In the world of business, companies only survive if they find new customers. Nowhere is this more true than in the startup world. Traction is often associated with how much a company can raise in their new series A,B, or C rounds. In today’s competitive digital marketplace, company leaders need a solid plan in place to leverage marketing tactics, create high-quality content and use automation for an effective lead generation process.

Lead Generation Process

To create a B2B lead generation process for digital marketing, start with the end goal in mind. Ask what outcome you want to achieve. When your lead generation program is starting out it is critical to focus on lead quantity. Once you have the critical mass of leads coming in, then you can focus on the quality of leads.

In digital marketing, lead generation can be broken down into two types of market segments:

• Hand Raisers – Those people who come to your website searching for your product or services and find you through Google ads or SE. These leads are captured through inbound marketing tactics.
• Demand Generation – Those people who are unaware of your product or service and don’t know anything about you. To attract those customers you must create or generate demand.

Marketing Tactics and Content

At the top of the marketing funnel, you leverage marketing tactics to generate leads. It is important to ensure you are generating leads through content marketing in the form of case studies, webinars, email campaigns, SEO, and display ads. Add hooks like emails, coupons, webinars, free ebooks or other content to gain attention.

Once leads are generated, filter them through qualification criteria into people who might buy your product or service. This is what defines a Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL).

Lead Generation Process Flow Chart

Marketing Automation

In the marketing world, it is important to create a lead generation process once leads are captured. This process dictates how the leads flow from your marketing tactics into lead generation programs before handing them over to the sales team.

You can opt to take the MQLs to a nurturing track where they are further warmed up to become a Sales Accepted Lead (SAL) or pre-sales call lead. After that, the sales team can reach out and call them directly to determine if they have a need now or in the future. These leads are then labeled as a SQL. An SQL is a warm lead that goes back into the marketing funnel. On a basic level that’s how conversion from MQL to SQL works.

Let us know your experience with lead generation processes. We would love to hear from you!