7 Lead Generation Examples That Work (And 3 That Don’t)

Lead generation is the start of the process of bringing leads onboard to your business. Ideally, you generate quality leads, nurture them, convert them into paying customers, and then you all live happily ever after.

It’s a better love story than Disney could write, or even Taylor Swift could sing about.

But to make sure your love story is less tragic than some of theirs, let’s take a look at the best examples of lead generation that you should be considering for your smarketing – yes, that’s sales and marketing working together – strategy.

Salespeople, here’s just one reason why you need to align with marketing: most lead generation happens in the marketing funnel. Have a little scroll and see only 1/10 lead generation examples start with the sales team, to get a little insight into what your marketing has been doing – and continues to do – for you.

7 B2B lead generation examples you need to consider

1) Outbound sales

Every sales and marketing strategy should consider two types of leads when it comes to lead generation: inbound and outbound.

Outbound sales might not be the most fun of the lead gen examples, but it’s most definitely worthwhile. Combining outbound sales efforts with marketing efforts to spur on inbound sales is the key (or at least one of the keys) to revenue success.

But the thing is, sales prospecting tools can get a little samey: most of them create a prospecting list of leads for you to qualify, enrich, and outreach to.

But a lot of prospecting tools actually give you more work to do.

How does a contact list which you have to, not only qualify manually, but check if the information is actually valid sound? Because remember, bounced emails do not have a good impact on your reputation or numbers.

However, there are tools that are miles above the rest.

“Toot toot” – sorry, that’s the sound of us blowing our own trumpet, but while we’re here…

Enter: Similarweb Sales Intelligence and its oh-so-fresh data.

All bias aside, let us run through why our all-in-one Similarweb Sales Intelligence solution makes prospecting easy, and outbound lead generation as a whole a lot more efficient:

• Advanced search: Use our lead generation tool to refine your search to fit your ICP
• Contacts: Find contact information for all your prospects
• CRM sync: Download all the contact information from your prospect list straight into your CRM
• Insights generator: Find and use relevant, valuable insights for your outreach and comms to boost your engagement and conversion rate
• Our *new* Sales Signals feature: Get alerted to new sale opportunities (as well as upsell and cross-sell opportunities further down the line)

Just a few tickboxes checked for any of you lead generators out there. ✅ But don’t just take our word for it, you can try it out yourself for free.

2) Content marketing

Content is King.

Yeah, yeah, we know – it’s a cliché but honestly, content just works. It works for selling, it works for marketing, and it certainly works for lead generation of all types.

Whether it’s an SEO-optimized blog post, a popular-to-download e-book, an unmissable whitepaper, or an insanely witty video (holla at our YouTube page), quality content gets you places.

Quality is the key word here.

Now, long gone are the days of “the more content you push out, the more Google will like you”. We’re all about value, and creating content that is worth people’s time.

Our favorite (and arguably, the most successful content theme of all)? Your customers’ pain points.

That’s right – hit ‘em where it hurts. Provide insights and data to highlight their suffering (whether they know it or not), use your content and some more data to show how you’ll save the day, and back it up with evidence and even more data. Did we mention the word, “data”?

That’s one way to quickly become a thought-leader, authority and a trustworthy advisor in your specific industry or niche. Your prospects won’t be able to resist.

Oh and it turns out, content isn’t only King though. It’s the jester, too – because funny content slaps. Case and point with ClickUp’s hilarious advert – and slight dig at competitor, Jira:

If you like ChatGPT chat, check out our guide to ChatGPT for sales. (Disclaimer: includes some serious shade, including the fact it can definitely not give you any *good* jokes).

3) Search engine optimization (SEO)

Now, that leads us nicely onto our next point: search engine optimization (SEO) as a lead generation tool.

Optimizing your website’s content and structure to rank higher – or at least be more likely to stand out from the rest of the search results – is one lead generation tactic every online business should be using.

It brings in organic traffic and works well for brand awareness, and you know what that means? Potential leads.

Now, you might find that the keywords you want to rank for (eg. your solution, your features, and sometimes even your brand name) are seriously competitive. The answer to this = go after *highly relevant* longtail keywords.

“But, how do we find those?”, we hear you ask. Well, we’ll resist from bringing out our trumpet again but like Apple, we’ve got an app a solution for everything, (everything that’s sales and marketing anyway).

This time, it’s Similarweb Digital Marketing Intelligence platform, complete with tools and features to:

• Offer competitor and industry analysis
• Identify gaps and generate keywords to target
• Spot trending topics and keywords relevant to your business
• Use all the above to create a killer content plan

4) Interactive tools and gamification

Everyone. Loves. Interactive. Tools.

It’s psychology – we literally cannot help ourselves.

Gamification is a widely-used marketing strategy, and a highly-effective lead generation example. That’s why it’s a concept that is growing and growing – in fact, 70% of global 2000 companies use gamification in some way, and 50% of startups use it to really fire up their pipeline.

And another fun fact for ya: By 2025, the global gamification sales revenue is estimated to reach $32B. Something you might just want to get on board with.

Done well, gamification can influence and motivate the behavior of people in a number of ways, including to enter their contact details… but only if they get something in return. That’s the secret to effective lead generation. Offering content they need to have, in exchange for their contact details or email sign-up.

In need of inspo? Sure thing – here’s how you can incorporate gamification and interactive tools to generate more leads, and boost those sales.

• Calculators (eg. tax calculator, ROI calculator, mortgage calculator)
• Polls (a good lead generation example that can be distributed via social media)
• Challenges – offer points, badges, or a leaderboard system to bring out their competitive side

But remember, it needs to be relevant to your business, and a genuinely useful – or at least intriguing – resource to work for B2B lead generation.

There are a ton of benefits to gamification to market your product, but that’s a story for another time.

5) Social media

Next up, we’ve got a little thing called ‘social media’ to aid your lead generation efforts.

Social media can actually be considered a multi-faceted lead generation example. You’ve not only got both paid and organic social media, but you’ve also got a bunch of different platforms to use to reach your target audience. Oh, and it can be used for both B2B and B2C.

That has all got to be considered when developing your social media lead generation strategy. Here are some (super) general examples of what that strategy can look like:

• Running social media paid ads with the aim to generate new leads
• Using social media to drive traffic to your next webinar, face-to-face event or resource
• Distributing your content via all your social media platforms
• Building a social media community or forum
• Hosting contests and competitions to drive sign-ups
• Collaborating with influencers or other brands to expand your audience
• Using social media listening for your B2C or B2B lead generation

… to name but a few. Of course, your social media lead generation campaign will revolve around who your target audience and who your key buyer personas are.

You need to create content that will appeal to them (and stand out from the very crowded newsfeed on your chosen platforms), directing users to a landing page or a lead capture form where they can put in their juicy contact details.

6) Free trials and freemium

Offering free trials and freemium is another great way to generate leads. In fact, it’s kinda one of the hottest tactics around at the moment.

As common features to accelerate product-led growth (PLG) – something you’ve probably heard about from most tech heads on LinkedIn – this example of lead generation relies on their product to drive user acquisition. The conversion of freemium customers to paying customers ideally coming further down the line, after the lead is generated and nurtured by the sales team.

A great example is Zapier, 6 out of their top 10 pages are their free trial:

Free trials and freemium subscriptions allow prospects to try out your product for themselves, with no need to speak to a salesperson. This is something that a few personas prefer, (we’re looking at you, software engineers), because they like to get their hands dirty and, admittedly, the undesirable art of salesplaining has given the sales process a bad name to some.

Either way, you’re going to need to hook them in with something they actually want to sign up for in the first place – even if it is for free. This requires:

• Great user experience
• Great support or documentation
• Great research into your target audience 
• Great competitor analysis to see what everyone else is up to
• Great marketing and selling
• Oh, and most importantly: a generally great product that *actually* delivers

Just a few things. And by “great” (a word we might have mentioned), we mean above average. Preferably, above average or at least different to anyone else doing a similar thing.

7) Referral programs and loyalty schemes

Then, we’ve also got the example of referral programs or loyalty schemes to generate leads. That’s right, not only are these tactics great for brand awareness and customer loyalty, they should be considered for your lead generation strategy too.

When customers refer associates, other colleagues, or other businesses – or, on a B2C level, their family and friends – to your business, this is essentially a warm lead. With the personal introduction through ‘your mutual friend’, it’s less of a blind date – they’re more likely to be interested in your products or service, and more likely to convert into customers as a result.

There are a few ways to create an effective referral program or loyalty scheme, including:

• Offer a valuable incentive: Offer up something your customers will actually want, eg. a discount, free product, or even just some kind of recognition.
• Make it easy to take part: Like most things, the easier it is for customers to participate, the more likely they are to do so, so make sure the referral process is simple and straightforward.
• Track your results: (We say this all the time but…) it’s important to always track results to see what’s working and what’s not, then you can make any necessary adjustments and improvements over time.

3 lead generation examples that have lost their touch

Like we said, those are just a few examples of lead generation campaigns to include in your sales and marketing strategy. There are more, but some don’t work quite as well as others anymore. Why? Because they’ve been overdone.

Here are three lead gen examples that had their heyday, with tactic fatigue meaning prospects have started to switch off (and what you can do to avoid that):

1) Webinars and other online events

Okay okay, we’re not saying pull the plug on all the webinars you’ve got in the marketing calendar. But what we are saying is, don’t expect the buzz for webinars and online events to be as great as the times we were working from home, and purely online.

Face to face is back, baby.

Don’t believe us? We’ve got the data to prove it.

Let’s take a look at Zoom traffic stats. You know, that virtual meeting app where we can join a group meeting and just stare back at the reflection of ourselves, wondering whether we should get Invisalign. And also the one where we could communicate and collaborate easily with team members in the peak of the pandemic, and allow us to work efficiently despite being remote. That one.

Whilst we only have great things to say about Zoom.us, the software has started to see a worldwide decline in visits not only year-on-year, but also month-on-month:

Taking April 2023’s data (yep, we really do have it that fresh), we can see the month-on-month percentage decrease for the majority of the countries from March to April – apart from Peru in the top 15, which actually saw an increase of 32.62%.

But your webinar doesn’t have to be part of that downward arrow though.

To get your number of registrations (and therefore, number of leads generated) high, you want to think outside the box. There are so many topics out there that everyone has an opinion on, and you only have to log into LinkedIn to find material, information, and even more opinions around it.

What you want is something niche, something that will stand-out, something that will make them stop scrolling, something that entices prospects in so they just need to know more, but also something that sells your product or business in some way.

Get your topic, messaging, landing page and distribution in check, and just because they didn’t attend, doesn’t mean you don’t send a follow-up email. That’s right, one email for the folks that attended, and a separate one for the folks that didn’t.

2) Online quizzes

Most of us have dabbled in a Buzzfeed quiz in our time, and know exactly which Disney Princess or item of Italian cuisine we are.

But have online quizzes and surveys as a form of lead generation had their day? Have people started to see through their generalist answers that can actually apply to pretty much everyone? Are Gen Z throwing ZZZs at what we used to call ‘fun’?

Here’s just a little bit of what our data tells us:

First, this is just a snippet into the website performance for the aforementioned, Buzzfeed. The year-comparison of the average monthly visits show that the company’s digital engagement is getting lower and lower. But okay, they don’t just do quizzes – but it clearly did not keep up its reputation as the “future of news” along with Vice, did it?

So, let’s take a look at PlayBuzz.com; a website dedicated to online quizzes.

Showing a similar pattern, except much more of a plateau from May 2022 and throughout 2023 so far, PlayBuzz’s number of website visits is getting smaller by the month. While we can blame time of year and seasonal trends to a degree, given the similar fall in traffic for 2021-2022, that blue line doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere high, anytime soon.

But how do you make your online quiz work for lead generation?

Keep it short, snappy, engaging, and with results they’d actually wait to hit their inbox. None of this “You will meet someone tall, dark, handsome in the next 6 months” type thing that you see in horoscopes. As with everything we mention in this post, value is key to engaging leads, generating them, then – hopefully – converting them. You got this.

Oh, and if you’re stuck on questions people want the answer to, plug in your industry or key search term you want to revolve your quiz around in the Similarweb Keyword Generator. Here, you’ll find what people are typing into their search engines around this keyword, including related keywords, trending keywords, and more specifically the most asked question queries on the topic.

As you can see, this works particularly well for B2C (number 8, we can probably all relate), but with the right keyword, the question query section may just guide you to lead generation success via quiz form. Scroll down this particular list, and you’ll find the specific online quizzes people are searching the internet for – your way in!

3) Email marketing

Hear us out on this one: email marketing is not dead. However, your email marketing needs to be optimized and worked hard on if you want to attract the leads that we’re sure you deserve.

These days, email sign-ups are sprinkled on most homepages, landing pages, social media bios, and social media posts. Do they all offer the same amount of value? No, absolutely not – just take one look at the unopened emails in the deleted folder in your inbox and you’ll see that.

Just look at huge fashion brand, ASOS and its decline in traffic coming from email over time:

Are those almost-constant discounts getting a little bit repetitive?

But how do you break through the noise and make email marketing a lead generation example that works for your business?

Ask yourself questions like:

• What is my unique value proposition for this newsletter or email campaign?
• How does my messaging around signing up entice them in?
• Can I offer any deals or discounts to get that lead in quicker?
• How can I personalize or tailor my emails to make them as relatable as possible to those receiving it?
• Can I segment these emails to hit specific audiences, locations, etc to make them extra relevant?
• What ways can I educate prospects on my unmissable content before they see it for themselves?

Basically: make the messaging around your sign-up and email content subscribable, and to warm that lead up (and keep it warm), make your email marketing un-unsubscribable.

Also, don’t forget to keep your email list as up-to-date as possible. Receiving a lot of delivery failures? Scrap those contacts. Notice it’s a contact or company that used to engage with your content a lot? Check them out on Similarweb Sales Intelligence and get your sales team to reach out to their newly updated email address, role, or company to get them back on board. And make the most of our sales intelligence platform and personalize that outreach – that way they can’t help but engage.

Lead generation examples: Back to basics

No matter which lead generation examples you have in your sales and marketing strategy, they all begin at the same place: knowing your target audience.

Effective lead generation is no easy feat these days. In the competitive world we live in, you’ve got to nail your ideal customer profile before you get started on any type of lead generation – otherwise, those efforts will fall flat, and fall flat quick.

By understanding your target audience and your target market, you’ll be able to (metaphorically) spearhead the right businesses which can gain results with a product like yours, but also customers that work well for you as a business.

So, our quick tips to perfect your B2B lead generation examples:

• Know your audience
• Perfect that ICP
• Keep up to date with industry trends and news
• Understand your prospects’ pain points and challenges
• Provide value and solutions with a consultative selling approach

And guess what? You can do all the above with Similarweb Sales Intelligence. We’ve talked about it already so how about you try it out for yourself with a free trial or demo?

FAQs

What are some lead generation examples?

There are several effective lead generation examples that businesses use to attract potential customers. Some common examples include social media marketing, outbound sales, content marketing, email marketing, and referral programs.

How does social media marketing contribute to lead generation?

Social media marketing leverages popular social platforms to engage with potential customers, build brand awareness, and drive traffic to a business’s website or landing pages. By sharing valuable content, running targeted ads, and utilizing lead generation forms, businesses can generate leads from social media platforms.

How can outbound sales be an effective lead generation strategy?

Outbound sales involves proactively reaching out to potential customers through phone calls, emails, or direct messages. By identifying and targeting prospects who fit the ideal customer profile, businesses can initiate conversations, build relationships, and generate leads through effective sales outreach.

What is content marketing, and how does it generate leads?

Content marketing focuses on creating and distributing valuable and relevant content to attract and engage potential customers. By providing informative blog posts, articles, videos, infographics, or whitepapers, businesses can capture the attention of their target audience and convert them into leads through calls-to-action and lead capture forms.