What is a lead

The lead lexicon: Everything you need to know about leads!

What is a lead and what can it actually do? The single lead can't really do anything beforehand. Rather, it says something: A lead is a prospective customer who is interested in your product or service.

The lead comprises various customer information that is decisive for contacting and selling. Contacts can be collected, for example, through e-mail addresses, a telephone number or other personal data.

On lead temperature contact: What are cold, warm and hot leads?

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• Cold leads: As the name suggests, cold leads are the ones who only come with a cold trail. The”cold leads” or even as”unqualified leads” known, basically don't know your product or service. In context, this means that such leads are only less likely to be successful.
• Warm leads: The warm leads, even under”qualitative leads“Well known, bring a significantly warmer trail. Such leads promise a high probability of selling the product, as there have already been initial points of contact with your product or service.
• Hot leads: They are called leads or as”Hot leads” known, already know your own problem or reason for buying and think you are the savior in need who can solve the problem.

Sales managers also like to refer to such leads as “order pickers,” because there is very little effort in sales here.

What is lead generation or lead generation?

You've already learned what leads are. Lead generation and lead generation are new word constellations that must first be defined:

Basically, lead generation or lead generation ultimately means attracting interested parties. Every action that causes people to leave their contact details is then summarized under the term lead generation.

In this way, a method can be developed to convert cold leads into warm leads and an important foundation for acquiring new customers can thus be established.

Generate leads: How do you attract leads on board?

You've already learned how to generate leads. But how do you get them on your website? To attract as many leads as possible, you should include various CTA on your website. The content that you offer should offer clear added value and be as attractive as possible for your website visitors. The important thing is that your web content and the added value offered are consistent and that the potential customer really benefits from it. Ways to get leads would be:

• Guide PDF
• webinars
• Sample products
• E-books to download

Lead qualification: How to turn leads into customers!

Business happens among people when we unromantically get to the bottom of the sale. Conversely, this means that transactions can only be concluded between people.

In other words, the more people enter your store, the higher your sales increase.

But it is not only in entrepreneurship that sales can be generated in this way. Because even in a romantic context, the principle works excellently. Anyone who dates a lot of people, for example, increases their chance of finally finding the right partner.

The funnel principle: The phases of lead qualification

In a subject-specific manner, the entire lead generation process is also understood as Lead nurturing. In a nutshell, however, this process is simply the name for the Customer journey of the potential new customer.

The lead qualification levels show how the potential new customer goes through in order to ultimately be crowned as a happy new customer.

The table below shows you which four phases your prospect will go through to ultimately become your new customer. In addition to the unromantic subject-specific definition, you will also find a romantic case study as an explanatory approach. This is because the principle of lead nurturing can be easily integrated into any engagement process (interaction of potential new customers with your company).

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Lead generation benchmark: What lead generation tools are there?

You have already learned what leads are and how the optimal lead generation processes work. At this point, you already have enough website traffic and really just need to be able to estimate whether you've made progress and how you're doing compared to your market competitors.

In order to track (statistically evaluate) your own marketing campaign, you can therefore decide whether to track your project in homemade Excel spreadsheets or to engage in software programs. There are some innovative software programs that can help you implement your lead marketing campaign & administration, such as:

• Hubspot 
• LeadRebel
• LinkedIn Sales Navigator
• Pipedrive 

Sales are integrated into the overall lead generation process from the outset using CRM (customer relationship management) systems.

ROI and lead generation

It should be clear at this point that lead generation is a good thing. After all, anyone who distributes flyers properly also gains recognition and feedback. The English term ROI (return on investment), i.e. the ratio of invested capital and earned profit, gives you clarity at this point. The calculated value acts as a company's large profit figure because it expresses the success rate and expected capital return of an investment. In this way, it is possible to determine whether the profitability of the invested capital is ultimately worthwhile? A rough formula can be used to calculate the ROI:

ROI = (Profit/Turnover) x (Sales/Invested Capital)

Here is a practical example:

Let's assume that company X wants to start generating leads and sets a capital of 50,000 euros. Through this process, company X generates a total of 60,000 euros in turnover. To calculate profit, the following formula must now be used: Sales — Costs = Profit (60,000€ - 50,000€ = 10,000€)

Now he can ROI To be calculated: (10,000/60,000 x 100) x (60,000/50,000) = 2 (20%)

The calculated return on investment therefore shows that a 20 percent increase in turnover can be expected. In the end, a successful conversion and the turnover that has flowed for this interaction can be presented in relation to the measures, and a more detailed analysis of the content is thus clearly formulated.

Is it worth the effort?

Determining the price/performance ratio of spend, traffic, and conversions proves complicated when it comes to lead generation. Among other things, the keywords click rate and cost per lead (CPL) are intended to compare the ratio of financial expenditure for marketing activities to the total number of leads generated.

example:

• Investment amount pay-per-click campaign: 2000 euros
• Total leads generated: 20
• Cost per lead: 100 euros
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  (Please note that the costs in this example relate purely to the marketing campaign. In this way, the success of the campaign can be measured. To calculate the profitability of marketing activities, you must include all expenses and expenses of your company)

To calculate the CPL, the value of a lead must be determined in advance. The list of criteria known as BANT offers a possible variant for calculation. It stands for

• Budget (How much money is a prospective product or service worth?
• Authority (Who is the responsible decision maker?)
• Need (Is there an urgent need for the product or service?)
• Time (When can the need be satisfied?)

Sustainable lead generation for the B2B sector is an ongoing process that includes the following cost factors:

• Creating a marketing strategy
• Creating a website or landing page (catch basin for upcoming leads)
• Configuring marketing automation software
• Generating traffic to the landing page
• after exhausting your own reach by purchasing traffic (Google Ads, Facebook Ads, etc.)

Depending on the individual case, costs for a lead can be ten, but also several hundred euros.

The lead management process: With these 5 steps to lead success!

Lead generation is one of the most important marketing tools for successful companies worldwide. So that you too can finally get started, you should create an approximate framework for yourself. A lead management process is normally divided into the following phases:

1. Definition of target group
2. Lead generation: measures to obtain personal data
3. Lead nurturing: Using data to address customers individually
4. Lead scoring: Evaluation of individual leads according to their relevance with regard to purchase intent
5. Lead reporting: Logging of the entire process from planning to conversion (conversion of interested party into buyer) for future process optimization

Lead generation: These benefits await you

Lead generation is now one of the most important marketing tools used by companies worldwide

1. A prospective customer becomes aware of a product or service
2. He voluntarily provides the provider with his contact details
3. Individually tailored interaction begins
4. The interested party becomes a customer
5. The increased customer base makes it possible to identify customer needs
6. More new customers are acquired as a result of the adjusted offers

conclusion

The secret of successful companies is measuring success. Because you can only grow your company with figures and measurements. Bill Gates invented the wonderful Windows Excel tool for this purpose.

This laid the groundwork for digitally recording and analyzing data. Now it's your turn to track and evaluate your figures and determine your needs.

In addition to this simple tool, it is an advantage if your marketing and sales teams work closely together so that many qualified leads end up on your sales radar.

Finally, you should regularly test and evaluate your content marketing strategies. This is the only way you can adapt the individual phases of your lead generation to changes in order to generate permanent new leads and increase your sales.