A Beginner’s Guide To Generating Business Leads The Inbound Way

Lead generation is a method used to increase demand for a company’s products or services and is an important approach used to boost marketing and sales. Companies often outsource their lead generation to call centre companies UK for improved and tailored lead generation services.

Telemarketing and live chat support services are types of lead generation and while live chat and telemarketing may be familiar to most, not many understand how a UK call centre can generate business leads, especially in an inbound way.

What is a lead?

Understanding lead generation and how it benefits companies and increases demand begins with knowing what a lead is. Simply put, a lead is any person who shows interest in the company’s products or services in some way. If a person visits the social media page of a business or brand, for instance, they can be considered a lead.

A lead may hear about a product or service in different ways. Call centre companies UK may make cold calls, which is an approach used in telemarketing. Here, the individual will receive a call about a company’s product or service. However, this method of communication is seen as a disruption or intrusion, which is why many companies give leads control over the method and channel through which the communication takes place.

This is why a call centre outsourcing service may opt for less intrusive methods. They may thus contact an individual via email to share details about a product or service a few days after the individual answers a survey related to the product or service. This gives the lead control over how the communication with the company is initiated.

On the other hand, the company can make great use of the survey it conducts. In addition to collecting contact details of leads, the responses to the survey can give the company the necessary information to customise and personalise their communications.

While lead generation services have added benefits to the company, the main reason businesses opt for call centre outsourcing and customer service outsourcing is because leads are part of the transition cycle from visitor to customer. Leads are categorised as different types based on how they are qualified and the stage of the lifecycle they are in.

A marketing qualified lead (MQL) is a contact that has engaged with the efforts of the company’s marketing team but are not yet ready to receive a sales call. A sales qualified lead (SQL) is a contact who has expressly indicated their interest in becoming a customer.

A product qualified lead (PQL) is a contact who has used the product and indicates interest in becoming a paying customer. This kind of lead is usually a result of product trials and free or limited versions of the product.

The final type of lead is the service qualified lead (SQL), a contact that indicates to the sales team that they are interested in becoming a paying customer. This could be a customer who asks for an upgrade or extension to their subscription. Since these communications are important, companies usually look at customer service outsourcing, through which call centre companies in the UK offer great customer services in addition to lead generation services.

What is lead generation?

Now that you know what a lead is, it is time to look at lead generation. There are two approaches to generating business leads. Outbound lead generation includes telemarketing strategies where the company approaches the prospect. While telemarketing traditionally involved communication over the phone, a UK call centre would incorporate technology into telemarketing and offer a range of services like live chat support services and outsource CCTV monitoring services.

However, outbound lead generation is often viewed as disruptive, which is why many companies opt for inbound lead generation. Call centre outsourcing as well as customer service outsourcing will look at inbound lead generation approaches, where the prospect has more control over the method and channel of communication.

Companies follow a basic process when generating business leads the inbound way. They start with attracting strangers through blogs, keywords, and social media. These strangers then become visitors and are converted into leads with the use of forms, calls-to-action, and landing pages.

The leads become customers through emails, signals, and workflows, and the customers become promoters through events and smart content.

This is a beginner’s guide to inbound lead generation and a company can outsource lead generation services to a UK call centre for improved and effective strategies.