How to Generate Leads Online for Free

Every single business has the same goal of attaining leads, whether that means attracting new clients to work with the company or bringing in new paying customers. There are plenty of different ways to go about generating leads, with some lead acquisition strategies requiring an extensive portion of a business’s budget. The question is, how…

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The question is, how can you improve lead generation without breaking the bank? Is that even possible? Online lead generation can be low-cost, expensive, or – yes – completely free, and this article will show you exactly how to build leads without spending any money at all.

Why is Lead Generation So Important?

Leads and sales go hand in hand. The act of lead generation is simple: it’s all about driving people to become a client (common in b2b lead strategies) or to purchase your business’s products or services.

Without lead generation, businesses wouldn’t be able to grow, which is why it’s so important and why it’s such a large part of any company’s plan. There are many ways to generate leads, from getting individuals to fill in a submission form or follow your social media profile, many of which take place completely online.

Before You Start Generating Leads

Before you start generating leads online, there are some things to consider and understand. Firstly, who is your target market? It’s nearly impossible to convince anyone to use your business without first knowing who your audience is. You must also understand exactly what you have to offer. What are you providing these leads? Is it a demo, useful content, a newsletter, or a free membership? You need a clear way to gather contact information, and it needs to be worthwhile for the target audience.

How to Generate Leads for Free: 10 Useful Ways

Now, let’s learn how to generate free leads. All of these are a pathway to gathering customer information from individuals to later turn them into paying customers.

1. Write High-Quality Content

Writing high-quality content does a few things for your business, including boosting your SEO, showcasing your expertise, and gathering leads. The key here is quality – if you want to come across as an expert in your industry, you must write genuinely compelling and helpful content that answers customer and client questions. Of course, this also means writing relevant articles; for example, if you are a business selling clothing, it would make sense to write about fashion. Then, at the end of the content, include a call to action to encourage readers to engage with your business, thus creating a lead.

Your content plan can lead to clicks from potential customers in a variety of areas, from email marketing to social media. The better content you write, the higher the chances someone will end up on your website and be interested in your business overall.

If you need extra help writing content, check out our content strategy cheat sheet. We also have blogger outreach plans to boost your content’s SEO.

2. Use Social Media

Most social media platforms are free, so generating leads online doesn’t have to cost you a single penny. A social media strategy can be enormously helpful as you reach people on various platforms, encouraging more potential customers and clients to engage with your posts.

Of course, there are several social media accounts to choose from, so pick the ones your target audience uses the most. That might be Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, or another social media site altogether. It is generally better to put more effort into one good social media platform than have multiple accounts without putting enough focus on them.

3. Build Local Citations

It’s not all about your own website and social media accounts – you need to ensure your business is listed properly in other places, and that involves building local citations. Local citationsA citation is a mention of your company, product, or service in an online publication. Citations increase the ranking of your site on search engines are essentially any mention of your company on the web, and this can lead to people learning about your business and hopefully engaging with it.

Some of the best places to have local citations include Google Business Profile, Yelp, Facebook, Apple Maps, and other more niche directories that make sense for your business. Most crucially, ensure your name, address, and phone number (NAP) are consistent across the board wherever your business is mentioned.

4. Host and Join Online Events

A big part of lead generation is starting a conversation, and there is one place you can effectively manage this: during industry events. Online industry events are particularly helpful, as they do not require you to travel or spend money on finding the perfect venue.

During these events, you can establish your business within the industry and make real, strong connections with other professionals.

5. Include Submission Forms on Your Website

Your main goal with lead acquisition is to acquire potential customer’s contact information, and there’s one easy (and free) way to manage this – by including submission forms on your website. Keep this form clean and easy to fill out, as you want to make the process as straightforward as possible to increase the number of users who fill it in. Some information to gather may include the user’s name, phone number, and email address.

It’s best to provide incentives to get people to fill in the contact form, such as offering a discount on their next order.

6. Email Outreach

One simple but genuinely effective way of getting customers to know about your business is by conducting cold email outreach. Simply put, outreach emails are emails to individuals and other businesses that start a conversation with the goal of generating a lead. The email itself can contain a variety of content – for example, it might ask for a collaboration, or it could offer a discount.

7. Use a Free SEO Audit

Did you know you can get a free SEO audit from some agencies? It’s true, and it’s more than worth doing, as SEO audits point you towards areas of the website that need improving, whether that’s page speed, broken linksHyperlinks, also known as links, are the connection points on a webpage that take you to other webpages., mobile friendliness, or HTTPS security.

Need More Help with SEO? Here are some useful resources:

8. Optimise Your Website for Lead Generation

Is your website easy enough to use? Is it structured in such a manner that makes users give their contact information or get in touch with you as straightforward as possible? This is a crucial part of any lead acquisition marketing, as most people don’t want to navigate a complicated website – they will likely click off of it in a matter of seconds. Using too many popups or having zero clear calls to action can do a lot of harm and result in otherwise interested visitors turning away. Here are some tips for optimising your website for lead generation:

Have a Live Chat
Use Effective Call to Actions
Use Popups Strategically
Have Designated Landing Pages
Build an SEO Strategy

9. Start a Blogger Outreach Strategy

Blogger outreach refers to pitching your content to other blogs on the web. A good strategy involves building strong relationships with bloggers to secure curated links and backlinks. To manage this, you must identify bloggers that match up with your business – for example, businesses selling software may reach out to tech blogs. This boosts lead generation because it means that blogger’s readers may click on your link, increasing website traffic, and it also tells search engines that your website is more authoritative, leading to better SEO and appearing higher on search engines. If you want to check your website’s current state of authority, use our Moz DA Checker.

10. Begin a Referral Program

The chances are that your current customers and clients will know multiple people who would be interested in your business. One way to get them to share your business? By starting a referral program.

The concept is simple: offer your current customers attractive discounts if they refer a friend to also use your business. For example, you could offer your customer 25% off their next order if they refer someone they know. It’s an excellent strategy that leads to more people knowing about your business, with many of them turning into paying customers. It’s a cycle, too, as these new customers can also refer their friends, so the limit is endless.

Should You Spend Money on Lead Generation?

While you know it is possible to build a digital marketing and lead generation campaign for free, it can also be helpful to spend some of your budget on the process.

As the saying goes, you’ve got to spend money to make money, and the same is sometimes true for generating leads. A good SEO strategy for startups involves using free methods for lead generation. Still, as your business grows and you end up with less time to focus on things like an SEO audit checklist or building website submission forms, it’s definitely time to outsource that. That is especially helpful for lead generation strategies that don’t fall under your skillset – for example, you might not know how to optimise a website for SEO or write high-quality content, and, in this case, the help of an expert makes sense.

Ready to Generate More Leads?

You now know how to generate free leads, but what if you want to take your business to the next level? Our search engine optimisation consultants can help you.

Our Managed SEO Campaign for lead generation helps you gain more authority and website traffic. Contact us today, and our expert team will help you increase conversion rates and lead you to marketing success.

Looking for more helpful resources? These may be of help to you: