What Is Lead Capture?

Lead capture is the process of turning visitors to your website or social pages into leads. When you capture a lead, they give you their email, phone number, or other information and permission to send them emails. This permission matters for a variety of reasons:

• It gives people a chance to get to know you and your business. Trust makes a sale more likely.
• Someone who gives you permission to contact them is already interested in what you sell and, as such, is a warmer lead than someone who just sees your offer on their social media feed.
• Having many touch points with a new lead can help you cut through the noise of the thousands of marketing messages they receive.
• You own your email list (social media followers, etc.) so it’s an asset that indicates your business has enough traction to sustain revenue. This matters to investors and buyers.

What is the difference between lead generation and lead capture?

Lead generation is the entire process from getting someone’s attention (on social media, your website, or a stage you’re speaking on) to converting them to a paying client. The steps vary depending on what you sell and to whom, but the basic steps are as follows:

What strategies can improve lead capture conversion rates?

The best strategies for lead capture depend on your business and who your clients are. Here are some strategies our clients find helpful:

Content Marketing

Content marketing involves using long, medium, and short-form content across a variety of mediums to attract attention and convert visitors into leads, and leads into customers. We included a call to action (CTA) in every piece of content to move prospects through your world.

• Long-form content can be shared via blogs on your website or Linkedin across social channels. These should be search engine optimized (SEO) to ensure you’re reaching the right people.
• Long-form video content that matches the subject matter in your written content.
• Medium-form content pulled from your long-form content and repurposed.
• Books that showcase your expertise and dive deep to give leads who are on the fence enough information to trust and hire you.
• Lead magnets (like a free download) that showcase enough of your sparkle to get folks interested but not so much that they don’t crave more.

Social Media Engagement

Leveraging social media platforms can help capture leads by increasing brand visibility and engagement. The best practice is to shoot for about 80% value-drive posts (entertainment, inspiration, or information) and 20% harvest posts, where you ask followers to convert in some way.

Don’t keep reinventing the wheel for social media — save time and energy by finding ways to repurpose your long-form content to create engaging social media marketing campaigns that will help you get and keep attention.

Email Marketing

Effective email marketing provides entertainment, inspiration, and valuable information without being annoying. Your email marketing campaigns begin trading a lead magnet for contact information and permission to market to each person.

A lead capture form on your website, and an evergreen email series that starts with your lead magnet is a simple, easy way to capture and nurture these leads.

Networking and Partnerships

Many of our clients have good luck securing qualified leads at networking events in their industry or by offering affiliate or referral fees. This is particularly true for our business coaching and public speaking clients.

Speaking opportunities with landing pages and lead magnets can help you warm up cold leads and turn them into customers. When you’re speaking, having a QR code, or other easy way for the audience to download your offer can help ensure you get their contact information. Then, you can nurture them through email marketing, blogs, and more.

Common Mistakes to Avoid in Lead Generation

Not all leads are created equal. Getting a lead who has already interacted with your content is more valuable (because they’re more likely to convert to sales).

Neglecting Follow-Up

You have to follow up with leads in order to convert them to sales. Using a CRM such as Funnel Gorgeous, Go High Level, or Keap to capture your leads will aid in consistent follow-up. You can also use chat-bots in social media, DM’s to ensure you follow up immediately with potential customers.

Overlooking Analytics

Ultimately, you want to have more than one lead generator, but even if you’re only using one, you want to have some idea of how many people are visiting your site and how many of those people convert (download your ethical bribe). Setting up data collection from the start will help you analyze trends over time. Try engaging in some a/b testing — post the lead magnet on social media in a few different ways and see what works better.

AI and Lead Generation

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has revolutionized the way businesses approach lead generation and capture.

Predictive Analytics

AI leverages predictive analytics to analyze large volumes of data and identify potential leads who are most likely to convert into customers. By assessing past customer interactions and behaviors, AI algorithms can predict future buying patterns and help businesses target their marketing efforts more accurately. Effectively leveraging AI for analytics can help you make sound business decisions even when you can’t afford a sales team.

Enhanced Personalization

Based on data gathered from user activities across different digital platforms, AI can tailor messages, offers, and content to individual prospects. This personalized approach increases the likelihood of engagement, as content is directly relevant to each lead’s interests and needs.

Chatbots

Chatbots powered by AI are becoming essential tools for lead capture. They can engage with visitors on websites or social media platforms 24/7, answering questions, providing information, and guiding users through the lead capture process. This immediate interaction helps maintain user interest and increases the chances of converting casual visitors into leads.

Email Marketing Optimization

AI tools can optimize email marketing campaigns by determining the best times to send emails, predicting which email subjects and content lead to higher engagement, and segmenting email lists based on user behavior and preferences. This targeted approach ensures that leads receive relevant content at times when they are most likely to open and engage with emails.

Content Generation

AI can assist in generating content that attracts and captures leads. By analyzing keywords, trending topics, and the performance of past content, AI can suggest content that resonates with your target audience and even help outline long-form content.

The Basics of Capturing Leads

As an entrepreneur, you can’t always manage a full marketing team right away, so getting some direction on content marketing can be helpful. To get the right help, though, you need to know what types of leads you want, where they hang out, and how to capture them.