
Automating Lead Generation: Tools and Best Practices
Key Takeaways
- Loads of automation tools on the market aren’t suited to small businesses.
- Automation tools often offer analytics, email design, and CRM integration; so, you might want to cancel other subscriptions in favour of an all-rounder.
- You can’t automate everything. Some aspects of lead generation will require a human’s touch.
What does it mean to automate lead generation?
Automation can free up an exceptional amount of time and effort for businesses, allowing them to focus on other ‘hands on’ tasks. Nowadays, it’s common for companies to automate their social media schedules and set up automatic abandoned cart reminders.
Automation is a fundamental part of evolving business practices and making things more efficient.
Lead generation is no different. Now businesses can use expert technologies and software to streamline and optimise their lead generation, it’s a no-brainer. From the early stages of identifying and qualifying leads to nurturing and acquiring paying customers, automation can offer solutions across the board.
Though businesses will have to get familiar with how to leverage certain tools, techniques, and platforms, the rewards reaped by automating repetitive tasks cannot be underestimated. Plus, automating lead generation can generate a consistent flow of qualified leads without the hassle of consistent human input.
But what are the actual benefits of automating lead generation?
Why automate lead generation
There are loads of reasons why businesses should automate their lead generation processes. If you’re not convinced, have a read about why it’s so popular:
Cost
Since automation removes the need for manual work, the cost of lead generation significantly drops once it’s been automated. Very often automation tools offer advanced features (e.g., data analysis) which reduces the need for additional expenses.
Marketing
A commonly automated business practice is marketing as it is quickly enhanced by automation tools and techniques. Often automation tools allow for personalisation, a valued component of modern marketing. Plus, these tools can learn about your customer base and provide crucial insights for optimising future campaigns.
Data
By reducing manual data entry errors, automating lead generation can ensure businesses have accurate datasets. Plus, automation tools often have built-in data management abilities and security features, which can help you track, report, protect, manage, and analyse your customer data.
Customer experience
Automation allows businesses to respond to customer queries more promptly and be in-tune with their position in the sales funnel, making their experience more intuitive and responsive.
Scaling
Automation becomes essential when businesses scale to a certain size, because the number of leads becomes impossible to manage without digital assistance. With automations in place, businesses can expand more smoothly.
Nurturing
We all know that lead generation and nurturing help to build a happy customer base. But with automation, these processes can provide a higher quality and more timely service.
Staff efficiency
Let’s be honest. Repetitive tasks can be boring and reduce morale among staff. Automating these tasks can boost staff satisfaction, thus increasing productivity and efficiency in a range of business departments.
What parts of lead generation can be automated?
Most of the lead generation processes can be automated. If you decide to get involved with automation, here’s what you can do to transform your lead generation activities:
Lead capture
Right at the beginning of your lead generation is the collecting (or capturing) of leads. Automation enables this through various channels such as website forms, landing pages, social media, or email subscriptions.
As long as you’ve prepared compelling and targeted content to attract potential customers, an automation tool will perform well in capturing their contact information 24/7.
Lead qualification
Next, you’ll want your leads to be evaluated, qualified, and scored.
Once you provide a set of criteria, automation tools will be able to carry out this evaluation process without your intervention.
Whatever your lead scoring model is, make sure you input all of the values and actions that are significant to your business (such as website interactions, email engagements, or social media interactions) into your automation tool.
Nurturing campaigns
When it comes to nurturing your leads, automation can help a great deal.
By utilising customer relationship management (CRM) software and marketing automation platforms, businesses can deliver relevant content, educational materials, and offers to leads at different stages of the sales funnel. This helps build relationships, establish trust, and increase the chances of converting leads into customers.
Lead tracking and analytics
By tracking and analysing metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, website visits, and conversion rates, automation tools can provide valuable insights into lead behaviour and engagement. Thus, businesses can gain a better understanding of the effectiveness of their lead generation efforts.
Though businesses can track customer engagement without automation, automation tools often have several built-in features that provide total e‑commerce integration, allowing business-owners to view everything in one place.
Integration with sales processes
Automation can be used to seamlessly integrate lead generation with sales processes. When a lead reaches a certain level of qualification, it can be automatically passed on to the sales team for further follow-up and conversion.
Integration between marketing automation platforms and customer relationship management (CRM) systems ensures a smooth handoff and helps align marketing and sales efforts.
What aspects of lead generation cannot be automated?
While lead generation can be comprehensively automated, there are still certain aspects that require human involvement:
- Developing the strategy and planning for campaigns, determining messaging, defining target audience profiles, and setting goals.
- Creating content whether it’s written, designed, or filmed.
- Interpreting the insights and analytics gained from automation and using them to identify trends and optimise campaigns.
- Sending personalised responses and addressing specific queries often require real human empathy.
- Relationship building in certain industries must be conducted in ‘real’ life, such as at networking events.
- Sales professionals are often needed to close deals because they involve building trust, negotiating terms, and handling objections.
- Human judgement is required to adapt lead generation strategies when changes occur in the market.
- Real people are essential for listening to customer feedback, addressing concerns, and engaging in meaningful communication.
Although businesses cannot currently automate every single aspect of their lead generation strategies, we think that’s a good thing. There are certain components of lead generation that fundamentally rely on human connection and that would suffer if they were replaced by automated processes.
With that in mind, businesses should automate the tasks they can afford to and ‘humanise’ the tasks that need it. That way, they can strike a balance and nurture relationships with leads properly, ensuring optimised results.
How to automate your lead generation processes
So, let’s discuss how you can go about automating lead generation:
Research
1. Define your goals and objectives
Clearly articulate what you want to achieve through lead generation automation, whether it’s increasing lead quantity, improving lead quality, or boosting conversion rates.
2. Research your target audience
Gain a deep understanding of your target audience’s needs, pain points, and preferences to tailor your lead generation strategies effectively.
3. Educate yourself on lead generation automation
Invest time in learning about lead generation automation concepts, strategies, and available tools. Explore resources like articles, tutorials, webinars, or online courses to familiarise yourself with the topic.
Think about your business’s needs
4. Identify suitable automation tools
Research and select lead generation automation tools that align with your business’s needs. Consider factors like features, ease of use, integrations, scalability, and pricing.
(We’ll explore different automation tools later in this article.)
5. Map out your lead generation workflow
Define your lead generation workflow, including lead qualification, capturing, nurturing, and sales handoff. It may help to create a visual flowchart that outlines the steps and actions involved at each stage.
6. Seek professional assistance if needed
If you feel overwhelmed or lack the expertise to implement lead generation automation on your own, consider hiring a consultant or agency specialising in marketing automation to guide you through the process.
Get stuck in!
7. Choose and implement your selected tool
Sign up for your chosen automation tool and follow their setup instructions. Seek help from tutorials, documentation, or customer support to navigate the initial implementation.
8. Start with a pilot project
Begin by automating one or two specific lead generation processes, such as email campaigns, lead capture forms, or social media advertising. Starting small allows you to gain confidence and refine your approach.
9. Implement lead capture forms
Embed lead capture forms on your website, landing pages, or social media channels to collect visitor information. Keep the forms concise, engaging, and aligned with your branding.
10. Set up automated email sequences
Utilise your chosen automation tool to create email sequences that nurture leads over time. Personalise the content based on lead behaviour, interests, and engagement levels.
11. Integrate your CRM systems
Connect your automation tool with a customer relationship management (CRM) system to ensure seamless lead management, tracking, and follow-up by your sales team.
12. Educate your team
If you have a team involved in the lead generation process, provide them with training and resources to understand the new automated workflows. Ensure everyone is aligned and on board with the automation strategy.
After a little while…
13. Track and analyse results
Regularly monitor key metrics such as conversion rates, email open rates, click-through rates, and lead quality. Use analytics tools to gain insights and make data-driven decisions.
14. Optimise and refine
Continuously iterate and improve your lead generation automation processes based on insights from data analysis. Test different approaches, optimise CTAs, and experiment with content variations to enhance results.
15. Stay updated and adapt
Stay informed about emerging trends, technologies, and best practices in lead generation automation. Adapt your strategies accordingly to remain competitive and meet evolving customer expectations.
16. Explore advanced automation features
Once you’re familiar, you can explore more advanced features offered by automation tools. This may include advanced segmentation, dynamic content personalisation, multi-channel automation, or behaviour-triggered campaigns.
Every business is unique, so make sure you adapt these steps to your specific needs, goals, and circumstances. Next, let’s discuss some different automation tools on the market today.
6 tools for automating lead generation
There are numerous tools available to automate lead generation and support your efforts. Here are some popular ones:
HubSpot
HubSpot is a highly popular CRM platform that offers a wide range of integrations for businesses wanting to connect their marketing, sales, content, and customer service departments.
As well as automation, it offers a comprehensive suite of inbound marketing and sales tools, including lead capture forms, email marketing, CRM integration, lead scoring, and analytics.
Hubspot’s wide offering is a big attraction for many businesses and is great for those that want to scale. Its free plan is pretty capable, although doesn’t come with extensive customer support. And it gets expensive pretty quickly.
Pardot
Pardot by Salesforce provides marketing automation software that helps streamline lead generation, lead nurturing, and lead scoring. It includes email marketing, landing page creation, lead tracking, and CRM integration.
Though it has an impressive range of features, Pardot is another expensive option that’s unlikely to appeal to small businesses.
Mailchimp
Mailchimp is a popular email marketing platform that offers automation features for lead nurturing campaigns, audience segmentation, and lead capture forms. It’s well-liked for its ease of use and its smaller plans are very affordable.
Unfortunately, Mailchimp’s subscriber and sending allowance has been reduced and it includes unsubscribed users in your contact list.
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is an all-in-one marketing automation platform that offers lead scoring, email marketing, CRM integration, and advanced automation features. Its email builder isn’t as good as MailChimp’s but its wide range of features is impressive.
ActiveCampaign’s pricing plan is much more than MailChimp’s or OptinMonster’s, making it an unlikely choice for smaller businesses. Plus, its plans for email marketing are separate from CRM and sales, compelling companies to spend more to get access to all its features.
ConvertKit
ConvertKit is a user-friendly email marketing tool with automation features to capture and nurture leads through personalised email sequences. Although its customisation options are limited for creating email templates, its automation features are extensive.
Plus, it’s been praised for its great customer support systems and is at an ideal pricepoint for smaller companies.
Zapier
Zapier is an integration platform that allows you to connect various tools and automate workflows. It can be used to streamline lead generation processes by integrating different apps and automating data transfers.
Zapier is known for its versatility and cheaper plans.
Best practices for automating lead generation
If you’re new to automating lead generation, make sure you remember these best practices:
1. Define your target audience clearly to tailor your lead generation efforts effectively.
2. Create valuable content that addresses your audience’s pain points and offers solutions.
3. Optimise your website so that it’s user-friendly, optimised for search engines, and includes clear calls-to-action.
4. Implement lead capture forms and strategically place them on relevant website pages.
5. Offer lead magnets like e‑books, templates, or exclusive content to encourage lead generation.
6. Develop a lead scoring system to prioritise and segment leads based on their engagement and behaviours.
7. Leverage marketing automation platforms to streamline lead nurturing campaigns and automate personalised communication.
8. Integrate your CRM system with your marketing automation platform to ensure seamless data synchronisation.
9. Regularly monitor and analyse key metrics such as conversion rates, email engagement, and lead quality. Use data-driven insights to refine your lead generation strategies and improve overall effectiveness.
10. Use A/B testing and experiment with different elements of your lead generation campaigns to identify the most effective approaches.
11. Leverage social media platforms to generate leads, engage with your audience, and promote your content.
12. Integrate live chat functionality on your website to engage with visitors and capture leads in real-time.
13. Personalise your email and marketing automation sequences to deliver customised content based on lead behaviour and preferences.
If you’d like help with lead generation, our team at purpleplanet would love to help. Click the button below to reach out or learn more about our services.