A lead generation strategy puts you in touch with potential customers interested in your service or product. The aim of lead generation is to start a first conversation with prospects, but that is only the first of a series of steps: turning people into leads, then qualifying them to see which leads are the most "promising", and finally reaching conversion.
As you will have gathered, the goal is not simply to attract leads, but to attract good-quality leads. So let's look at the strategies that bring in strong leads.
What is lead generation and why it matters in B2B
By definition, lead generation is the collection of leads' contact details. It covers everything that helps us generate interest in our products or services.
The goal is simple:
- reach interested people;
- get those people's contact details, the leads;
- turn their interest into an actual sale.
Laid out in a straight line like this the process looks simple, but it is not.
For a purchase to happen, a single contact with a company is rarely enough. This is even more true in B2B, where many touchpoints are needed and the decision process is longer. Below is an example of typical B2B touchpoints.
It is not a complete overview, and a single lead does not have to go through all of these touchpoints, but it gives you an idea of how complex the buying journey is.
With a decision process this involved in B2B compared with B2C, a solid lead generation strategy matters even more. Why build one? The benefits are many:
- getting qualified leads and putting more resources into the leads most likely to become customers;
- raising conversion rates;
- improving the whole sales cycle.
Want these benefits? That is why we have gathered the best strategies you can use for lead generation.
Lead generation strategies
Now that it is clear what lead generation is for, you may be wondering where to start. There is no single strategy, so here are several tactics we use regularly when supporting our clients, and which you can start applying too.
Identify visitors and find contacts efficiently
There are several ways to get leads' contact details, and one of the most effective is to use lead intelligence systems.
With lead generation tools such as Leadinfo, Leadfeeder and VisitorQueue, we can trace the contact information of website visitors.
The advantage of these tools is clear:
- we start from people who are already potentially interested, since they visited the site;
- we get verified contact details;
- we can use automation: these tools connect to CRMs and email marketing tools, so contacts can be exported straight away.
We can also use:
- email finder tools such as Hunter, which builds contact lists from company websites or names.
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator, which helps identify decision makers and can be connected to our CRM to export the data.
Qualify your leads
Did you know that 44% of sales teams are unhappy with lead quality? That is one of the statistics collected by Exploding Topics (updated in 2025).
You might think the biggest challenge in lead generation is getting new leads, but it is not. The real challenge is getting qualified leads.
Where do you start with lead qualification?
First, use the tools you already have: many CRMs, such as HubSpot, have lead scoring features that let you give each lead a score.
For qualification you can also use a framework (choosing the one that best fits your sector). The point is to use it to decide which leads are the most qualified.
One example is the B.A.N.T. framework (Budget - Authority - Need - Timeline):
- Budget: knowing the lead's available budget tells us whether it fits our products or services.
- Authority: identifying the decision maker who will carry weight in the final purchase decision. We should ask ourselves: "Are we talking to the right person? Or should we involve someone else?". Remember that in B2B several people are involved: the decision makers and the people who will actually use the product or service.
- Need: does our product or service meet the lead's needs fully or in part?
- Timeline: estimating how long the decision process will take and how much time (and how many actions) it will take to close the sale. This varies a lot by type of business.
To go deeper into this framework, we recommend this resource on the BANT framework on the HubSpot blog, which also suggests questions to ask when qualifying leads.
Optimise your lead generation forms
Optimising the tools that actually collect leads' contact details should become an obsession. Well, not quite, but it cannot be left to chance either.
Here is an example of a lead generation form that uses a 14-day free plan as its lead magnet. At this first step it asks only for the email address:
One of the key elements to work on is the form people use to leave their details.
Here there is one watchword and one only: simplify.
Nobody really enjoys filling in a long form that asks for lots of personal information. The trick to getting more forms completed is to trim them down to the essentials, for example:
- name
- email address.
Depending on your needs you can add extra fields, but without getting carried away.
For example, Unbounce's collection of case studies mentions that ImageScape cut the number of fields in a lead generation form from 11 to 4. What happened?
- form submissions rose by 160%;
- conversions rose by 120%.
Bear in mind this does not hold in every case: adding fields might reduce the number of submissions but improve lead quality, which would be a good outcome. To know how well a form really works, there is only one way: test and analyse the results.
Use organic traffic for lead generation
Your website is your strongest ally for reaching people searching for topics in your field. Optimising content for search engines is essential to get more organic traffic.
But can organic traffic generate more leads? Yes: blogs with educational content get 52% more organic traffic and are used for B2B lead generation (Source: Sender).
When doing B2B SEO, remember to plan a bridge that captures attention and then turns organic traffic into leads. In practice this can mean, for example:
- adding a CTA that invites people to start a free trial;
- adding a chatbot for enquiries;
- adding a popup that appears as the reader scrolls or tries to close the page (so-called exit-intent popups).
These are just a few ideas you can use to generate leads interested in your business.
Find the most effective lead magnet
How do we persuade people to leave their contact details? There is no single answer. If you have a clear picture of your decision makers, it will be easier to come up with ideas about what interests them.
The real trick is not to try to hit on the perfect lead magnet straight away. There is a simpler route: test different lead magnets, see how people respond, then focus on the type that works best.
You can start from the content types that perform best. Below are some ideas from Semrush's "State of Content Marketing" report.
Here are some more lead magnet ideas for B2B:
- trials or demos: time-limited demo versions of your product (ideal for software tools);
- videos;
- webinars;
- reports and white papers;
- case studies;
- industry research and surveys;
- short courses;
- checklists;
- access to private groups;
- access to gated content.
How do you use these lead magnets in practice? To give access to the download, course or webinar, ask people to create an account or leave an email address. Here are some practical examples.
Semrush, for instance, asks you to register before you can join its webinars.
This example, on the other hand, is a HubSpot guide that can only be downloaded after leaving your email:
Use paid and remarketing campaigns
Ad campaigns let us reach more people in less time, but our compass must point at a precise objective:
getting more on-target leads, not simply more leads.
To get the most from ad channels such as Google Ads and social advertising (for example Meta Ads and LinkedIn Ads), you need to keep analysing and optimising the results.
A practical tip? Focus on consistency between the ad and the landing page. To learn more, read our guide to Google Ads for B2B companies.
Remember that ad campaigns let you take traffic from your competitors. For example, you could analyse the keywords that bring traffic to your competitors and bid on them to capture that traffic. You could follow a strategy similar to Monday's:
- when someone searches Google for "hubspot alternative", a Monday ad is shown;
- clicking the ad leads to a landing page comparing HubSpot and Monday.
This example follows all the rules of good advertising:
- reaching customers who want an alternative solution and positioning yourself as that solution;
- having a landing page consistent with the ad and the search intent (in this case, working out whether the CRM is a suitable alternative).
Make use of the features ad platforms offer to extend your reach, such as dynamic remarketing for Google Ads campaigns.
Save time with automation
80% of marketers say automation brings in more leads and more conversions (Source: Sender).
Marketing automation saves time, but that is not its only advantage. Its real value is greater control over data: automation lets us analyse what is happening and put all the information we collect to use.
Tracking and measurement now give us an endless source of information, but the real challenge is turning that data into insights we can act on.
Integrations and automation take us a long way in that direction.
Lead generation FAQs
What is a lead and what is lead generation?
A lead is a person who is interested in a company's service or product. Lead generation is the process of acquiring leads: engaging interested people and collecting their contact information.
What is lead generation for?
Lead generation gives you a flow of new potential customers. A first contact with a lead, even with their contact details, is only the first step. The process also needs to include the phase called lead nurturing, in which you keep building the relationship with leads.
Lead generation: inbound or outbound?
Lead generation strategies fall into two broad groups:
- on one side, inbound strategies, where people look for the company (more or less actively). This includes search engine queries, but also ads.
- on the other, outbound marketing, which covers all the techniques in which the company contacts potential customers. This includes outreach (for example by email or phone).
What are lead magnets?
Something is often offered in exchange for contact details. A lead magnet can be content, such as an ebook or a report. A free trial of a service or registration for a webinar can also work as a lead magnet.
How do you qualify leads?
Scoring leads (lead scoring) lets us focus on the leads that are potentially most interested. As well as the BANT framework discussed above, there are other ways to qualify leads, for example:
- using demographic information (especially useful when your market focuses on a specific audience or a limited geographical area);
- assessing interactions: both interactions with your site, through analytics, and engagement with email campaigns (for example by looking at open rates).
Get qualified leads with Visilay
As a team specialising in lead generation for B2B companies, we at Visilay can help you get in touch with companies' decision makers. If your goal is a steady flow of new potential customers, you need to start from a solid lead generation process. We can help you study a defined target audience and put in place a strategy that brings in qualified leads and improves conversions.
