What’s your go-to move for lead generation?

If your answer is going to be “buying leads”, then we suggest that you cancel all your meetings because this is going to be a long discussion. Leads that are bought are hollow and give you nothing but empty promises. Quality leads are important for increasing conversion rates, but higher conversions are only possible if you can also generate leads through an effective and efficient manner— marketing automation.

Understanding the Role of Marketing Automation in Lead Generation

Let’s imagine that you run an organic, online food delivery service. You have a huge target market, which includes diabetics as well as Keto and Paleo lovers and more. In order to capture leads, you decided to build a marketing campaign. The ads are a hit and you see traffic coming in droves on your website. Some of the leads reach the end of the funnel and some of them exit in the middle. Your aim is to target those visitors who left without making a purchase. In order to reel them in, one of the most basic marketing methods you can use is email marketing. However, customizing emails for customers who are at different stages of the marketing funnel can be taxing. So, you choose to go with marketing automation solutions. You pick a software program, which streamlines the emailing process. It sends emails to all your visitors based on their browsing habits. When you receive feedback from these people, you divide them into groups and automate the next line of emails. As a result, your visitors become more interested in your product because you are providing them with the information they are actively looking for. Those visitors are now hot leads, which will most probably reach the end of the sales funnel.

Now that you know how marketing automation works in lead generation, let’s have a look at some of the strategies you can use:

1.     Lead Magnet

Lead magnets can help increase conversions and capture email addresses for your marketing automation software. You can offer a lead magnet in several ways. Make sure that what you are promising is attractive and offers something valuable. This can be anything from a free eBook to a discount voucher or a membership at a low cost.

2.     Landing Pages

Landing pages are one of the best lead generation components. If your landing page is receiving numerous visitors but no one clicks to the service or product page, then it’s time to change your lead strategy. We already know that your customers’ buying cycle will be recorded by the marketing automation software. However, to make sure that your email marketing ensures the return of the visitor, you can create separate contact forms for people who are inquiring about a specific product. This way, the software will automate customized campaigns that specifically target the group that is interested in a particular product.

3.     Drip Campaigns

To get the attention of the target audience without being pushy or annoying, drip campaigns were created. The slow delivery of emails, in a timely manner, allowed marketers to capture the attention of their website’s visitors and turn them into leads.

In order for drip campaigns to work, you first need to divide your visitors into segments and then add their email addresses into the marketing automation software. The software will then send emails to the leads with targeted content and at specific times. This will allow you to keep your brand’s names at the top of your leads’ minds. Think of this as business intelligence services that help you gather information without spending too much time or money.

4.     Re-Engagement Campaigns

After analyzing the data, you are made aware that some of the visitors on your page entered the marketing sales funnel but are now taking too long to make the purchase. These leads are just sitting there and you have no idea why. It could be that they no longer need the product or don’t want to make a hasty decision. As time passes by, these leads don’t reach the last stage of the funnel. How do you retarget these dormant leads?

Through re-engagement campaigns!

Let’s look at an example. When a customer buys a car from Nissan, the company creates a record with the person’s information for follow up. They are dedicated to making their customers happy, even years after the purchase. One way through which they follow up is by reminding their customers that their car needs maintenance. At the time of the purchase, the customer’s email address is added into the year category and at a specific time, they are reminded with an alert that it’s time for a checkup.

Besides the above-mentioned method, there are plenty of other ways to get your dormant lead’s attention, such as offering them free consultation or a discount subscription. Divide these leads into another segment and focus more of your automation marketing efforts on them.

5.     Highly Motivated Subscribers

Subscribers are fickle! They show interest and great enthusiasm in the beginning and then mellow down as time passes. This is where you need to strike. Don’t waste your efforts on those subscribers who hardly go through your content. Before using your automation workflow for another segment, divide your subscribers into warm and cold leads. Send all your subscribers an email with quality content. Those who click through can be pushed down the funnel and the rest can be set aside for the time being. Now, you can send them targeted content or incentives so that they make a purchase.

Marketing automation is not that tricky as businesses think. It is a great way to generate leads if you use it correctly and at the right time. Does buying leads still sound right to you? After all, they won’t be of any real value to you. Try out these techniques and you will see a drastic increase in your conversion rates!