SEO lead generation troubles are not limited to SEO companies, we know this much. The search engines and the user experience associated with the Web as we know it has evolved so much that countless companies are left in the dust. And what do we do now? Plenty if you want your business to recover. The tech is just one side of the story. Here are the real lead generation challenges for all businesses this 2019.

An ITSMA and RAIN Group poll discovered the following top challenges for lead generation that to us apply universally to all kinds of businesses that thrive on B2B lead gen and generally just marketing their brands on the Web.

These are the challenges facing businesses – and there is no way that you can move forward with your lead gen efforts unless you address them:

#10: Agreeing on what lead generation techniques and strategies will be implemented – 20.2%

#9: Having staff or team members that have sufficient knowledge about generating leads – 20.8%

#8: The actual implementation of the strategy of the plan after something has been agreed upon. – 22.8%

#7: Generating and distributing relevant and dynamic content to users. – 22.9%

#6: Funding activities related to lead generation – 25.2%

#5: Working or partnering with strategic partners and other businesses to generate leads – 30.1%

#4: Creating and sustaining the infrastructure required to respond to lead inquiries in a timely manner, and creating a system that will comprehensively manage and track resulting leads from lead gen activities – 30.9%

#3: Monitoring, measuring, documenting, and subsequently analyzing data from lead generation activities – 31.2%

#2: Having a sufficient number of staff to generate leads – 38.2%

#1: Finding and developing a strategy, offer, promotion, or tactic that actually generates interest in potential or intended leads – 42.1%

The lowdown on the statistics:

Looking at the statistics definitely reveals that nearly all of the problems or challenges are on equal footing with each other, and are interrelated.

While the largest obstacle (#1) holds the lion’s share of the votes from the lead gen professionals surveyed, it’s important to realize that each step in this ladder is interrelated to the other steps. So what we are actually seeing here is a trend of not having an actual lead generation system in businesses that need them the most.

The statistics also reveal that effective lead generation is hinged upon user experience more and more (as evidenced by item #3,#4, and #7).

Businesses are struggling to put up their scaffoldings precisely because there are no hard and fast rules for lead generation. But this is a double-edged proposition.

No lead generation system means almost no chance of generating leads in a timely or sustainable manner. There has to be data, there has to be analytics, and there should definitely be an overall strategy that permeates every department or team in the business, from SEO down to sales.

Three Important Steps for Staff and Analytics

Technology is definitely important, but without humans at the helm guiding your ship across the stormy seas of lead generation, your business will go nowhere. So it’s important to take care of the human aspect of lead generation first. And this involves not just the staff running the ship, but also your customers, as you will see below.

STEP ONE: How well do you know your audience?

This is probably one of the oldest questions in marketing and the fact that it still stumps many businesses just shows that it has always been more complex than it sounded. Think of your customers as targets, and understand what would actually make them want to come to your business. There’s the sandbox of competition, and everyone has a gimmick. You don’t want to be gimmicky, trust us. What you need are solid offers and promotions that speak directly to the heart of your targets.

Knowing your customers actually means going beyond the general knowledge of what is known about a particular niche. To treat customers like they are unitary with just a single track mind will most likely backfire on you, mainly because customers can just jump to another website if they don’t like what they see on yours.

So you need to know:

1. What makes them tick
2. What factors affect how they make decisions
3. What they look for in service providers or products

Engaging potential customers, as we as old ones, will give you this deep understanding of your niche. Never make assumptions, and always trust the data that you get from actual engagement. It might be helpful if you asked them about the challenges they are facing currently, and what they are looking for when they look for solutions. This is breaching point between general knowledge and actual insight of your niche. General knowledge is “people want solutions to their problems.” But how exactly do they want to solve their problems in the first place? That is definitely the Big Question.

STEP TWO: Start to love measuring things.

We know that analytics is a pain in the neck. There wouldn’t be so many software out there that attempt to simplify data and analytics if it were so simple, to begin with. Just acquiring the right data is a pain in the neck. It is a good thing that we have the Google Console and Google Analytics at our disposal.

But these are just starting points: there are other, more specialized tech out there that makes data mining and analysis easier. Over time, your business is going to naturally evolve, and with this evolution will come the natural changes to how you want your data to be delivered to you, when, and how.

Analytics gives business owners a glimpse of where the customers are coming from, the quantity of qualified leads your website or landing page is generating, and more. Consistent measurement of your data will show if something is working or not. It is hard work, no doubt. And will it take a lot of time? Probably, which brings us back to point number one, which is to get the right people into the boat so they can help steer the ship.

STEP THREE: Put the right people in appropriate roles.

Today’s landscape requires businesses to put dedicated staff in positions that have to do with lead generation. There is an old belief that you can just put sales staff here and there, and expect digital marketing to bloom. Sales staff and lead generation staff belong to two different worlds. It simply will not work, and will likely result in heartache, full stop.

Top performing companies (up to 70.4% of them) have been found to have lead generation staff dedicated to digital marketing and generating leads. Previously underperforming businesses (42.2%) hat have seen a recovery state that their recovery can be attributed to heightened lead generation efforts and having the right people in the correct roles.

Getting Around the Sticky First Step: Deciding on a Strategy

A huge percentage of lead generation professionals state that just determining the direction of lead generation efforts is difficult. This may have been instigated by multiple factors, but the most common trigger is not having enough knowledgeable people on board to actually brainstorm the strategy.

There is only so much a business can do with the basics, and not having an expert or two onboard will cause a business to flounder and spend a lot of cash on strategies that might not work at all.

Another potential problem is using so-called “time tested” or blanket strategies that may not work with the niche of the business in question. What a business really needs to do is to be familiar with the actual customers and this is the relevant step one, the beginning of the blueprint for lead generation. Because how are you going to make an attractive offer if the customers themselves are placed outside of the orbit. They should be at the very center of the dialogue, always.

Understanding What a Quality Lead Looks Like

So you are creating a strategy to generate leads, and you have an entire team of staff brainstorming as to how to attract the right customers. In the context of SEO lead generation, for example, what does the ideal customer actually even look like? What is running through his head? What does he need when sits down on a computer and runs a search for a solution or service?

An Ideal Customer would have a profile like this:

Also, keep in mind that obtaining quality leads is dependent first on obtaining quality contact data. A healthy lead should also correspond to your target industry, and similar requirements should also be met.

Interesting (No, EXCITING) Tools for Lead Generation

Lead generation is going to cost you, and you should definitely have a budget for it. All things considered, investing in the right software subscriptions can truly make your lead gen efforts more meaningful. Like we discussed previously, the software that you are going to need will depend on what you need done, right? This being said, not every software is going to appear useful until such time that the need for it arises.

1. Hubspot

Hubspot has been around for a long, long time and its neat upgrades over the years has allowed it to become a jack of all trades in the lead gen world. It has CRM tools, sales tools, digital marketing features, and everything you might need to utilize all kinds of data for various types of promotions. There is also space for automation, and you can even use Hubspot for email marketing campaigns. Social media work is also made easier with Hubspot. Those looking to scale may want to try something less expensive as the general feedback is that Hubspot becomes pricier as you scale up.

2. Albacross

Albacross is a B2B lead generation software that will tell you who is visiting your website, and how you can possibly contact them for promotions and offers. With this tool, you will be able to capture your visitors and determine if they are potential matches or leads. You will then gain access to data that will increase your sales intelligence by monitoring what pages are attracting the most relevant attention on your websites. And finally, Albacross will attempt to identify decision-makers and access personal, GDPR compliant email addresses of the most important people in the companies – the decision-makers – for you. Albacross is currently being offered for 149 EUR/month or 200 EUR/month for businesses if you want unlimited users, integrations, and a dedicated success manager. Special enterprise rates are also available.

3. Discover.ly

Discover.ly is definitely simple, but it is groundbreaking and a game-changer, nonetheless. This Google Chrome add-on/extension actually reveals the connections and social media channels of persons on social media. It reveals more information about a person say, on LinkedIn, by showing you that person’s connections and if that person has a Facebook or Twitter account. Finding new leads is quicker and what this Chrome extension actually does is compress the time needed for a person to find potential leads by navigating through social media.

4. WisePops

Yes, we know that pop-up ads are universally hated. But that shouldn’t stop you from making pop-ups that would matter to your customers. It’s not so new a concept, and this tool can help you create stunning pop-ups for your website using 60+ preset templates. Make offers, upsells, and more, with a pop-up window that speaks of urgency and excitement. Use that to your advantage, instead of just allowing customers to ignore pop-ups on your website.