What is lead generation?
Posted: Tue Jan 28, 2025 10:23 am
Lead generation, as the word suggests, refers to the activity of acquiring potential customer information through marketing activities. For example, the following activities are all part of lead generation:
Obtaining business cards at exhibitions
Obtaining inquiries on the website
SEO Measures
Sales activities such as cold calling and telemarketing also count as lead generation. Until now, it was common for marketing staff to hand over the leads they acquired to sales, who then approached the leads. However, with the spread of the Internet and customers' active information gathering, it has become important to contact customers at an early stage, when their needs have not yet become apparent.
As a result, the leads handed over to sales included a wide range of leads, from very promising ones who were currently considering or implementing the product, to payroll directors email database potential leads who were still in the information gathering stage. If the prospect was low when the sales team approached them, they were simply left alone.
What is Lead Nurturing?
Even if you acquire a lead, if you leave it because there is no need at the time, your competitors may take them. The concept of "lead nurturing" emerged in such a situation.
As the term "lead nurturing" suggests, it refers to the activity of increasing the likelihood of a lead being recruited by continuing to provide useful information to the leads you have acquired and educating them about your company's services .
For example, the following activities qualify as lead nurturing:
Email newsletter delivery
Providing case studies
Seminar Information
Free trial information
By conducting this type of lead nurturing and having our sales staff approach leads whose needs have become apparent, we are now able to focus on more profitable business negotiations.
What is Lead Qualification?
Lead qualification is a marketing method to select customers who are especially motivated to purchase from the lead nurturing stage. If you can select a lead to this state, they are already interested in your company's services, making it easier to sell to them and promote them.
Here are some ways to qualify your leads for purchasing intent:
inquiry
Download service materials
Participation in seminars
Viewing the service site
Approach from sales
After selecting the customers, we then conduct further analysis based on the following factors:
Customer attributes (industry, job type, position, etc.)
Activity History
Information customers have at hand
It is important to analyze these factors and continually review your lead qualification criteria to create a list of profitable sales approaches.
summary
Lead generation and lead nurturing are very closely related and cannot be considered separately. It is necessary to develop a lead nurturing strategy and analyze what approach is effective for acquired potential customers.
In addition, we will strategically plan what kind of potential customers we can acquire through our company's PR and advertising, and what methods we can use to nurture them further to lead to more promising business negotiations. It is important to think of lead generation, lead nurturing, and even sales activities as a consistent process.
Obtaining business cards at exhibitions
Obtaining inquiries on the website
SEO Measures
Sales activities such as cold calling and telemarketing also count as lead generation. Until now, it was common for marketing staff to hand over the leads they acquired to sales, who then approached the leads. However, with the spread of the Internet and customers' active information gathering, it has become important to contact customers at an early stage, when their needs have not yet become apparent.
As a result, the leads handed over to sales included a wide range of leads, from very promising ones who were currently considering or implementing the product, to payroll directors email database potential leads who were still in the information gathering stage. If the prospect was low when the sales team approached them, they were simply left alone.
What is Lead Nurturing?
Even if you acquire a lead, if you leave it because there is no need at the time, your competitors may take them. The concept of "lead nurturing" emerged in such a situation.
As the term "lead nurturing" suggests, it refers to the activity of increasing the likelihood of a lead being recruited by continuing to provide useful information to the leads you have acquired and educating them about your company's services .
For example, the following activities qualify as lead nurturing:
Email newsletter delivery
Providing case studies
Seminar Information
Free trial information
By conducting this type of lead nurturing and having our sales staff approach leads whose needs have become apparent, we are now able to focus on more profitable business negotiations.
What is Lead Qualification?
Lead qualification is a marketing method to select customers who are especially motivated to purchase from the lead nurturing stage. If you can select a lead to this state, they are already interested in your company's services, making it easier to sell to them and promote them.
Here are some ways to qualify your leads for purchasing intent:
inquiry
Download service materials
Participation in seminars
Viewing the service site
Approach from sales
After selecting the customers, we then conduct further analysis based on the following factors:
Customer attributes (industry, job type, position, etc.)
Activity History
Information customers have at hand
It is important to analyze these factors and continually review your lead qualification criteria to create a list of profitable sales approaches.
summary
Lead generation and lead nurturing are very closely related and cannot be considered separately. It is necessary to develop a lead nurturing strategy and analyze what approach is effective for acquired potential customers.
In addition, we will strategically plan what kind of potential customers we can acquire through our company's PR and advertising, and what methods we can use to nurture them further to lead to more promising business negotiations. It is important to think of lead generation, lead nurturing, and even sales activities as a consistent process.