So there are various ways to generate leads for your business. Here are the top 5 I love:

1 . Cold emailing: Cold emails have a bit of a bad reputation and more so due to the surplus of carelessly written and on the nose sales emails people tend to receive every day. However, if we think of it with an open mind, cold emails are actually a powerful tool to generate leads. For my part, I’ve managed a response rate of about 1 in 5 with various cold email templates I’ve experimented with, which really is higher than the usual open and response rates. A major factor in finding success with cold emailing is the data you are working with. Many data providers out there have pre-made lists with numerous pseduo companies and bad data like outdated contact details etc. Also remember that you should build lists on your ideal customer profile.

• For targeted lists built on your ideal customer profile, you can look into Cloudlead, a global B2B contact data and sales intelligence provider. Benefits of using Cloudlead for lead generation include:
• pay as you go model where you pay per contact and only pay for leads that you want. no annual obligations for leads you dont want or will not use.
• replacements on anything above 10% hard bounces
• 90–95% accurate data
• sales triggers and intent data for your niche/product or industry
• Here is a short guide on the 4 Tools for Perfecting Your B2B Sales Funnel - Entrepreneur - very useful read

2. Cold calling - you can adopt a combination of cold emailing and cold calling. For example, after the 2nd or 3rd email in your drip campaign, you can try calling prospects who’ve opened your email multiple times. Here’s what my colleague Moaaz as to say about cold calling:

• “My only advice is: Don’t rush this process: Many sales managers/ directors decide to overlook several key points when initiating a cold calling sales strategy. I know cold calling is results driven, direct and quick in terms of getting responses. However, this doesn’t mean you don’t follow some ground rules to ensure your process goes well for you and more importantly your prospects. You’re bound to get great results with cold if you – Research before calling: I can’t express this point enough. You need to know, a) Who you are calling b) What that company does and c) Any intelligence you can gather about their tactics”

3. Regular Blogging and SEO - Blog regularly - Make a schedule for updating your blog (daily or weekly) and stick to your schedule. Share your articles on your social media and ask your friends to share across platforms like Linkedin for increased visibility.

• Drive traffic to your website and blog through clever SEO hacks (follow Neil Patel for tips on SEO) and regularly sharing your blogs on your social media.

4 . Social Media Posting - Carefully build a list of followers on your account if you dont have a good following. Start by following influencers and thought leaders in your space. Chances are that they will also follow you back. Post regularly using tools like Hootsuite. However, you have to be careful about the medium you are utilizing. Try publications like Medium and Linkedin and platforms like Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest. This is a matter of knowing where your audience mostly is.

• pro-tip: Quora is one of the best platforms for lead generation. What you have to concentrate on is following relevant topics to your niche and posting answers which provide value first and foremost. of course, this does not mean that you don’t introduce your business at all - just don’t try to hard sell on Quora.

5 . Lead Capture Forms and Live Chat Option: Include pop-up forms and lead capture forms on your website. Make landing pages to share value added material like case studies. Carefully build a marketing list and email them at least once a week with insightful content.

• Pro tip: include a live chat software on your website - this will allow you to take advantage of your website traffic by connecting your buyers with you instantly. Many leads slip through our hands because they simply dont have the time to fill out lengthy demo forms.

For more tips, you can always visit my Quora profile here: Zobia Zuberi

Good luck!