10 Lead Generation Examples That Drive Results In 2024

Are you trying to find the best lead-generation examples to integrate into your next sales campaign?

We've researched the best lead generation examples in the business so that you can optimize your next sales funnel for success.

Let’s break down the best lead generation strategies…

The term "lead generation" describes attracting prospective clients to your business. You nurture their interest in your business through the sales funnel, ultimately converting them into clients.

Lead generation is essential to any business that has already attracted an audience and wants to convert this audience into paying clients.

Generating qualified leads is an important stage of the customer acquisition journey and can often determine the level of loyalty that the customer has.

If you don't use lead generation as part of your brand's marketing tactic, you will have difficulty finding new customers and opportunities to sell your product.

Connecting with people who might be interested in your brand begins when somebody clicks on your website or hears about your product through someone else's testimonial.

Lead generation is essential if you want to increase your brand's revenue and increase your product's social proof online.

Here are our top lead generation strategy examples in 2024:

1. Offer a free trial
2. Email marketing
3. LinkedIn
4. Content marketing
5. Social Media
6. Referral programmes
7. SEO
8. Write guest blogs
9. Share a customer experience
10. Outbound sales

One of the best ways to generate qualified leads for your business is to offer a free trial. It’s a lead generation strategy as old as e-commerce itself, but it works.

A free trial is effective because it relies on the customer moving further through the sales funnel once they've tried your product.

There is a high chance of conversion with this lead generation process.
Once they're confident they like it, they'll likely sign up to become a paying customer. This creates a warm lead from the beginning, smoothing the transition through the sales funnel.

How and Why it Works

Good user experience

There's almost no better way to convince a potential client to pay for your product than to let them test it first.

This assures them that they're going to like it when they pay for it.

Everyone loves something for free

Whether it's free vouchers, a free trial, or free access to an exclusive feature you're offering for a limited time, any potential customer will jump at the chance to get something for free before paying for your product. 

You control the free trial length

You get to set the free trial period, whether it's for seven days, 14, or even 30. For most B2B companies, 14-30 days is ideal.

There’s also merit in a 7-day free trial, as this adds urgency to the buying process.You should calculate how long your free trial should be based on factors like how much your product costs to operate.

Adds value to your product

Generating qualified leads through a free trial is smart because it proves to your audience that you believe in the value of your product.

Ensure that you have optimized your service for a great user experience

Your free trial is your first impression, and it makes or breaks a potential lead.

You need to prove through your free trial that you have great support for the client and a streamlined process for the service itself. It's also important to showcase that you've researched and understand what your target market is looking for.

Another lead generation technique that's well-established in the industry is email marketing. Email marketing was one of the original lead generation strategies, and it's still a relevant part of the sales funnel.

Email marketing is a great way to showcase your product to thousands of people regularly. You should send out a campaign at least once a week for optimal email marketing.

Make sure that the content of the email offers value to your audience, along with a call-to-action that you can follow up on.

How and Why it Works

Email marketing has a big reach

Most people worldwide have an email address. The scope for generating qualified leads through email marketing is huge.

When you create your next email campaign, know that you will be able to connect with a large pool of leads.

Email marketing effectively gets your message across

More people are likely to open up an email they receive than look at a tweet or Facebook post.

This means that it’s easier to communicate your campaign’s message when you email it to a potential lead. People are more likely to take the time to read an email if they have already committed to opening it.

However, if they're on Facebook or Instagram, they tend to scroll past a post that doesn't immediately attract them, losing your chance to win them over.

Email marketing is here to stay

Unlike other trends in the lead generation space that come and go, email marketing is unwavering.

Enables you to nurture your leads over time

Once you've generated leads through email marketing, it's also a great way to nurture them further through the sales funnel.

A mailing list of solid leads means you can interact with potential clients more than once. If some initial leads don't turn into paying customers after your first email campaign, you have a record of them for later campaigns.

Being the world’s biggest professional database, LinkedIn is ideal to incorporate into your lead generation strategy. LinkedIn is a lead generation example that can help you connect to an increasingly bigger lead pool.

To generate leads on LinkedIn, you need to send connection requests and message those with whom you want to connect. You can also generate leads on LinkedIn through your content. 

As long as you regularly upload high-quality content to your LinkedIn profile and network with your connections, the sky's the limit when generating leads for your business on LinkedIn.

How and Why it Works

Professional information

LinkedIn is a treasure trove of personal and professional information on potential leads. 

Whether it’s location, interests, age, or any other demographic, LinkedIn can help you hone in on your target market. This way, you can reach the right target audience the right way.

Improve lead generation

LinkedIn can help you generate the right leads for your next sales campaign but also help you learn how to do this better.

People in all different industries use LinkedIn to research their demographic so that they can come up with an effective market campaign that's going to work.

LinkedIn marketing

If your next sales campaign budget allows for it, you can even use LinkedIn to market your product directly to potential leads.

For example, if you have just created a new free trial for your product, you can pay to advertise it on LinkedIn, encouraging people to sign up and try it out.

Join a LinkedIn group

Another way to generate leads on LinkedIn is to join a like-minded group. LinkedIn comprises professionals who typically want to connect on a mutual topic.

Capitalise on LinkedIn's social side by researching and finding groups that fit your target demographic. This way, you can not only generate leads by being on LinkedIn, but you can create a community around your leads.

You can nurture those leads

Like email marketing, once you've established a network around your business on LinkedIn and generated leads, you need to nurture those connections.

You will need to have a plan for the future of how you can interact with your LinkedIn network as it grows. This way, you can use LinkedIn to generate leads initially and maintain those leads in the future.

This two-step strategy will ensure that you can use LinkedIn to generate leads continually for your business.

As far as lead generation examples go, content marketing is one of the best. Like email marketing, it's been around for a long time and is still proving effective at pushing those leads through the sales funnel.

Content marketing is effective because it works for marketing, selling, and lead generation. It’s an all-rounder that should be incorporated into every aspect of your online business.

The one thing to remember about content marketing is quality. Your content has to have value that is worth people's time.

How and Why it Works

Helps with conversions

When generating leads for your business, you need conversions. 

Content marketing offers people the information they need to take that next step. It moves them toward conversion, which you want with a successful sales funnel.

Strengthens your customer connections

Sometimes, it can be easy to see your leads as stats and forget that they are customers with whom you need to maintain relationships. 

Content marketing can help you tell your brand's story, enabling you to connect more intimately with your target audience.

Offers a unique angle

Sending potential customers through the sales funnel requires thinking outside the box and developing a unique way to connect with your audience. 

Through content marketing, you can share your company's unique point of view, giving potential leads more of a reason to connect with your brand. Consider what's different about your brand, and highlight this.

Offers consistency

The only way that your audience can connect better with your brand and make their way through the sales funnel is by responding to your consistent brand message. 

If your brand's tone and messaging aren't consistent in your content, you'll lose them at some point.

Bridges the gap for ad-avoidant leads

Another advantage of using content marketing to generate leads for your business is that it offers something different to your audience. 

Content marketing is a great way to reach out to members of your audience who tend to avoid ads.

When seen as a lead generation example, social media marketing is multi-faceted. Not only do you have organic and paid social media marketing methods, but you've also got several different social media platforms to connect with your target demographic.

When developing the right lead generation strategy for social media, you must consider your options.

Because there are many ways to generate leads through social media, it's worth planning out your strategy and determining the system that will fit your business the best.

How and Why it Works

Social media paid ads

When you use social media marketing to generate leads for your business, you can pay for ads that will run for a specified amount of time.

Once you’ve chosen your social media platform, you can create a marketing campaign prioritising lead generation.

Social media can drive traffic

If your goal is to get your target audience in front of your product, you can use social media to drive traffic elsewhere. 

When you market your business in front of your target audience on social media sites like Facebook and Instagram, you can include a call-to-action, encouraging them to visit your website.

Cross-promotion of platforms

There are many different social media platforms to work with for lead generation. 

Each social media site has its own system and protocol around marketing campaigns, from Facebook and Twitter to Instagram and TikTok. 

Distributing your social media campaigns across different platforms is helpful so that you can engage with your target audience on multiple sources simultaneously.

Build a community around your product

When you generate leads for your business, you want those leads to turn into paying customers. 

You then want those paying customers to become loyal customers who maintain a long-lasting connection with your brand. 

On social media, you can create a community around your product, where users share their experiences, ask questions, and receive updates on new products.

Allows you to keep up with trends

Trends come and go, but they are important to follow to maintain authority and brand awareness with your audience. Social media is a great way to keep up with trends so that you can generate your leads accordingly.

As a solid lead generation example, creating a referral program is a great way to tap into your client base and spread the word about your product.

When you use a referral program as a lead generation tool, you turn your clients into your brand's spokespeople.

As far as incentives go, you can either offer customers a financial reward or free work in exchange for the use of your product so that you can get your referral program off the ground.

How and Why it Works

Customers want to share

If a customer has had a good experience with your product, they are often willing to share this. However, getting them to the point of sharing can be as difficult as pushing them through the sales funnel.

A referral program uses incentives to motivate your customers to share their experiences.

Increases confidence in the market

A referral program is a great way to generate leads because it fosters trust in your target market.

Most people tend to trust a personal recommendation over conventional marketing methods. This includes word of mouth, reading testimonials and reviews, and being referred to the company through a message.

Helps customers feel at home with your business

If you're trying to foster a deeper connection between your client base and your brand, a referral program is a great way to do this. 

People who have already had a positive experience with your brand will enjoy being part of a referral program and finding other people who they hope will have a similar experience.

It helps to measure the success of your business

An important part of generating leads for your business is gauging how well your business is doing with your target audience.

If your customers are already sharing your product, you can generate even more leads through a referral program.

It lets you meet leads where they are

Similar to Search engine optimization, a referral program helps generate leads by meeting the leads where they are rather than waiting for them to come to you. 

When you allow your customers to share your brand on their social media platforms, you inadvertently interact with potential leads in their space.

SEO is a hallmark of the industry when thinking about the best lead-generation examples. SEO is an essential component of lead generation that every business should capitalise on.

SEO involves optimizing your website's content to rank higher on Google. As a result, your website receives more organic traffic, and your product is seen by people halfway through the sales funnel.

There are many factors to consider when implementing SEO for best practices.

How and Why it Works

Organic traffic is ideal

There are two main types of website traffic: organic and paid. 

Paid traffic are leads that found your website by clicking on ads you placed on third-party platforms, while organic traffic are leads that found your website by doing a Google search. 

Both are beneficial, but organic traffic is ideal because these leads are more likely to commit to your product through their first website visit.

SEO is affordable

If this is your first sales campaign, you might not have a big budget. SEO is an affordable way to drive traffic to your website, compared to paid ads on social media.

SEO builds brand recognition

When your brand appears naturally in search results, it automatically increases its credibility. 

The more searches your brand appears in, the more brand awareness you can build. This brand awareness results in gaining the trust of your target demographic.

Connect with customers on more levels

The great thing about SEO for lead generation is that you can connect with your prospective leads at varying points in the sales funnel. 

This is because their searches are going to change over time. 

When you do your keyword research and figure out what your target audience is looking up, you can meet them there and be the link they click on when they search for a related keyword.

Measures your success in real-time

Google offers real-time analytics that you can use to assess whether your SEO strategy is generating leads or not. 

This way, you can decide whether to continue with your existing SEO strategy or adjust it to meet the leads where they are. 

From conversions to website traffic, bounce rate, and how long people spend on your website, you will have a much better idea of not only where your potential leads are but how to win them over.

Lead generation examples often require a lot of networking, and one surefire way to network within your chosen industry is to write guest blogs.

If you've done your market research with this in mind, you will already be tapped into the surrounding community.

What better way to generate leads for your website than to write a guest blog for someone else within your industry? Not only will this result in more traffic to your website, but you also get to showcase your brand in front of another blogger's audience.

This is a great way to capitalise on the community within your industry.

How and Why it Works

Helps expand your reach

When trying to generate leads, you've got to focus your efforts on the community within your industry. 

When you post on someone else's blog or website, you can reach a brand new audience that might never have heard of your brand and increase your exposure and visibility.

This can result in a new wave of leads for your website, sourced from a new network.

Establishes your expertise

You've got your product; now, you've got to establish yourself as an expert on it. 

When you write a guest blog post for another website, you can easily position yourself as an expert in your industry. Just make sure you have evidence to back up your claims. 

This will help build trust and credibility when it comes to potential leads. Just make sure that the posts you produce are high quality.

Creates a network

When you write for another website as their guest, you are putting your brand in front of a new audience and building a new network within your industry. 

You are forming relationships with other brands in your industry, which can be valuable in the future for generating leads and promoting your business in general.

Drives traffic

When you post on another website and include links in your guest blog post, you can generate leads directly back to your website through targeted traffic. 

This increases your chances of turning this traffic into paying customers.

When generating leads for your business, there’s no better way to do this than to involve existing customers. If a loyal client has already had a great experience with your product, share it.

Show potential leads the experience they could have if they also used your product. One of the best ways to build trust with your target market is with social proof.

Social proof includes things like positive reviews and client testimonials. The more of these you have, the more likely your leads will turn into sales.

How and Why it Works

Social proof

Social proof is the concept that people like to follow what other people are doing. 

If they see someone benefiting from a product, they are more likely to want to try it themselves. They can see themselves using the product and benefiting from it. 

When you showcase a customer’s experience, you increase your company's social proof, encouraging others to have the same experience.

You build credibility and trust

The first thing you must establish when generating leads for your business is trust. 

If potential leads don't think they can trust your brand, then you won't be able to lead them very far through the sales funnel. 

When potential customers trust your brand, they are more likely to engage with your content, subscribe to your services, and recommend you to others.

Positive impact on conversion rates

When a potential lead sees a client testimonial on a third-party platform like YouTube and sees real results through this testimonial, they're more likely to click through to your website. 

When you share credible client experiences, you generate positive leads for your business by increasing conversion rates.

It can help eradicate doubt

Typically, a potential lead will have questions about your product. The less they know about it, the more questions they will have. 

They want to know about the quality, the price, and whether it will do what it claims to. When you share a real-life customer experience with a potential lead, you demonstrate the effectiveness and value of your product.

Outbound sales are still a relevant lead generation example. While the internet has opened up many different doors to coming up with effective inbound marketing campaigns, outbound sales is still an integral part of the process.

It's still important to do the groundwork and connect directly with a potential buyer to generate a list of leads that could result in multiple sales.

As a business, you must balance your inbound process with outbound sales.

How and Why it Works

Efficiency

Cold-calling might not be your first port of call as a business, but it is efficient. 

You can garner quick results from a broad audience when you reach out to prospective leads through cold calling, social media, or emails.

Personalization

outbound sales are a good lead-generation strategy because they are highly targeted. 

This means the people you connect with will likely want to learn more about your product. 

It also means you can easily connect with potential customers and build relationships.

Control

You get complete control when you create an outbound sales strategy. You get to decide who you're calling, when, and how you plan to encourage them to interact with your brand. 

When you have the right pitch and sales campaign, it's easy to scale your outbound strategy and generate leads.

Allows you to be proactive

Many entrepreneurs get frustrated having to wait for someone to come along and want their product. 

They would rather put themselves out there, build relationships, and bring the product to their potential leads. 

A great way to do this is to implement an outbound sales strategy. This way, you don't have to wait for those leads – you can be proactive with your sales campaign.

Allows for better rapport building

When you directly interact with your targeted leads through outbound sales, you increase your chances of building rapport with them. 

This can result in better-established relationships with your clients over time. 87% of consumers expect company reps to act as a trusted advisor. 

When you can build this level of trust with your clients, you can generate leads more effortlessly.

There’s no one-size-fits-all formula for creating a lead generation strategy.
However you choose to approach your lead generation campaign, you've got to make sure that you incorporate various lead generation examples. 

Developing an effective lead generation strategy isn't easy. We live in a competitive world, which means you must be top of the class to stand out and draw people to your business.

Not only do you have to ensure that your product is high quality and adds value, but you've got to find a way to get it in front of your target customer.

When you understand your target market, you can implement the right lead generation examples, resulting in real conversions that increase your sales and your brand's credibility.

Whether you prefer a conventional email marketing campaign or like the idea of writing a guest post for another website's blog, there are many ways to ensure your target market sees your brand.

The good news is that you can opt for a couple of lead generation examples right now, or you can try them all and see what works best for you and your business. You’ve got nothing to lose.