You’ve got the best product/service, everything is planned, and your business is up and running. What are you missing?
CLIENTS!
But before you actually get clients, you need leads. And the question arises… Where do leads come from?
In this article, you’ll learn everything about lead sources and how to make the most of them.
What is a lead?
In sales, a lead is any person who has the potential to become a client of your company.
This person may have shown interest in your business at some point or could benefit from it.
You get leads from lead sources. They can be social media, advertising, multichannel campaigns, cold emails, newsletters, or events.
We can classify leads into three categories or tiers that will help you assess the amount and kind of effort you have to invest in them.
These are the 3 most important lead categories:
1. Cold leads
These are individuals who may have shown little interest in your business (perhaps they have visited your website or your LinkedIn profile or have liked a post on social media).
We also consider cold leads, those leads who have never heard of your company and who you are reaching out to for the first time without any previous engagement.
2. Warm leads
These leads have demonstrated some interest in the company’s products or services, such as downloading a whitepaper, signing up for a webinar, or requesting more information.
3. Hot leads
Our favorite tier!
These are highly qualified leads who have shown strong interest and intent to purchase, such as requesting a demo, asking for pricing information, or expressing an immediate need for the product or service.
Hot leads are the ones that should require most of your attention and who should become your top priority, as they are one short step away from becoming clients.
The goal of lead management is to nurture and convert leads into customers through targeted marketing and sales efforts.
This process involves qualifying leads, engaging with them through personalized communication, and ultimately guiding them through the sales funnel until they make a purchase.
Where do leads come from?
Leads don’t just pop up out of thin air; they need a source.
It means we need a place where leads can hear from us and get to know us and the work that we do.
This source is called a lead source.
What is a lead source?
Lead source is the channel in which potential customers discover your brand.
There is no one way to go about lead sources, so your best approach will be a multichannel approach.
By broadening your lead sources, you’ll be guaranteed to reach a wider range of potential clients.
However, before you start posting randomly everywhere, make sure you’re familiar with the channels your ideal customer will be present on.
In order to effectively set up a lead generation strategy, make sure you set up your ICP or buyer persona, so that you know exactly who you are targeting.
Major lead sources you should know about
There are five main categories in which we can divide lead sources:
- Social media
- Industry events
- Referral programs
- Cold emailing and advertising
1. Lead source: Social media
Social media is probably the most widespread lead source out there at the moment.
You are not targeting specific people, therefore anyone who can be interested in your product or service can easily reach you.
However, to be able to make yourself stand out a prominent asset in your industry you need to have a strong social media presence.
Don’t be limited to simply talking about you and what you do, but also do research, learn about other prominent figures, and discuss relevant topics in your niche. This way, you’ll ensure to have a higher engagement level on your posts, and these will reach a wider audience.
14% of marketers have issues creating content that generates leads, and we get it. It’s tough to think about the most ingenious posts while you’re also juggling the more technical parts of your business. But fear not because lemlist is always here to help.
Check out this video and get inspiration to craft a post that will help you reach your target audience and establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry.
2. Lead source: Industry events
Industry events, such as trade shows, conferences, expos, and seminars, can be highly effective lead sources for businesses.
When you actively participate in your industry or community, you give potential leads the perfect opportunity to meet you and chat with you one-on-one. That proves you’re a real person who cares about the business and knows what they are doing.
These events bring together professionals, decision-makers, and potential customers within a specific industry or niche.
As a result, professional events provide an excellent opportunity for networking, showcasing products or services, and generating leads.
What are the benefits of actively participating in industry events?
- Create a solid network
Industry events offer a platform for face-to-face interaction with potential customers, partners, suppliers, and industry influencers.
Networking at these events allows businesses to establish new connections, build relationships, and exchange contact information with prospects who are actively interested in the products or services being offered.
- Gain brand exposure and visibility
Participating in industry events provides businesses with a platform to showcase their brand, products, and expertise to a targeted audience.
Booths, presentations, workshops, and speaking engagements allow companies to create awareness, demonstrate their offerings, and attract the attention of potential leads who may be seeking solutions within the industry.
- Improve your lead generation
Among the benefits of industry events, we find a great opportunity to participate in various lead generation activities, such as:
- Collecting contact information
- Conducting demos or trials
- Hosting contests or giveaways, and offering exclusive promotions or discounts to event attendees.
These activities help capture the interest of prospects and generate qualified leads for follow-up.
- Research market trends
Industry events provide opportunities to gather market insights, observe competitor activities, and stay updated on industry trends, challenges, and emerging opportunities.
By engaging with industry attendees, you will be able to learn what your target audience looks for in products or services such as yours and what your competitors are doing.
3. Lead source: Referral and affiliate programs
Let’s be honest: when you’re looking for a new product or service to invest in, you’re much more likely to go for a suggestion from someone you trust.
This is why implementing a referral or affiliate program in your business ensures that all of your happy clients are motivated to bring in even more happy clients.
A referral occurs when an existing customer, partner, or contact recommends a product or service to someone within their network, leading to a potential sales opportunity.
Here are some key reasons why referrals are an effective lead source:
- Trust and Credibility
- Higher Conversion Rates
- Quality Leads
- Cost-Effectiveness
- Expanded Reach and Network
- Long-Term Relationships
For these reasons and many more, referrals are a powerful lead source that can drive business growth, increase sales, and build brand loyalty.
4. Lead source: Cold email software
Email marketing is the best way to reach out to your leads on a more personal level, but in this case you’d need to have a ready-made client base (or lead base).
So, how can you leverage this type of software as a lead source?
As cold emailing experts at lemlist, we help you and your business grow your lead database as much as possible by sending out successful campaigns and reaching your leads and prospects at the right time and the right place.
By investing in solid outreach software, you are guaranteed to receive a wide lead source, particularly if you have a built-in lead database or easy-to-use email finders where you can get your lead’s contact information quickly and accurately.
At lemlist, we pride ourselves in our People database with more than 450 million verified contact details and advanced filters that will help you find the perfect leads for your business.
However, sometimes you need to tackle specific companies but are not sure who you can contact there or who is the decision maker. For this reason, lemlist has included the Company Database with 63M companies at your disposal.
Here’s how to get started with lemlist’s People database.
Additionally, you can also use lemlist’s Email Finder and Verifier to gather all the information you need to build your perfect email list.
Don’t just take our word for it and give it a go yourself! ⬇️
5. Lead source: Paid advertising
A successful strategy in online marketing is implementing paid advertising, ensuring that your product or service will appear in search engines, social media, or other apps.
With paid advertising, you can target your target audience based on their location, consumer behavior, interests, and keywords.
This method requires a prior investment and is best suited for companies that already have a pretty solid client base. If you are just starting, make sure you leverage the other lead sources listed above before you invest in paid advertising.
That being said, this strategy brings multiple benefits to your business:
- Targeted Reach
Platforms like Google Ads, Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Ads, and Twitter Ads offer advanced targeting options, ensuring that ads are shown to individuals who are likely to be interested in the products or services being advertised.
- Immediate Visibility
Unlike organic marketing efforts that may take time to gain traction, paid advertising offers immediate visibility and exposure.
You can create and launch ad campaigns quickly and showcase your product or service to potential customers almost instantly.
- Measurable Results
Paid advertising provides detailed metrics and analytics that will allow you to track the performance of your ad campaigns.
Metrics such as impressions, clicks, conversions, click-through rates (CTR), cost per acquisition (CPA), return on ad spend (ROAS), and more will offer you valuable insights into your advertising efforts. You can better optimize your campaigns for better results.
- Scalability
Paid advertising offers scalability, allowing your business to allocate budgets according to their needs and objectives.
Whether you want to start with a small budget and gradually scale up or invest more aggressively to reach a larger audience, paid advertising provides flexibility in budget management.
Paid advertising is specifically designed to generate leads and drive conversions.
With strategic ad messaging, compelling offers, and clear calls-to-action (CTAs), you can encourage users to take desired actions, such as signing up for a free trial, requesting a quote, or purchasing.
Best practices when setting up your lead sources
You already know the best places to find your leads.
But, as with everything in life, you need a good strategy to set up your lead sources to ensure you’re making the best possible efforts for your business.
Here are the best practices to set up your lead sources:
1. Choose quality over quantity
Prioritizing quality over quantity in lead sources is a strategic approach aimed at attracting and nurturing high-value prospects rather than simply focusing on generating a large volume of leads.
Why should you value quality over quantity in your lead sources?
- You’ll only reach leads who actually have an interest in going all the way through the sales funnel and becoming clients.
- Investing resources in quality lead sources ensures a higher ROI. Don’t forget, a bird in hand is better than two in a bush.
- As you won’t have to focus on hundreds of cold leads that may not benefit from your product or service, you’ll be able to dedicate more time to your hot leads, therefore improving their customer experience.
- Rather than chasing short-term gains by acquiring a large volume of low-quality leads, when you prioritize quality leads, you can establish stronger brand credibility, attract higher-value customers, and sustainably scale your operations.
Overall, prioritizing quality over quantity in lead sources requires a strategic mindset, a deep understanding of target audience needs and preferences, and a commitment to delivering value at every stage of the customer journey.
By focusing on attracting and nurturing high-quality leads, your business can drive long-term success and build lasting relationships with your customers.
2. Set up a strategy that offers scalability
Scalability in lead sources refers to the ability of your lead generation strategy to grow with your brand without impacting the cost or quality of these leads too much.
You want to set up a strategy that fits your business’s current stage but that will be able to grow with you as time goes by. If you set a very timid strategy, chances are in a couple of months, you’ll have to come back and redo the entire strategy, or even worse, you may not see any progress at all.
Some key aspects of scalability in lead sources are:
- Diversification
A scalable lead generation strategy involves diversifying lead sources to reduce dependency on any single channel or method.
- Automation
Implementing automation tools and technologies can help streamline lead generation processes and make them more scalable.
- Optimization
Continuous optimization of lead generation campaigns and strategies is essential for scalability. This involves analyzing data, identifying trends and patterns, testing different approaches, and optimizing lead generation efforts based on insights gathered.
- Scalable Infrastructure
This includes having robust systems, processes, and technologies that can handle increased lead volume without experiencing bottlenecks or performance issues.
Scalable infrastructure may involve using cloud-based platforms, CRM systems, marketing automation software, and other tools that can easily scale with the business’s needs.
- Flexibility and Adaptability
You should be prepared to adjust your lead generation tactics, experiment with new channels, and pivot their strategies based on evolving circumstances.
You can also set up a sales forecasting strategy to help you see more clearly where you expect to be in the following sales periods and how your current lead sources will help you achieve those goals.
3. Consider the cost per lead
Cost per lead (CPL) in lead source refers to the amount of money spent to acquire a single lead from a specific marketing or advertising channel.
It is a key metric used by businesses to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of their lead generation efforts across different sources. Calculating CPL helps businesses understand the return on investment (ROI) of their marketing campaigns. It also allows them to allocate their resources more effectively to maximize their lead generation efforts.
The calculation is simple:
Add the monetary cost (investment you made in lead sources) and the opportunity cost (time and resources you invested in your lead sources), and divide them by the total number of leads generated with that strategy.
The number you’re left with is your cost per lead.
Key Takeaways
Leads are essentially the key component that will make your business grow, so knowing the perfect places to find them is crucial.
Remember to invest wisely in your lead sources so that you have the perfect candidates for your business.
Don’t forget to set up regular checks to make sure that your lead sources are up to date and are working smoothly.
Now that you know exactly where you can find your leads, start your 14-day free trial with lemlist and start reaching out to them to grow your business!
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a source of leads?
A lead source is a channel through which a potential customer first discovers your business. For example, they can be:
- Social media platforms
- Email marketing
- Multichannel marketing
- Search engine results
- Paid ads
- Professional events
- Newsletters and subscriptions
For example, if your last customer reached out to you after seeing a paid ad on social media, that social media channel is your lead source.
What is the best source for leads?
These are the 20 best lead sources:
- Social Media Marketing (LinkedIn, Facebook, TikTok and so on)
- Organic search (SEO)
- Content marketing (blog, website content, landing pages, guest posts, and so on)
- Affiliate marketing and referrals
- Paid ads (Google Ads, social media ads, etc.)
- eBooks
- Published research (excellent for generating backlinks)
- Direct mail
- Cold calls
- Cold emails
- Sales engagement platform (lemlist)
- Online and offline networking
- Online and offline events (webinars, conferences, and so on)
- Podcasts
- Press releases and media coverage
- Direct marketing
- Current and past employees
- Business partnerships (integrations)
- Sponsorships
- Competitor content
How to do lead sourcing?
1. Identify Target Audience: Define your ideal customer profile and target demographics.
2. Research Potential Channels: Assess various channels and platforms where your target audience is likely to be active.
3. Create Engaging Content: Develop content that attracts and engages your target audience across selected channels.
4. Utilize Lead Generation Tools: Implement tools and software to capture lead information efficiently.
5. Launch Campaigns: Execute marketing campaigns across chosen channels to reach potential leads.
6. Analyze and Refine: Monitor results, analyze data, and continuously refine strategies to improve lead sourcing efforts.
How to categorize your lead sources?
Using your tool of choice, create a funnel visualization report showing each type of lead source (organic, paid, referral) and rows for each individual lead source (Google Ads, Bing Ads, Meta ads, etc.).
