Your marketing automation software, particularly lead generation tools can increase your qualified leads by 451%.
However, before you start allocating your marketing budget for the quarter, you need to compare and find the right lead-generation tools for your needs.
This article will review 15 tools and outline their pros and cons so you can make an informed decision.
A lead generation tool is any software used to automate the process of generating leads.
Popularly referred to as lead generators, these tools help scale the process of acquiring both inbound and outbound leads.
Depending on your business needs, the type of lead generation tool you’ll use will differ from what another company would use. However, their benefits are immense.
Some of the reasons why businesses use these tools are;
There are different types and categories of lead-generation tools. Here are a few with high reviews and ratings you should consider using in 2024;
If your primary goal is to find emails of prospects you can add to your sales funnel, these are the top email finders and verifiers you can purchase;
lemlist is an all-in-one lead generation tool that allows you to find high-quality leads with a single search.
In addition to the job title, name and LinkedIn profile, the tool also provides an email address. Simply enter the name of the person and the company name.
It will search through the web, find their company email address and then verify the email so you’re sure of a high email deliverability.
Pricing
The tool has a 14-day free trial that allows you to try out this feature and more for free.
If you’d like to subscribe to a paid plan, the pricing starts at $59/month.
✅ Pros
❌ Cons
Hunter.io, quite similar to lemlist, allows you to find any company email address with a name and company.
However, you have to streamline the search with the email finder.
If you’d like to find multiple people across different industries, there is also a bulk email finder.
Here, you’d have to upload a CSV with the names and it will reconfigure the file.
Pricing
While it has a free plan, the pricing starts at $34/month.
✅ Pros
❌ Cons
This software tool provides valid email addresses via a Chrome extension.
It does this by scanning over millions of profiles and offering those most relevant to your search. There’s also a bulk email search that allows you to get thousands of prospects in one search.
You can also get other contact information like LinkedIn and phone numbers.
Pricing
The pricing model is different because instead of a free trial or plan, you get five free searches per month. The paid plan starts at $39/month.
✅ Pros
❌ Cons
If you’re looking to specifically find LinkedIn contacts and reach out to them, some lead generation tools designed specifically for this include:
LinkedIn has its own lead generation and nurturing tool that provides you with prospects and helps you push them further down your sales funnel.
You can automate messages, send connection requests, run ads and so much more.
Oftentimes, you don’t even need to search because it recommends leads to you.
Pricing
The pricing isn’t disclosed. However, all plans have a free trial you can explore.
✅ Pros
❌ Cons
Snov.io is a lead generation tool that scans the web and compiles hundreds of LinkedIn leads for you along with their business email address.
All you have to do is install the Chrome extension and you can collect these leads. It also verifies the LinkedIn profile and email addresses it collects.
While it is very efficient especially when paired with a sales navigator, this tool can get quite expensive. This is because each LinkedIn search costs you credits.
Pricing
There’s a trial plan and the paid plan starts at $30/month.
✅ Pros
❌ Cons
We recommend, especially when on a budget, to use lemlist because, while you can find emails and LinkedIn profiles for the same price, there’s also an option to send automated LinkedIn messages directly from the tool.
When you need to send out cold emails directly to your prospects, you need an email marketing and outreach tool.
Our top recommendations include:
While it is more of a CRM tool, Close is one of the best options available for sending out cold emails and calls.
This is why many sales teams incorporate it in their strategy.
You have access to store your leads and contact them. There are email templates you can take advantage of and you can make calls directly from the platform.
The tool also allows you to set up multiple concurrent workflows.
Pricing
While the pricing plan starts at $49/month for each user, there is a free trial so you can see if it really works for you.
✅ Pros
❌ Cons
Overloop is another outreach platform that allows you to carry out multi-channel campaigns like LinkedIn automation, cold emails, cold calls and more.
It also has an email finder but unlike lemlist, there is no email verifier.
You can set up three running campaigns at the same time and track their progress.
Pricing
There is a free trial to try out and the paid plan starts at $49/month per user.
✅ Pros
❌ Cons
Outreach is a sales engagement tool that automates lead generation and nurturing workflows.
So whether you’re prospecting or just about to close a deal, this tool is quite handy. You can create different types of campaigns and get detailed analytics on how well they are doing.
It’s particularly good for teams because the manager can have a full admin view of every activity and progress you’re making towards lead generation.
Pricing
Unfortunately, there is no free trial or free plan. Even the paid strategy is only available on request making it non-transparent.
✅ Pros
❌ Cons
Being a very popular CRM, Hubspot helps its users generate new leads via landing pages, custom forms, a dashboard for tracking sales and lead-scoring projects as well as a contact management system.
It also has a very powerful marketing and sales automation system where you can create several workflows.
While it is the perfect tool for businesses who want to scale on one platform, it gets expensive fast.
Pricing
The pricing for small teams starts at $20/month and it can go as high as $3000/month.
Fortunately, there is a free plan
✅ Pros
❌ Cons
To run PPC tripwires and ads, you need certain outbound lead generation tools designed for this purpose alone.
Usually, they offer you keywords along with a myriad of other tools.
Some of them include;
SEMRush is a software designed to improve your lead generation through PPC, SEO and content marketing.
There is an agency directory that you get listed on to receive new leads. You can also manage projects, create workflows and organize the data you get on the app itself.
The software provides keywords for your PPC campaigns based on searches, tips on how to improve your website for inbound SEO as well as competitor insights so you stay on top of the market.
Pricing
There’s a free plan but if you’d want to upgrade, the paid plan starts at $109 per month.
✅ Pros
❌ Cons
Designed specifically to drive traffic to your website, Google Ads is an efficient lead-generation tool for awareness and acquisition.
It helps you get your product to the right audience with high-precision targeting.
Simply bid for certain keywords on the tool and if you’re the winning bid, when anyone searches for that keyword on Google, your ad is displayed as the first result.
Pricing
Pay per click model
✅ Pros
❌ Cons
Since you need a landing page and forms for your PPC campaigns, lead magnets and other lead generation strategies, lead pages are a tool that helps you take care of that.
It is easy to use as you don’t need any knowledge of coding to set it up.
Pricing
There’s a 14-day free trial and the paid plan starts at $37 per month.
✅ Pros
❌ Cons
For social media PPC campaigns, Hootsuite is a tool that allows you to manage these ads because they help you generate leads from your social media.
You can set up Facebook, Instagram, and even Google Ads.
These could be story ads, video ads, messenger ads or even a display ad.
Choose to push out these campaigns in bulk or send them out individually.
✅ Pros
❌ Cons
Generating leads through your videos is a unique way to switch up the game. This app allows you to collect emails from the videos you embed on your website.
Think webinars, podcasts and other resources you’ve offered for free.
Pricing
To access this new product by Wistia, you need to be on the Plus plan which is priced at $19/month.
✅ Pros
❌ Cons
If your sales team needs to book several calls, streamline the process by allowing them to send a link with their availability.
This tool helps teams reduce hours spent in call bookings and even has a workflow for automated reminders to both parties.
Pricing: You can enjoy the free plan for basic bookings and if you prefer a more sophisticated option, the paid plan starts at $10 per month.
✅ Pros
❌ Cons
When choosing a lead generation tool, you need to compare features and find one within your budget.
A tool like Lemlist combines multiple features like LinkedIn outreach, cold calls, cold emails, automated sequences and email finders for a fixed price.
Signup for the free trial to see how it works! 😉
G2 Rating | Price | Best for | Standout feature | Con | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
4.9 star star star star star | $30/mo $75/mo $2,999/mo | Large, distributed sales teams | AI evaluation precision, gamified KPIs | Lack of tracking system | |
4.6 star star star star star-half | Not publicly available | Sales operations and finance teams | Powerful configurability | Limited training resources and complex to navigate | |
4.4 star star star star star-half | Not publicly available | Mid-market and enterprise businesses | Comprehensive incentive management | Potentially high cost and steep learning curve | |
4.7 star star star star star-half | $15/user/mo $40/user/mo Enterprise: custom price | Complex sales structures and businesses of all sizes | Complex sales structures and businesses of all sizes | Steep learning curve | |
4.6 star star star star star-half | Not publicly available | Collaborative teams | Connected planning | Complexity and steep learning curve | |
4.6 star star star star star-half | Not publicly available | Companies with complex sales structures | Complex incentive compensation management (ICM) with high efficiency and accuracy | Complexity for smaller teams and potentially high costs | |
4.7 star star star star star-half | Not publicly available | Companies who want to automate commission calculations and payouts | Simplicity and ease of use | Lack of features like redirection | |
4.7 star star star star star-half | $30/user/mo $35/user/mo Custom: upon request | Businesses that need a comprehensive and user-friendly sales compensation management software | Ease of use and adoption | Lack of ability to configure the product based on user needs | |
4.8 star star star star star-half | Not publicly available | Companies with modern sales culture and businesses who want real-time insights | A built-in dispute management and real-time visibility | Users say it works slowly, customer support is slow | |
4.9 star star star star star | $30/user/mo $50/user/mo | Smaller sales teams | Powerful automation | Lesser user base and average user interface | |
4.7 star star star star star-half | Not publicly available | Companies with scalable needs | Automated Commission Calculations | Lack of filtering by date, no mobile app |
PRM Tool | Rating | Feature | Pro | Con | Mobile App | Integrations | Free Plan | Pricing |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
4.65 star star star star star-half | Org-wide alignment | User-friendly layout and database | Suboptimal as a personal CRM | square-check | Lack of tracking system | square-check | Team: $20/month Business: $45/month | |
4.7 star star star star star-half | Social Media Integration | Easy contact data collection | No marketing/sales features | square-check | Lack of tracking system | square-xmark 7-day trial | $12/month | |
4.75 star star star star star-half | Block Functions | High customization capability | Not a dedicated CRM | square-check | Limited | square-check | Plus: €7.50/month Business: €14/month | |
N/A | Open-source | Open-source flexibility | Requires extensive manual input | square-xmark | Limited | square-check Self-hosted | $9/month or $90/year | |
3.1 star star star | Simple iOS app | Ideal for non-tech-savvy users | iPhone only | square-check iOS only | Limited | square-xmark 1-month trial | $1.49/month or $14.99/month | |
3.6 star star star star-half | Smart Contact Management | Feature-rich and flexible | Reported bugs | square-check | Rich | square-xmark 7-day trial | Premium: $13.99/month Teams: $17.99/month | |
4.4 star star star star star-half | Customizable Interface | Customizable for teamwork | Pricey for personal use | square-check | Rich | square-xmark | Standard: $24/member Premium: $39/member | |
4.7 star star star star star-half | Integrated Calling | Integrated Calling | Too sales-oriented & pricey | square-check | Rich | square-xmark 14-day trial | Startup: $59/user/month Professional: $329/user/month | |
4.8 star star star star star | Business Card Scanning | Business Card Scanning | Mobile only | square-check | Limited | square-check | $9.99/month | |
4.45 star star star star star-half | 160+ app integrations | Comprehensive integrations | No free app version | square-check | Rich | square-xmark 14-day trial | $29.90/month or $24.90/month (billed annually) |
Capterra Rating | Free Trial | Free Plan | Starting Price (excluding the free plan) | Maximum Price (for the most expensive plan) | Best for | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
4.5 star star star star star-half | square-check 14-day | square-check | €15/month/seat billed annually | €792/month/3 seats billed annually + €45/month for each extra seat | Versatility and free plan | |
4.2 star star star star | square-check 30-day | square-xmark But it offers reduced price to authorised nonprofit organisations | €25/user/month | €500/user/month billed annually (includes Einstein AI) | Best overall operational CRM | |
4.3 star star star star star-half | square-xmark | square-check Limited to 3 users | Comprehensive incentive management | €52/user/month billed annually | Small-medium businesses and automation | |
4.5 star star star star star-half | square-check 14-day | square-xmark | €14/seat/month billed annually | €99/seat/month billed annually | Sales teams and ease of use | |
4.1 star star star star | square-xmark | square-check Limited 10 users | $9.99/user/month billed annually | $64.99/user/month billed annually | Free plan for very small teams up to 10 |
CRM goal | Increase the sales conversion rate for qualified leads from marketing automation campaigns by 10% in the next 6 months. | ||||
SMART Breakdown | 1. Specific: It targets a specific area (conversion rate) for a defined segment (qualified leads from marketing automation). | 2. Measurable: The desired increase (10%) is a clear metric, and the timeframe (6 months) allows for progress tracking. | 3. Achievable: A 10% increase is possible based on historical data and potential improvements. | 4. Relevant: Boosting sales from marketing efforts aligns with overall business objectives. | 5. Time-bound: The 6-month timeframe creates urgency and a clear target date. |
Actions | Step 1: Refine lead qualification criteria to ensure high-quality leads are nurtured through marketing automation. | Step 2: Personalize marketing automation campaigns based on lead demographics, interests, and behavior. | Step 3: Develop targeted landing pages with clear calls to action for qualified leads. | Step 4: Implement lead scoring to prioritize high-potential leads for sales follow-up. | Step 5: Track and analyze campaign performance to identify areas for optimization. |
Outcomes | Increased sales and revenue | Improved marketing automation ROI | Marketing and sales alignment | Data-driven marketing optimization |