<h1>What does a lead mean in the world of digital marketing?</h1>

Although they are closely related, inbound marketing and lead generation are not the same thing. Lead generation is one part of a larger inbound marketing strategy. It helps bring more interested people to your company, while inbound marketing works to nurture those leads, convert them into paying customers, and keep them coming back for more. In other words, these two practices work together for a holistic, sustainable approach to digital marketing.

After all, marketing generates interest in products and services. Without leads, your marketers have nobody to market to, and your sales teams have no buyers. And yet, 68% of B2B companies are struggling with lead generation, and only 13% of businesses describe their lead generation strategies as successful. Lead generation used to involve purchasing lists of names and having your sales teams cold call people at home. Thanks to technology, we can now generate leads based on specific criteria and information. Companies collect information about potential buyers, and then tailor marketing methods and sales pitches to those prospects’ needs.

And after we launch, our experts continually monitor various call metrics and suggest ways to improve performance. Here’s how to agree on a common definition of a lead, and ensure marketing-sales alignment. Companies with strong sales and marketing alignment achieve 20% annual growth rate. Whereas, companies with a poor sales – marketing alignment have a 4% revenue decline.

Other methods include talking directly to potential leads, contests and giveaways, paid ads, and referrals. Marketers are making use of digital automation tools for lead generation. In any given lead generation campaign, there can be a lot of moving parts.

Now, let's talk about the ways in which someone can actually show that interest. But what channels should you use to promote your landing page? Let’s talk about the front-end of lead generation — lead gen marketing. Once you put all of these elements together, you can use your various promotional channels to drive traffic to your landing page to start generating leads. As you can see in the diagram below, generating leads is a fundamental point in an individual's journey to becoming a delighted customer.

Social networking is the use of internet-based social media platforms to make connections and share various media with friends, family, colleagues, or customers. To help marketers visualize and influence the customer’s journey, the Leads lead generation funnel was introduced. People have different preferences and needs, so not everyone will be a lead for all businesses. For instance, according to Marketo, around 96% of website visitors aren’t ready to purchase.

Linkedin has a similar solution that is more tailored to B2B lead generation, with theirLead Gen Forms. But not all lead generation on social media platforms needs to be paid. It is also possible to run successful lead generation activities with organic conversations with your audience.

Technology has made it easier for companies to understand and target prospects. With the right data, you can tailor your online presence to your buyers’ needs and set the stage for lead generation. In this digital age, it has become easy and essential to showcase your expertise. Start building up a web presence to help you reach any potential clients that might be in need of your extensive knowledge regarding products or industries. One way to start gaining views is by using targeted content optimization for search engines to increase your site’s rankings.