The 5 Most Effective Digital Lead Generation Channels to Invest In

Take a second and think about the number of advertisements you see in just 1 day. When you take into account all of the billboards, social media advertisements, and online banner ads targeting you throughout the day, the number is probably somewhere in the hundred range. Yet, consumers, including yourself, are getting better than ever at ignoring these blatant marketing tactics. So much so, that seeing becomes ignoring. So, where does that leave today’s digital marketer? The answer: Refocusing their efforts into lead generation channels.

To generate successful leads for your sales team and reach a constantly evolving and elusive audience, marketers must be investing their resources in the most effective lead generation channels. To help you reach your target audience and keep that lead bucket full, here’s a look at the most effective lead generation channels your business should be investing in.

The Most Effective Lead Generation Channels:

1. Email Marketing: According to a recent report from Ascend2, email marketing is still the most effective lead generation channel. To seasoned marketers, this is no surprise. Email marketing is one of the only lead generation channels that has remained effective for over two decades. The latest trend in email marketing that your business should be utilizing is marketing automation. Marketing automation tools work by connecting with your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) database and allowing you to send automated, highly-targeted and personalized emails to leads. This can include personalization in the form of adding the customer’s name to the subject line, incorporating an element or phrase they have recently searched for online in the email copy, or mentioning their current business name. Marketing automation can also capture more data on customers in your database and use behavioral triggers to help you successfully market to them through email. Businesses that haven’t invested in marketing automation tools to enhance their email marketing strategies for lead generation risk losing customers to competitors that have.
2. Content Marketing: In that same Ascend2 report, content marketing was ranked as the second most effective lead generation channel. However, content marketing is one of the hardest lead generation channels to execute on. This is because ensuring your content is reaching your intended audience is easier said than done. To effectively generate leads through content, you must be creating content your audience is interested in and capable of reaching organically through a Google search or while browsing the news feed on the social media platforms they frequent. The best way to generate leads through content marketing is to experiment. Create various types of content, including blogs, whitepapers, infographics, videos, and podcasts, to see which best resonates with and attracts your customers. Track performance of content through analytical tools to identify which types of content should be continued. Work on identifying customer personas to better target your audience’s pain points and create content that addresses them in order to generate more leads.
3. Social Media Marketing: Another one of the most effective and controversial lead generation channels is social media marketing. The effectiveness of this channel is up for debate as some businesses find social media marketing to be extremely effective, while others find their efforts resulting in minimal conversions. However, this is commonly a result of successful social media marketing strategies versus ineffective strategies, rather than a reflection of the overall effectiveness of social media marketing. To generate valuable leads from social media, your marketing team must create an effective, fully realized social media marketing strategy. Here’s a helpful resource on how to create successful strategies for the most popular social media platforms to help your business generate as many leads as possible from them.
4. Landing Page and Website Optimization: One of the most effective ways to generate leads is from your business website. Having a responsive website for your business is not enough to generate the number of leads your business needs for continued success. Additionally, your business website and landing pages must be optimized to drive ideal customer and user behaviors. To do so, you’ll need to enhance and improve the user experience (UX) of your website. Landing pages are crucial to driving leads on your website since these pages are often where most of your website leads will be generated from. Which means even more attention needs to be given to the design and usability of these pages. Are they easy to navigate? Is the design of the website and landing pages current and sleek? Are loading times fast enough? Are all links correctly navigating to the next page? These are the types of questions you need to continuously address to effectively generate leads through this channel.
5. Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Rounding out the list, SEO is another one of the most effective lead generation channels worth investing in. This is because a majority of the other channels on this list rely on customers organically finding your business website, content, or social media profiles in order to generate leads. However, the only way customers can find your website, content, or social media pages organically is if these items are ranking high in search engine ranking pages (SERP), which is determined by how SEO-friendly they are. SEO encompasses everything from the types of keywords and phrases found on your website, to the types of links found in your content, and whether your website is mobile-friendly. Businesses looking to improve their search engine rankings must hire the qualified SEO talent necessary to do so. Considering how crucial SEO is to your overall lead generation efforts, your business simply can’t afford to put off hiring for this need any longer.

In Conclusion:

Investing in the most effective lead generation channels is crucial to ensuring the future success of your business. Email marketing, content marketing, social media marketing, landing page and website optimization, and SEO make up the most effective lead generation channels and result in the best opportunities for filling your lead bucket.

If your business lacks the qualified lead generation talent it needs to utilize these channels successfully, contact Mondo today. We’ll match you with the talent you need to keep that lead bucket full.