Big business or small, B2B or B2C, every business depends on leads. If you’re a salesperson, you’re always on the lookout for more leads. If you’re a marketer, you’re discovering new ways to generate them.

WHAT IS LEAD GENERATION?

Lead generation is the process of finding people (leads) who’re likely to become your customers immediately or in the future. “Finding” people implies finding information about people, like their name, email ID or organization’s name, all of which you can use to initiate a business relationship with them. You can generate leads organically and/or by spending money, depending on your resources.

If you meet fifty people at a conference, request them for their email ID, and they share it with you, that’s an example of lead generation.

If a visitor to your website fills out your signup form, that’s lead generation too.

Or let’s say you’ve posted about your product/service on social media. A visitor leaves a comment, expressing interest in your business. This is also lead generation.

These examples might make it seem like lead generation is pretty easy; it is not. To get people to divulge information about themselves, you should be able to articulate the value in your business solution. Plus you need to be present in channels that get you closest to your target audience. Articulating value is a broad, multi-layered topic, and it has as much to do with soft skills as it has to do with your knowledge of the business. However, there are specific channels you can tap into when it comes to lead generation, and that’s where we’re heading next.