Technological advancements have been relatively rapid in the past few decades. Most businesses are often at the forefront of evolving trends that can make or break their success.
While navigating through the fast-paced changes in marketing brought about by innovative technology can seem daunting, it is a necessary step toward getting ahead of the curve and standing out from the competition. Technology has changed the way enterprise run their business, from finding vendors and suppliers to lead generation and marketing.
It’s not surprising to find technology shaping how businesses market their products and convert prospects into buying customers.
At the heart of these shifting concepts and methods is lead generation. This is when you attract and cultivate customers’ interest in your business and what you offer with the end goal of increasing future sales. Lead generation used to harness proven traditional methods that worked for ages. This involves purchasing a list of names and getting sales representatives to call people at home, often referred to as cold calling.
Companies then collect information about their prospects and tailor their sales pitches according to the customers’ needs.
Lead Generation in the Digital Age
The shift to the digital way of doing things has dramatically changed the buying journey. This compelled many brands to conduct their lead generation efforts through online channels, often using inbound marketing techniques.
Let’s face it. With the abundance of information at their fingertips, capturing your customers’ attention can be difficult. They do not only stick to one channel and are everywhere, from blogs and websites to social media and search engines.
Utilizing the good old method of cold calling uneducated customers to introduce your products or services will not be very effective anymore.
Customers have become more discerning when it comes to the information they consume. They tend to be skeptical about traditional sales pitches.
This is where lead generation in the modern age comes in. You must focus on generating new leads by establishing a solid online presence and serving relevant, valuable content.
Often, the process starts with running an ad on search engines or social channels of your choice. An effective Google ad is an excellent way to start your lead generation campaign. This ad includes a lead magnet that will be useful to the target audience, such as a valuable guide, an e-book, or an infographic. They can only get the free resources by giving up their information like their names and email addresses. Giving away their information means they consent to be added to your email database. You can then segment them into different marketing funnels depending on which stage of the buying cycle they are at.
Once they are on your email list, you can put them in a nurture campaign where they will receive emails that will gradually introduce them to your brand and your product offers. These emails should be persuasive, rousing their interest and eventually getting them to make a purchase.
Lead Generation Using AI
Generating leads online has further evolved in the last few years. Many turned to artificial intelligence to boost their lead generation efforts. This includes chatbots, automated email campaigns, and AI insights tools.
AI-powered software can be highly efficient in generating leads and improving your conversion rate.
Benefits of Using AI in Lead Generation
The growing customer expectations pose a new challenge to many businesses. For lead generation campaigns, considering the power of AI may usher in a wealth of benefits.
Here are some of them:
Find More High-Quality Leads
Making your prospects aware of your brand and what you offer is not easy, but with the help of AI, you can make the process smoother and more streamlined.
For example, you can use a chatbot on your website to greet visitors directly and help them find the information they need. Should they have any questions, you can effectively set up the chatbot to answer frequently asked questions and lead them to the pages they are looking for. You can set up a 24/7 chatbot feature to accommodate users who visit at odd hours.
It will warm them up to your brand while prequalifying them as possible leads. If they engage with the chatbot and ask relevant questions, this can mean that they are interested in your brand and are considering making a purchase soon. They will readily join your email list if they have a positive experience on your website.
Personalization through Automation
Customers prefer a personalized experience with your brand. It is one of the most critical factors to make you stand out from your competitors.
With the help of AI, you can customize some elements of your websites and other points of your prospects’ journey. You can tailor the content offered for every visitor, give them better product recommendations, and reengage them with a targeted call to action.
Through an AI tool, you can provide a touch of personalization to your email list and efficiently help them go through a marketing channel through segmentation.
Get Better Customer Insights
Lead generation is all about knowing who you target. Your campaign can only ever be effective if you target the right audience. To do this, you need to know and understand your prospects. What are their needs? How can you help them with their problems? At what stage of the buying journey are they in?
It is difficult to qualify a prospect new to your brand and turn them into a lead. You need to warm them up first. Learning their actions and behavior is essential as it can give you a fair idea of their readiness to engage with your business and eventually make a purchase.
A good AI tool can help you analyze bulks of data and better understand your website visitors and prospects. These insights can be put into good use when you create lead generation campaigns.
AI-Powered Techniques for Lead Generation Campaigns
Understanding Machine Learning
If you want to understand how you can effectively harness the power of AI, you need to start by understanding how machine learning works. While the two are not the same, machine learning is an AI subset leveraged to make AI work better and smarter.
Algorithms of most applications and platforms rely on machine learning to assist humans in efficient problem-solving. The machine learning algorithm gathers data, analyzes them, and recognizes trends and patterns, helping AI create accurate, comprehensive data analysis and insights.
Machine learning can affect the success of content optimization, personalized marketing, and intelligent chatbots.
Utilizing Virtual Chat Bots
The virtual world has contributed to people’s need for instant gratification. They want to acquire information and answers in an instant. Businesses that want to provide premium service and exceptional customer experience can rely on virtual chatbots to do the job efficiently.
You can set up chatbots on websites, online shops, and instant messaging apps. They can respond to inquiries with preprogrammed questions and answers. They give ample support to users browsing through your site any time of the day.
If you want to qualify leads and ensure their quality, data gathered from your chatbots can help you get actionable insights into your prospects and how to best acquire them as leads.
Running Automated Email Campaigns
AI technology has a considerable impact on how email campaigns are run. Once you have generated quality leads, you will want to put them through a marketing funnel and eventually turn them into paying customers. Sending emails manually is doable only if you have a few leads. However, it can be challenging to manage if your leads reach hundreds or thousands. It will take precious time, effort, and resources.
Email campaign automation lets you streamline the process and set up effective nurture campaigns. Most email automation tools have helpful features like database segmentation and personalization options. You can create a separate email nurture sequence for different sets of audiences, depending on which stage of the marketing funnel they are at.
You can send emails at optimum times of the day and optimize subject lines and content according to the recipient’s browsing behaviors and actions on your website or how they interact with your ads.
Email campaigns are one of the most critical aspects of your lead generation strategy. You won’t want to miss out on its advantages.
Wrapping It Up
They say that marketing is not the end goal for every business that wants to succeed. Capitalize on your marketing efforts by increasing conversions and sales. Ensure you generate high-quality leads that you can convert into paying customers later on.
Your lead generation strategy can benefit a lot from the power of AI technology. This tactic will help you acquire quality leads, convert more customers, and cultivate repeat purchases.
