Tired of relying on unpredictable referrals or cold outreach that requires so much time and effort?
Then, take control of your lead generation to help your target audience come to you.
You might have heard that inbound marketing takes months to work. When done properly and with an actual strategy, however, that’s not the case. You can expect leads and juicy results much sooner.
So, in this article, I’ll show you exactly how to generate inbound leads fast, step-by-step.
So, you need inbound leads quickly?
First of all, it’s important to have the right expectations: more leads isn’t necessarily good news.
If they’re the wrong fit, they’re only going to waste your time, money and energy (you don’t want to book dozens of weekly calls with prospects who’re just NOT going to convert, do you?).
So, the goal should be to generate more and higher-quality inbound leads.
Difference between inbound and outbound leads
To make sure we’re on the same page before diving into this:
- Inbound leads are prospects that you attract by putting out valuable content for them (like free lead magnets or blog posts)
- Outbound leads are prospects you’ve reached out to (for example, via cold calls or emails)
Benefits of focusing on inbound lead generation
Nothing wrong with outbound marketing. I just think inbound strategies come with better perks:
- Warmer leads – Inbound leads have already spent time engaging with your content and brand. So, they’re more familiar with you, and they usually trust you more (which makes it easier to convert them into customers)
- Long-term relationships – Instead of approaching a random stranger, inbound marketing nurtures an ongoing relationship with your audience (a relationship that can easily result in brand loyalty and regular purchases)
- Cheaper – Acquiring inbound leads costs 61% less and has a better ROI than cold outreach. Your cost per lead will even go down by a further 80% after 5 months of consistent inbound marketing!
- Ripple effect – With cold outreach, you spend plenty of time nurturing and following up with prospects on a 1:1 basis (and if they don’t become clients, that’s all for nothing). When creating content to generate inbound leads, on the other hand? You’re also positioning yourself as a thought leader and growing your brand awareness at the same time. A win-win!
Top 3 common inbound lead generation mistakes
Generating inbound leads is a goldmine for businesses, but not everyone gets it right. These tend to be the most common mistakes:
- Wrong lead magnet – You NEED to create something useful (something your target audience would actually be interested in and is actively looking for)
- Bad or zero distribution – You can’t just put out your lead magnet and expect thousands of people to come to you (sorry!). You must talk about it and distribute it regularly across different channels
- Relying on guesswork – You must also review your analytics to find out if and how your audience is interacting with your content. Then, use that data to make informed decisions and optimise your inbound lead generation
By now, you know exactly why it’s important to generate inbound leads and what mistakes you must avoid. So, how can you do it successfully, in practice?
I’ll show you!
1. Work out what your audience needs help with
Your inbound lead generation starts with a lead magnet (a free resource that you share with your audience in exchange for their email address).
And that’s why your lead magnet can make or break your lead generation: if it’s not something your audience wants, they WON’T sign up for it.
So, set yourself up for success by starting with their current situation – so that you can then create a valuable lead magnet for them. You need something that solves a small but specific (and annoying) problem while positioning your business as the logical next step.
- Focus on a clear target audience (not “everyone”)
- What are they struggling with right now?
- How could you solve that problem with a lead magnet?
Conduct some research and do some brainstorming to come up with some relevant lead magnet ideas.
2. Step two: Create an engaging lead magnet
There are all kinds of lead magnets out there, but before you put out yet another PDF… hold your lead generation horses!
Those resources (like checklists and small eBooks) are so overused that they’ve become white noise. How many times have you signed up for a free PDF and let it gather dust in your Downloads folder? That’s the same for your audience. No wonder traditional lead magnets have a tiny 3-10% conversion rate.
Instead, stand out and start strong by focusing on the best types of lead magnets. Quizzes, in particular, have a whopping 30-50% conversion rate!
Having a quiz as a lead magnet
Quizzes work so well because they’re attention-grabbing, interactive and personalised. They solve ONE specific problem for your audience and give them something valuable: custom results and advice.
So, to generate inbound leads fast, create a successful quiz lead magnet:
- Choose a topic and title that’ll instantly grab your customers’ attention (for example, by teasing the outcome or core benefit, like “Get your FREE SEO report” or “Find the best training style for your body and habits”)
- Plan strategic questions to learn more about each participant
- Keep them engaged with interesting questions in different formats and visual elements like GIFs and photos
- Divide your participants into segments based on their answers
- Create valuable results that go beyond a simple percentage or profile (for example, Scorecard quizzes are divided into categories, and they show your participants both what they’re already doing well and what they still need help with)
- Set up different and more personalised nurturing sequences for each segment (more on that soon)
Sounds great but… too much work? Not at all! Thanks to ScoreApp’s AI quiz builder, you can create your entire quiz in as little as 3 minutes.
3. Strategically distribute your lead magnet to get in front of your audience
We’ve seen before that “bad or zero distribution” is one of the most common lead generation mistakes. So, don’t let this be the case for you!
Once you’ve created your lead magnet, keep talking about it EVERYWHERE (or better: wherever your audience is lurking and listening).
- Make your lead magnet impossible to miss on your website
- Create content around it regularly, especially on social media
- Use it as a call to action whenever you appear on someone else’s podcast, blog, public speaking event and so on
- Mention it when you’re networking or running your own events
- Consider offering an incentive (for example, a gifted quiz with a monetary reward or exclusive discount)
And once again, this doesn’t have to be too time-consuming. ScoreApp’s AI and marketing assistant makes it a breeze!
4. Follow up and nurture your inbound leads
Getting the right-fit people onto your email list with your lead magnet? That’s a fantastic start… but it’s not enough on its own!
So, it’s time to nurture those leads:
- Set up automated email sequences – Once someone is on your list, send them a personalised drip sequence. This is another reason why quizzes work better than traditional lead magnets: instead of sending the same emails to everyone, you can target each segment with a different and more relevant sequence based on their results (I don’t need to tell you which option would bring you more sales, do I?)
- Nurture your leads with relevant content – This will really depend on your business and audience. But overall, you could send them relevant tips and sales-enablement content (like links to blog posts that answer their most pressing questions, client wins, articles that debunk their concerns and so on)
- Give them a strong call to action – Once that lead is warm, make them an offer they can’t refuse. For example, you could invite them on a call. Instead of a generic “Have you got time for a chat?”, however, make your message specific and personalised. Reference their actual situation, and tease how this call will benefit them
For example, when you use a ScoreApp quiz to generate inbound leads, you can reference each person’s results:
“Hi Mark,
I noticed you recently took our Clever Course Creation Quiz. You scored 80% in the ‘building an audience’ section, which is fantastic. However, your score for ‘finding the right quiz idea’ was quite low. I’d love to share some bespoke advice with you.
Would you be up for a quick call so that I can recommend some strategies that’ll help you improve it?”
And guess what? A quiz lead magnet doesn’t just help you generate more inbound leads and book more calls: it skyrockets your sales call conversions, too!
Instead of starting from scratch every time, you’ll already know A LOT about each prospect, and you can give them value right from the start.
You won’t have to push a generic solution either (or spend half the call trying to find the right one for them). You’ll instantly be able to recommend the best service or package for their specific situation. A game-changer!
Start generating inbound leads fast with ScoreApp
In a nutshell, inbound lead generation is about having a free resource that solves a problem for your audience, nurturing them in a personalised way and following up strategically.
Once you set all that up correctly, you’ll start seeing your target customers come to you.
The dream, right? Well, tet’s turn it into your actual reality with ScoreApp. With a strong quiz funnel:
- You’ll stand out against your competitors and grab your target audience’s attention by offering them a unique and valuable lead magnet
- You’ll wow them with compelling questions and results, segmenting them strategically based on their answers
- You’ll get to easily integrate your quiz with the rest of your marketing materials
- You’ll rely on different and personalised email sequences that nurture your leads, upsell relevant offers and book more sales calls for you… all automatically!
And the best part? You can get started for FREE and within minutes. Take the first step towards generating inbound leads fast: create your ScoreApp quiz today.
