Lead generation

Lead generation (prospect acquisition ) is a marketing term . A lead is a qualified contact with an interested party who is interested in a company or a product on the one hand and who, on the other hand, provides the advertiser with his address data (lead = dataset) for further dialogue development and is therefore very likely to become a customer . Generating leads with high data quality is a fundamental task in acquiring new customers and is one of the most important goals of companies . In order to build up their own prospect databases of a significant size, more and more companies are using the lead generation method.

Address data of potential interested parties can be generated online and offline for specific target groups .

Origin and history

The modern term of lead generation emerged from direct marketing . The origins of direct marketing go back to companies that sold their products by post after the First World War , i.e. mail order companies such as Eduscho and Quelle . Since the 1980s, however, the increasing customer orientation due to competitive pressure has also led other companies to turn to direct marketing. In order for advertising companies to reach their target groups with a reasonable economic effort, they need professional direct marketing. Experience has shown that almost any medium can be used as a sales medium by addressing it directly, for example via coupons, telephone callbacks or orders by fax. This direct customer contact increases the chances of a long-term dialogue.

The generation of leads is also of central importance for B2B marketing . The media used to address potential customers largely correspond to those used in direct marketing. However, trade fairs play an important role as on-site marketing instruments in the B2B sector .

Lead generation strategies

The following measures are taken, especially in classic direct marketing, to generate leads:

Offline actions

• Coupon ads ( couponing )
• Advertisement with advice over the phone
• Advertisement with an order card attached
• Mailing , with info card to request further information

If the interest of the potential customer is aroused, he or she enters the contact details requested by the advertiser in the specified fields of the medium used and forwards it back to the advertiser. So the advertiser now receives a lead.

Online actions

A wide variety of advertising media ( advertising banners , newsletters , text links, etc.) can be used online in virtually all available delivery channels (classic websites, e-mail, social networks, search engines, etc.) to generate leads. The incentives (competitions, coupons, product samples, etc.) can be found in these advertising materials . If the user clicks on it, he will be redirected to the so-called landing page of the lead advertising campaign , where he can enter his data using previously defined data fields and give his consent to these being stored by the advertiser (web forms with express consent for advertising measures).

Traffic analysis

A range of web analytics tools and services are offered as part of online lead generation and lead management . For example, there is the option of using coded links to observe the behavior of the lead on the relevant website and thus to draw conclusions about their interests. The comparison of the visitor IPs of the provider portal with databases can identify visiting companies and thus contribute to lead generation. Also the social media monitoring is a discipline of lead generation.

Content generation

Another way to generate leads is to create high quality content for a specific audience. This can be, for example, a whitepaper , guide or checklist. However, these are not freely accessible. Interested parties must provide their contact details. Often the users only get access to the desired content after a double opt-in procedure. In addition, the interested party is encouraged to subscribe to the newsletter. In some cases, leads who are interested in such content are followed up over the phone to make the product attractive to them. The advantage of such an approach is that it is relatively easy and inexpensive to acquire leads from a specific target group. Because only those for whom the content is really interesting will provide their contact details voluntarily. On the other hand, the procedure can also deter interested parties who attach great importance to data protection or who fear spam. In addition, it is possible that incorrect information is provided in order to be able to read the content.

Lead generation in the B2B area

The measures listed above are also used in B2B marketing to generate leads. In contrast to direct marketing, the aim here is not to achieve immediate sales success, but to develop interested parties into leads through targeted content, which are then passed on to sales. Trade fairs are an important marketing instrument for generating leads in B2B marketing. Personal contact and the opportunity to network are particularly valued by exhibitors in the B2B sector. In order to successfully bring companies and potential customers together on site, a well-planned content strategy must be implemented in the run-up to the trade fair. In accordance with the basic assumption that interested parties research suitable solutions for their concerns in the run-up to a trade fair, informative content ( e.g. in the form of press releases , blog posts, whitepapers, free tools) is provided that is free of offensive advertising messages and has a positive connection to the Providers should create. The lead generation at the trade fair then takes place through a personal conversation between interested parties and the exhibiting company and the exchange of contact details, which are passed on to the sales department.

Lead generation through address purchase

Another common form of lead generation is the acquisition of address data according to certain criteria such as industry, turnover and company size in the B2B area. These can be acquired from address traders as part of address trading . A distinction is usually made between B2B and B2C addresses. Depending on the segment, different selection vectors are available, which make it possible to acquire suitable leads directly.

Lead capture

All the measures that are necessary to attract interested parties who are ready to be contacted cost an enormous amount of time. It is therefore all the more important to make the acquisition of leads as efficient and fast as possible. There is now a large selection of tools and apps that facilitate the documentation of contact details. These tools enable the quick digitization of contacts from business cards, the direct transfer or further processing of data, which simplify and accelerate the company's internal contact management many times over. When capturing leads via an app, for example

• Business cards can be read in via smartphone (scan) and converted directly into digital data records.
• Supplementary notes can be added to the respective contacts.
• Direct e-mails or messages including documents can be sent to new contacts.
• Conversation guidelines and lead questionnaires are created and used.

Digital lead management

In addition to the automated processing of contact data, the use of appropriate tools and apps enables further advantages:

• the contemporary appearance with a smartphone or tablet creates a professional impression
• the guidelines or questionnaires drawn up in advance support a structured and goal-oriented discussion with the customer
• Important information is no longer lost thanks to the direct digital recording of contact data
• The time saved for the time-consuming transfer of manually recorded contact data and inquiries afterwards is enormous and is therefore also related to cost minimization

Quality of the leads generated

The quality of the generated leads is determined by the following factors: correctness, timeliness, the voluntary, conscious provision of data by the (potential) customer and the customer's real interest in the product or company concerned.

Not all leads are of the same quality. For example, there are so-called "cold leads" and "warm leads". The "cold leads" are leads into which data has been entered in order to achieve a purpose, for example to be able to download an e-book. There is no interest in the publisher or its products and services. The so-called "warm leads" are the higher-quality leads with an independent interest in a company's service or product. With the "Warm Lead", the data were entered voluntarily without receiving a reward - as with the Cold Lead. In order to ensure a high quality of the generated leads, it is often necessary to evaluate and qualify the leads as part of lead generation. The goal for most advertisers is to generate high quality leads. If the quality is not high, the customer dialogue is made more difficult and cannot be conducted on a long-term or sustainable basis. For companies, it is usually associated with great (time and financial) effort and costs to identify and sort out incorrect or even invented data records. In addition, there is a risk that consumers could feel annoyed by the company in question if they send them advertising or use their data without their specific consent. This can lead to consumer reactance and damage to the company's reputation.

A high quality of generated leads can be achieved through various measures. These are easy to implement, especially in online lead generation , because the data records are available in digital form from the start and can thus be checked automatically in a simplified manner. The leads obtained online can experience any number of validation levels and can be checked for correctness not only automatically, but also manually. Some examples of such validation levels include:

• Ensuring the consent of consumers to the further use of their data (e.g. through double opt-in procedure)
• Automatic checks of the generated data sets, e.g. B. on obviously invented information (e.g. Mickey Mouse as a name), duplicate entries as well as checking the validity or plausibility of the entered address data by comparing the country-postcode-town-street combination with address databases (e.g. there are in Germany only five-digit postcodes and no city called New York)
• Automated checking of the stored telephone numbers through very short call attempts (Tel-Ping) in order to identify invalid numbers
• Checking by human sighting (e.g. for typing errors)
• Additional telephone contact by a call center to ensure that the user is really interested, and z. B. at an incentive like a "trial training in the fitness center" to make an appointment

Use of generated leads

Companies generate leads for a variety of purposes, such as: B.

• to set up and expand a customer database
• to initiate and expand a customer dialogue as part of your dialogue marketing, d. This means that you can then contact the potential customers by phone, send them your newsletter , or the like.
• In addition, companies can use lead generation campaigns to build a positive image with consumers and promote the development of brand awareness (so-called branding ). This can be described as a positive side effect of such campaigns, because these effects occur as soon as the consumer perceives the advertising material, even if he does not pass on his data.

As a final result, the sales of a company should be increased through the aroused and promoted customer interest.

privacy

When generating customer data, companies must meet all (including data protection ) requirements of so-called permission marketing in Germany. Data collection methods must be transparent and consumers give their explicit consent before being contacted in any way. All information must be provided voluntarily by consumers. A sensible and data protection compliant procedure for this is the double opt-in procedure, which is also used when sending newsletters.

If personal data is handed over personally by business card at trade fairs, as is customary in the B2B sector, the EU General Data Protection Regulation ( GDPR ) regulates the extent to which this may be used and processed. Accordingly, if a business card is merely handed over, consent to the collection of data can be assumed without an additional declaration of consent. However, electronic processing without consent is generally not permitted. In this case, the data-collecting company must comply with its information obligation and inform the contact about the storage of their data, the company's own data protection guidelines and the contact's right to object. For the sending of newsletters, an explicit advertising consent is required here as well. The General Data Protection Regulation must also be observed when using modern tools for recording leads. The express consent of the contacts is required to contact new interested parties. Many lead management apps offer a corresponding functionality for the declaration of consent, which at the same time indicates the professionalism and quality of the respective app.

More types of leads

In practice, the term lead is used more broadly. For example , references to existing customers with potential for "cross selling" generated by data mining are also referred to as leads. Customers with an analytically identified increased likelihood of termination are also called "churn leads".

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The five top trends in online dialogue marketing for 2011 BVDW
2. ↑ Direct Marketing in Tourism ( MS Word ; 1.8 MB)
3. ↑ ^{a b} "Online lead generation remains interesting in 2010" at absatzwirtschaft.de
4. ↑ ^{a b} IAB Lead Generation Guidance / Best Practices at the Internet Advertising Bureau
5. ^ Dave Roos: Tracking Sales Leads . howstuffworks, accessed October 5, 2014
6. ↑ Belinda Summers: B2B Online Marketing: How to Identify your Target Audience . business 2 community, January 29, 2014, accessed October 5, 2014
7. ↑ m + a report. THE TRADE FAIR MAGAZINE . No. 01/2019 , p. 10-11 .
8. ↑ RankSider.de - Generate leads successfully