Lead generation is a multi-faceted process that covers plenty of areas — from finding new contacts and segmenting them into targeted email lists to creating appealing web forms and tracking each visitor’s actions on your website. There is really no one-fits-all approach to effective lead generation because turning a lead into a customer is often about creativity and business specifics.
Still, there are a few tools that can make the essential steps for finding and engaging prospects easier. Below, we describe the best lead generation tools that cover the absolutely indispensable areas of engaging prospects and can work for different business models and budgets.
Leadfeeder
Leadfeeder is another tool that excels at B2B lead generation and can also work in the B2C segment. The platform tracks actual user behavior on your website and offers insights as to what exactly the visitors did — what they looked at, where they paused, what they quickly skipped, etc. Unlike Google Analytics which provides very similar analysis of overall visitor behavior, Leadfeeder can give factual information about separate users.
What makes Leadfeeder so great for B2B lead generation is that the service can capture corporate emails of your website visitors — assuming they were signed up to Chrome from their business accounts. This may not always work with personal emails, but it functions flawlessly with most major corporate addresses. Besides, insights into actual website behavior can help understand the prospect’s needs and find the best ways to engage each prospect.
The tool comes with a free 14-day trial that already supports unlimited users but stores visitor behavior data only for the past seven days. Further plans start at €99/month (around $107.5) when billed annually and go up to €165 ($179) for short-term subscriptions.
Unbounce
Unbounce is one of the best tools for creating stunning landing pages without any programming experience. The tool can help with inbound lead generation in both B2B and B2C segments by engaging website visitors and increasing conversion rates. Besides a user-friendly interface, Unbounce has A/B testing and analytics that allow you to experiment with different landing page designs, CTAs, layouts, and pretty much any other elements of a webpage.
The service can also integrate with several CRMs and third-party analytics tools for enhanced business intelligence. The free trial version is available for the first two weeks of using Unbounce. Later, customers will have a chance to choose from several flexible plans that start at $74/month if billed annually.
MailChimp
This tool should need no introduction, but just in case you’ve missed it, MailChimp is one of the best email automation tools, perfectly balancing high functionality and affordable price. It can help create, segment, and automate email marketing campaigns, as well as provide detailed analytics of past campaign behavior. As of recently, the platform comes with a built-in AI writing assistant that can help you draft new emails or segment leads based on their previous behavior.
Of course, the functionality is not unique — according to Forbes Business Advisor, a few other email automation services come close to MailChimp, such as
- Zoho,
- Drip,
- Brevo,
- Campaigner, etc.
Still, as far as the price-quality ratio is concerned, MailChimp is one of the top solutions for creating targeted email marketing campaigns in different business spheres and industries. The tool has an entirely free plan that comes with somewhat limited functionality but acts as a perfect preview of the service’s potential. Paid plans are available for as little as $13/month (or even $6.5/month if billed annually).
SignalHire
This email finding tool can act as the foundation of your lead generation efforts. SignalHire is a large database of verified professional contacts that supports individual search by name and bulk searches by many customizable parameters, such as industry, job title, company, etc. This functionality makes the service an ideal tool for B2B lead generation, making it possible to create carefully targeted lists for further email marketing.
Besides, this platform can also work for generating prospects in the B2C segment. The service has a browser extension for Chrome that can pull contact data directly from major social and professional sites, including LinkedIn and GitHub. A single click on the browser extension button can give you contact details of a prospect you came across online — without the need to switch to the full web database version. This feature allows marketers and business developers to easily add new leads to their marketing databases for further promotion.
SignalHire has a free version for five contact lookups a month and several flexible plans that grant access to emails, phone, numbers, or both. The tool can be easily used for all sorts of background checks and promotional efforts.
LeadSpace
LeadSpace is a highly advanced B2B lead generation tool with a focus on account-based marketing. The service allows marketers to create detailed customer and prospect profiles by combining data from different resources, including contact databases, social media, or any other input criteria at your disposal. Further, the platform uses its advanced analytics to assign each lead a score and offers suggestions on how to convert a prospect into a customer.
This SaaS service is a very advanced tool for lead generation and increasing revenue, offering plenty of ways to detect new audiences, segment, monitor, and engage the leads. It supports integration with different third-party software and is an excellent choice for dynamic lead acquisition. The tool is not cheap, though, and is feasible for large corporations rather than small businesses. The annual license starts at $25,000 a year. Still, it does serve its purpose and can become a real miracle worker for large businesses with appropriate budgets.
Expand.io
Expand.io is one of the best tools for LinkedIn lead generation. The service may sound excessive at first, considering that LinkedIn has its own Sales Navigator tool for prospecting leads — but only at first. With a closer look, Expand.io offers plenty of useful features for a more affordable price — and some functionality is even available for free. The service simplifies the process of engaging leads on LinkedIn, helps create smart campaigns, monitor lead behavior, personalize all communication via LinkedIn, and much more.
Expand.io can become an excellent addition to your LinkedIn automation and promotional efforts for a price that compares well with the cost of using Navigator — Expand is available at $99/month, while Sales Navigator offers a set of more expensive plans. Before subscribing to a paid Expand.io plan, clients can always test the functionality for free — the seven-day trial is enough to see if you could benefit from a full business version. There is another plan for agencies, too, but its pricing will have to be directly negotiated with the sales team — and who knows? You may just get a beer deal!
These are some of the most essential tools marketers can use to take their lead generation efforts to a new level. They cover different aspects of the larger lead generation process and are suitable for different business models and budgets. Any of these services — or, rather, the right combination of these tools — can become a good addition to a marketer’s kit. Besides, most examples on this list support integration with different third-party apps, so you have a chance to create that perfectly balanced toolkit that works for your business needs.
