Lead generation: 6 mistakes that cost you leads

Lead generation is not an easy game to play. There are many moving parts and other companies competing for the same leads. If you want to get leads on a regular basis and ensure everything works as effectively as possible, you need to avoid six crucial mistakes that hinder your efforts and cost you money. Let’s have a look at them!

Lead generation is incredibly important for all B2B companies and some of the B2C ones. In order to survive and grow, you need a steady stream of new clients. You can’t just rely on the clients you have right now; they can leave your business for hundreds of different reasons at any given moment. The only way to ensure your business is stable is to nail lead generation down.

However, acquiring leads is not easy, to say the least. And many companies make mistakes that make their lead-generation efforts ineffective and time-consuming. If you want to ensure your company generates leads as effectively as possible, you need to steer clear of the following six mistakes.

Mistake 1: Only one lead source

How many lead sources do you have? If only one, you’re exposing yourself to a huge risk. Every lead source fluctuates. Sometimes, it will work brilliantly, and sometimes, it will be just disappointing. Do whatever you can to diversify your lead sources as much as possible.

Even if ads are the source of your leads, try to diversify them as well. Don’t rely just on Google Ads; try Facebook Ads and/or LinkedIn Ads as well. The more lead streams you build around your business, the more stable it will be.

Mistake 2: Insufficient marketing budget

There is no doubt that lead generation costs money. And in B2B, a lot of it. You can’t expect Google or any other advertiser network to give you high-quality leads for $10. In the B2B world, the cost per lead can be well over $1,000!

To understand how this works in your business, take a look at your CPC (cost per click). Let’s say you run Google Ads, and you’re paying $25 per click (that’s high, but in many sectors, the CPC is even higher!). This means that 100 clicks will cost you $2,500. It’s a good starting point; now, check your average conversion rate. Usually, if it’s anywhere between 2% and 3%, you’re good. But it means that you have to be prepared to pay at least $1,250 per lead. 

Is it expensive? That depends, but in general, yes. However, in many B2B sectors you simply won’t make it much lower. The key is to focus on the average lifetime value of each client. Here’s another example: Let’s say your services cost, on average, $1,000 per month. And your clients usually stay with you for 24 months. It means that the average LTV in your business is $24,000. Compared to the $1,250 needed to acquire such a business, even two successful leads per month are enough to make your campaign profitable in month one!

That’s how you should calculate the profitability of your campaign, as well as the budget that’s required to run it. A good starting point is to ensure enough budget to get at least three leads per month, so if you’re paying $1,250 per lead, your budget should be at least $4,000 per month.

Mistake 3: Poor landing page (LP)

That’s a huge problem for many companies. Your lead generation channel will only be as effective as the website that it leads to. It’s extremely difficult to get the landing page done perfectly on the very first attempt. You need to conduct several tests to see what resonates best with your audience.

However, a good landing page should:

• Contain all the information your prospects need (don’t hide important details such as pricing or additional costs)
• Be visually attractive (photos and videos are important, but don’t go overboard with them; too many photos will make your LP heavy and slow down your website
• Contain clear CTAs (usually, it’s good to offer something for free, e.g., a free trial or a free initial consultation)
• Have a clear funnel-like structure (your LP should guide your prospects from initial interest to readiness to buy; start with general information or outline the problem and move on to your solution)
• Be easy to use (don’t tell your prospects to go here, click there, call there; make it as easy as possible; add a contact form at the end of your landing page)

Mistake 4: Inconsistency

That’s another very common mistake, especially for small and medium-sized companies. Here’s a typical scenario: You run a small marketing agency. You acquired two or three new clients, and you stopped your lead generation campaign because that’s all you can handle at the moment. And while that explanation is reasonable, every time you pause your campaign, you lose the momentum. Large advertisers (such as Google) value long-term advertisers who keep their ads running for months and years, not weeks.

If you turn your campaign on and off all the time, you will never get high-quality traffic, and your campaign will never run at full speed. Don’t turn off the campaign unless you absolutely have to. In the long run, that’s a more effective and cheaper option.

Mistake 5: Lack of the follow-up

You’d be surprised how often people fill out the contact form and then… Nothing happens. If you run a lead generation campaign, make sure you check all the inboxes at least once a day and reply to every message and question within 24 hours (the sooner, the better). 

In many companies, the sales department is so busy with the current leads that they sometimes forget to check the inbox or respond to a new potential client. If you want to build a stable and effective lead-generation machine, you have to be quick and respond to every sign of interest as early as possible.

Mistake 6: No tracking or analytics

Modern marketing is data-driven. Without proper tracking, you can’t tell what’s working and what’s not. That means wasted ad spend, missed opportunities, and slow improvement. Plus, by analyzing your audience (especially the part of your audience that converts), you know how to optimize your campaign and which audience segments to exclude from your targeting. Such actions, when implemented correctly, allow you to:

• Spend less money
• Make your campaign more effective
• Increase the conversion rate

Even free tools such as Google Analytics provide you with tons of valuable information that you can use to improve your lead-generation efforts!

Wrapping up: Use iPresso to improve your lead generation

Our marketing automation platform can help you with the majority of the issues we mentioned in this text. With iPresso, you can store all your leads in one place, communicate with them using different channels (which is very important for lead-nurturing purposes), and analyze all the relevant traffic and conversion data.

As a result, you can make more informed decisions and focus your efforts on channels and audience segments that are most effective in terms of conversions. If you’d like to try iPresso, we’re here to help! Just send us this short brief and tell us a little more about your business. We’ll get back to you shortly with a marketing automation platform that’s tailor-made to your needs.