30 Greatest Lead Gen Tips, Tricks _ Ideas

When you have a website that generates thousands of visitors every month, it’s easy to generate leads. What happens if you have little to no traffic to your website? How do you go about lead generation?

Truth is, any successful lead generation strategy is what keeps your marketing funnel full of sales prospects while you sleep. 

In this guide, I will reveal the top 30 techniques you should use to acquire more leads and increase your revenue. 

Let’s take a step back… 

What is a lead?

Leads are the qualified prospects who can become customers and ambassadors of your brand if you play your cards right.

This is what I mean…

A lead is any person who indicates interest in your company’s product or service in some way. 

Actually, let’s take two steps back…

What is lead generation?

In simple terms, it’s a way of warming up potential customers to your business and getting them on the path to eventually buying from you.

Okay, I get it!

You might be wondering why you need lead generation in your marketing campaigns.

Here’s the thing…

When someone (potential customer) launches a relationship with you by showing an interest in your business/product/service, the transition from potential customer to customer is much more natural.

Lead generation occurs after you’ve attracted an audience and are ready to convert those visitors into leads for your sales team.

And it’s not hard to see why lead generation is so important.

HubSpot’s statistics found that 54% more leads are generated by inbound tactics than by traditional paid marketing. This also means that you have to give top priority to creating the right content.

Now that you understand how lead generation fits into the inbound marketing methodology, let me walk you through how to generate leads for your business.

But first, let’s look at the four components that build a successful lead generation engine.

• The Offer: An offer is a piece of content that is perceived as high in value. Offers include things like e-books, whitepapers, free consultations, coupons, and product demonstrations.

• Call-to-Action: A call-to-action (CTA) is either text, an image, or a button that links directly to a landing page so people can find and download your offer.

• Landing Page: A landing page, unlike normal website pages, is a specialized page that contains information about one particular offer, and a form to download that offer.
• Form: You can’t capture leads without forms. Forms typically collect contact information from a visitor in exchange for an offer.

So how do you go about generating leads?

Glad you asked…

In this guide, all the 30 tips I’ll reveal will cover each of these elements so that each component is fully optimized to help you generate the most leads for your business. 

One quick note…

Stick around to the end because I’m going to give you a gift, something that will help you in your lead gen journey.

Now then, let’s get started. 

Tip #1: Use the Element of Scarcity

When your offer is scarce, relevant, in high demand, and exclusive, it becomes desirable. 

Why?

Scarcity plays a lot on the psychology of people, making them want something even more if it isn’t enough available in the market. 

One reason scarcity works is because it creates a fear of shortage, and thus a sense of urgency.

Here are 3 ways you can create scarcity with your offers:

• Limited time offers

You can ask your website visitors to hurry up, buy now, or place their orders quickly. But without an actual deadline limiting their decision, your directives won’t be as convincing.

Limited-time offers work like a charm on online shoppers because they give prospects a compelling reason to make a purchase by driving urgency.

An offer becomes more attractive for consumers when it’s bound by time or availability because we’re afraid to miss out on a good opportunity (FOMO).

• Limited quantity offers

When your offer is limited in quantity, something happens: it becomes more unique, exclusive, and more desirable.

Limited quantity offers are great for not only getting people to say “yes” to your offer but to avoid procrastination completely.

• Limited time and limited quantity

Perhaps, the best strategy is combining both tactics by creating offers that end within a certain time frame and limiting the number of people who can get your offers. You could also package these scarcity tactics with discounts in your offers, which is a great way to add value to your prospects.

Tip #2: The Bandwagon Effect

Consumers like to think they buy things through free will. In reality, the vast majority of our buying decisions are influenced by our emotions, including the people and things around us. 

Studies have shown that when we notice our social circle doing something, we are likely to copy, even without realizing it. One particularly powerful way to make your offer more valuable is to show that other people are already using your offer. 

The bandwagon effect is a phenomenon where people subconsciously (or even consciously) mimic the buying choices of other people.

The easiest way to trigger the bandwagon effect in your potential customers is to literally show them people using your products. 

Essentially, you can get an online influencer with a crowd of followers to use your product and bask in the mass exposure, knowing your followers will jump on the bandwagon to be like your influencer.

When possible, a great way to indicate how awesome your offer can be is to mention the number of people who have used or are using your product.

But here’s the thing…

Make sure your claims are not only true but believable.

Tip #3: Leverage Newsjacking

Newsjacking is a tested and powerful technique for writing blog posts. You can put that same technique to work when creating an offer.

First, what’s newsjacking?

According to HubSpot, newsjacking is the practice of capitalizing on the popularity of a news story to amplify your sales and marketing success.

Why does newsjacking work so well for lead generation? Because when something is buzz-worthy, it creates high demand.

But to capitalize on a newsjacking opportunity, you need to create your related content while the topic is still ‘hot.’

As an example, back in 2011 after a story emerged that English actress, Kate Winslet had saved Richard Branson’s mother from a burning house, the London Fire Brigade offered to train Winslet in fire safety. The star’s story was going viral, and the London Fire Brigade successfully utilized the spotlight to their advantage. 

You can do the same with your offer if it coincides with a trending news story. You just have to keep an eye out for such stories and always be ready to act quickly.

Tip #4: Focus on Creating an Amazing Title

How important is a title?

Important enough to make or break a sale. 

If you want to get people interested in your offer, whether it’s a book, online course, or blog post, you need to learn how to write a title–and not just any title, but an enticing one.

Statistics show that 80% of people will never read beyond your headline. If you want to encourage them to be part of the 20% who read more, then you need a title that rocks.

In the screenshot below, even if you only read the beginning of the title, you know what you can gain from attending this Kissmetrics webinar.

This title works because it gets straight to the point, identifies a problem, and offers a solution.

If you’re struggling to come up with the perfect headline, try using the Headline Analyzer Tool by Advanced Marketing Institute. Or read this article from HubSpot to learn how to write mind-blowing titles for your irresistible offers.

Tip #5: Create Offers for Different Buying Stages

No one wakes up in the morning and decides, “I’m going to buy something today.” Instead, they go through a path that includes research and evaluation before making a buying decision.

That journey is called the buyer’s journey that includes a number of different stages. 

The thing is every prospect is at a different stage in this journey. And while one offer might appeal to a prospect at one stage, that same offer might sound appalling to another prospect at a different stage.

That’s why it’s important to develop different offers at different buying stages. 

For instance, someone at the top of the buying cycle may be more interested in an informational piece like an e-book or a guide, whereas, someone more committed at the bottom might be more interested in a demo or free trial of your product.

Tip #6: Avoid Corporate Gobbledygook

“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”

That Albert Einstein quote says it all – if you feel the need to use industry-specific jargon phrases to sell your offer, then you don’t know what you’re talking about as well as you think you do.

What is gobbledygook you ask? Great question.

These are jargon terms and phrases that have been over-used and abused, rendering them meaningless.

Here are a few of them to avoid when describing your offer:

• Next-generation
• Easy to use
• Cutting edge
• Groundbreaking
• Best of breed
• Mission-critical
• Best in class

You can find more of them here.

Tip #7: Use High-Value Offer Formats

One powerful way of getting leads is by providing them offers. But the thing is, not all offer formats perform well at converting leads. For instance, an e-book is more valuable than a whitepaper.

As such, it’s important to only provide high-value offers (HVO) to your prospects to ensure maximum conversion.

While e-books and templates usually perform best, you may find that other offer formats like videos, webinars, or other formats do better in your particular use case. So, you want to test different types of offers to determine what works best for you.

According to HubSpot, below are the type of offers, in order of performance, that generate the most amount of leads:

• E-books or Guides
• Templates or Presentations
• Research & Reports 
• Whitepapers
• Kits (multiple offers packaged together)
• Live Webinars
• On-demand Videos
• Blog (including offers in the nav or sidebar)
• Blog posts (if there is a CTA in the post)
• Middle-of-the-funnel offers: Demo Requests, Contact Sales, RFP, Etc (more sales-ready offers).

Tip #8: Place Your CTA Where the Eye Can See

A landing page with a strong call-to-action (CTA) button will generate more conversions than a page with a weak one. It’s just that simple.

Yet, where you place your CTA is just as important. 

Generally, CTAs perform best when they are placed “above the fold” (the space where your web page is viewable to the user without having to scroll down).

Freshbooks even does it better:

What’s more, heat map analyses show that anything “below the fold” will only be viewed by 50% of people who visit your landing page. 

Tip #9: Clarity Beats Persuasion

Your offer must have a clear call-to-action so that your visitors know exactly what to do next. So, you want to make sure you’re very clear and specific about what you’re offering in your CTA.

If you’re giving away a free template, say “Download your FREE Template to X.” If you’re hosting a free webinar, say “Register for our FREE webinar on X.”

X in both cases should clearly convey a compelling benefit of receiving your offer. 

This is more effective than just saying “Download Now” or “Get a Free Guide.” These aren’t specific enough as they leave your prospect asking “What am I downloading? What’s the free article about?”

Don’t play clever. Be clear.

Tip #10: Use Contrast to Make your CTAs Stand Out

You can’t increase conversions with a CTA if no one can see it! That’s why your calls-to-action need to stand out. 

For one thing, if your CTA blends in too much with your website’s design, no one will notice it.

What makes WordStream such a great example? They do an amazing job of using contrasting colors to make their CTA stand out.

Neil Patel also does amazingly well with his call-to-action:

In contrast, look at this CTA on Evernote’s website:

The primary call-to-action for its free trial is somewhat buried because the button is the same color as the green background. 

Tip #11: Link Your CTA to a Dedicated Landing Page

The purpose of a call-to-action is to send visitors to a dedicated landing page where they can get an offer. 

That’s what your CTA should do. It shouldn’t send people to your homepage. 

It should take them to a landing page so they can get whatever offer you have for them. Because that’s how you convert them into a lead for your business. 

Tip #12: Promote Offers on Product Pages

Product pages do exactly what they sound like: help customers decide what to buy on a website. But they’re also a great place to promote your offers. 

Ideally, you can place your CTAs linking to each offer on your website pages that are most relevant to that offer.

For instance, look at this product page from Allbirds: 

The company is trying to promote its Size Chart to people who seem interested in these women’s runners. It works because the offer is relevant to the product on this page. 

Tip #13: Thank You Pages are Great CTA Real Estate

Product pages are not the only places where you can promote your CTA. 

Once someone reaches your “thank you page” after purchasing your product or service, use that space to promote more offers. 

For instance, let’s say a visitor on digitalhama.com downloads a guide on content marketing, we can offer them another offer for an email marketing template.

Tip #14: Remove the Main Navigation on your Landing Page

One of the best ways to increase your landing page conversion rates is to remove the main navigation on your page. Truth is, if you have too many links on your page, they distract your visitor.

And since your job is to keep visitors on your page, it makes sense to get rid of anything that will take them off your landing page.

Tip #15: Match the Headline of the Landing Page to the Corresponding CTA

One really good way to mess up your offer is to have inconsistent messaging with your landing page and CTA.

If people click on a link to receive an offer and find that the headline on your landing page reads differently than the CTA, it might lead to confusion. Why? The visitor might think the CTA is linked to the wrong landing page and that’s something you don’t want.

The fix: keep your messaging consistent on both the headline of the landing page and your call-to-action.

Tip #16: Less is More

Generating leads on your landing page is not about writing how awesome your product is in a thousand or three thousand words. Rather, it’s about keeping your landing content simple and to the point.

If your page is too cluttered, it will distract your visitor and you’re much likely to lose them.

The trick is to be brief as much as you can on your page. You can always provide more information in the offer itself.

Compare these two landing pages:

Which of them are you much likely to be interested in?

Tip #17: Emphasize the Benefits of your Offer

You can include a brief paragraph that explains what your offer is, followed by a few bullet points outlining the benefits of your offer.

You want to make it clear what value your offer has for your visitor. For instance, instead of “Includes specifications of product XYZ,” say something like “Find out how XYZ can increase productivity by 50%.” 

Tip #18: Encourage Social Sharing

The more people share your offer, the more others land on your landing page. And subsequently, more people fill out your form and become leads. 

That’s why you need to include buttons to enable your visitors to share your offers with their followers. You can also try including as many social media channels as possible to increase the chances of your offer reaching more people.

Tip #19: More Landing Pages Equal More Leads

According to a Marketing Benchmarks report from HubSpot, companies see a 55% increase in leads by increasing landing pages from 10 to 15.

If you want to generate more leads, you should also create more landing pages for your offers.

Tip #20: Get your Form Length Right

You’re wondering what the right length of the form on your landing page should be. I get it. 

There is no magic answer when it comes to how many fields your form should have. Ideally, your form should only collect the information you really need to effectively contact and qualify a lead.

Generally, it’s a good practice to keep your forms short. A longer form means more fields for the visitor to fill and subsequently, more work for them, which in most cases will be avoided. On the other hand, the more fields you require on your form, the better quality those leads might be.

So, how do you determine which form length to go with? 

Test. Test. Test.

Tip #21: To Submit or Not to Submit

If you want to increase your form’s conversion rates, avoid using default words like “SUBMIT” on your button. This word suggests your visitors have to give something up to get something — whether that’s their time, money, or energy.

The word “SUBMIT” also implies your visitor has to perform chores, and who likes doing chores? Nobody I know of!

The form above is not just intimidating, but the button copy “Submit” implies that you’re giving up something important. 

Instead, turn that word into a benefit that relates to what your visitors are getting in return. For instance, if the form is to download an e-book, your submit button should say, “Get your free e-book.” You could also use “Download Cheatsheet,” “Get Your Template,” or “Join the Webinar.”

Tip #22: Reduce Anxiety With Proof-Elements

Orthodox marketing wisdom tells you to “sell benefits” in order to convert more visitors into customers. 

This is sound advice, but it’s not enough. You also have to prove what you say is true by adding proof-elements to your landing page.

Testimonials may be the first proof-element that comes to mind. But you can also include security seals or certifications so that your visitors know their information is safe with you.

These days, users are so careful about their privacy. So, adding a privacy message or a link to your privacy policy that indicates their email will not be shared or sold is another powerful proof-element to have on your landing page.

Tip #23: Make the Form Appear Shorter

The golden rule of web form optimization is simple: shorter forms mean higher conversions. Long forms generally intimidate people.

But what if you can’t make your form shorter? Make it ‘look’ shorter by adjusting the styling. You could reduce the spacing between fields or align the titles to the left of each field instead of above it so that the form appears shorter.

The simple logic behind this is, if your form covers less space on the page, it may seem you’re asking your visitors for little information.

Tip #24: Blogging Brings in the Leads

Companies that blog 6-8 times a month double their leads according to data from HubSpot. What this means is, if you want to generate more leads, blogging is an effective medium to use.

You should include links to your landing pages within your blog posts. That way, when people read your posts, they can click to visit your landing page and subsequently, fill out your forms.

Another cool thing to do is to include a prominent call-to-action at the end of your blog post.

Tip #25: Leverage Email Marketing

You might think email marketing is only best for keeping up with your existing prospects and customers. But you can also use email marketing to generate new leads.

How? You ask…

• Make your emails shareable: People still forward emails to their friends, family, and colleagues, especially if you make it easy for them. Also, add social sharing buttons so people can share your email on their social media accounts.
• Send them valuable offers: Once your prospect has signed up to receive emails from you, they are officially a lead. To nurture them into a paying client, you will have to keep them engaged with valuable content offers.
• Don’t spam your prospects: It takes time to build an email list. Take the time to build one organically and avoid buying email lists. You want to make sure you have happy subscribers that love receiving emails from you. 

Tip #26: Make use of Social Media

For marketers ready to move beyond brand awareness and engagement, social media lead generation is a good next step. In fact, when it comes to improving lead quality, most marketers agree that social media marketing is the way to go.

Here’s how to generate more leads on social media:

• Optimize your profile: Before you plan your next social media lead campaign, make sure everything is in place for you to collect leads organically. Your profile should provide the means for customers to contact you, sign up for your newsletter, shop, and more.
• Make your content clickable: Without compelling content, you won’t collect leads. It’s that simple. If your goal is to generate leads, make sure people have a place to click. Wherever possible, make sure each post has a clear link and a tempting call-to-action.
• Share links to your landing page: Sharing content that directs traffic to targeted landing pages is a powerful way to increase lead generation through social media. If you’ve convinced someone to click on your link, don’t disappoint them with a sloppy landing page. For starters, the landing page must be relevant. 

Tip #27: Get More Leads with Organic Search

How easy is it for people to find your landing page through search engines? The higher your landing page ranks, the higher the likelihood that users will click through to view your offer. 

Here are a few things you can do to rank your landing pages organically:

• Make your landing page load faster. Slow load times can negatively impact your ranking and contribute to high bounce rates. You should try using Google’s PageSpeed test, which will show you why your page is loading slowly and offer suggestions on how to improve its speed. 

Also Read: How to Speed up Your WordPress Website in 2020 (Simple Guide)

• Pick a primary keyword for each landing page and focus on optimizing that page for that word. 
• Place your primary keywords in your headline and
  sub-headlines. 
• Include the keywords in the body content but make sure they are relevant to the rest of your content.
• Include keywords in the file name of images (e.g. mykeyword.jpg) or use them in the ALT tag.
• Include the keywords in the URL of your landing page.

Tip #28: Use Links and CTAs within Offers

If you want to get more leads, include links to other content offers within the offer you’re promoting. That way, when people consume your offer, they may discover other interesting offers and they will be more willing to share it with others. 

Tip #29: Use Strong Verbs in your Headlines

Ted Nicholas believes 73% of buying decisions are made at the point of the headline. And, eight out of ten people will click your headline if it catches their attention. So, what are you going to do about your headlines?

Draw attention by using strong verbs in your headlines. 

When you use strong verbs in your headline, it’ll make your writing to be concise and descriptive. This is exactly what your prospects want.

Authority content marketers like Brian Clark and the entire Copyblogger Media team, use strong verbs to craft headlines that you just can’t ignore. Take a look:

So, the next time you write a headline, make sure you integrate strong verbs.

Tip #30: A/B Test your Landing Pages

When done correctly, A/B testing your landing pages can help you generate up to 40% more leads. Not just for your landing pages, you can also A/B test your calls-to-action, email campaigns, social media campaigns, and more to achieve better results. 

In other words, if you’re not A/B testing, you’re missing out on some serious lead generation boost.

Conclusion

Don’t get fooled by every fancy lead generation tactic out there. Use the right strategies for the right purposes. But, remember that generating leads for your business will take time.

When it comes to generating more leads for your business, there’s no shortage of strategies to try out. By creating great offers, calls-to-action, landing pages, and forms, these tips have the power to dramatically transform your marketing efforts.

But never stop tweaking and testing every tip in this guide if you truly want to get more leads over and over again. 

Now, you have it!

Which of these strategies have you used in the past to generate leads? And What’s your favorite lead generation tactic? Tell us about it in the comments below!

BONUS TIP

Getting people to read your content isn’t always as easy as it sounds. They have to give up part of their lunch break or block out some time from enjoying themselves with family just to read your content.

If they do this, you owe them a lot!

Yes! You might want to argue that you’re offering them valuable content, which is totally true. But they’re also helping you rank better and improving your brand by spending time on your site.

If you’re like me, you’d want to say “Thank You” for taking up on your offer.

Remember I promised to give you something if you read up to this point?

Well, I’m not going back on my words! 

To say “Thank You” for taking the time to read up to this level, I’m offering you a template of the 30 greatest lead gen tips you’d find nowhere else–for FREE. What’s more, you can plug-and-play this template and customize it to fit your brand’s specific needs.

Click below to get a FREE copy of the 30 Greatest Lead Gen Tips, Tricks, & Ideas Template from HubSpot: