Lead generation marketing is essential for continued business growth. But to maximize your ROI, you have to make all the right moves. Otherwise, the process can feel a bit…sluggish.

With that in mind, we’ve put together a quick list of ways you can accelerate your lead generation marketing.

1. Get to Know Your Audience

If you don’t understand your audience, you’re relying on dumb luck to make a connection. That’s not smart lead generation marketing.

Before you start pushing out content to random strangers, take the time to develop buyer personas. Go beyond the surface and drill down to the specifics. Who are these people? What problems do they face on the job? How can you help?

2. Segment Your Email Lists

List segmentation allows you to customize your message for a more specific audience. The more targeted your content, the more valuable it will be to the reader.

Separating your audience by persona is just the beginning. As your campaigns continue and prospects begin to interact with your content, you can begin to gauge interest and better identify sales-readiness.

Knowing where your customer is in the buying cycle allows for more optimized segmentation and lead generation marketing.

3. Create Cycle-Appropriate Content

When you know who your audience is, you can learn to speak their language. But knowing where they are in the buying cycle allows you to craft and deliver the best possible message for that specific point in time.

For the sake of example, let’s break the cycle into three stages.

• Stage 1:  This is the early awareness stage. Prospects may not even know they have a problem, so your content should illustrate the problems your products and services can resolve. Think educational content.
• Stage 2: Prospects are now fully aware of their problem, and they’re just beginning to think about things like affordability, ROI and benefits. It’s your job to help them figure it out. Think white papers and free demos — items that build trust.
• Stage 3: Prospects are ready to become buyers. They’ve worked out the logistics and they’re comparing vendors. It’s time to get into the specifics of your product and illustrate why your solution is best for them.

Bonus Tip: Don’t rush it! Jumping straight from the awareness stage to a sales pitch is a sure-fire way to turn prospects away. Focus on relationship building, and you’ll be the one they turn two when they’re ready to buy.

Keep the Funnel Full

Content plays a huge role in lead generation marketing. But great content is useless if there’s no one to read it. You have to keep the funnel full.

There are a number of ways to go about it, from physical sign-up sheets to web forms to referrals. But if you want to fill the funnel quickly, your best bet is to leverage cold contacts.

Buying email lists from a reputable vendor allows you to tap into an unlimited source of quality leads. Whenever your lead generation marketing efforts need a recharge, simply purchase a new list.

Bonus Tip: Not every marketing automation software is designed to turn cold contacts into warm leads. Stay away from traditional ESPs when using a purchased list. Use Email Lead Generation software.

Monitor Lead Generation Marketing Results

Even the best lead generation marketing strategy needs to change with the times. Keep an eye on key performance indicators, figure out what’s working and improve on what’s not. The more efficient your campaigns become, the faster your leads will become sales-ready.

To learn how our software can help accelerate your lead generation marketing, sign up for a free demo.