15 Creative Lead Generation Ideas to Try

The whole lead generation process is tough — especially when you only rely on traditional methods. Sending cold emails and scraping together lists can be incredibly demoralizing because, let’s face it — most of those people don’t really want to talk to you.

What if you could still reach your lead generation goals using methods that actually add value for your prospects?

This utopia of lead generation is, in fact, a possibility. To walk you through some of the different options, we’ve detailed several examples of modern lead generation methods below. These ideas provide valuable information to prospects that helps them instead of pushing them to buy from your brand.

How to Generate Leads: 15 Tried-and-True Lead Generation Ideas

1) Collect and share success secrets from thought leaders.

Want to provide unique value in your content? Start by reaching out to a thought leader in your industry. By interviewing an expert to uncover their secrets, you prove to potential customers that you’re dedicated to delivering the best advice out there.

Help videos can solve a real problem for potential customers in a format that’s both entertaining and easily digestible.

3) Create a quiz.

Offer a quiz to your website visitors as a creative way to learn more about them and obtain their contact information. The goal is to “bargain” the result of the quiz in return for a new lead, which can be very effective when done right.

4) Provide best practices for a challenging tactic.

When you explore a marketing tactic in a blog post or ebook, you want to know what others are doing to have success with the same method. Compiling those best practices into a list is incredibly useful to the marketer looking to get started in a particular arena.

5) Show what’s working for you.

Writing a transparent post that pulls back the curtain on something you’ve seen success (or failure) with can prove interesting to potential leads. Other companies going through a similar stage of growth — or approaching your size — can gain a lot of inspiration from posts like this, and ultimately avoid making the same mistakes.

6) Create a useful spreadsheet.

Compiling a spreadsheet of resources takes forever, so if someone else does it for you, it’s easy to see the value.

7) Offer a deep-dive answer for a tough question.

You can find the answer to any question you might have on the internet. But how many really good answers are out there? Taking the time to create an in-depth, step-by-step article that answers a burning question for your prospect serves as an opportunity to generate a lead. After all, the company that provides the best answer will often get your business, right?

8) Create a worksheet that simplifies a process.

There are tasks in every business that are best suited by a worksheet. For example, a software company might use a worksheet to formulate a marketing strategy. By providing a simple worksheet for people to fill out — and trading that worksheet for an opt-in — you can create a mutually positive relationship with prospects.

9) Create a list of useful tools.

It’s easy to brag about the tools your company offers, but when you take the initiative and explore other helpful tools your audience could be using, it proves that you prioritize their success over your own self-promotion.

10) Compile examples for people to learn from.

Finding effective examples to learn from can be extremely valuable, but also very difficult. A list of best practices in your industry is an excellent way to drive prospects to your domain where they can opt-in.

11) Create a valuable email course.

A well-developed email course is like gaining access to a real class — for free. For busy marketers, this type of offer can prove to be really valuable.

12) Host a giveaway.

Giveaways are one of the most successful forms of lead generation. However, a giveaway can also lead to a bunch of junk leads and waste your time if not done in a logical way. The trick? Make sure what you’re giving away is something people actually want.

13) Create a template to simplify an everyday process.

There are certain templates you use everyday in business — employee schedule, content calendar, market research sheets — that can be a pain to build yourself.

As a marketer looking for lead generation ideas, creating those templates for your customers is the perfect way to begin a strong relationship that can end in the prospect actually buying your product or service.

14) Offer a free trial.

Free trials of a brand’s services help get a prospect’s foot halfway through the door. If the trial helps them and provides great value, they’re more likely to purchase the full product and become a customer. Touchless buying is popular among prospects who want to stay online and off the phone. By creating a free trial, a brand’s site can do its own selling and encourage buying in a low-pressure way.

15) Make a checklist.

Who doesn’t have a running to-do list that sometimes gets a little bit too long? If someone runs a content marketing strategy, you can be sure there’s a lot that goes into it. Neil Patel created a handy checklist that marketers can download and use for easy reference at work every day.

Whichever lead generation strategy you experiment with next, make sure the content is useful to your audience so they’ll return to your website again in the future.

By Josh Haynam | hubspot.com