Different Types of Lead Generation, and How to Choose The Right One

No business is complete without customers. It’s all common sense: no customers mean no transaction, and ultimately, no income for your business. There are many ways to entice customers to avail of a brand’s product or service. However, ending up with an actual transaction from the end-user (a.k.a. the customer) and building a good relationship with them is another story. 

If you are a business owner, you need to have a complete business arsenal. That includes having a sound business plan and a good website design. Speaking of website design, you should contact a reliable SEO agency to help create an engaging website for your business. 

As business owners, you don’t want a one-time transaction only. Rather, you want to repeat transactions and gain loyal customers in the long run. This is what lead generation is for: attract the right customers and build rapport with them. However, there are also different types of lead generation, and understand which of these is best for your business. 

 

Types of lead generation 

For starters, lead generation has two major categories: inbound and outbound lead generation. Under the inbound lead generation category are: 

 

• PPC
• Social media posts
• SEO contents (blog posts, website articles, etc.)
• E-books 
• Podcasts 
• YouTube videos 
• PPCs (Pay-per-Click) 

 

With inbound lead generation, people have the power to choose where to get information about brands and their products and services. On the other hand, outbound lead generation puts it right in front of our faces, whether we like it or not. Some examples of outbound lead generation include the following techniques: 

 

• Cold calls 
• E-mail marketing 
• Direct mail 
• Advertising (both traditional and digital) 

 

While these two can be effective, choosing the type of lead generation ultimately depends on your brand’s marketing objectives. That is why you should consider carefully what type of lead generation tools to use for your business. 

 

What to consider in choosing a lead generation technique

With different lead generation types to choose from, it can be confusing which of them will be the best option for your business. How to know which of these will work best for your business? Here are factors that can help you decide. 

 

Who and where are your customers? 

Either your business caters to customers (B2C) or other businesses (B2B). If you are selling services for companies, LinkedIn might be the best social media platform to look for potential client companies. For individual end-users, you can use Facebook or Instagram ads to find potential customers. 

 

Are they looking for you? 

If you are doing SEO writing and keyword optimization but no increase in inquiries, you might want to switch to outbound lead generation instead. You might also want to reconsider whether to cold calling individuals if you are offering website services. In such cases, you might have to let these people search for their needs on their own. But make sure to lead them to your brand through inbound lead generation techniques. 

 

Inbound or outbound? 

At the end of the day, brands might want to apply both inbound and outbound lead generation techniques. Outbound lead generation can help you determine your potential customers. It will be able to distinguish those who are truly interested in your brand. Inbound lead generation keeps your website or business page constantly active and updated for your potential clients. Hire the best SEO agency in Franklin TN for your website design and digital marketing services!