Inbound Marketing Insights

Lead generation is the process of attracting and converting strangers and prospects who are visiting your digital channels into someone who has indicated an interest in your company's product or service. Lead generation is one of the most critical aspects of your inbound marketing strategy that will enable you to:

• Increase your pipeline
• Communicate directly with qualified prospects
• Generate more customers for your business

To help you create a lead-generating offer that effectively captures and converts website visitors, we've gathered proven ideas from top industry professionals, including founders, CEOs, and marketing managers to provide a diverse array of recommendations for you to consider adding to your lead generation strategy. From offering industry-specific guides and eBooks to providing compelling case studies, here are the 15 ideas these experts have implemented to generate leads.

• Item Samples or Free Trials
• Industry-Specific eBooks
• Interactive Quizzes
• Compelling Case Studies
• Website Optimization Checklists
• Content Upgrades
• Webinars
• Digital Guides
• Podcasts
• Industry-Specific Calculators
• Exclusive Author Webinars
• Discounts and Promotions
• Free Consultation Offers
• Personalized Value Assessments
• Actionable Templates

1. Item Samples or Free Trials

I'd recommend item samples or free trials. Who wouldn't want to try before they buy? As for us, we give a free trial to prospective clients—which is a win-win since this allows both parties to assess whether it's a good match, which is especially helpful for long-term business relationships.

This lead-generation tactic generates many leads for our agency since almost 80% of these clients will probably become our full-paying clients. It reduces our churn rate because they already know what to expect from us and have a better understanding of how our business works.

Tristan Harris, Demand Generation Senior Marketing Manager, Thrive Digital Marketing Agency

2. Industry-Specific eBooks

Based on my experience at Stratosphere, offering a comprehensive industry-specific e-book has proven highly effective in capturing and converting website visitors into leads. By leveraging our industry expertise, we created a valuable resource that addresses specific pain points, demonstrating our credibility and knowledge.

This lead-generating offer has successfully enticed visitors to share their contact information, allowing us to nurture these leads and ultimately convert them into valuable customers or clients.

Casey Preston, CRO and Founder, Stratosphere

3. Interactive Quizzes

In my journey as a digital marketer, one lead-generation strategy that I've seen work wonders is the use of interactive quizzes. It's fascinating how a well-crafted quiz can pique curiosity, encourage participation, and ultimately convert website visitors into potential leads. For instance, I once worked with a health and wellness brand to create a "Which Superfood are You?" quiz. 

This not only engaged users but also enabled us to collect their email addresses at the end for their tailored results. The participants gained personalized insights into their dietary preferences, and we received a substantial boost in our lead-generation efforts. Such a lead-generation strategy is powerful because it's personalized and inherently value-adding.

Josh "Snow" Elizetxe, Founder, Customer Feedback

4. Compelling Case Studies

A compelling case study is one lead-generating idea I have experienced to be really effective. It is best to create case studies that offer key strategies, insights, and customer success stories.

Ensure that you effectively place the case study behind a form so the potential customer visiting the brand website fills out the form and downloads the case study. Case studies have high potential as they reveal the success story of an actual customer and attract new potential customers to take further action. 

Case studies, marketed effectively along with cold calls, newsletters, and email campaigns, can bring productive results.

Cijo Mani, Digital Marketing Manager, IntBrains

5. Website Optimization Checklists

I run a website design business, and my best-performing lead-generating offer has been my website optimization checklist, which helps business owners strategically update their websites to drive more sales/conversions.

This free PDF breaks down the various branding components that businesses need to have in place in order to build trust and authority as a credible source.

It also shares website best practices to help build a streamlined and user-friendly website browsing experience for clients/customers.

On the last page of the document, I provide my email address, so that business owners can reach out to me if they need help implementing any of the tips and strategies that they have found to be helpful in the checklist.

Megan Gersch, Owner and CEO, Megan Gersch

6. Content Upgrades

One of the most effective lead-generating ideas that I've encountered in my experience is offering a content upgrade. It's an additional value proposition related to the content that a visitor is currently consuming. For example, let's say a visitor is reading a blog about heart-healthy exercises. At the end of the post, you offer them a free, downloadable guide on “10 Essential Heart-Healthy Exercises,” which provides additional information not covered in the post. 

This is a content upgrade—an irresistible offer directly related to their interests, hence converting them into leads. I realized its importance while working on a health awareness campaign. 

Our content upgrade increased our lead generation by an impressive 30%, validating its effectiveness in capturing and converting website visitors.

Nadzeya Sankovich, Senior Journalist, Health Reporter

7. Webinars

I experimented with using plenty of lead-generating ideas, but the one that brought the most success was webinars. Webinars can attract many target customers for your brand. You can offer live webinars at first. 

Then, post the recorded version of it on your website. As webinars are parts of your marketing strategy, they should be free. Hence, people can watch them anytime they want. Your lead will get increased when more and more people view them. 

Viewers sign up for webinars when they have an interest in your brand. After watching webinars, they will get more information about your brand and may like it more. They can share their experience with others. It will bring more customers to your brand.

Ilan Nass, Chief Revenue Officer, Taktical

8. Digital Guides

Creating and offering a free digital guide is an effective way to capture leads. This offer should provide value to your visitors by providing them with valuable information they cannot easily find elsewhere. 

By giving away something for free that has real value, you show potential leads that you understand their needs and can provide them with solutions to the issues they are looking for. 

When you offer something as a free download, visitors have an easy way to access your content without having to fill out any forms or make any purchases. This helps increase the number of leads that you can capture while also helping build relationships with potential customers.

Keith Sant, CTO and CMO, Eazy House Sale

9. Podcasts

I advise you to start a podcast series where you explore market trends, share expert interviews, or offer insightful advice. Offer unique access to additional episodes, show notes, or reference guides to those who join up. 

Provide a straightforward subscription procedure and provide episodes regularly to nurture leads and create engagement. Remember that understanding your target audience's wants and preferences is critical when deciding on the content for your podcast.

Customize your content to address their problem points and provide answers or helpful information that applies to them.

Gerrid Smith, Chief Marketing Officer, Joy Organics

10. Industry-Specific Calculators

The times of gated content are over—at least for mediocre content that is available elsewhere for free. This leads to a basic principle: trading your data (lead) against the value (content or service).

A great lead-generating offer that provides value to users is an industry-specific calculator. Provide basic calculations (e.g., cost-saving potential of your product) for free. Add more advanced calculations (e.g., break-even point when purchasing from you) behind a registration wall.

This approach has two effects. First, your target group gets value for free and is triggered to register for even more value. Second, calculators showcase a deep understanding of your expertise. This helps position your company as an industry expert, which creates trust. Trust has a positive influence on all your other lead-generating offers.

Stephan Wenger, Founder and Editor, B2B Marketing World

11. Exclusive Author Webinars

I've found that the most effective lead-generating idea for our book publishing company is offering access to exclusive author webinars. We invite our published authors to host these webinars, where they discuss their creative process and insights from their books, or offer a sneak peek into their next project. 

These sessions offer immense value to our website visitors, many of whom are aspiring authors or avid readers. By offering access to these exclusive webinars for visitors' contact details, we capture high-quality leads. 

This unique blend of educational and exclusive content has proven effective in converting website visitors into leads and nurturing these leads to become loyal members of our community. 

The strategy has served as a valuable touchpoint, further strengthening our mission to bring authors and readers closer, while simultaneously proving to our authors that we care for them and their work, and advertising it at the same time.

Vikrant Shaurya, CEO, Authors On Mission

12. Discounts and Promotions

By offering an exclusive discount or promotional offer for their contact information, you provide a valuable incentive for visitors to become leads. This approach leverages the psychological principle of reciprocity, where customers feel compelled to reciprocate the value they receive. 

The discount serves as a tangible benefit that motivates visitors to take action and provide their contact details, increasing the likelihood of conversion. It creates a mutually beneficial situation by providing value to the customer while simultaneously capturing valuable leads for your business.

Simon Brisk, Director, Click Intelligence Ltd

13. Free Consultations

Free consultations are a powerful way to reach potential clients. By showcasing your expertise and showing value upfront, you build trust and establish a firm foundation for further engagement. 

Free consultations create a win-win scenario, where visitors gain valuable insights while you can convert them into qualified leads.

Tobias Liebsch, Co-founder, Fintalent.io

14. Personalized Value Assessments

An effective lead-generating offer that I've found to be successful is the personalized value assessment or interactive tool. The allure of these is based on the human desire for personalized solutions and instant gratification. 

When you offer a visitor the chance to receive customized insights or answers to their unique problem or need, you create an irresistible proposition.

For instance, let's say you're a digital marketing agency. You could create an interactive marketing health check tool where visitors input some basic information about their current strategies, and in return, receive a personalized report highlighting areas of strength and potential improvements.

This kind of lead-generating offer works on multiple levels: it provides immediate value to the visitor, positions your brand as an expert resource, and gives you valuable insights about your lead's pain points and needs.

John Cammidge, PPC Trainer, Jcammidge

15. Actionable Templates

People love actionable content, something that they can implement right away. People also love anything that will give them a head-start or a shortcut. For this reason, templates are a fantastic lead-generating offer, and they are great for you and for website visitors. 

Templates can work for almost any niche. They are also immediately actionable, which has several benefits, such as taking quick action and getting a positive result to build trust with prospective customers fast. 

They also provide an opportunity to get quick feedback and social proof to use in future marketing. Finally, templates allow for targeted segmentation because you know exactly what result they are trying to achieve based on what type of template they wanted.

Anna Crosby, Owner, Geni Collective