
Is your sales funnel feeling more like a leaky faucet? You need to attract a steady stream of qualified leads that will convert.
It's the key to growing your business faster and skyrocketing profits.
But here’s the deal: you'll need to invest in successful lead generation campaigns that pull in top-quality leads like a force field.
Otherwise, your business will end up dead in the water with a shrinking customer base and stalling revenue growth.
Effective lead generation campaigns fill the sales pipeline with quality leads that ultimately result in new business. The success rate is huge—marketers who get it right enjoy an incredible 73% conversion rate.
Creating a high-performing campaign doesn't have to be as intimidating as it seems.
This guide will walk you through the process of crafting lead generation campaigns that fetch real results. Plus, we'll equip you with tools, templates, resources, and real-life examples to get you off to a flying start.
If you prefer to learn by watching, here’s a video walkthrough of how to create a lead generation campaign.
A lead generation campaign (or lead campaign) is a tactical marketing effort that fills your sales pipeline with valuable leads that can be cultivated into paying customers.
The reason for launching a lead generation campaign can vary from acquiring sales leads to building email subscriber lists to increasing event registrations.
Yet, they all have the same goal—getting prospects to express interests and share their personal information.
In order for prospects to part with their information, you need to to incentivize them with valuable assets or lead magnets such as a free trial, webinar, discount ebooks etc.
For example, let’s say you filled out a form and downloaded an ebook on how workflow automation can help your business. The next day, you get an email invite to a webinar or to view a live or pre-recorded demo.
Thanks to the information you provided, the company can tailor their communication to provide more value or address your problem. That’s a classic example of a lead generation campaign.
But that’s just one of the moving parts of a successful lead generation campaign. Besides creating attractive lead magnets, you’ll also need to factor in these moving parts:
We’ll take a deep dive into these different elements later in the article.
As we've explained earlier, lead generation is about attracting and engaging prospects with your offerings.
Here's why it's such a big deal: It's much easier to sell to someone who has already shown interest in what you’re selling. The job of lead generation is to lure prospects in and nurture them until they are ready to buy.
So, if you struggle to get a steady stream of leads into your funnel, your sales team will have a hard time closing deals—meaning you’ll struggle to scale your revenue growth.
That’s the gap a robust lead generation process is designed to help you fill.
Ultimately, it’s a set of marketing activities that involve:
Now you know why lead campaigns are essential for driving conversions and propelling your business forward.
But do you create campaigns that keep those quality leads pouring in?
Below, we’ll share 12 invaluable tips for creating successful lead generation campaigns.
Before you set sail, figure out what you want to achieve at the end of your campaign. It not only guides your strategy but helps you measure success.
Now hang on: we're not discussing setting vague goals like “more leads” or “an increase in conversions.” Rather, you must step back and define specific goals for each campaign.
For example, a more specific goal would be to increase the number of qualified leads by 20% within the next quarter, or you may aim to lift the revenue per lead by 15%.
These are just a few examples. Depending on what to achieve, you could tie lead generation campaign goals to outcomes like:
Remember, your objectives can change during the campaign depending on the stage your audience is at within the lead gen funnel.
For example, your objective at the top of the funnel might be to increase your email list subscribers, website traffic, and followers. In the middle of the funnel, you could be aiming to grow webinar attendees or get more consultation requests or free trials at the BOFU.
After setting your campaign goals, the next step is to define your target audience. This is pretty much the standard for any marketing campaign.
When researching your B2B target audience, the focus shifts from individual consumer preferences to business characteristics and needs.
Here are key questions to ask:
If you’re a growing company, you probably have answers to these questions.
But if you’re a startup or targeting a new audience, you’ll have to go hard on your research. It helps you figure out where to find them and what type of content will resonate with them.
There are different ways you can get insights about your target audience:
Here’s a customizable template you can use to visualize your buyer persona or ideal customer profile.
You want your prospects to take action, such as subscribing to your email list, downloading a piece of content you’ve created or scheduling a demo.
How are you going to incentivize them for these actions? The key is to create irresistible offers that are too good to pass up.
To create a compelling offer, you have to know your customer down to the tee, including their emotional triggers. Of course, you need to consider the buyer's journey and where they are in the sales process. The better you understand this, the more likely you will create offers they can't turn down.
Depending on your goals and lead types, you can use different types of offers to lure prospects into your funnel:
Lead magnets are free, valuable resources you share with potential customers in exchange for their contact information.
There are tons of lead magnet ideas you can use to attract leads, including:
Whether you’re running a B2C or B2B lead generation campaign—-the key is to create a relevant and helpful resource that helps your audience solve a real problem.
Visme provides dozens of lead magnet templates to help you create relevant resources that solve real problems. You can create interactive checklists, worksheets, workbooks, templates, ebooks, research reports with charts and graphs and a whole lot more.
If you need help creating content for your lead gen efforts, Visme’s AI writer is your best bet. Prompt the tool to craft compelling copy, proofread your content, generate ideas or handle other content-related tasks in seconds.
With this type of offer, potential customers get to try your product or service for free for a limited time.
Here's why it works: Users get a hands-on experience of your products, helping them make faster purchase decisions.
Moreover, the risk level is low—prospects can try the product without making an immediate financial commitment.
If you're in the service industry, you can offer a free consultation or assessment, giving potential customers a taste of your expertise and personalized advice.
Of course, if you sell a physical product, you have the option to offer free samples, free shipping, and other incentives in exchange for contact information.
Most users are compelled to take quizzes, especially when it appeals to them. Go ahead and create engaging quizzes or surveys where users can receive personalized results or insights in exchange for their contact details.
Inject fun, creativity and interactivity so your audience doesn't see it as a chore.
With Visme's online feedback form creator, you can easily build animated, interactive surveys that are proven to not only outperform traditional forms by 2x but also increase engagement by up to 207%.
If you're targeting B2B buyers, webinars are a great way to reel them into your funnel.
Host live or recorded sessions where you share expertise on a particular subject. Attendees will have to register with their information to gain access.
After the webinar, follow up with a recorded version, resources and email campaigns that nudge them toward conversion.
Another valuable offer that works wonders for B2B audiences is access to a private group, forum, or community. In this community, members can get additional value through networking and insider content.
Each of these offers we’ve discussed needs to be tailored to suit your specific audience and industry.
Above all, it should sync with the stage of the buyer’s journey the prospects is in. That way, your prospects will find it enticing and valuable enough to provide their information.
At the top of the funnel (TOFU), leads are just becoming aware of their problem and are seeking information.
BOFU offers such as comparison guides, discount offers and testimonials may not engage them or address their needs yet. Similarly, you wouldn’t want to share a generic guide or quiz for a lead at the decision stage (BOFU).
This infographic breaks down the type of content to create at each stage of the buyers' journey.
We get it—creating this much content for your lead gen efforts can make your head spin.
Visme offers a full suite of AI tools to help you create branded, conversion-ready content in seconds, including an AI-powered brand wizard, report writer, design generator, presentation maker, image generator, and photo editor.
Once your offer is ready, you can publish and share it online with a live link or download it in PDF, PPTX and image formats. You can also generate an HTML code to embed them on your website or landing page.
With Visme analytics, you can monitor how your offers perform using metrics like downloads, unique visits, date/time of view, visitor IP, visitor location, average time spent, average completion and source.
Your offer is as good as a hidden gem until you get it in front of your prospective customers.
How do you promote your offer or content? What channels should you focus your efforts on?
First, you can use organic channels like your blog, landing pages, website, social media channels, email marketing, live events and webinars.
Take Close, for example. They have dedicated landing pages for their free resources, but you’ll have to share your email to access them.
You can also take advantage of paid advertising like PPC ads, display ads and sponsored content. For example, here’s a paid search ad for a project management PDF guide created by Business Explained. It positions them right at the top of SERP for the keyword “project management guide.”
To get maximum results, we recommend using both organic and paid channels.
However it’s also important to consistently measure the performance of your content. The goal is to figure out what channels and content types are moving the needle.
That way you can focus on what fetches you more leads rather than dilute your focus.
One of the common mistakes marketers make is creating generic landing pages to capture leads. This can save you time and money but hurt your conversions.
Optimized and hyper-targeted landing pages are crucial conversion catalysts.
For starters, they align closely with the visitor's search intent or the ad they clicked on. This immediately grabs their attention and increases their dwell time on your site.
On top of that, these pages speak directly to their unique needs, challenges, or interests. So, prospects are more likely to quickly transition from interest to action.
Landing pages are also great for SEO. Creating high-quality landing pages lets you rank for more niche keywords in search engine results.
Optimized and high-converting landing pages should have these traits:
At Visme, we have created dozens of landing pages catering to different ICPs based on their company sizes, industries, roles and even use cases.
For instance, if you’re reading a blog targeted at executives, the CTA will redirect you to a landing page—“Visme for executives”—where you can request a demo.
Forms are critical touchpoints for your lead generation campaign. They help turn your traffic from multiple channels into prospects.
But generic, tacky, and unoptimized forms don’t cut it. They’ll not only turn potential leads away but also mess with your conversion rates.
Here are some ways to optimize your signup forms to fetch you more leads.
Design customer forms for every lead generation campaign according to your ideal customer profile. Visitors need to see that your forms are relevant to the campaign that brought them in the first place.
Polish your form design so users feel compelled to share their personal information.
Form fields matter a great deal—the fewer fields, the higher the completion rate. Limit the fields to capture relevant information like names, emails and maybe role/industry (for B2B leads).
Expedia made $12 million in profit by getting rid of one redundant field in a form.
Another way to smoothen the form-filling process is to use multi-step forms and progressive profiling. Instead of asking for all information at once, gradually gather more data over multiple interactions.
Also, optimize your form to make it responsive across multiple mobile, tablet and desktop devices.
When crafting the copy, communicate value for the user—whether it’s a discount, demo or quote for your services. Make your CTA action-oriented and impossible to miss. Then continuously test different form elements (e.g., headlines, button colors, field types) to determine what works best for your audience.
Pro Tip: Don’t have coding skills? No problem. Visme’s no-code online form builder lets you design interactive, responsive lead forms proven to double your conversion rates. Monitor your form completion rates and streamline your workflow with our ever-growing collection of form integrations.
Another way to get more leads is to run paid lead gen ads.
Lead generation ads are paid online campaigns designed to help you collect information from potential customers. As prospects share their information, you can build an email list to further engage with potential leads.
Different types of paid ads can help drive traffic to your website, such as
Some social advertising platforms also have built-in lead generation tools.
On LinkedIn, you can use LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms to collect quality leads from ads.
Once users click the ad, they'll be redirected to a form with all their LinkedIn details already filled in—such as their name, contact info, company name, location seniority and job title.
When they submit the form, they’ll see a “thank you” page with links to your eBook, website, or wherever you want them to go.
You can add lead form assets to your Google Ads to drive leads into your marketing funnel. This feature works for Search, Video, Performance Max, and Display campaigns. You can customize the headlines, form fields, CTAs, and thank you page.
When users click the CTA, the form opens right in the ad rather than redirecting the prospect elsewhere. This improves the user’s experience and increases their chances of converting.
If you want to run a Facebook lead generation campaign, you can use Lead Ads to gather users' information.
When users tap the ad, a pre-populated form pops up with their Facebook data.
This makes it easier for prospects to submit their information, eliminating friction and the risk of drop-off. However, you can add custom questions and an option for users to book appointments or call.
Search engine optimization is another critical piece of the lead gen puzzle.
When you optimize your website and content for search, you climb up search rankings. This can bring in more targeted traffic, which means exposure to more leads and conversions.
Unlike paid ads, SEO is a long game. You need to consistently publish great content and deploy best practices to get results.
Here are a few tips to supercharge your lead generation efforts:
Tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, and Google Analytics can help you keep tabs on your performance and that of your rivals.
Leads aren’t all the same. While some are primed and ready to buy, others need more time.
As leads enter your funnel, you need to qualify leads to determine whether they are worth passing on to sales.
This saves time and helps you focus your efforts on leads that will most likely convert.
Start by developing your criteria for scoring leads. These could be based on their engagement level, demographics, firmographics (for B2B leads) and behavioral data.
Then, assign point values and rank leads based on their attributes or behavior. For example, visiting the pricing page might be worth more points than downloading an ebook.
Based on the scores, you can segment leads into different categories:
Besides lead scoring, there are other techniques used to qualify leads, such as
In this article, we've shared different techniques you can use to classify and qualify leads in your funnel.
No matter how you qualify leads, your sales and marketing teams should stay in sync. This helps ensure that leads passed on to the sales team fit the criteria for an ideal customer. Sales teams will have in-depth information about the buyer to close the deal.
Pro Tip: Smoothen the handoff process between sales and marketing with Visme’s workflow management and collaboration feature and. Teams of all sizes can co-author sales and marketing materials, tag each other, leave feedback and stay updated with notifications.
As we mentioned earlier, not all leads will convert right away. Now, it’s up to you to nudge them to conversion.
Continue to build stronger relationships with them through multiple channels.
Over 50% of marketers admit they get success with lead nurturing channels with organic search (SEO). Content marketing, paid search, social media and email also ranked highly.
Engage leads with meaningful content that not only addresses their needs but also builds trust with your brand. As your relationship grows, you can guide them through the sales funnel and bring them closer to making their first purchase.
Below are lead nurturing strategies you can use here:
Take this lead nurturing email from Quillbot. It offers a mouthwatering 50% discount to upgrade to a premium plan.
Get expert tips on how to nurture leads into customers with this comprehensive guide. If you’re looking for inspiration, we’ve compiled a list of 18 lead nurturing examples from top brands to help you learn from the best in the industry.
This is where you keep an eye on the performance of your lead generation campaign to see what’s working and what needs improvement.
From all the strategies you’ve deployed, you’ll have more than enough data points to assess your results. Consolidate data from your CRM, social media analytics, Google Analytics, form submissions and marketing automation tools to find out how your campaign performed across the board.
Then compare your results against the goals, KPIs and metrics such as:
Data without action is just trivia. So beyond collecting data, use it to optimize your lead gen campaign. A/B tests different elements and tweakyour campaign assets and offers to see what drives the most conversions or high-value leads.
For example, you can tweak your sign-up forms, refine your content and amp up your offers based on the test outcomes.
In lead management, the improvement process isn’t a one-off. You need to continuously monitor your campaign to see how you can maximize its potential.
The web is awash with real-life examples of successful lead generation campaigns.
And what better way to get inspiration than by analyzing these examples of lead generation campaigns and why they worked so well?
This isn’t the most common choice for lead gen campaigns. But quite surprisingly, it works because of its interactive nature.
Statistics show that interactive content sees two times more conversions and 52.6% higher engagement than static content.
Warby Parker, an online retailer of glasses, uses a quiz to generate leads.
From the home page, Warby Parker invites users to complete a seven-question quiz about their style, preferences, and prescription needs. At the end of the quiz, users have to share their emails to get results.
First, it's not your average quiz—it's like a conversation tailored just for you. Each question comes with engaging visuals and text that allow users to visualize the product and make a smart choice. This creates an immersive experience that makes choosing the right type of eyewear fun and convenient.
Here’s what’s genius about this campaign.
While you're having a blast picking out your frames, Warby Parker is gathering all the info they need to send you the perfect eyewear recommendations.
They dig deep and gather detailed insights into each customer's preferences, which is invaluable for lead nurturing.
Warby Parker then follows up with tailored recommendations and marketing messages, ultimately leading to higher conversion rates.
Hosting webinars lets you interact and share knowledge with your audience.
They are highly effective as well. A whopping 73% of marketers and sales leaders say webinars are a super effective tactic for lead generation.
Participants share their contact information in exchange for access, which means you get to build an email list of prospects.
Over the years, webinars have been a lead generation machine for Visme. We deploy tons of webinar funnels to:
We don’t host live webinars every time someone signs up. We run one live event and then share the recorded version on our website so visitors can register and watch it on demand.
After the webinar, we share a series of emails to nurture the leads towards their first purchase.
These webinars attract tons of engaged leads who are genuinely interested in our offerings.
But it's not just collecting information; they are interactive.
During the live events, we get to chat directly with potential customers, answer their burning questions, and really show off what Visme can do. This adds a personal touch that builds trust and fosters deeper connections with prospects.
Up your webinar game with this all-inclusive guide on how to create a successful webinar presentation. We've included tips and customizable templates to help you along the way.
Templates are incredibly useful in various scenarios. They are the perfect starting point (or source of inspiration) when developing business processes, learning a new skill, or testing different strategies.
Cold email templates are one of Close’s most successful lead generation assets. It turns out that these templates have generated about 25,000 leads interested in improving their cold email strategy — exactly what their CRM is built for.
Creating a template that provides immediate value performs well.
These cold email templates solve a problem or fulfill a need for the user right away, which is why prospects are more willing to exchange their contact information to access them.
And here's the kicker: when these leads are ready to check out sales tools, they often circle back and see that Close is great CRM for small businesses.
Not sold on offering lead magnets or gated content? You can offer a free trial of your service to generate new leads. It works for both B2C and B2B lead generation campaigns.
That’s exactly one of the ways HubSpot acquires leads for its content marketing software.
To access the 14-day trial, people need to provide their contact info, which turns into valuable leads for the company.
With this free trial, potential customers get a hands-on feel of the HubSpot platform without any financial commitment. This approach offers a low barrier to entry for businesses and marketers who want to test the software's features before making a purchase.
The landing page has a compelling copy that communicates the benefits of the tool. It also outlines what users can expect to achieve within the free 14-day trial period and how HubSpot can help them succeed.
And that’s not all! HubSpot provides an effective onboarding process with tutorials and support to help users get started and see the value quickly. As users grow and their needs become more complex, they are more likely to upgrade to higher plans.
The purpose of lead generation is to identify and cultivate potential customers for a business's products or services. By capturing the interest of potential buyers, your businesses can nurture these leads, guide them through the sales funnel and ultimately convert them into paying customers.
A lead refers to a potential customer or client who has shown interest in your product or service.
On the other hand, a campaign is a focused and organized marketing effort to achieve a specific goal, such as generating leads, increasing brand awareness, or promoting a new product or service.
Within the context of lead generation, leads are the potential customers or contacts that result from campaign activities, while campaigns are organized efforts to attract, engage, and convert those leads into customers.
The secret to a successful lead generation campaign is having a clear objective, targeting the right audience with compelling and valuable content, using multiple channels for maximum exposure, and effectively nurturing leads through the sales funnel.
The key difference between lead generation and demand generation is that lead generation focuses on capturing and converting prospects into customers. Demand generation on the other hand, creates a buzz that attracts your prospects at the top of the funnel.
Both strategies work in the same direction to drive sales and keep the sales pipeline flowing.
Wow, what a ride! We’ve discussed 15 proven tips for creating successful lead campaigns and real-life examples to learn from—webinars, quizzes, templates and free trials.
As you launch your campaigns, you need to develop a robust lead management process that will pull leads into your funnel and nurture them toward conversion.
Now it’s time to give it a go. Visme offers a wide range of tools to help you supercharge your lead generation efforts.
Create interactive lead gen forms that are proven to double your conversions and integrate with third-party tools to streamline your workflow. Beyond that, you also get access to thousands of professionally designed templates and intuitive tools for creating high-converting visual content and lead magnets.
So what are you waiting for? Sign up for Visme Forms or request a demo to see how Visme can help fill your sales pipeline with quality leads.
Improve your data collection from emails, leads, to surveys and more, by using beautifully designed forms that convert up 2X better.
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