Inbound lead generation is a hot topic in the marketing world. With so many businesses competing for attention in today's market, it can be the difference between success and failure.

This process is a proven system for generating more leads from your website. Its success relies on three key factors: content, inbound links and social media. 

If you want to learn how inbound leads can boost your business’s revenue, this blog post will provide the information you need.

What Is Inbound Lead Generation?

Inbound lead generation is when a company puts time and effort into creating quality content in order to attract people to their website who are actively looking for a solution that they offer.

These inbound leads will then contact the company in some way, usually via email or phone call, with their questions about how the product or service can solve their problems.

Inbound marketing takes a lot of work on the part of the company because it relies on good copywriting skills and understanding what methods of communication will allow your customers to best understand your message.

Inbound marketing is also more cost-effective since it doesn't rely on expensive media campaigns that require a large capital outlay from the company. Inbound marketing uses the internet to create awareness for your products or services. 

The amount of money that can be spent depends on the goals of the business owner. There are many strategies and tools which allow creating content online with little to no investment at all – allowing even small businesses to take advantage of attracting potential customers through search traffic and email lists.

The main goal of lead generation is to generate a steady flow of quality leads without spending too much time or money on the process. It is, in essence, the opposite of outbound lead generation.

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Where Does Inbound Lead Generation Fit Into The Sales Funnel? 

That depends. In general, you want to start at the top of the funnel and work your way down. That means that education or awareness should come first before nurturing or engagement.

However, to answer your question specifically: where does it plug into the funnel somewhere between top-of-the-funnel activities and bottom-of-the-funnel activities. 

This is because it's a tactic for getting people to find you within search engines—usually organic search results on Google or Bing—before they contact you.

After people find you, they may not be ready to talk to you immediately. They might want more information first. 

That's where nurturing and engagement come in—a way of continuing the conversation with those people who have expressed interest but aren't yet ready to move forward.

Nurturing and engagement are processes that happen over time as part of a larger sales cycle or buying journey . In other words, it's something that happens after initial awareness and before a final purchase decision has been made.

PUMAs (People Undergoing a Major Acquisition) aren't always aware of their need for a product or service right away. They might be looking for help figuring out what they want or what options are available to them before making an educated decision.

That's why it's so important for your business to be found in search engines. When you rank on page one of Google, you're the first result someone sees when they look for a particular solution or service. 

And, if you can present them with content that builds trust and gives them exactly what they're looking for , they'll be much more likely to contact you than if they had to do their own research online. Not only will this save them time, but it makes you look like an industry authority .

However, even though awareness is high up on the funnel, it's no guarantee that people are ready to buy right away. They might need nurturing before moving forward—which means lead generation tactics like outbound telemarketing or email outreach are likely more appropriate.

That's just the beginning of lead generation tactics, though. A truly effective inbound lead generation strategy will include everything from search engine optimization (SEO) and content marketing to social media and PR .

You Can Also Use Inbound Lead Generation Softwares

Lead generation is, in some ways, the lifeblood of any business. After all, without leads for potential customers you can't do much business at all. 

If you are looking to build a successful business - whether it be offline or online - you want to make sure that your lead generation efforts are on target and that they are doing the best job possible at bringing in qualified leads for your sales staff.

There are many tools out there which will help you to do this but finding the right one is crucial because if it isn't what you need then your results will suffer badly. The wrong tool will cause massive amounts of time wastage and frustration with poor results being achieved or even worse no results at all! 

To ensure this doesn't happen to you, you should carefully consider the kind of tools you need and use them in a way that will help you build your business.

One tool which has been gaining a lot of interest of late is known as Inbound Lead Generation Software . This software is specifically designed to assist online businesses to drive more highly targeted traffic to their website by using search engines. 

In turn this enables them to generate an abundance of new leads for themselves with relative ease. The process involves harnessing the power of Google's organic search results, also known as 'natural' or 'organic' search results since they're not paid for advertisements like Google Adwords on the right hand side.

Inbound lead generation software gives companies an edge over their competitors because SEO naturally drives up the rankings of a website which means that your business will be seen by more people. 

And not just any people either, these are people who have already expressed an interest in the products or services you offer and they're looking for exactly what you provide. 

In addition to this Inbound Leads have been shown to have a higher close rate because there is no need for any introduction from sales staff – your company's website does all of the work on its own.

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Which brings us nicely onto another advantage this software offers – it can actually save businesses money! It has been estimated that using lead generation tools can reduce the cost per sale by around 30%, with some companies having reported even greater savings than that.

When you consider most businesses struggle financially within their first couple of years, this is a very attractive benefit and one which will encourage many companies to look into using such tools.

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The most important thing to remember about lead generation software -however is that it isn't something you can simply switch on and off – it takes time and energy to get the results you're looking for. 

This means that your company needs to commit fully with regards to getting involved in SEO activities such as site optimisation through blogging, creating high quality content etc. 

As well as links! Links are crucial if you want your website pages to be seen by the search engines and they should form an integral part of any SEO strategy or tactic installed by your business's webmaster. 

If done properly then using Inbound Lead Generation Software could be the best decision your business ever makes and one which will help you to take it towards its full potential.

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Where Do Most Businesses Go Wrong With Inbound Lead Generation

If you're in business and you're not generating leads, then you're wasting your time. Unless you can count on a fairly big family to buy from you every holiday season, the only way to grow any kind of sustainable business is through lead generation.

• Let's make this clear what leads are not:  Leads aren't people who could potentially be interested in what you have to offer; they are people who actually want what you have to offer. Maybe those people never thought about buying before and maybe they've been thinking about it for years. 

Logic doesn't matter here: if they come into possession of an awareness that makes them think there's something worth paying for that would improve their life somehow, then they are a lead.

And if you have to keep inviting them back so they can refresh their memory about why they should do business with you, then that's what an autoresponder sequence is for?

• Leads Are Not People Who Might Be Interested: There's nothing wrong with thinking like this and many businesses function on the assumption that it's true. 

But when you're trying to grow your business into maturity, you need every sale that comes in to be from someone who has decided without any prompting that buying from you will add value to their life. 

If they're only open to the idea because of something you did say, then they're not ready to pull. How do I know this? Because the only way to get them to buy is through your efforts, which means you can't really rely on them for future sales.

Basically leading boils down to getting someone who wants something from you and then making sure that they want it badly enough that they're willing to take the steps required of them to procure it (I find this model works well when thinking about what real businesses are like.

When you need a plumber or an electrician, do you ask if anyone has one in mind? No; you look up phone numbers in the yellow pages). That's why everyone should start thinking about their marketing strategy through lead generation at its core: pulling is where all business starts.

• Don't Lead With Self-Interest: Another common mistake that lead generators make is to assume that they have a way of trading their product or service for the pull. This is a mistake because it's self-interest talking and no one has any reason to listen to you just because your product is great. 

No matter how amazing your widget, the only reason anyone would ever feel compelled to buy from you is if it can be determined through some objective criteria that they will benefit from buying said widget. What I'm saying here is that people buy what they need.

If you think there might be something in what you're selling that's going to allow someone else to solve a problem, then all you have to do is find out what problems exist and describe how your widget is the best way to solve it.

• How To Get Pushes Into Pulls:  The only reason that your business exists is to get people who aren't aware of how they can improve their lives.

So you need to focus on pushing an awareness of those opportunities in front of as many people as possible without having any idea whether or not they will be interested.

Once you know what problems exist, your job is describing how you solve them and saying why they should care about the answers (this doesn't mean giving up all information upfront; see information control for more) .

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The Best Inbound Lead Generation Blogs To Read.

The best blogs are those that provide you with valuable information but also show you how to use the info they give you. The good thing about these is that they are always up-to-date, unlike printed books or magazines.

When it comes to finding the best blogs, there are a few key factors I consider:

• Content - what does this particular blog post offer me? Is it relevant to my business? Can I learn something here?
• Authority - this factor is based on statistics like number of followers and traffic. Who's reading this blog and why should they read mine too?
• Actionability - can I apply what I learned today/this week/this month? Will it make my business run smoother?

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Some of the top authority blogs I like to read regularly are:

1) Hubspot Blog - This blog is one of the most well-known inbound marketing and sales authority websites. They provide educational materials, case studies (more useful than you think), eBooks (free for download), etc…

2) Marketo Blog - The company's blog is frequented by industry experts who get into actionable tactics on everything from content marketing to social selling.

3) Moz Blog - Although this blog doesn't get updated as often (they've got their own SEO tools now though which might be why they don't post new content as much!), they are still one of the best blogs for lead generation and worth checking out.

4) SocialMedia Examiner - This blog is full of interesting news and updates on social media marketing, specifically Facebook and Twitter.

5) Hubspot Youtube Channel – Yes, the guys at Hubspot do more than just blogging… they've got a great collection of videos up on their YouTube channel as well. Lots of useful material here so check it out!

6) KISSmetrics Blog – If you're looking for B2B marketing tips, this is where you'll find them. Filled with smart content to help your business succeed!

7) Neil Patel Blog – The first and last name probably sounds familiar because he's one of the biggest influencers in internet marketing today. What started as a simple blog (which is still live btw and definitely worth checking out) has grown into a thriving online empire consisting of tools, courses and more to teach you how to start and grow your business successfully.

8) Hubspot Blogs on SlideShare – Another Hubspot material here where you can find presentations, slides, webinar recordings (more valuable than you think!), etc…

9) Inbound.org - This monthly conference brings together some of the leading speakers around, like Rand Fishkin who's been on the Whiteboard Friday videos I mentioned earlier.