What are lead generation tools?
Lead generation tools refer to any online or offline tool which you can use to generate more leads for your business. The majority of these tools are online and many of them are free, although some of them are paid.
Let’s discuss a few different types of lead generation tools at your disposal (plus examples of each).
Lead Generation Tools
- CRM — A CRM is a holistic online tool for managing leads. When you’re just starting out, you might be able to manage leads just fine by working on a spreadsheet. But as your business grows, you’ll likely need more sophisticated software to keep everything in order. The best CRMs allow you to record where leads are at in your funnel, which ones are motivated and which ones have gone cold, and even specific notes about each individual lead (which is great for building a relationship with your audience). Here are some examples of CRMs
- ESP — An ESP is one of the most basic lead generation tools for your email marketing efforts. It stands for Email Service Provider and it’s an online piece of software (usually a monthly subscription) that allows you to send large batches of email to your list without getting penalized by ISPs. In today’s world, most ESPs also offer opt-in forms for collecting leads on your website, low-level lead management, and email segmentation capabilities. Here are some ESPs that you might want to consider.
- ISP — Most people already use an ISP regularly. An ISP stands for an Internet Service Provider (i.e. Gmail, Yahoo, etc), which allows you to send basic emails and generate some leads through personal communication. But it’s important to differentiate this from ESPs, which allows you to market how you really need to grow your list (en masse).
- Landing Page Builder — Many ESPs will allow you to build very basic landing pages to collect email addresses. And this is fine for starting out. But down the road, you might want to build more sophisticated landing pages. For that, consider a landing page builder that easily integrates with your ESP. Here are some to check out.