What is a Lead Generation Agency?
Leads are basically people who need your product or service, come to your website or social media page and identify themselves by providing their contact information in exchange for more information from your business. They have expressed an interest in your offering and have the intention to purchase from either you or a competitor in the future. Therefore a lead is a valuable revenue opportunity for your business.
What is a lead generation process? Put simply, it is the process of attracting and converting interested buyers to select your products and services.
Lead generation is undoubtedly the most important and yet the most challenging part of any marketing and sales function. Fortunately, the process of lead generation has been transformed by online marketing, with exciting new ways of finding leads emerging as a result.
There’s a lot more to B2B lead generation than just cold-calling or sending out emails, and in this blog, we will dive into the details of what makes a good lead generation system. But first, let’s start with the role a lead generation company can plan in helping you get leads.
What is a Lead Generation Agency?
Lead generation strategies are the fuel running your business and an agency with this expertise agencies can be the facilitator that help you get that fuel. A good lead generation agency is responsible for helping you source and aggregate actionable customer data (or leads) to grow your business.
There are different kinds of lead generation agencies but fundamentally they are experts at finding the right customer for you that is willing to buy your product or service.
While a digital marketing agency will build and strengthen awareness of your services, build your brand, and get it in front of valuable audiences, a lead generation agency specializes in building a pipeline of actionable leads for your sales team.
It is important to understand that a digital marketing agency plays the long game of brand awareness, reputation management, and more. A lead generation agency focuses on a short to medium-term timeline, helping your sales team build a healthy pipeline of potential customers and revenue.
There are three types of lead generation agencies –
- Agencies that drive leads to your website using digital marketing strategies such as search engine optimization, landing page creation, social media optimization, and online advertising optimization as a few examples.
- Agencies that act as aggregators of data from many sources, and then apply a filter to it so as to identify leads.
- Agencies that have databases of leads are available for a business to purchase. These leads are then called to keep them warm for final conversion via your sales team.
All of this begins with a thorough understanding of your target audience or buyer persona. Your buyer persona address details such as demography, average age, income level, location, and psychographic traits.
This helps the lead generation agency to identify the right process for you as well.
The Lead Generation Basics
Leads are important to both your marketing and sales teams as each is measured on different elements of your lead generation program. A good lead generation campaign will ensure that marketing is attracting the right quality leads and building a healthy pipeline of leads for sales to act on.
Leads are qualified based on criteria set out by both the sales and marketing teams.
An MQL or Marketing Qualified Lead is a person that has been identified as a potential customer as a result of a marketing-related activity (e.g. subscribed to a mailing list or downloaded collateral).
An SQL or Sales Qualified Lead is a lead that has been validated by a sales rep to be ready to be taken into the next step of the sales outreach process (e.g. scheduling a product demo or a meeting).
Lead generation can use both inbound (creating high-quality content) and outbound (cold calling) techniques however, most marketers and sales reps find better results with inbound marketing methodologies.
What Makes a Good Lead Generation Process?
One of the biggest challenges with lead generation is establishing a process that not only builds a healthy pipeline of leads across the funnel but is also sustainable and scalable over the long term.
The quality of the process is tied to the revenue targets the company has set so there are important reasons to ensure the program is running efficiently and being held accountable to the targets set.
Let’s look at some tactics that make a good lead generation process-
1. Building an Easy-to-Navigate Website
A website does more than spread awareness about your business. A well-laid-out website will function as a credible source of information for your potential customers.
A good website should have information that is relevant and personalized for each of your buyer personas and should also offer a way for prospects to connect with you.
2. A High Conversion Landing Page
A landing page is specifically designed to capture and convert leads. It does this by sharing a valuable and relevant asset to the prospect in exchange for their contact information for sales follow-up or to nurture through email marketing.
The quality of your landing page will be dependent upon its content, design, call to action, SEO, and most importantly what’s on offer (a whitepaper, case study, or brochure)
3. An Effective Content Marketing Strategy
The quality of content you create will determine the quality of leads you get. High-quality content that is clear, informative, and compelling forms the basis of any lead generation process.
Creating content involves writing articles that cater to buyers at different stages in the buyer journey. It should address their questions and problems faced at each stage.
For example, while a case study will work for a lead at the bottom of the funnel evaluating a purchase decision, it might not work as well for a lead at the top of the funnel. Top of the funnel leads is exploring possible options, which makes brochures more suited for them.
Keeping Track of Your Lead Generation Efforts
Measuring the success of your lead generation efforts is a crucial element of the lead generation process.
Tangible metrics that track how your lead generation tactics are performing are critical. These metrics help you course-correct and highlight areas that need extra attention.
Some metrics you should be keeping track of are:
Cost per Lead
The cost per lead is the amount of money you are spending to acquire one lead. It can vary depending on the lead generation channel you use.
Factor in both one-time costs (such as creating marketing collateral) and recurring costs (marketing automation tools) while calculating the cost per lead.
Conversion Rate
The conversion rate is the number of people who are taking an action that you intended them to. This action can be filling out a form or making a purchase.
For most marketers ‘website visitors to leads’ and ‘leads to purchase’ are relevant conversion rates to track.
Building a good website and high-conversion landing pages are good places to start on your lead generation journey. As you progress, track how well each of your tactics is working.
Once you have a healthy stream of leads coming in also consider investing in lead scoring and lead nurturing systems. Lead scoring scores your leads depending on their quality and lead nurturing is a method that ensures your leads don’t fall through the gaps in your marketing funnel.
How Much Should Lead Generation Services Cost?
Lead generation services use a variety of pricing models which many find confusing. Setting aside the type of service you choose, we are going to share some rules you can apply in order to establish how much you should be paying for your digital marketing including lead generation services for your business.
Establishing Your Digital Marketing Budget Rules
Smaller businesses have limited marketing budgets, but to be effective, there is a threshold amount needed to be effective. A good rule of thumb established by BDC is to spend 2% – 5% of your revenue on digital marketing if you are B2B, and 10% – 15% if you are a B2B business.
Examples of Establishing Lead Generation Service Costs
You should pay for lead generation services depending upon the industry you are in, your average sale value, and the conversion cost.
A helpful way to think about your budget is through this example:
Let’s say you’re a B2B business selling a product with an average sale value of $50,000. Your sales team has a 30% close rate. You want the agency to generate 10 leads monthly, knowing that your team will close 3 of these each month. In other words, your sales team’s efforts will generate $150,000 in revenue monthly. As a B2B business, you can expect to spend as much as $7,500/monthly for your program.
In another example, let’s say you only have $3,500 monthly to spend on your marketing, your sales team have a 30% close rate, and the average sale value is $10,000. Your lead generation program investment of $3,500/ month should generate 10-12 leads annually to break even, and more than this is a clear gain in profitability.
Quick ROI: The Advantage of Lead Generation Investments
Investing in lead generation services yields a lot quicker ROI compared to many other tactics. Your marketing and lead generation efforts should work in unison for the best results.
Choose the Right Lead Generation Company for Your Business
To sum it all up, a lead generation agency brings valuable skills to your business. While there is no one-size-fits-all lead generation program, a knowledgeable, professional lead generation agency will tailor a plan for your business.
Choose the right lead generation company for your business: one that brings with it superior lead generation expertise, who takes the time to understand your business, your products, and services, and can guide you in a better understanding of your customer’s pain points.
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