In marketing, lead generation is the generation of consumer interest or inquiry into products or services of a business.
Leads can be created for purposes such as list building, e-newsletter list acquisition or for sales leads. The methods for
generating leads typically fall under the umbrella of advertising, but may also include non-paid sources such as organic search
engine results or referrals from existing customers.Businesses strive to generate "quality" leads.Quality is usually determined
by the propensity of the inquirer to take the next action towards a purchase.
Lead generation is the process of creating sales leads which might convert into sale for the company. The leads may come from various sources or activities, for example, digitally via the Internet, through calls, through advertisement, events, and list purchase. Companies may also rely on referrals, telemarketers, and advertisements to generate leads. According to a 2014 study, 78% of respondents cited email as the most used channel for generating leads followed by event marketing and finally content marketing.Another 2014 study found that direct traffic, search engines, and web referrals were the three most popular online channels for lead generation accounting for 93% of leads.Lead generation is often paired with lead management to move leads through the purchase funnel.
Lead generation is the practice of soliciting inquiries from potential customers. Traditionally lead generation occurred at places like trade shows – visitors to a company's booth would fill out a card with their contact information and turn it in to receive a call back from that company's sales team. Since the rise of the Internet, many businesses use their websites as a lead generation option. Most marketing experts recommend that companies use at least 10 different lead generation methods to ensure that their pipelines remain full.
Lead generation techniques are usually a tradeoff between quality and quantity. For example, a form on the company website that visitors can fill in to request a call back will generate high-quality leads – these visitors are very likely to buy, since they're interested enough to want to hear more – but probably won't generate a large quantity of leads. On the other hand, a lead list that's based on a newsletter subscription list from another company may generate a large quantity of leads, but they won't be nearly as interested or qualified. This tradeoff is another reason why companies are wise to use many lead generation methods