How To Create an Effective Lead Generation Funnel?

It isn’t easy to find leads for your business when you own a business. Building a lead generation funnel for your new business can be intimidating, especially when you’re selling a product or service. So, When you own a business, it’s difficult to find leads for your business.

“Making your prospects feel like they have an exclusive membership in a club makes lead generation a positive customer experience.”

~ Eric Bower

If you are a business owner, you might be wondering how to generate leads? Well, the answer is to build a lead generation funnel. It can help your business stand out in the market and allow companies to choose you over other companies offering domestic products and services.

The lead generation funnel is an essential part of the marketing process to convert potential customers into sales.

Generating leads isn’t easy enough.

Let’s get started with the meaning of lead generation:

A lead generation is a systematic approach to capture a customer’s interest in a particular product or service that can boost your sales pipeline. Lead generation allows companies to nurture customers’ interest in buying products they like.

According to Marketing Sherpa, 73% of all B2B leads aren’t sales-ready.

73% of all B2B leads aren’t sales-readyWhat does Lead Generation Funnel mean?

To nurture your customer’s interest, you need to build a lead generation funnel. Generating leads and funneling your target audience through distinct stages until they decide to purchase is the lead generation funnel. A lead generation funnel can range from simple to very complex. You must understand that your funnel should go hand-in-hand with your target audience and the marketing ‘steam’s growth marketing tactics.

The different stages of the lead generation funnel that may help you guide your leads through it are:

  • Top Of the Funnel (TOFU)
  • Middle Of the Funnel (MOFU)
  • Bottom Of the Funnel (BOFU)

Lead Generation Funnel

Stage 1: Creating Awareness (TOFU)

Attracting your customers to notice your brand is the first step to success. Creating awareness depends on your inbound marketing strategy, including search engine optimization (SEO), Paid to advertise, and content marketing. Creating awareness also means understanding how your customers operate, their personas, and your target audience.

Stage 2: Collecting Data

Once you have created awareness, the next step is to collect their data. Getting data on your customers is vital to engage them further down the funnel. There are many ways you can collect data, as most companies opt for their customer’s contact numbers or email addresses or sign-up forms, landing pages, or simple requests can also do.

In fact, 84% of B2B marketers use form submissions as a conversion tool to generate leads.

data collection

Source: Ruler Analytics

Another option to entice your audience could be giving gifts, conducting webinars, running a competition, or giving assistance in exchange for contact details. Once you have collected this data, you will need to load it onto a database.

Stage 3: Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) and Sales Qualified Lead (SQL) (MOFU)

The data collected can help you start building your leads and also help you decide which avenue the authorities have come through. Either sales or marketing. Marketing leads are direct content marketing, social media, or paid advertising.

Next, you need to understand which potential leads are ready to go further through the funnel. Usually, the qualified leads are those who have expressed a direct interest in your business and are prepared to go further through the funnel. By focusing on your qualified leads, you are more likely to generate profits from them.

Stage 4: Identifying potential Targets and Prospects (BOFU)

All the qualified leads need not necessarily will be prospective new customers. So, it would help if you now decided where your customers rank on a lead generation scale. Target those customers who have downloaded content from your business or expressed further interest after interacting.

You can also look for people paying for services with your competitors who have shown interest in moving across to you.

Ideally, you want to target people who have downloaded content or expressed further interest after being engaged. You may also come across leads paying for services with your competitors and are interested in moving across to you.

Stage 5: Recycled

Sometimes a customer might be looking for more information, or perhaps they are bound by a contract they can’t get out yet. You should still consider them valuable and potential customers and engage further. You can hire them through social media or email or even conduct a sales call to check into them.

Stage 6: Opportunity

To make your customers feel valued with your knowledge, allow them to work with you by linking them to the right products and services. You can make your customers feel well looked after with your sales technique.

Stage 7: Customers

This is the final stage where the leads you have engaged with are now paying customers. You need to make sure that your customers receive first-class service at this stage. Essentially, this will encourage them to come back as returning customers, which will help you to build a stable revenue stream for your business.

A Lead: An Overview

In terms of sales, most companies define a lead as ‘contact with a potential customer, also known as a ‘prospect’ or a ‘sales contact.’ The lead generation process begins when you want to become a future paying client.

Statistics say that generating more quality leads is a priority goal for 79% of marketers.

Creating A Lead Generation Funnel:

After knowing about lead and its different stages, let’s understand how to create one.

There are numerous routes you can take. However, you can start by following the steps mentioned below:

  1. A visitor may find you on a google search or your website, blog, or social media page. So, you need to have these platforms in place to create brand awareness.
  2. Once visitors are on your page, they would like to know more and click on your CTA ( (call to action button). Keep your CTA button or a message or image simple. Make sure it is written in a clear and straightforward language like ‘shop now’ or contact me. By clicking on the CTA, your visitor is taking action to check out your website, shop,  or email.
  3. Your visitor is now on the landing page. This is a web page where one can capture lead information in exchange for an offer. These offers may include an eBook, a template, a course, a webinar,  or even a gift or competition. Make sure you provide enough value to a visitor for them to provide you with their details.
  4. You can ask your visitor to fill in a simple form to receive the offer. The state may ask for their email, contact, or phone number. Your visitor becomes a new lead by filling in the form.
  5. In summary, a curious visitor visits your website, clicks a CTA, opens the web page, where they fill out a form to get an offer and become a lead.

Privacy Policies

Privacy policies help your customers gain trust. Putting privacy policies on your website will help you gather personal information from anyone who lands on your website and enter their details into your form. Furthermore, they also need to know what rights, terms, and conditions they have to opt-out of data sharing and gathering.

Top 4 Reasons to Start Building Leads

Well, you can find many reasons to start building leads for your business. The top 4 are listed here:

a. Helps Your Business Expand by Boosting Sales

To target right and potential customers, one has to develop a good lead generation strategy that will, in turn, build up sales by targeting the right customers who are going to buy.

A good lead generation strategy should include Search engine optimization with a list of potential keywords.

Your website will pop up in the search engine, and any potential customer can see you on the top of the list while searching online and hopefully click on the link. Thus you have a new lead.

b. Raises Awareness Of Your Brand

Once you have generated potential leads, you can raise awareness of your brand and reach more people. Also, effective lead generation can drive Traffic to your website, which can help convert your leads into customers. Search engines like google are a great and easier way of connecting people to businesses.

c. Help Build Productive Relationships

Marketing and sales team can boost their relationship and work together to create sales. You have to nurture your leads and build good relationships with potential customers. This could be a part of your lead generation strategy.

d. Lead Generation is A Modern And Targeted Method of Marketing

Collecting data through various platforms, including a website and social media, and generating leads can make marketing more accessible and practical.

The goal is to qualify your leads, for which a good lead generation strategy is necessary to help you streamline the process and target interested people who wish to buy your product or service.

What Are The Best Lead Generation Tools?

Implementing some of the best lead generation tools can help you nurture your leads and put them at the top of your funnel. Here are a few of them:

1. Your Website

For your business to attract customers,  you need a website. Make sure your website looks clear and attractive and offers great content that holds your visitor’s attention. Social media or email marketing strategies blog posts are other essential aspects that can generate Traffic or ‘leads’ to your website.

Once you understand where your leads are coming from, you must nurture their interest. You can add a CTA (call to action) on your Facebook page. It will help keep your visitors attention for longer. Offer something to your customers such as a newsletter, an update, or other content like ‘Subscribe Here,’ ‘Watch Video’, or ‘Visit Blog.’ Building up a robust content strategy will also help to boost your website ranking higher.

2. Email

Email marketing is another good tool to attract and gather information about your customers and build up your leads. Also, it is an essential tool that helps retain tips at the end of the funnel. You need to create an irresistible offer or sign-up form on your website to encourage leads to provide their email details and sign up. You can promote these offers on social media in return for an email address. Some tips to attract your customers via email are

  • Sending them a welcome email or thanking them for subscribing and setting up expectations for future emails.
  • Personalizing your emails to make your readers feel more engaged with your business
  • Offer discounts or other incentives to your valuable customers to maintain their interests.

Email drives higher ROI than any other lead generation tool, i.e., 174% more conversions by email marketing than social media. (Source: Campaign Monitor)

3. SEO

Search Engine Optimization helps optimize your website’s technical layout, content relevance, and link popularity so that search engines can rank your website better. It is one of the best ways to generate leads. You first need to collect a list of keywords for your business.

The higher your keywords trait on the search engine results in pages, the more likely it is that potential customers will discover your business. Here are a few more top tips for making the most of SEO.

  • Mobile-friendly configuration- Optimize your landing pages equally for laptops, iPad, and mobile phones.
  • Optimize the meta descriptions. It would help write a good meta description to boost your clickthrough rate, including all the keywords. After all, a meta description describes and summarizes the content of your page for the benefit of users and search engines.
  • Build up your links- This is an excellent way to boost your domain authority. To earn a higher spot on the SERPs, link building is essential. Make sure to gather a few trustworthy links than lots of inferior ones.

4. Content Marketing

Good quality content is all you need for your website’s high ranking. Content types come in many different forms. Find out what works best for your business and is suitable for your target audience. Some tips to boost your content strategy include:

  • A case study
  • Longer content form like an eBook
  • Infographics are helpful visually
  • A blog that contains detailed concepts and data
  • Video marketing

How to grow your Lead Generation Funnel?

  1. Engage the visitors to your website: Having accurate data is one of the best commodities for your customers. It allows you to engage them further through the lead generation funnel.
  2. Time is always an essence: It has been reported that marketers who follow up on their qualified leads early within minutes are 9x more likely to convert them into sales.
  3. Focus on Video marketing: This allows you to get the information in a more engaging format and help your customers make buying decisions.
  4. Update your content timely: relevant and meaningful content that suits your business and customers need is vital to the success of your business.

What Is the Importance of The Lead Generation Funnel?

Having an effective lead generation strategy will benefit your business in many ways. Below listed are a few of those advantages to lead generation.

a. Promotes Awareness

A good lead generation funnel will keep your website on top and attract people to visit your page and thus your business. Once you start getting new leads, you can generate more awareness of your business, especially as an expert in the field.

b. Boosts your Sales and Profit Ratio

Once you have attracted potential customers and more leads, there is a likelihood that your information will convert into sales. With plenty of tips going in at the top, you are bound to convert them into sales. Hence, boosting your business sales and profit ratio and growing your company.

c. Help Build and maintain good Relationships with Your Target Customers

Implementing an effective lead generation strategy gives you a fair idea to your customers about your products and services. This, in turn, will encourage your qualified potential leads to further down the funnel and convert them into sales.

d. Lead Generation Funnel Can Help to Build Important Data

Utilizing your landing pages and sign-up forms smartly can help you build up a worthwhile list of data on your leads. Once you have got your customer’s data, they have gone from being an unknown entity to showing an interest in your company. Which means they have now become a potential lead. Make sure to use this data accurately and store it by privacy law.

e. Save your lots of money than Traditional Advertising

There are no significant changes you need to pay while generating a lead generation funnel. It’s free! You can build your website’s social media pages and make your presence online for free on several other platforms. However, you need to pay upfront to feature your business in a newspaper, billboard, magazine, or broadcast with traditional advertising. Traditionally, you don’t know whether you are reaching a potential customer or not.

Final Thoughts

To sum up, creating a lead generation funnel is a systematic approach to attracting potential customers to your business and hopefully converting them into sales.

Ideally, by implementing an effective lead generation strategy in your business, you will grow your business by boosting the conversion of leads into sales.



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