There are many facets to online marketing: banner ads, search engine optimization, social media marketing, email, and more. But without lead generation, your marketing will never be as effective as it could be. Lead generation fills your pipeline with qualified leads, giving you an interested group to utilize other marketing tactics on. It also provides a solid base to build lookalike models on: these leads have opted in because they are interested in what you have to offer, so it stands to reason that similar people would be interested, too.
Lead generation can often be overlooked. It’s a hard-working marketing tactic, but not new. Trendier topics like social media marketing get a lot of attention, but even Facebook offers lead generation ads now. And in order for all your marketing efforts to run optimally, you need a qualified pool of leads to build your target audience.
We believe that lead generation efforts are foundational. They lay the groundwork for all these other tactics to build on top, creating a multi-layered approach that results in higher conversion rates. By starting with lead generation, you narrow your targeting pool for other paid marketing efforts. This saves time and money by only targeting those who have already expressed interest and are more likely to convert.
Banner ads and paid social media marketing are often used for general awareness, with broad targeting that casts a wide net. This works well with larger budgets, well-known companies or easily understood product lines. Smaller businesses with more specialized offerings may find awareness marketing frustrating and expensive to maintain. By centering marketing efforts around lead generation, your initial media dollars work harder and quickly determine who is interested, and who’s not. This allows you to quickly see where your next dollar is best spent.
Your upper funnel awareness tactics still have value, but if they are informed by lead generation efforts, they will work harder, too. Ready to get started? We can help.