Lead generation is how you attract potential customers and capture their contact details—empowering your sales team to turn interest into revenue.

A “lead” is anyone who shows interest in a brand’s products or services but isn’t ready to buy yet. The right follow-up turns them into customers.

An effective lead generation strategy keeps new customers and revenue coming in. Demand generation builds brand awareness. Lead generation turns that awareness into named contacts.

Why do businesses need lead generation?

Lead generation is the foundation for building valuable relationships with your target audience. When prospects initiate connections—by reading your content or engaging on social—their transition from stranger to customer accelerates.

How the lead generation process works

Lead generation is the second stage of the inbound buyer journey. It follows five steps:

  1. Attract visitors: Draw people in through a marketing channel like email or social media
  2. Capture contact details: Send visitors to a landing page that trades an ebook or other offer for their details
  3. Qualify leads: Score each lead against your buyer persona to see if it’s sales-ready
  4. Nurture leads: Share relevant content with leads that aren’t ready to buy
  5. Hand off to sales: Pass sales-ready leads to your sales team

Common lead generation strategies

Most companies mix lead generation techniques. Common lead generation strategies include:

  • Gated content creation: Gated content encourages customers to provide their contact details in exchange for exclusive content. Gated content is excellent for collecting lead information, but it won’t appeal to all consumers.
  • Social media marketing: Social media lets brands reach a specific audience and start conversations that lead to purchases. Explore the social tactics that turn followers into leads.
  • Inbound marketing: Videos, blogs and articles educate customers and direct them toward a landing page. CTA (Call to action) content then converts the lead by asking them to engage in a valuable action.
  • Ads and retargeting: Ads placed on relevant websites offer a form of outbound marketing that raises awareness about your business and improves your chances of gaining leads.

Aligning sales and marketing in lead generation

Lead generation succeeds when marketing and sales work together. Through social selling, networking and outbound emailing, sales teams support lead generation and help qualify leads.

Lead qualification determines whether leads are ready for the sales team, based on their alignment with your ideal customer persona. Teams track leads in customer relationship management (CRM) software before passing them to sales.

Marketing qualified leads (MQLs) have engaged with your marketing but aren’t ready to talk to sales. Sales qualified leads (SQLs) show clear intent to buy.

How to measure lead generation

Track these lead generation metrics:

  • Lead volume: New leads captured in a set period
  • Lead-to-customer conversion rate: The share of leads that become customers
  • Cost per lead: Campaign spend divided by leads produced
  • Time to qualification: How long a lead takes to become sales-ready

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