Digital Lead Marketing Ideas to Get More Clients

Lead generation has never been easy. Unfortunately, things are becoming even more complicated for marketers, too. The phase-out of cookies is just one proverbial wrench thrown into the works. It’s all too easy to feel like you’re spending time and dollars on digital campaign after digital campaign that yields few, if any, results. 

The good news is that doesn’t have to be your fate. There are ways around this seemingly unavoidable roadblock. It just comes down to using the most effective digital lead marketing ideas to get more clients. 

The current state of lead generation

To highlight just how critical lead generation is today, and yet how many businesses struggle in this area, let’s check out a few eye-opening statistics.

1. According to Demand Sage, 85% of businesses agree that marketing’s primary purpose is lead generation. And yet, the highest conversion rate is in the professional services industry, and it’s only 9.3%. The average is just 4%. 

2. For most marketers, lead quality is the most serious hurdle. That’s compounded by the fact that only 3% of any given audience is actively buying; almost 60% of leads aren’t ready to buy yet.

If any of that sounds familiar, there’s hope. The right digital lead marketing ideas can help you get over the hump, guide leads from the top of the funnel to the bottom, and get you more clients. 

Digital lead marketing ideas you need to harness

We’ve ranked some of the most effective and creative digital lead marketing ideas below to help supercharge your marketing efforts (and boost that dismal conversion rate).

1. Use gated content to get into their inbox

The journey from learning about a problem to exploring solutions to it to becoming a client is long and arduous. It includes quite a few touchpoints and it’s easy for a misstep to derail the entire process. 

You can get around some of that by getting potential leads “alone” so to speak. That is, if you can get your message to them without it being drowned out by competitors or overshadowed by other ads, you have a greater chance of moving them from high in the funnel toward the bottom very quickly. 

Gated content is a great way to do this. A report, eBook, or whitepaper that speaks to their problem and then gently highlights your brand as the solution is a good example. You can exchange these for their contact information and permission to communicate with them, allowing you to get into their inbox afterward.

2. Make them take a quiz

While pop quizzes might not have been the most popular in school, they’re great tools to help boost engagement and move people deeper into your sales funnel. When done correctly, quizzes can give you more information about leads and also create a deeper connection with them. Of course, you need to give something of value in exchange for that. 

Top-of-funnel efforts are great options for quizzes because you can use the lead’s natural curiosity about their problem and the available solutions to provide value through your quiz. For instance, a college might create a quiz that promises to tell potential students how their interests will fit with the school’s educational offerings. ROI calculators can also use the same quiz functionality to give users something of value.

3. Offer valuable resources with no strings attached

No one enjoys researching and then compiling all their results into a spreadsheet. It takes an enormous amount of time and effort. You can score extra points with your audience by doing this for them. 

The resources should be focused on the lead’s problem(s) and should offer plenty of value, along with the answers to important questions. You can then use this as a gated offer, allowing leads to download the spreadsheet in exchange for their name and email address.

4. Create a free course that’s delivered by email

Want to position your brand as a leader in your industry? There’s nothing quite like creating educational information and then giving it away to achieve that. 

With a free course, you automatically improve the lead’s perception of your brand. By delivering it via email, you can also get other messages into their inbox while simultaneously removing hurdles they might experience trying to take your course through another platform. 

All the lead needs to do to access or enroll is provide you with their name and email address. This particular strategy works for just about any industry, from gardening to advertising, and everything in between. 

5. Optimize your lead generation forms

Chances are good that you want your leads to fill out a form at some point in the process. Ostensibly, this is so they can access additional content or sign up for something valuable. It also gives you access to their information so you can continue your marketing. However, you need to strike the right balance here. 

Short forms with few fields are fast and easy to fill out, so your leads are far more likely to complete them. Complex forms can help you weed out low-quality leads. We recommend using simpler forms early in the relationship and then gradually increase the complexity.

Don’t let those leads slip through your fingers

You know how challenging it can be to generate leads. Once they act, you can’t afford to let them slip through your fingers. Working with a virtual receptionist firm ensures that you never miss a phone call. Smith.ai’s experienced virtual receptionists ensure that every call is answered, even if they come in the middle of the night. We also help you convert more leads through advanced call intelligence and metadata added directly to your CRM. 

To learn more, schedule a consultation or reach out to hello@smith.ai.