12 Lead Generation Techniques in Digital Marketing
Lead generation is one of the most important goals of digital marketing. A lead is any person or entity that has the potential to become your customer. A person becomes a lead when they express interest in your brand or has a need that your brand can fulfill. However, the customer also needs to be aware of your brand to classify as a lead.
Lead generation is the art of finding such customers and getting them on board your band of customers. Without lead generation, your business can fail due to a lack of profits. So, it's important that you put some time and effort into it.
Today, we are going to discuss 12 lead-generation techniques that can work in digital marketing. Let’s check them out.
1. Run a Blog and a Website
Your website provides the brunt of the information that they require. If you are a seller of goods, then it also serves as your digital store. The point is that without a website, people can’t really find you online, so you should have one.
A blog site has more niche uses. It serves as a medium of content marketing. You publish blog posts on it to educate your audience about different things. Mostly, it's about how your products and services can help them solve their problems.
The idea is that when people search for how to solve X problem, your blog post shows up in the results. So you get more exposure and generate more leads.
2. Do SEO of Your Platforms
SEO stands for search engine optimization. SEO is the art of making your website rank higher in the search engine results pages (SERPs). The higher your rank, the closer to the top you appear in the search results.
Why does that matter? Well, it matters because people don’t really explore search results. They just look at the top 3 or 4 results and select one of them. Sometimes, they will scroll to the bottom of the first page, but rarely will anyone go to the second page.
When you do SEO for your platforms, you are really vying for those top 4 results placement. This way, when somebody does a search that relates to your brand, your website shows up in those sweet spots.
SEO is a broad topic, and multiple books have been written about it. However, generally speaking, you just need to do the following things to do the SEO of your website.
- Adjust primary and secondary keywords. A keyword is a search term used by people to look for specific results.
- Have a website that provides utility and information to its visitors.
- Have an accessible user interface and user experience.
- Do not spam keywords and links.
- Provide links to important resources that can help your visitors.
If you can do all that, then you will be fine for the most part.
3. Optimize Your Website For Voice and Image Search
Voice and image search are popular methods of searching online. Previously, they were not used too much because it was inconvenient to do so. You had to upload an image from your device to search for it. Voice searches required you to hook up an external microphone.
Nowadays, things are easier. Images can be copied or dragged and dropped to the search bar to do an image search. You can also do an image search directly by right-clicking/tapping and selecting “search with Google.” As for voice search, it's easier to do because most people do it on smartphones using their built-in mics.
So, now, they are more common. Their search results, however, differ a lot from traditional word searches. That’s why special care needs to be taken when optimizing for them.
An image search returns more images that look similar to the one you searched for. It also returns the names of websites that host those images. You can show up in image searches by adding images to your own sites. That way, whenever a similar image is searched, your site also shows up.
Optimizing for voice search is slightly different than text search. Voice search generally has conversational keywords, and the intent is often informational. This is because people use voice search to ask questions like they would in real life. So, you have to adjust conversational keywords in your content and address the question people are searching for.
Of course, the keywords and questions require research, so do your due diligence and find the ones relevant to your brand and use them.
4. Employ Social Media
Social media is extremely powerful for lead generation. Many people use different platforms for a variety of stuff. You can create your brand’s profile on all of them to generate leads.
Why does that work, though? Let’s break it down.
- People spend an inordinate amount of time on social media. Social media can be checked intermittently between tasks and chores.
- Most social media platforms have some system where they recommend new people or groups to follow and show users some of their content.
- You can use this to your advantage by creating content and posting it on social media so that people become aware of you.
- You can also create posts that serve as ads. This spreads awareness and brings interested parties right to your digital doorstep.
Many social media sites also allow you to run ads on your profile/page once you have grown big enough to generate a lot of engagement. The bigger your following, the more people will come to know of your brand, and that will directly result in more lead generation.
5. Run Advertisements
Advertisements are the heart and soul of marketing. Long before digital marketing was a thing, advertisements were the top method of bringing in new leads and conversions.
Nowadays, digital marketing has facilitated advertisements. There are multiple methods and avenues where you can run advertisements. We already discussed running ads on social media sites. That’s just one avenue.
Let’s take a look at other ways of running ads.
- SERP ads. These are the sponsored posts you see at the top of the SERPs. Basically, you pay Google, Bing, Yahoo!, etc, to show your results at the top for relevant searches. This means that a lot of people will click on your link and get directed to your site.
- Video Platform Ads. Websites like YouTube get a lot of traffic from all over the world. Running ads on such a site is guaranteed to bring you more leads. The way it works is that your ads play on videos that have relevant content, and interested people click on them. This generates leads.
- Sponsored Podcasts. A good way to run ads is to sponsor a podcast episode where you get a special shoutout from the host. The host plugs your brand and product and puts in a good word for you. Their listeners then become aware of your brand and become potential leads. The best way to sponsor podcasts is to find channels that are somewhat relevant to your brand and niche. That way, you get people who are interested in availing your services.
These are just some methods of running ads that can help you generate new leads.
6. Engage in Cold Email Outreach
Emails are one of the strongest methods of lead generation. They are advantageous for several reasons.
- They land directly in a person’s inbox.
- They have the potential to be hyper-personalized.
- They are cost-effective.
- They are highly scalable. You can send as many or as little as you like.
- It can help collect feedback about your products, services, and marketing tactics.
Cold email outreach refers to sending emails to people who have not previously interacted with you. Now, cold emails can be considered spam if you are not careful.
You have to be very prudent when doing this. Take care of the following items, and you will be fine.
- Write good subject lines that make it clear what the email does.
- Do not waste the reader’s time and get straight to the point.
- Include a link to your website so that readers can do their own research about you.
- Offer a reasonable and believable benefit to readers.
- Include an actionable call to action (CTA).
- Do not bombard them with emails. Have a slow cadence but not slow enough to make them forget you. Something like once a week is good for starting out.
If you can do that, then your cold email outreach will result in lots of lead generation.
7. Create User-Friendly Lead Generation Forms
A lead generation form is a web form that is designed to collect contact information from people. These forms have various shapes. For example, they could show up as a Google survey form, a web page on a site, or as a form in an email.
Even then, the specific data they ask for can be different. For example, a service registration form will ask for a different set of information than an email sign-up form.
No matter what method of lead generation you use, you will still need to use a lead generation form. The form needs to be accessible and easy to fill out. Many leads stop at this stage because of complex or confusing lead generation forms.
So, ensure that the UI and UX of the forms are stellar to complete the lead generation process successfully.
8. Encourage Current Clients to Refer Your Brand
One thing that people value is word of mouth, especially that of their peers and close ones. That’s why when their peers recommend something, they are more likely to buy it or at least check it out.
So, how can you do that, i.e., get your brand name out via word of mouth? Well, some of it will happen naturally. As people use your brand, they might mention it to friends, family members, and colleagues.
However, you can hasten this process by offering incentives to refer your brand. For example, whenever an existing client makes a successful purchase from you, encourage them to leave a review.
You can also send them an email with a referral code or link that will give them a discount for each person who uses that code. The idea is that existing customers will refer your brand to other people and share their code so that they can benefit.
This kind of approach encourages referrals and results in more leads.
9. Utilize Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a solid approach to lead generation. In affiliate marketing, a brand partners with other reputable and trusted entities and gets them to promote its own products/services. In return, they offer a commission for each sale made by the affiliate.
The most common method of doing affiliate marketing is to provide a referral code or link unique for each affiliate. That way, you can track how many sales were made due to them and reimburse them accordingly.
The benefit of affiliate marketing is that you are using a trusted brand and extending their trust to your own brand. Their customers will flock to your brand if they are the ones endorsing you.
Affiliate marketing works best when your brand has a symbiotic relationship with the affiliate rather than a competitive one. Only in this kind of relationship will affiliates be willing to endorse your brand.
10. Attend Networking Events
Networking events happen in most industries. They may have different names, but at their heart, they are just networking events. Various kinds of expos, summits, and gatherings happen throughout the year in all industries where people gather and network together.
You should also go to such events because not only do you get to create business ties, but you also get to put your name out there. Large networking events typically get media coverage, and if your brand does something extraordinary, it may get covered as well.
Not to mention, you can always meet people who are willing to make a deal to provide new leads or become affiliates at such events.
So, keep an eye out for these events and be prepared to make use of them.
11. Apply for Rewards Given in Your Industry
Many industries have yearly awards. For example, the banking industry has a “Best Bank of XXXX Year” award. Check for what kind of awards your brand is eligible for and apply for them.
The good thing is that the award ceremonies are public events with media and press coverage. Not only do they double as networking events, but they also get your name out to the general public.
If you win a reward, you can brag about it in your ads. This also serves to generate trust and reliability around your brand name, which makes it easier for new buyers to use your services. So, indirectly, you end up getting more leads by qualifying for industry awards.
12. Analyze The Performance of Your Methods
Finally, you should analyze the performance of all the lead generation methods you deploy. The problem with lead generation is that it is not an exact science. Sometimes, some methods will simply not work.
Analysis of ROI and engagement will show you which methods are working and which are not. The obvious benefit is that you can allocate more resources to methods that work and stop wasting them on methods that don’t work.
It can also help you assess why some methods are not working and how to fix their shortcomings so that they perform better. Without such analysis, you will never realize that your brand is hemorrhaging money in the name of marketing.
Conclusion
This concludes the guide on 12 lead generation techniques in digital marketing. The techniques we discussed are varied and help you target different audiences. If you apply all of them, you will cover all your bases. Just make sure that it is financially viable to do so. That’s all you need to know to improve your lead generation in 2025.
