Online Lead generation is often called the lifeblood of a successful business. Why? Because to win more clients, you need to generate more leads.
Without any new leads, you won’t be able to get any new clients.
It’s as simple as that.
So, the big question is…
What is the best way to generate new business leads each month?
And how can you do this in a way that is predictable, profitable, scalable and automated?
After helping hundreds of business owners successfully generate leads, here are the best online lead generation strategies.
The best and fastest way to get new business leads each month is by using a lead generation strategy that attracts and converts leads into clients on autopilot. This free video training explains how to do this step-by-step in a way that is automated, profitable and scalable.
Summary
If you’re short on time, here is a summary of the best online lead generation strategies for business owners:
- Create YouTube videos (best free lead generation strategy)
- Write SEO-friendly blogs with the help of AI (easiest free lead generation strategy)
- Advertise on TikTok (cheapest paid advertising lead generation strategy)
- Leverage Meta Facebook & Instagram Ads (most scalable lead gen strategy)
- LinkedIn outreach with automation software (best outreach lead generation strategy)
These lead generation strategies have been successfully used in our business and with our clients and can work for B2C & B2B leads.
Watch this video if you’d like to learn how to use each of these online lead generation strategies in more detail.
What are the best online lead generation strategies?
Here are the best online lead generation strategies (from best to worst!):
1. Create YouTube videos
Best free lead generation strategy
YouTube is one of the best free lead generation strategies. By creating YouTube videos that answer questions your potential clients search for, you can get new business leads for free.
The more YouTube videos you create, the more leads you can generate!
YouTube SEO Pros
YouTube SEO Cons
To generate YouTube leads, you must:
- Answer a question your potential clients are searching for. This will help you generate leads automatically each month.
- Have a good title & thumbnail. You could have the best video in the world, but it won’t perform well if no one clicks on it.
- Have a higher watch time than your competitors. The longer people watch your videos, the better this signals to YouTube that your video is good and the higher they will rank it.
- Create lots of videos. 80% of your YouTube leads will come from 20% of your videos. So the more videos you record, the higher the chances are some of your videos will perform well.
- Promote your sales funnel. Be sure to send people from your YouTube video to a sales funnel to maximize the amount of leads you get.
Here’s an example of one of our clients in the finance niche who started to generate leads on YouTube each month by recording weekly videos:
Best of all, these views are 100% evergreen. So if the client stopped recording YouTube videos, they would still continue to get leads each month from their existing videos.
Tip: Watch ‘Step 4’ of this video to see how you can convert YouTube views into leads, sales appointments and clients for your business.
Additional YouTube lead generation resources:
Watch the video below to learn more about using YouTube & SEO to generate leads:
2. Write SEO friendly blogs with the help of AI
Easiest free online lead generation strategy
Writing SEO friendly blogs with AI is one of the most profitable and easiest lead generation strategies if your goal is to get free qualified leads.
The problem with writing blogs the traditional way (from scratch) is that it takes so much time! But now, with the help of AI marketing assistants like DASH, you can create AI content in minutes (instead of hours).
Why does SEO content work so well to get leads?
Writing SEO friendly content on your website or blog allows you to generate a steady stream of new leads from people who are searching for the services you provide. Unlike YouTube, where you need to be on camera, when writing blogs, this can easily be outsourced with AI or content writers.
SEO Pros
SEO Cons
To generate business leads with SEO, you must:
- Create high-quality helpful content for potential clients
- Make sure you have a search engine friendly website
- Create lots of content around the topic you are an expert on
- Generate backlinks organically from other websites
Thousands of people (including your potential customers) search Google and/or YouTube for answers to their questions every day.
The question you need to ask yourself is…
Are they finding YOU or your competitors?
By writing articles that answer questions your potential clients ask, you can generate high-quality leads from Google searches for free each month.
Tip: The more content you create answering questions your potential clients ask, the faster results you’ll get. See ‘Step 4’ of this video to learn what kind of questions typically get the best results from Google and YouTube.
Additional Google & YouTube SEO resources:
3. Advertise on TikTok
Cheapest paid lead generation strategy
Running TikTok lead generation ads is one of the best paid lead generation strategies for buying exclusive leads. TikTok ads can work well for both b2b and b2c lead generation.
In our experience, you can get 2-5x more leads on TikTok than on Facebook or other advertising platforms.
TikTok Ad Pros
TikTok Ad Cons
To get sales leads with TikTok, you must:
- Create a 60-second (or less) video ad
- Send people from your video ad to your sales funnel
- Offer a free lead magnet in your TikTok ad
- Split-test different audiences and video ads on TikTok to see what works best
- Spend at least $1,500 for best results.
TikTok ads work well for targeting both younger and older people. In fact, the older age demographic (people aged 45+ or 55+) is growing rapidly on TikTok. We’ve been testing TikTok for both B2B and B2C lead gen, and we’ve had no problems targeting high net worth people on this advertising platform.
Is TikTok better than Facebook ads?
In our tests, we’ve found that 90% of our clients who test Facebook and TikTok ads get better results (in terms of cost per lead, cost per appointment, and cost per acquisition) with TikTok ads.
Here’s a more detailed breakdown of why TikTok ads beat Facebook ads (in most cases):
If you want to learn more about using TikTok ads, check out our Free Masterclass training.
4. Meta Facebook & Instagram ads
Fastest way to get leads online
With Meta’s Facebook & Instagram ads, you can generate leads much more quickly than with free lead-generation channels such as LinkedIn outreach or Google SEO.
Please note: Since Meta own both Facebook & Instagram, when referring to “Facebook Ads” please keep in mind this includes “Instagram”, Threads and any other assets owned by Meta which may display ads either now or in the future.
Facebook Ad Pros
Facebook Ad Cons
To get business sales leads with Facebook Ads, you must:
- Create high converting ad copy
- Split test multiple ad text, headlines and creatives
- Target the right Facebook ad interests
- Send people from a Facebook ad to your sales funnel
With Facebook ads, you can combine multiple interests to drill down and target someone who is exactly the kind of client you want to win.
Facebook ads allow you to get leads and find new clients on-demand. One advantage of Facebook Ads is that you can target people on Facebook who are searching Google without paying for Google ads.
See ‘step 4’ of my free training for more information on how to use Facebook ads to get leads on demand.
Additional Facebook ad resources:
- How to get leads on Facebook ads
- The best Facebook ads objective for leads
- How much do Facebook ads cost
5. LinkedIn outreach with automation software
Best online outreach lead generation strategy
On LinkedIn, you can generate new business for free by connecting to potential clients and asking them to watch a free video about solving their big problems.
You don’t have to spend any money on LinkedIn ads to do this, but you do need to spend time finding, connecting and messaging people who are your potential clients.
Or…
If you’re willing to spend a bit of money on AI lead generation software, you can use LinkedIn automation tools to do most of the hard work for you!
LinkedIn Pros
LinkedIn Cons
To get business leads with LinkedIn, you must:
- Use LinkedIn ads or LinkedIn automation tools to reach potential customers
- Don’t sell straight away. Instead, use a lead magnet (such as a free video).
- Have conversations with potential clients
- Send warm leads into your sales funnel
- Reach out to as many people as possible (it’s a bit of a numbers game)
LinkedIn works especially well for B2B sales funnels because it allows you to target people by job title, industry and seniority level.
See ‘step 4’ of this video for more info about how this works.
Additional LinkedIn resources:
6. Google Ads
If you’re looking to target people who are actively searching for a solution that you provide, Google ads are a great way to generate online leads.
The advantage of generating leads with Google ads is that you can target people searching for different keywords on Google in real time. Often, these people can convert quicker because they are looking for a solution right now.
The downside is that it can be more expensive than other advertising channels due to more advertisers competing for the same keywords.
To get leads with Google ads, you must:
- Start by targeting long-tail keywords related to your product or services
- Gradually expand your keyword targeting
- Use high converting landing pages to generate leads from ads
- Track which keywords convert best (turn off the ones that don’t work well)
- Follow up with leads often to convert them into clients
7. Buy leads
Buying leads from another lead generation company is a fast way to get leads online.
However, keep in mind there are pros and cons of buying leads.
The pros of buying business leads from websites are that you don’t have to do any work to get leads. This makes it a quick and easy way to generate leads.
The cons are that buying leads is often more expensive than getting your own exclusive leads at cost.
Buying leads is very popular in certain industries, such as life insurance, annuities and financial services.
In my own business, I’ve both sold leads to businesses and helped businesses generate their own leads.
Although both strategies can work, I’ve found most business owners prefer to generate their own leads. This video explains how to generate your own leads (and automate most of the process).
To buy leads, you must:
- Find a reputable lead provider
- Only buy exclusive leads to increase your chances of success
- Follow up with leads often to convert leads into appointments and clients
- Buy as many leads as possible to increase your chances of success
- Reach out to leads quickly for best results
8. Use AI lead generation tools
Another great way to generate leads online is to use AI lead generation tools. These tools can help make lead generation in your business easier, quicker and more cost-effective vs doing everything manually by yourself.
To get leads with AI, you must:
- Find AI automation tools that replace marketing tasks you currently do manually
- Test different messages at scale with the power of AI
- Find AI marketing tools that align with your business goals
- Test AI lead generating tools for at least 6 months
Using artificial intelligence, it will likely be possible to automate almost every aspect of your lead generation campaign in the future.
Recommended lead generation software resources:
9. Look for niche-specific lead generation services
If you’re looking for faster lead generation results, searching for what lead generation strategies work specifically well for your niche can be helpful.
The fact is that you’ll get much quicker results with your lead generation campaign if you work with someone who already has success in your niche.
For example, although we can help lots of different types of businesses generate leads, here are some of the types of leads we have the most experience generating:
- Financial advisor leads
- Annuity leads
- Life insurance leads
- Accounting leads
- Mortgage leads
- Medicare leads
- Commercial cleaning leads
You can see more examples on our clients results page here.
It’s a lot easier to generate leads when you have a niche.
To get leads with a niche, you must:
- Create content specifically for your niche
- Have case studies from the niche you’re targeting
- Use lead generation tactics that have been proven to work for your niche
- Target multiple niche’s to scale up your lead generation efforts
10. Always be A/B testing (split testing)
One of the best lead generation strategies is to continually split-test different ads, messages, landing pages and videos. Why does this work so well?
Whenever you conduct an A/B split test, you improve your lead generation campaign. Over time, you could easily 2-10x your lead generation results (with the same budget) through split testing.
For example, we split-tested two landing pages for a client that was running TikTok ads. Both landing pages were identical in design, and the only difference was the headline being used. After generating 250 leads from the landing pages, we were able to determine “page 2” performed 10% better:
As a result of split tests like this, we were able to lower the cost per lead and generate many more leads from the same advertising budget.
11. Use simple landing pages
Another good lead generation strategy is to use simple landing pages to convert cold traffic into leads and clients.
To generate leads with simple landing pages, you must:
- Have a big headline that solves a painful problem
- Avoid using a navigation menu which can distract people from taking action
- Include your call-to-action (CTA) before the fold to maximize conversions
- Use social proof to increase the chances that leads convert
- Have an exit-intent pop-up to convert leads before they leave the page
Landing pages are typically used as part of a sales funnel to take leads through the buyer journey.
Without landing pages a website will convert about 1% of the traffic into leads. With high converting landing pages a website will typically convert 20% of the traffic into leads.
Here’s an example of what a high converting landing page looks like.
12. Make lead generation forms easy to fill out
Another good lead generation strategy is to use lead generation forms that are easy to fill out.
You will reduce your conversion rate if you ask too many questions on your forms. For example, if you’re running ads, in our experience, each question you ask on an opt-in form will increase your ad cost by 25-50%.
To get the most amount of leads from a lead generation form:
- Avoid asking too many questions. Name & email is usually best.
- Only ask more questions (e.g. business name, revenue, etc) after a lead has converted.
- Make the lead generation form fields large and easy to see.
- Make the button to submit their info contrast well with the background.
Here’s an example of a high converting lead generation form:
This type of simple form should be used at the beginning of the lead generation process.
Later on, you can use more complex forms to filter out low-quality leads and make sure you only speak to qualified leads. Here’s an example of a more complicated lead generation form:
As you can see, one of the questions in the form mentions the price of the services. Asking questions like this can filter out people who don’t have the budget to work with you.
13. Use AI chatbots
A new and powerful lead generation strategy is to use AI business chatbots powered by AI to generate leads from your website.
AI chatbots make it easy for people to ask questions about your services give people instant answers to their questions.
To get leads with a live chat AI sales bot, you must:
- Train the AI chatbot based on your unique business data
- Make sure the chatbot has a lead generation form to capture names and emails
- Place the live chatbot on important pages of your website (such as a sales page)
The page you’re on right now has an AI chatbot that you can test for yourself and see how it works!
14. Retargeting ads
Another powerful way to get leads from people who visit your website or consume your content is to run retargeting ads.
The idea behind using retargeting (or remarketing) ads is to display ads to people who have shown an interested in your services, but haven’t converted yet.
Retargeting ads are usually the quickest and most cost-effective way to get leads from cold traffic.
To run retargeting ads, you must:
- Track website visitors using a retargeting pixel from Facebook, TikTok or Google
- Use Adroll to retarget people on thousands of non-social media sites
- Use a lead magnet to entice people to learn more about your services
- Retarget people who visit your most valuable pages (e.g. sales pages)
15. Leverage case studies
Case studies can be used as a lead generation strategy by showcasing how you’ve helped clients achieve their goals. They typically include before-and-after results, testimonials, and project details.
By sharing success stories, potential clients can see what you can do for them, building trust and demonstrating your expertise. This can attract quality leads who are interested in similar results.
To get leads with case studies, you must:
- Publish real-life client success stories on your website
- Showcase these case studies on social media
- Detail project specifics and outcomes for transparency and credibility
- If possible, get clients to record a video testimonial
- In the case study, have a call to action to your sales funnel where leads can learn more
16. Run an affiliate program
An affiliate program can be a powerful lead generation tactic for your business by leveraging the networks of others to promote your products or services.
Affiliate programs are similar to referral programs. By partnering with affiliates, you can tap into their audience and reach potential customers who may not have been exposed to your brand otherwise.
Affiliates are incentivized to drive traffic and generate leads for your business through various marketing efforts, such as content creation, social media promotion, and email campaigns.
This collaborative approach allows you to expand your reach and attract leads through trusted recommendations from affiliate partners.
One key benefit of an affiliate program is the ability to access new markets and demographics that align with your target audience.
To get leads with an affiliate program, you can:
- Partner with affiliates to tap into their audience and reach new potential customers
- Incentivize affiliates to drive traffic and generate leads through various marketing channels
- Access new markets and demographics aligned with your target audience
- Gain valuable insights into consumer behavior and preferences from affiliate partnerships
- Motivate affiliates with commissions or incentives for successful lead generation efforts
17. Other lead generation strategies
There are many additional types of lead generation strategies including:
Traditional lead generation strategies:
- Networking events
- Referrals
- Seminars
- Speaking at events
- Sending out flyers
- Cold calling
- Door knocking
- BNI
- Word of mouth
Online lead generation strategies:
- Cold emailing
- Buying leads
- Google Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- YouTube search engine optimization
- Paid Advertising (Facebook ads, Google ads, TikTok ads, YouTube ads, etc)
- Retargeting ads
- Email marketing
- Inbound leads
- Content marketing
- High-converting landing pages
- Affiliate marketing
- Joint Ventures
- And more!
As you can see, there’s no shortage of ways to get leads for your business.
However, you do NOT need to do all of these lead gen strategies.
In fact, you only need one (or a few) high-converting lead gen strategies.
Watch ‘Step 4’ of this video to see what the top lead gen channels are right now.
How can you generate new business leads?
To get new business leads, you need the right strategy.
Without the right strategy, it doesn’t matter what you do to try and get leads, it won’t work very well…
In this video, I explain the best lead generation strategy to get high quality business leads and sales appointments with your ideal clients every single month.
Here’s a quick overview of the process involved:
- Step 1: Generate leads with an opt-in page (your lead magnet)
- Step 2: Convert leads to appointments with your lead magnet
- Step 3: Convert appointments into clients after speaking to them
It sounds simple, but the reality is, there are lots of moving parts at each step of the process. That’s why I recommend watching this video which explains each of these steps in more detail. This will help you avoid making common mistakes and get faster results.
Tip: Don’t have the time to do this yourself? Check out my done-for-you lead generation services.
Here’s a breakdown of each step in the lead generation funnel:
Step 1: Have an opt-in page
An opt-in page is a landing page where you promise to give your potential clients a solution to a problem they have in return for them giving you their name & email.
Here’s an example of one of my most popular opt-in pages:
An opt-in landing page should have:
- A title that describes a big problem you solve for your potential clients
- A few bullet points with some added value or reasons why this would be a good fit for them
- A form where they can enter their name & email to receive the information you promise
Tip: Keep the opt-in landing page simple. Sometimes if you put too much text (e.g. a long sales page) you can accidentally give reasons why you might NOT be a good fit. Long sales pages can also cause your website to load slower which negatively affects the conversion rate.
Step 2: Convert leads into sales calls
After leads have given you their name & email, you now need to give them the information you promised.
The information needs to explain how they can solve a problem they have and how you can help them get even better and quicker results if they decide to work with you rather than do everything by themselves.
When presenting this information, I recommend doing it in a video format, rather than a written guide.
Why use a video as your lead magnet?
A video is:
- More engaging (in other words, people will actually WATCH it)
- It’s easier to build trust on video vs written information alone
If you’d like to know in more detail what to actually say in this video to get more conversions, then check out ‘Step 2’ of the free Masterclass training I recorded which goes through how to do this in a lot more detail.
If people like what they hear in the video, they need to be able to click on a button below the video to go to the next step in your sales process (e.g. buy a product, service or book a sales appointment).
For most of our clients, the next step in the sales process is to schedule a sales appointment.
Step 3: Convert sales calls into clients
At this stage, your lead has gone from a stranger to someone who has booked an appointment with you to learn more about how you can help them.
To increase the quality of your sales appointment you can:
- Get leads to fill out an application form prior to scheduling a call
- Explain who you are (or are not) a good fit for
- Tell prospects your pricing upfront
At this stage, you now need to speak to them, explain how you can help them and of course answer any other questions they might have.
It’s also worth noting that…
Some leads you generate will convert into appointments and clients straight away.
But most will not (which is totally normal).
That’s why you must have a strong follow-up process to build trust with your leads over time and to maximize your conversions.
You can follow up with leads via:
- An automated email follow-up sequence
- Retargeting ads on social media
- Retargeting ads on Adroll
If you want a deeper dive into generating leads, appointments and clients step-by-step, I highly recommend watching my free training here.
Lead Generation Quick Guide
The first step to generating leads is understanding what lead generation is and how it works. Here’s a quick beginner’s guide to getting started guide to lead generation.
What is lead generation?
Lead generation is defined as the process of getting people to raise their hands because they are interested in learning more about how you or your business can help them. Business owners use lead generation to attract potential customers to their business.
What is a lead?
A lead is a person who fills in a form online because they are interested in learning more about your product or services. This is usually done in the form of a lead magnet, such as an:
- eBook
- PDF Guide
- Webinar
- Or video sales letter
A lead is not the same as a qualified sales appointment or new clients, but it is the first step to getting one.
If you want to learn how to increase the quality of your sales appointments each month with your lead generation campaign, watch my free training here.
Why is lead generation important?
Lead generation allows you to grow your business. Without a lead generation strategy, you will not have a constant supply of new clients, and without any new clients, your business won’t be able to grow.
Because some B2B or B2C lead generation companies have sales cycles that may last many months, it’s often recommended that you always keep your lead pipeline full to ensure your business keeps growing.
The bottom line
When it comes to marketing your business, there are hundreds of marketing strategies you could use.
But very few actually get real tangible results.
So, I recommend keeping your marketing simple and staying focused on the activities that will yield the best results.
In fact, all you really need to do is focus on ONE or a few good strategies that will constantly generate new leads for your business each month.
Remember: The more leads you generate, the more appointments and clients you will win monthly in your business.
If you’d like to see my detailed step-by-step strategy for getting leads and appointments each month on Facebook, LinkedIn, Google, and YouTube, then watch my free Masterclass training here.
FAQs related to Lead Generation
Ashley Davis (or ‘Ash’ for short) is the CEO & Founder of Skyline Social. For over 15 years, Ash has been helping business owners get high-quality leads, appointments, and clients each month. He has extensive experience working with B2B & B2C industries in finance, insurance, marketing, sales and beyond. Learn more about the author here.
