The tech we use every day is changing and evolving quickly.
And so are lead generation techniques used by many businesses.
As a result, it is important to keep up with different technologies that can drastically improve your lead generation efforts going into this new decade.
Let’s break it all down.
Lead Generation in 2020
First, we need to stress how different lead generation is in today’s world.
Gone are the days of buying lists of leads that have been “built for your business”.
In fact, nowadays, buying an email is a bad idea. Not only are these full of low-quality leads, but using them might end you up on legal trouble.
On the other hand, we have the internet with countless websites that are full to the brim with contact information that is incredibly valuable to your business. But extracting this data manually is incredibly-time consuming, expensive and just not efficient at all.
Furthermore, there’s also your website visitors. New potential customers who are visiting your website and not leaving any of their contact information behind.
These represent two huge sources of high-quality leads you can take advantage of with the help of the proper tools.
The first one, web scraping.
What is Web Scraping?
Web scraping refers to the extraction of data from a website. This can also be done via software, automating the entire process.
This means that a web scraper can extract any data from any website and export it in a more convenient format, such as an Excel spreadsheet.
You can use a web scraper to extract contact information from a directory site full of potential customers. Here’s where the real power of web scraping lies.
Read more: What is Web Scraping and What is it Used For?
Collecting Emails with Web Scraping
A very common use of web scrapers involves the collection of email addresses from several websites.
One reason why this method of collecting emails is so popular is that you get to review and select the source of the emails.
Unlike purchased email lists, where you have no information on where the emails are being sourced from.
Interested in quickly building your new and highly-targeted email list? Read our guide on how to use web scraping to collect high-quality email addresses from any website.
Lead Generation with Web Scraping
As we all know, lead generation does not stop at email addresses alone.
But since a web scraper can scrape any data from any website, it can also extract further data such as phone numbers, addresses, names, etc.
All you’ll need to do is find a website that might house this valuable information, set up your web scraper and you’re good to go.
This is specifically easy in the B2B world, where directories of other businesses in specific industries are incredibly common.
After all, wouldn’t it be extremely valuable if these sites had a “Download to Excel” option?
Web scraping gives you such power. Here’s how to use a web scraper for quick and efficient lead generation.
Turning Site Visitors into Leads
The next incredibly valuable source of leads for your business are your website visitors.
After all, these are users who are already interested in your product or service offering and are looking to learn more about it. As a result, they could be incredibly valuable leads that are more likely to convert to a sale.
Therefore, it is imperative that you make it incredibly easy for your website visitors to contact you and provide you with their contact details.
The easiest way to do this is by adding a live chat and CRM tool to your website. Especially since most customers prefer to use a live chat to contact businesses online.
A simple contact form on your site won’t cut it anymore and will lose you out on brand new leads.
Adding a live chat that automatically collects user’s email addresses might sound like a daunting task, but it is actually easier than it seems.
Here’s how to quickly and easily add a live chat to your website that can collect users’ email addresses.
Closing Thoughts
With a new decade coming, competition on every market will only get stronger.
That’s why it is incredibly important to significantly improve your lead generation efforts as soon as possible.
Specifically, if this results in a higher volume of high-quality leads.
