What is lead generation?
Lead generation is the process of attracting potential customers — leads — and capturing enough information about them to begin a sales or marketing conversation. A lead is anyone who has shown interest in your product or service and whose contact information you have captured.
Lead generation is the fuel that keeps the sales pipeline full. Without a consistent flow of new leads entering the pipeline, even the most effective sales team will run out of opportunities to pursue.
Inbound vs outbound lead generation
There are two broad approaches to lead generation. Inbound lead generation attracts leads by creating content and experiences that draw potential customers to the business: blogs, search engine optimisation, social media, webinars, and downloadable resources. Leads generated inbound typically have a higher intent and are more receptive to follow-up.
Outbound lead generation involves proactively reaching out to potential customers: cold email, paid advertising, direct mail, LinkedIn prospecting, or calling. Outbound can generate leads faster but typically requires more effort per lead and may face higher resistance.
Lead generation strategies that work
The most effective lead generation strategies vary by industry and target audience. For B2B businesses, strategies that tend to perform well include content marketing (producing useful, educational content that ranks in search and demonstrates expertise), LinkedIn outreach, referral programmes, strategic partnerships, and speaking at industry events.
What works best for a given business depends on where its target customers spend their time, what information they are looking for, and what level of trust is required before they will engage with a sales conversation.
Measuring lead generation performance
Key metrics for lead generation include: volume of leads generated, cost per lead, lead quality (conversion rate from lead to opportunity and from opportunity to customer), and time from lead to first contact. Tracking these metrics helps identify which channels and strategies are delivering the most commercial value.
Lead quality is often more important than lead volume. A smaller number of well-qualified leads will typically generate more revenue than a large volume of poorly qualified ones that consume sales team time without converting.
How Empiraa Signal supports lead generation and tracking
Empiraa Signal provides the pipeline infrastructure needed to capture, organise, and track leads as they enter the sales process. By integrating lead tracking with deal management and goal tracking, Signal gives businesses a clear picture of how their lead generation activity is contributing to their strategic growth objectives.
For businesses managing outbound prospecting, Signal's contact management and outreach tracking features help ensure that every lead receives timely, organised follow-up.