Lead generation is a process of creating a flow of potential buyers that you can attempt to turn into customers. It is a tool used by marketers to gain attention and interest in their brand.

They can use this interest to access opportunities to communicate with members of their target market through emails, social media, and other digital channels. During these windows of opportunity, brands can nurture customer relationships.

This interaction greatly improves their chances of influencing the purchasing decisions of their audience members.

SME Sitebuilder is a white-label marketing platform for small to medium-sized business enterprises. They offer digital marketing solutions for companies that are looking to increase revenue through high-quality digital marketing strategies.

Something they specialize in is providing dynamic lead generation funnels with automation to grab the attention of potential customers and convert them quickly. Their experience in lead generation has led to many happy clients.

Read below to find out what lead generation is and how brands can use it to improve their sales. We will cover:

• An example of lead generation
• Things companies can do to generate leads
• Who needs a lead generation
• Types of lead generation
• How SME Sitebuilder can help with lead generation
• The advantages of using SME Sitebuilder for lead generation

An example of lead generation could be a campaign designed to get the attention of a potential customer through the use of a lead generation funnel and lead magnet. The lead magnet is there to entice the potential lead into providing their email. 

Consider a real estate broker who is trying to collect potential leads for agents within their firm. 

They could launch a lead generation campaign where they offer a free workshop as a lead magnet. Their workshop offers potential clients the chance to learn everything they need to know before choosing a real estate agent. 

The broker can drive traffic to the funnel ins number of different ways. They can tell people about their webinar as they call or walk into the brokerage office. Interested candidates can provide their email on a list in the office so that the broker can send them the link to the webinar in time to register.

They can add a banner to their website so that anyone looking online can click the banner and sign up by email to attend the webinar. 

They can also run some google ads or Facebook campaigns to pull potential leads from their social media followers. Viewers can easily click the ad to be taken to a form where they can leave their email to get the link to register for the webinar.

A new lead is born each time someone submits their email, whether they attend the webinar or not. 

Now that they have provided their email the broker can follow up with them and build a relationship which they will use to try to guide leads to becoming a paying customer.

There are many things companies can do to generate leads both in person or online.

In-person strategies can work well for certain types of industries where customers prefer to get to know who they are doing business with. But in-person lead generation can often be a more time-consuming process.

Generating leads online can be a much speedier process as it can be automated and quickly reach a global audience. 

Implementing an automated lead generation funnel is becoming a cornerstone element of many online marketing professionals’ lead generation strategies. 

Below are some examples of popular lead generation ideas.

Direct engagement is a lead generation tactic that often works best with face-to-face interaction. 

Real estate, B2B sales, or other high-ticket products or services can benefit from using direct engagement with potential customers. With these types of sales, it is important to find quality leads that with interest in the products. Because of this, it can be a good choice to use the quality over quantity approach direct engagement can provide.

Attending mixers and events where they can get face-to-face with potential clients is a great way to find the right leads. 

Professionals in the wedding industry often attend bridal shows to do this exact thing. This way they aren’t spending time and money on ads that aren’t relevant to many of the viewers. 

Instead, they are attending one show where they will get the opportunity to speak with leads who are actively looking for the products or services they offer. It is a great way for them to make contact with a qualified lead.

While face-to-face engagement can offer high-quality results, there are also plenty of other opportunities to directly engage with the right audience through phone calls, texts, and emails. 

If a company notices a potential opportunity then directly reaching out might be the best way to make a sale. For example, a linen cleaning and delivery service might notice a new hotel and restaurant about to open within their area of operation. They could make a phone call to the owner to see if they would be interested in using their services for their linens.

Many people think if they simply make a website and provide their contact information customers will start jumping out at them. Unfortunately, that isn’t exactly how it works. Search engine optimization makes a huge difference in how existing customers and prospective customers can find businesses. 

The internet is an insanely competitive space. Getting a site to show up on the first page of search results when people look for products or services can take a lot of work. 

Optimizing a website for search results is important for making it easy for prospective leads to find what they are looking for. A great place to start is learning about keyword research and how to use it. 

To put it very simply, companies need to know the top keywords customers use when searching for their products and services. Once they have the relevant keywords they can add them to their website content to improve their ranking. 

Lots of professionals don’t have the time or bandwidth to learn everything they need to know to properly SEO their website for first page listings. There are lots of tools that can help, still many choose to use an agency or digital marketing platform that can do it for them. It takes away any guesswork and speeds up the results.

Pay-per-click advertising is an option many companies take advantage of. Its popularity is partly because this is one way that guarantees to produce results. Some popular examples of this are Google AdWords and Facebook ads. 

Companies pay advertising agencies to list their sites for certain search terms or demographics. These are the sponsored listings that show up on the top of search pages. 

Free advertising is also an option although it might be less fruitful than a paid campaign. 

Social media has become extremely important for free and organic online marketing. It takes frequent and consistent posts and interactions to build a large following with engaged users. 

Blogs are another popular way to increase traffic to company websites. They also require consistent content creation to reach a large audience and keep readers coming back. 

Other free advertising tools can improve lead generation, like taking advantage of affiliate networks, guest posting, and more. Companies should save time by only using the ones they know they can make work. They start to lose value the more time they take away from vital business activities.

This is a great way to generate high-quality leads because they are being referred by happy customers they know and trust. 

Sales teams can incentivize referrals to find more leads by offering deals to current customers for sending along with new customers, like the investment app Acorns, which frequently offers its members’ investment rewards when they get new members to join. 

Asking for referrals from customers is also a good way to keep people invested in the business or service. When people make a recommendation for something it reinforces the idea that they were happy with the value they got from it. 

The more satisfied they feel about their experience the more likely they are to be a repeat customer compared to deciding to try something new in the future.

Answering questions on forums is a great way for brands to establish themselves as an expert in their field. It is a way for them to offer value to people who are interested in the topics related to their business. 

In the answers, companies should include information on how their products or services can be a good solution. They should also include a clear call to action that gives readers the information they need to easily take action. 

Imagine a company that offers social media management services responding to a question. They are responding to a user who asked about how to post eye-catching reels. After answering the question the company can leave a link to their site. Then they can let the person know if they have any more questions they can use the link to sign up for a personal consultation.

Writing guest posts that publish on other blogs is a great way to increase a brand's audience. 

It is a win-win situation as the publishing site gets to showcase relevant content that interests their readers and the guest post will link back to the blog or site that created the content. 

This drives traffic to the guest poster’s site as readers of the publishing site follow the link for other valuable information. It gives more authority to the guest poster’s site by increasing their backlinks from other sites. 

This strategy works best if the publishing site is a well-known one with authority in its industry. The more traffic they get on their site the better chances guest posters have to catch some of their readers.

Local businesses, national businesses, and online businesses of all kinds can and do benefit from a successful lead generation campaign. No matter the product or service it helps to make sales if more people know about it.

Local businesses rely heavily on lead generation to keep a steady flow of customers providing them with revenue. Especially for businesses that don’t operate with recurring sales per customer, lead generation efforts can make a huge difference in their overall success. 

Here are some examples of local businesses that need a lead generation to increase customers:

• Plumbers
• Electricians
• HVAC installers
• Lawyers
• Real estate agents
• Web developers
• Artists

• Photographers
• Accountants
• Farmers
• Local shops
• Wineries
• Child care providers
• Cleaning services

• Construction companies
• Entertainment/Establishments
• Pet services
• Medical practitioners

National businesses need a lead generation process to compete with local companies that might offer the same types of services to the people who live in their regions. For example, lead generation marketing might help to get customers for a national credit card company who otherwise might have opened a small line of credit with their local credit union. 

Here is a list of some of the national businesses that benefit from lead generation:

• Credit card companies
• Insurance companies
• Medical offices

• Marketing agencies
• Airlines
• Cosmetic companies

• Fashion companies
• Investment groups
• Hotels

Online businesses often lack the ability to get face-to-face with their customers so a lead generation strategy is crucial to their success. Operating online offers unique opportunities to save on expenses and reach a global audience. Online businesses that are successful with digital marketing and lead generation can experience huge amounts of traffic and sales as a result. 

Here is a list of some of the many online businesses whose success hinges on lead generation:

• Online courses
• Blogs
• Digital marketing companies

• Ecommerce stores
• Influencers
• Social media consultant
• Copywriter

• Virtual assistants
• Affiliates
• Podcasters

There are online and offline ways to create leads. For both of these ways, companies can take advantage of paid and unpaid lead generation. 

They can also choose to outsource their lead generation to an agency that specializes in finding qualified leads for their clients.

Some ways to generate leads in the physical world include face-to-face interactions. Word of mouth lead generation is probably the oldest way to let others know about products or services that might be right for them. 

Old fashioned print is also a way to build brand awareness while finding business leads. Fliers, newsletters, and coupons are now online but it is still an option to have printed materials made. They can be useful to hand out or leave in strategic locations for potential customers to find.

Attending community events and mixers is a great way to introduce people to new businesses. Networking can offer additional value for brands and provide an opportunity to increase leads from referrals.

Online lead generation focuses on collecting personal information from potential leads. This works through lead generation forms found on a landing page, a blog or website, or social media profiles. Good SEO practices are important for a quality lead generation strategy. 

Online lead generation software is a powerful tool because it can be closely monitored for its effectiveness. It collects customer data companies can use to segment leads. They can then use each segment for intentionally targeted marketing campaigns. 

Elements of the lead generation campaign can be split-tested so brands know what they need to change to improve their conversion. This is just the beginning of what lead gen tools can do.

One type of online lead generation that is leading the way in producing leads for companies is the online lead generation funnel. 

A lead generation funnel is a series of web pages created with the sole purpose of getting the contact information of potential customers so that marketing and sales teams can follow up with them to produce more sales.

TIt usually consists of two or more pages. There is always a landing page and there is always a clear-cut call to action. Once the call to action has been completed the funnel moves to a thank you page. 

Potential customers will see an ad for the lead generation funnel that interests them and click through to the landing page. For a successful lead generation funnel, it needs to offer the right value for the right people. 

If people are seeing the ad but it is not relevant to them they won’t bother with clicking on the ad to be taken to the landing page. Also, if the value being offered isn’t worth their contact information they will leave the page without filling out the form. 

Once they fill out the submission form they become a new lead. They will be taken from the landing page to a thank you page. At this point, they can close out the funnel or follow another provided link somewhere like a website home page or a Facebook group.

Blogs can generate leads in a similar way while building relationships. A reader is brought to the blog because they are interested in the topic of the blog posts. While they are reading the blog they will see a call to action that directs them to follow a link. 

There could also be a form directly on the blog page where target audience members are able to enter their email as well. 

Blogs can use all the same types of devices lead generation funnels use to convince readers to submit their info in an opt-in form.

Incentives and discounts are a great way to generate leads online. 

Offering a coupon code to new customers can be enough to convince a potentially interested lead to click on a link and check out products they might want to purchase. Even if they don't buy something on their initial visit to the store the company can now follow up with them since they collected their email. 

Follow-ups can be as simple as an email that reminds them to use their coupon code before it expires.

B2B lead generation is the service of providing lead generation to a business that wants to outsource finding their own business leads. 

Paying for lead generation services can help by saving time that can be spent somewhere else along the sales process. A professional lead generation service can oftentimes improve lead quality. 

Not all leads are created equal, so B2B lead management can improve lead generation trends for a company compared to if they were to manage their own lead generation campaigns. Companies that are trying to improve marketing and advertising can see results by hiring a service that specializes in these areas.

SME Sitebuilder can help businesses generate leads through their digital marketing services and lead generation funnel builder. Their platform provides website and funnel-building services that use proven strategies to convert leads into customers. 

They offer a high-quality solution for lead generation by giving companies all the tools they need to design a dynamic lead generation funnel. They take care of all of the behind-the-scenes technology and all of the maintenance and updates so brands don’t have to worry about IT headaches and the expensive cost of web and funnel development from scratch. 

A plan with SME Sitebuilder gives companies the tools to grow their businesses online. Building a lead generation funnel with their platform is a painless process. 

In fact, companies can create and launch a funnel in as little as one day by starting off with one of their lead generation funnel templates and using their drag-and-drop funnel builder to make customizations.

SME Sitebuilder is so much more than just a lead generation tool. They have a large templates library with premade templates for websites, landing pages, sales funnels, and lead generation funnels to help tackle any digital marketing needs a company might have, all in one place. 

There are a number of other tools included with SME Sitebuilder’s services too.

All of the templates are visually pleasing and fully customizable so they can quickly be edited to match any brand. They have been created with specific design standards that have a track record of converting visitors into leads and customers.

Each one of their templates provides the space to optimize pages for their most common search terms. These settings allow pages to be updated for the best ranking in google so no matter if they are for an e-commerce store, a digital artist, or a non-profit customers can find them easily.

They offer complete customer relationship management that is managed through an organized dashboard. This way brands can skip the hassle of multiple platforms and multiple fees when completing their advertisement and marketing functions.

Email marketing is also set to be used from within the dashboard. It is a speedy and efficient way to follow up with new leads. As leads are generated add them to lists and begin nurturing these new relationships with targeted and automated email marketing messages.

Generating leads is done to make more sales. This is made easy with widgets that are available to add a check-out option on every page. Integrations are available for the most popular payment platforms like PayPal and Stripe.

Check out our full guide on how to create a lead generation funnel.

With so many options when it comes to lead generation it is hard to know what is the best platform to use. 

Click funnels are one of the most popular options for generating leads online. However, people are starting to question if the services they provide are still worth the premium price. The most affordable plan doesn’t offer full services like the ability to use email marketing within their platform. 

The most affordable plan they offer starts at $97, which is a lot higher than the most affordable plans offered by other platforms. For example, SME Sitebuilder’s plans start out at $27 per month. 

With other plans, companies end up paying for fancy branding and features they likely won’t need. Or they might commit to a platform without realizing there will be extra fee increases to use the tools they need once they start to grow. 

With SME Sitebuilder the details are presented upfront and businesses only pay for what they need. 

They offer a 14-day free trial, no credit card info is required. And they offer a 14 money-back guarantee for their yearly plan subscriptions because they are confident once a company uses their platform they won’t want to switch to another. 

They also have a high-quality support team ready to answer any questions about the best ways to use their dynamic products and features. They take care of all software maintenance and guide businesses in the right direction to turn their funnels into lead-generating machines.