listings.
4. Get and respond to reviews (+share them)
One way to maximize the number of leads you get from your listings is to secure lots of high-quality reviews for your business, respond to them, and share them on places like your website, social sites, and in emails. It’s no secret that reviews matter for your business, but a good review can make the difference between converting a prospect into a lead. In fact, nearly 90% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.
To make reviewing your business as easy as possible, you could implement a QR code so that your customers can quickly scan and review your business from their phones. From there, you could schedule regular check-ins to respond to all your reviews and pick a few to screenshot for further sharing!
5. Create blog content
Managing a blog for your business can help boost your SEO and give you more opportunities to get found on search engines. A blog can also position your business as a helpful resource and industry leader, which can drive both traffic and leads.
Try testing educational blog content to spark your readers’ interest and help convert users into leads. You may need to try a few different blog post styles to see what your target market might prefer to engage with. And you’ll want to do ample keyword and topic research to identify the best types of content to post on your blog. This is where AI (artificial intelligence) in content marketing could come into play to help with the research portion of your blog management. (Our friends at WordStream also put together over 100 blog post ideas to help you get started!)
To help generate leads through your blog content, make sure to include relevant in-content links and a strong call to action.
6. Partner with other businesses
Since you know lead generation is a challenge for most businesses, why not share the wealth? You can partner with a complementary business in your area for co-marketing. This means marketing your businesses together to capture leads and get new customers. You’ll be expanding the reach of your marketing efforts by tapping into one another’s audiences.
For example, if you’re looking to market your home services business you might team up with a local real estate business or furniture retailer. You could then point leads to one another or shout each other out on social media.
Best mostly-free or low-cost lead generation ideas
If you’re looking for some lead generation ideas that require less of a budgetary investment, these options are for you. Many of these are (mostly) free or low-cost, but some of them will take some time–and, as they say, time is money.
7. Implement an SEO strategy
One of your main sources of leads will likely be your website visitors. To drive traffic to your website so that you have more lead generation opportunities, you’ll want to leverage a local SEO strategy.
This might mean optimizing your website copy for specific keywords or ensuring your website is accessible to all your potential customers by following website accessibility best practices.
The best part about SEO for lead generation? It’s a completely free way to secure more leads from your target market!
8. Add chat to your website
There are countless reasons to add chat to your website since it benefits both your business as a lead generation tool and your customers by providing a streamlined site experience. Like with local SEO, using chat to collect information from your audience is another way to turn your website into a lead generation tool. In fact, chat can generate four to eight times more leads from your website.
However, no business owner has time to manually respond to each of their website visitors. So, you’ll want to take advantage of online chat solutions you can easily implement and run seamlessly on your site. With an automated chat feature, you can have canned responses to guide your prospective customers down your lead funnel without having to lift a finger.
9. Use an online scheduling tool
A scheduling tool can easily be added to your website so that users can request an appointment or schedule directly without having to call or email your business. This automates your business’s scheduling process while also allowing you to convert leads into customers right away. It’s basically a one-stop shop for customers to quickly book their desired events while also providing key lead information to your business, like their name and email address.
Plus, many online scheduling solutions allow you to customize your required fields as well as your follow-up communications to make lead management a breeze.
10. Optimize your website for lead capture
Once users are on your business’s website, you want to make it as easy as possible for them to convert to a lead. Be sure that your desired lead capture action, like a form, is easy to navigate and quick to complete.
Your website copy should clearly convey the action you’d like your prospects to take. With this lead generation idea, you’re maximizing your business’s ability to secure online leads efficiently. This means that you should include powerful call-to-action phrases and provide multiple ways for people to contact your business, like click-to-call options, listing your phone number across your site, and more.
11. Try email marketing
Email marketing is crucial to your lead generation strategy as 60% of consumers say they make monthly, if not weekly, purchases off of marketing emails.
To start, you’ll want to build an email list to capture leads. Securing emails for an email list can be done via a form on your site, through live chat, and more. Alternatively, you could leverage paid online services that have access to consumer data and provide email lists for you.
To take this lead generation idea a step further, you could try targeted email marketing to reach a specific list of potential customers who aren’t yet leads. Just be sure to follow targeted email marketing best practices, like including engaging and creative content, to make the most out of this lead generation idea.
12. Run regular promotions or sales
If gaining more eyes on your marketing is a small business challenge that resonates with you, this lead generation idea is just the thing you need. Regularly showcasing your top products or services through a sale or other type of promotion is the perfect way to hook your audience and move them through the customer journey a.k.a. the sales funnel. For example, you could have your audience sign up for a special promo code to get access to a flash sale.
As you work your sales or promotions into your regular lead generation rotation, try to make it relevant to your audience. For example, you could add a seasonal theme or connect it back to a problem that your offering solves. You’ll also want to include all the key information about the sale up front, like which products the sale applies to and how long it will run.
13. Offer free tools or resources
One easy way to generate leads is to offer something prospects would find useful. Free tools or resources that your potential customers can take advantage of are the perfect lead generation idea for a fair trade-off between your business and your target market.
You’ll want your free tool or resource to be relevant to your business. For example, a cleaning company could provide a spring cleaning checklist with a list of all the places to clean in their homes broken down by day, week, or month.
Once you’ve developed your free tool or resource, you’ll want to offer it in exchange for your prospects’ contact information. You can do this through a separate landing page or by adding a lead capture form to your website.
14. Launch a referral program
Your business’s marketing channels aren’t the only ways to generate leads. Your current customers can be an excellent lead resource as well. A referral program combines your loyal customers and word-of-mouth marketing to get new leads flowing into your business. All it takes is a special discount, gift, or another incentive to get your current customers to refer your business to potential leads.
15. Build a strong brand
Maintaining brand consistency is something your business should strive for all the time, but it can be all that much more important when implementing any lead generation ideas. A strong brand makes it easier for your audience to recognize and recall your business. That way, when your potential customers are ready to become a lead, your brand will be top of mind.
Building a clear and consistent brand might include:
- Using the same brand colors or fonts across your website and marketing assets
- Adding your small business logo to any photos or videos you create
- Using the same voice and tone in your content marketing
- Having a clear mission statement
- Clearly conveying your brand story
Best paid lead generation ideas
These lead generation ideas require a budget, but they’re some of the best ways to drive high-quality leads to your business.
16. Invest in search ads
Search ads, run on search engines like Google or Bing, are the absolute best way to generate leads for your business. Why? Consider these stats:
- 97% of people begin a search for prospective businesses on search engines.
- 90% of local searches have purchasing intent.
- 74% of brands say search ads are a major lead driver for their business.
Plus, with the addition of lead form assets in Google Ads, your search ad viewers can convert to a lead without ever having to leave the search results page.
If you want to generate leads and get more customers, running search advertising is going to be your best bet. But this is on the paid list for a reason. Search ads require setting a budget and bidding on the keywords you want to show for in search engines. Your budget is used once someone clicks on that ad (which is why this strategy is also called pay-per-click advertising, also known as PPC).
17. Try Google Local Services Ads
Service-based businesses can also take search ads a step further by running Local Services Ads on Google. These ads show for searches related to service-based businesses like plumbers, lawyers, or realtors and are pay-per-lead rather than pay-per-click. Meaning, you only pay if someone takes an action to contact you or book an appointment from your Local Services Ad.
Local Services Ads are a great low-cost lead generation idea for service-based businesses since the average cost per lead for Google Local Service Ads is between $6 and $30.
18. Test retargeting
The customer journey has multiple touchpoints, and a person will rarely become a lead after their first interaction with your business. So how can you capture those users and convert them into leads after they’ve left your website? Retargeting is one helpful option.
Retargeting, also known as remarketing (used interchangeably), is the practice of showing your ads to users who have already visited your website or a specific page on your website at least once before.
Retargeting can be an especially effective lead generation idea since consumers are 70% more likely to convert from a retargeting ad.
19. Leverage video ads
It’s no secret that video marketing and advertising is often used by businesses looking to increase marketing metrics like impressions or website visits. This makes sense since there are over 244.4 million people regularly watching digital videos in the US, and 91% of consumers want to see more video content from brands. With that, video advertising can also be a powerful lead generation tool. In fact, businesses that leverage video ads get 66% more qualified leads per year.
There are many ways your video ad could turn into a lead generating machine. For example, your video ad could link to a lead capture form for your prospective customers to fill out.
Plus, a video ad can convey concepts and demonstrate value in ways that your text-based ads can’t. Let’s say you have a case study you want your prospects to view. Rather than having them simply read from a case study article, you could create a customer testimonial video and promote it with advertising. This could convince viewers to fill out a form and download the full case study–or take the next step to contact your business.
20. Implement social ads
Did you know that there are over 4.7 billion social media users globally? That’s more than half of the world’s population! Odds are, your customers are on social media.
However, it can be tricky to reach all your potential customers if they aren’t already following your business or actively looking for you on social media. Luckily, social ads help you increase your reach with custom targeting options so that you can get more leads fast.
Plus, all social ads have a clear CTA button to encourage viewers to take some kind of action. In fact, some ad types, like Facebook Lead Ads, even have a lead generation form attached so that viewers can provide their information right from within the platform.
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