Whether you own a million-dollar startup or a small business you run out of your home, lead generation is the fuel that keeps your organization running—whether you know it or not.
Lead generation allows you to identify and cultivate a relationship with people who’ve shown interest in what you offer. Ultimately, it lets you convert those people into paying customers down the line, or even avid fans who can advocate for your brand and draw in new leads.
If you haven’t put much thought into why lead generation matters, you may not have created the right strategies to turn those leads into customers—which is a huge missed opportunity. Let’s take a look at why it is important for a successful brand.
Leads Bring Customers and Profit
The most obvious reason why lead generation matters is that it’s a major resource for generating more profit. Many companies spend over 50% of their marketing budget on generating new leads, and for good reason: cultivating customers out of those new leads means more money coming into your business.
Leads Generate Brand Awareness
Brand awareness is, of course, the very first step in the marketing funnel. That doesn’t mean it’s not important! On the contrary, the more people who recognize your brand, the more people you can guide into the more profitable later stages of the funnel. Lead generation also helps with brand awareness, as you might expect. Most strategies are designed to keep your brand top-of-mind with your audience.
Lead Generation Helps With Targeting
Brand awareness only matters when your target audience knows your brand; with the broad audience outside of your niche, your chances of generating customers dwindles. Focusing on a broad audience also makes it harder to speak to your audience’s interests. That’s where lead generation can help: most lead gen strategies allow you to target only the most qualified prospects, which in turn means that you’ll put more effort into converting the leads who are most likely to become future customers.
Lead Generation Saves Money on Ad Spending
Lead generation saves you money over other types of advertising, simply because it costs less than most forms of digital advertising. Depending on the lead gen strategy and the difficulty of lead acquisition. You may spend anywhere from $10 to $300—which can still be dramatically less than your advertising costs.
It should be pretty clear by this point that the statement “lead generation fuels your business” isn’t an exaggeration. The right strategies can bring in customers and profits, in addition to generating more brand awareness, while keeping your brand running strong.
If you’re looking for optimal results from your lead gen campaign, you’ll need to make sure you’re using effective strategies. Essentially, the entire ecosystem of your marketing efforts needs to fall into line, from your content and social media marketing to your SEO strategies. To go above and beyond, consider partnering with a coach who can help you understand how to generate more leads!