Online Marketing 101: Lead Generation Vs. Lead Capturing

Having more and more leads is the main objective of every online marketing strategy and the main aim of every business. This is the only way to expand business.

To achieve the same, various online marketing strategies are planned and implemented by the marketers for the expansion of business.

While many marketing strategies are planned and implemented daily, there are still some marketers which get confuse between Lead Generation and Lead Capturing.

These two are totally different things yet also related together. So, it is important to know the difference between them both in spite of having a good website, good contact forms etc. So, let us understand the difference:

Online Marketing: Lead Generation

Lead is the visitor who has shown interest in the product or the service. These are the visitors who visit the company website and either register with you or are the ones who visit the office manually.

Lead Generation is the process by which the attention of these visitors is grabbed and converted into customers. There are two ways of lead generation and these are:

1.Inbound Marketing

Inbound marketing is a less aggressive form of online marketing. This is the type of marketing which is used by marketers these days.

This type of online marketing is the marketing that shows the marketers what to do next by attaching a lead capture form, follow-up form, register form etc.

Some of the ways of inbound marketing are content marketing, e-mail marketing, white papers, social media marketing, video marketing etc. This type of online marketing is nowadays most promising marketing when it comes to the lead generation.

2. Outbound Marketing

Outbound marketing is an aggressive form of online marketing and is sometimes not liked by the target audience. This method is practiced nowadays less as compared to the old days.

The practices followed in this type of online marketing are phone calls, direct face-to-face marketing, advertisement through radio, televisions and  newspapers etc.

This type of marketing requires a great amount of investment and the chances of return are less.

These are two ways by which the leads are generated for a business. As most of the target audience is present online, so inbound marketing is preferred these days. Now, once a lead is generated, the next step is to nurture them.

Online Marketing: Lead Nurturing

Lead nurturing is the second step after lead capturing. Once you have got to know about the lead, you will want to sell them your services. This will get you connected with them forever.

So, Lead Nurturing is the process of developing relationship with the potential clients. These are clients who are looking forward to purchase your products or get connected with you.

It is important to understand the behavior of leads generated and then analyze why they have connected with you.

For example whether it is just for a follow-up or a newsletter or they are looking to buy your services, now or after sometimes. So, in these situations, lead nurturing plays the role.

It is the way by which real time dealing is done with the potential clients and their mind set is analyzed. This way the services are sold to the clients and a proper relationship is made with them to retain them for longer period of time.

Online Marketing: Lead Capturing

Never say never. Capturing a lead takes a concerted effort from online marketers that said the high seas of the interwebs. The lead generation component is somewhat easier than trawling the seas of the internet to capture fish (leads). A strong marketing campaign combined with an effective landing page strategy is what will drive lead capture rates higher.

Conclusion

Lead generation and lead capturing are the heart of every successful online marketing campaign. Therefore the difference between both should be kept in mind while dealing with the clients.

They create , keep and establish a rapport with your customer. With that in mind then you are guaranteed more sales more conversions and bigger better online presence.