As a business, one of your main priorities is to find high-value prospects and keep your sales funnel filled with them. Thus, you’ve decided to hire a lead generation agency to improve your sales and marketing efforts.

Since lead generation is a common difficult feat for business owners, many outsource a lead generation agency to help them with their online marketing efforts to secure an online spot for their business. This also allows them to focus on other aspects of their business operations.

Lead Generation 101

This process is the attraction and conversion of potential customers into someone who expressed interest in buying your products or services.

Effective Lead Generation Campaigns

Nowadays, lead generation is more than running an ad on the television, putting up a billboard, or instructing your sales team to start making calls.

The advent of the internet allowed businesses to reach more customers. However, to be successful, they need to reach out to their target customers who are likely to buy their product or service – otherwise, their efforts are simply wasted. This is why you need to produce high-quality content, the kind that is relevant and useful to your target customers.

To run an effective online campaign, you need the experience and expertise of a professional lead generation agency.

An experienced agent will know how to properly understand how your target audience uses the internet on a day-to-day basis.

However, they will need your help to identify who your target market is.

Types of Lead Generation Agency

There are two primary categories of lead generation agencies: inbound lead generation and outbound lead generation. Asking what type an agency is will help you determine if they are what’s best suited for your business needs and goals.

Inbound Lead Generation (PPC, SEO, Social Media)

This is a type of agency that generates leads by creating highly relevant content and conducting marketing techniques that pull prospects to visit your business website or other online platforms.

Outbound Lead Generation (Cold Calls, Email Marketing, Direct Mail, Advertising)

This type of lead generation agency uses specified outreach channels such as phone calls, emails, pay-per-click ads, and direct mail to generate leads.

Questions to Ask

Before choosing what lead generation agency you want to work with, here are the important questions you need to ask them first.

Who will manage my account/project from your lead generation agency?

This will depend on the size of the agency. If it’s a smaller one, your account manager would most likely be a marketing manager or the head consultant. On the other hand, if it’s a larger agency, your account may be managed by a number of people.

As you know, knowing who would be working on your campaign is vital. It may be a good idea to set up a few meetings with the individual before signing on with the agency.

What lead generation strategy planning will we need to establish?

By asking this question, you want to know what the initial steps are to kick your campaign off and how the process will be implemented.

To get everyone on your team and the agency’s team on the same page, there would need to be several meetings to iron out all the details of your lead generation campaign.

How will we communicate, and how often?

Will there be weekly or monthly calls? What’s the reporting going to be like?

Find a schedule that works for you and the agency. Communication is an incredibly important factor when working with a lead generation agency.

Without having a communication plan in place with an agency, you’re setting yourself up for a major disappointment.

Ensure that your communication plan aligns with the agreement you signed with the agency. You want to be certain that your expectations are clearly outlined in the contract before starting your project.

You must also have a clear timeline of when you can expect to get scheduled detailed reports of how your campaign is performing.

What are the important performance indicators we should look at?

Knowing what performance indicators you should be targeting in your lead generation campaign will give you a good idea of how you should alter and tweak your strategies for success.

Key Takeaway

A good lead generation agency doesn’t just generate your business high-quality leads. They also must set you up for lasting success.