Inbound marketing strategy is genuinely dependant upon inbound leads, which make the heart of it. One can generate effective inbound leads at an affordable cost.
This article will take you through various aspects of inbound lead generation and attract the target audience through an inbound strategy. It will also help you discover multiple inbound lead generation tools that you can use for your organization.
Table of contents:
- Inbound lead and its types
- Advantages of inbound lead generation
- How to generate inbound leads
All About Inbound Lead
A user who interacts with the content of your inbound marketing strategies is known as an inbound lead. Examples are people who have attended seminars, webinars, filled out surveys, or those who have interacted with the lead magnets. However, not all inbound leads are the same; they are likely to know more about your company and solutions when compared to outbound leads. Inbound leads help nurture prospects’ needs by providing them with valuable content.
What is the difference between Inbound vs. outbound lead generation?
One should focus on generating both inbound, and outbound leads as a part of the most successful lead generation. This increases marketing efforts to target users and converts the leads.
| Inbound Lead | Outbound Lead |
| It helps establish the first contact with the company, | Helps initiate the first contact through phone calls, direct mail, other immediate reaches. |
| The sales team focuses on receiving calls, responding to phone calls and emails or messages from leads who wish to get more information, | The sales team is involved in cold calling and cold emailing to get a conversion. |
Types of inbound leads
Entirely new lead: A new lead can be a potential customer for your business. Who are your new leads? A new lead is one with very little knowledge about your company or its products and services. They can be first-time website visitors or those who’ve subscribed to your newsletter or even interacted with one of your lead magnets.
Working Inbound lead: A working lead is one with whom a conversation has already been established. Working leads are, for example, users who’ve interacted on live chat or users who are in conversation with you on emails.
Nurturing lead: As the name suggests, nurturing leads is in conversation with inbound marketing strategies but is not yet willing to purchase. They can be social media followers or can also be newsletter subscribers.
Unqualified lead: These leads are those who aren’t interested in your business at all.
Qualified lead: Qualified leads are the most vital customers who have shown an interest in making a purchase. There are various types of qualified leads:
Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL): Marketing qualified leads can be both inbound and outbound leads who are in conversation with your marketing team.
Sales Qualified Lead (SQL): Sales qualified leads are those who have an intention to purchase and have already had an interaction with a salesperson.
Product Qualified Lead: Product qualified leads are potential leads ready to become paying customers and have already interacted with your product or service department. They can be the ones who received a free trial or free sample of your product and services and are interested in more.
Service Qualified Lead: Service-qualified leads are users who have interacted with customer service representatives about upgrading their service or acquiring a new product and making a purchase.
Advantages of inbound lead generation
Well, there are many benefits of inbound lead generation. Some of them are mentioned below:
Progressively successful: The buyers always want to be educated about the product before making a purchase. Inbound lead generation helps capture such leads and converts them to sales.
Time-saving: More inbound marketing tactics can take more time initiating a strategy which leaves very little time maintaining it. With multiple marketing automation procedures and AI models, larger inbound marketing tasks can be completed in less time.
Price-effective marketing: Some of the Inbound techniques are easy to use and doesn’t require any charges, while they also help generate free leads
Creates label and promotes products: Inbound marketing tactics enable users to find your brand/label while hunting for the one. This will not only help generate leads but will also help promote your brand and authority.
Long-running: Marketing efforts like SEO-friendly content, Unlike outbound lead generation, where you need to generate leads to engage with constantly, inbound marketing efforts, like SEO-friendly content and other lead magnets, can often yield positive results long after they’ve been created.
What is the process of Inbound lead generation?
Inbound lead generation involves four crucial stages.
1. Captivate
Find ways to allure your prospects to generate traffic. In this stage, prospects are looking for valuable content to help them with a pain point. You can start by researching your buyers and the platforms which they use to find a solution.
2. Convert
Once you have attracted your prospects, it’s time to convert them. Conversion usually takes place in return for the content you’re offering. Like you can request a blog reader to subscribe to a newsletter. If you submit more valuable data like webinars or ebooks, you can ask for essential details of your prospects like phone number, email ID, or even ask their time for a demo or a phone call.
3. Cease the deal
After converting the lead you can transform it into a paying customer and then close the deal. Ensure that your leads have everything in place when purchasing, like access to your services, products, and information and where to buy.
4. Keep your customers happy
Finally, when your customers are happy and know that they are at the right place, they will be delighted to make purchases again and again. This stage ensures establishing long relationships with your prospects and promoting your brand by making them brand ambassadors.
Tip: Here, you can ensure your services through a personalized thank you message and even ask for referrals.
Suitable software for your lead generation to provide high-quality end data
Lead generation tools allow you to enrich your marketing campaigns and help segment your audience and qualify leads easily while also helping convert more leads into paying customers.
Tactics that can enrich your inbound marketing strategy
Create a workout strategy that allures interested customers to make a purchase. Here are the essential inbound marketing tactics which you can use:
Blogs & articles
Creating valuable content through articles and blog posts allows you to target multiple keywords and attract different users.
Developing SEO-friendly, product-related genuine, and evergreen content that can be designed around the customer journey. These articles can also help generate an exponential number of inbound and outbound leads
Posts on Social media
Social media posts are effective and most used tools to generate leads and also nurture your prospects. To ensure proper interaction, try improving the quality of your posts on social media and tap into what your audience is talking about. Be proactive on these channels to make sure to respond to social media interactions so that you can offer excellent customer service efforts.
YouTube videos
Although it’s a less competitive form of content creation, YouTube videos help generate leads and drive your website traffic.
Online materials
Content like white papers, ebooks, online video courses is considered to be lead magnets, and it provides your lead with an incentive to learn more about your organization.
Press releases
Press releases are recent trends that have got a place in inbound and outbound lead generations. With this type of marketing strategy, you can target a specific audience segment and initiate contact with them.
Podcasts
A podcast is a trending tool that boosts your lead generation and helps you gather a valuable niche audience. People can get information on all their queries while getting engaged.
Classes & webinars
Educating oneself will always be in trend and is one of the most effective strategies for inbound marketing. It helps users learn in real-time and update themselves with current trends. Online classes and webinars help you quickly target engaged users.
Sending emails and newsletters
Inbound and outbound marketing campaigns like email marketing and newsletters are the most popular and highly affordable marketing campaigns which can boost your sales when used right.