Lead Generation Is Important for Your Small Business

A small business owner sitting at a counter with a wide smile.

What Is Lead Generation?    

Well, firstly, you might ask what a lead is. A lead is a general interest in your company or service. 

See Our Guide: Difference Between Brand Building and Lead Generation     

According to HubSpot, lead generation is “the process of attracting and converting strangers and prospects into someone who has indicated an interest in your company’s product or service.”   

Let us consider what happens when you want a free resource, whether it is an e-book, white paper, or discount code. Fill out your information on a form and download the content or copy the code. You received an email from the company in your inbox, typically thanking you, asking you to ‘opt in’ to their communications, and inquiring to know more about what services you may need.   

This is, in most cases, followed by additional emails meant to educate or entice you to engage more with the business. By sharing your information, you expressed interest in their services or products, thus becoming a lead. 

The interest you have shared with the company opens further lines of communication intended to lead you to purchase. Your willingness to open the lines of communication is organic. And allows the company to share information you want and cater a product or service to your specific needs. This curated experience benefits both the business and the consumer. There is no wasted time cold calling because you are already interested in the business and can engage further on your terms. 

This is precisely how lead generation is supposed to work. When you use it for your own small business, you put the power back into the consumer’s hands, gaining their trust and educating them along the way. 

Lead Generation Is Important to Your Small Business    

Lead generation enables a lot of benefits to your business’ growth. 

For a small business to grow effectively, a lead generation strategy tactfully targets your desired audience and focuses on quality leads that provide a return on your marketing investment. With this approach, you, as a small business owner, spend less time trying to cold-call leads and more time fostering a relationship with engaged consumers. 

See Our Guide: 5 Reasons Why Marketing Takes Time  

 Small Businesses Generate More Leads with HubSpot   

HubSpot is a CRM platform that offers marketing, sales, services, and operations teams seamless collaboration and make the customer journey easier for the consumer. 

Create an Offer for Lead Generation   

Free resources are an excellent way to generate interest in a product or service. By giving valuable content in exchange for contact information, you can build your trust with your potential customers. 

An excellent way to gather leads is gated content. First, offer something exceptionally valuable to potential leads. This offer can be a discount, a webinar, an e-book, or a course. Tailor the resource to your desired audience and create a pathway for these leads to engage with your business. 

When a potential customer fills out their contact information in this form, the program takes all the data and updates it automatically in the CRM, so you can use the contact information to send out newsletters or other forms of contact.   

Email Marketing Drip Campaigns are Key   

You now have permission to use this potential customer’s information to nurture your relationship with them. Send them helpful, valuable emails so that you can convert them from a lead to a sale. 

Host your gated content and create an email drip campaign in HubSpot. 

An infographic explaining how a trigger response works in an email drip campaign.

Consumers may not be ready to engage with your small business at first contact, but this could be because they are only in the research phase of their customer journey or weighing their options. 

With a nurturing email campaign, you can keep your business top of mind and keep customers in your sales pipeline, providing them with tailored content that targets common questions and encourages them to learn more about your products or services.

Email marketing is an essential part of a lead generation campaign. It allows your small business to reach potential leads and guide them through the sales funnel without spamming them with off-the-mark content.   

Trust Your Small Businesses’ Lead Generation with Hot Dog Marketing   

Hot Dog Marketing is a strategic Platinum HubSpot partner. offering businesses HubSpot onboarding services and managed services using the HubSpot platform. Our dedication to small businesses is a big reason why many of our local clients use HubSpot for lead generation strategy. 

Are you ready for strategic marketing that helps your business reach its goals? Start building valuable relationships with potential leads today by contacting Hot Dog Marketing.