Lead Generation Software

Lead Generation Software: What Does It Do?

Companies use lead generation software to power the assignment, segmentation, and capture of leads to shorten sales cycles and improve targeted marketing communication. Companies also use nurturing software to stay in touch with lead generations before they are ready to make a purchase. Numerous CRM systems (customer relationship management) provide nurturing and lead generation capabilities, while some vendors offer specific solutions for these jobs.

This guide includes the most commonly found features within lead generation systems, the kinds of buyers who will benefit most from using this software, and other considerations buyers might find useful when they’re choosing the kind of system they want.

Leads are contacts such as businesses or individuals that can potentially become customers. Leads are often collected through multiple offline and online channels including:

• Phone calls
• Direct mail
• Email marketing and sales engagement tools
• Trade shows
• Virtual events
• Website forms

Lead data is captured and distributed from online channels using lead generation software. A website visitor, for instance, could enter their email address and their name in an online form to access certain content. CRM databases record their information and distribute it to a representative to keep track of.

On the other hand, lead nurturing software streamlines and automates contacts with potential customers. If these potential customers get into the sales funnel by lead generation, lead nurturing will step in to help customers who are unsure about their readiness to buy and lead them through the sales funnel towards a purchase. Through the use of lead nurturing software, companies can stay in touch with their customers by keeping them interested in their content until they are ready to make a purchase.

Lead data can actually be quite basic, with information such as the number of employees, the name of the company, the company’s phone number, title, and name. When visitor analytics and traffic are used, more comprehensive data can be included in a lead’s profile, including pages the lead viewed, the referring website, and other pertinent information.

Once all of the customer information is captured, lead management software allows teams to track, score, and nurture leads efficiently to increase overall conversion and qualification rates.

Typical Features of a Lead Generation System

Applications vary based on which vendor a business owner chooses to buy from, but the following common features are included with most lead generation systems:

CRM Integration

Potential customer data is stored and recorded automatically into a CRM database, where it can be used for various marketing campaigns based on leads’ behavior and interests.

Social Media Integration

Social media marketing is widely used by companies as an important data source that can generate leads across many channels. LinkedIn and Twitter, two lead generation tools that are used to collect data, take it a step further to increase the quality and number of opportunities for sales representatives as well as deliver increased insights.

Customer Segmentation

Behavior, including website path and type of content being downloaded, referral sources, such as paid advertising and organic searches, and demographics like company size and job title are all used to categorize leads. They are assigned to the correct sales representative for lead and evaluation scoring.

Customer Assignment

This functionality transfers leads to the correct representative inside the company based on user-defined filters and alerts the entire team whenever new leads are captured.

CRM lead generation applications that use landing pages and online form creation tools make it simple to embed and design forms on websites to acquire information from leads.

Categories of Lead Gen Software Buyers/Users

Lead generation software can benefit almost any industry, from advertising agencies, software retailers, restaurants, and student loan providers. There are two categories of buyer segments:

• B2C – These kinds of buyers directly sell their products to customers. B2C sales cycles, on average, are relatively short. Soon after their first interaction, leads quickly turn into buyers. For instance, someone could be looking for a new pair of shoes. That person will visit a couple of online stores to find the exact pair they’re looking for at the right price. They will make an immediate purchase after they find what they’re looking for. In situations where potential customers might not become buyers right off the bat, B2C lead nurturing software could offer discount coupons or attractive offers to lure them in.
• B2B – These kinds of buyers sell their services and products to other companies instead of consumers. B2B purchases are made by several people or a buying committee as opposed to one person, which means that more promotion will be required in order to convert potential customers to buyers. Nurturing software and lead generation tools are used concurrently to lead potential consumers through the sales funnel. Many B2B companies are now utilizing sales intelligence software in order to enrich the contact data of potential customers.

Strategies for Selecting Lead Generation Software

There are a wide variety of lead generation applications to choose from. Selecting the best one to suit a particular company’s needs is dependent upon numerous factors, including the type of campaigns a business owner wishes to run, what channels they want to use to capture potential customers, and any other software needs that will assist them along the way.

After a list is compiled with the above criteria in mind, the business owner will have to evaluate many different products in order to find the right one to suit their company’s needs. Software buyers were recently surveyed across many industries to decide the best strategies for choosing lead generation software. Some of the methods included preparing proposal requests, having a lawyer review agreements, and checking merchant references.

Once a product shortlist is created that includes the functionality a company needs, the above methods can be used to evaluate and locate the product that best suits the business owner’s needs.

Possible Issues and Benefits of Lead Generation Software

There are several benefits lead generation software offers:

• Enhanced effectiveness – One of the key benefits of automation is to eliminate and reduce manual tasks, which saves staff a lot of time performing data entry and evaluating leads.
• More precise data – Data entry errors are a thing of the past because potential customer data that is collected from web forms is synced automatically with a CRM instead of using various mediums to collect data and manually entering it into a database.
• Shorter sales phases – Sales teams are alerted to new customers right away, which makes it easier for managers and reps to promptly contact leads and close sales quicker with the right information.

Companies that don’t understand how lead generation software could benefit them have the following problems:

• No plans – Companies that don’t plan for the changing needs of their businesses may make bad software buying decisions.
• No training – If employees aren’t trained properly on how to use all of the software’s features, they might miss out on lead capturing opportunities.
• Landing pages that aren’t optimized – Online forms and landing pages that are designed poorly may leave potential customers unmotivated to make a purchase.