Lead generation: how to develop the right digital strategy?
Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2025 9:56 am
Let's start with the basics: what is a lead? In marketing, the English term " lead " refers to a commercial contact with a prospect that we hope to convert into a customer.
Lead generation ( or " lead gen ") involves developing a marketing strategy that encourages the creation of quality contacts that could lead to sales. These commercial interactions can be direct (at the point of sale, for example) or indirect (via the company's website).
This is a key concept in both B2B ( business to business ) and B2C ( business to consumer ) marketing. Lead generation refers to all the strategies deployed to capture contacts (called leads ) and convert them into customers.
Why implement a lead generation strategy?
Implementing a lead generation strategy is primarily used to acquire new customers . By following a conversion funnel, you target Internet users likely to be interested in your product or service offering. Then, you qualify the leads you have managed to capture: this is what is called lead nurturing . The objective is, of course, to conclude a sale and, possibly, to retain this new buyer.
Retention is a key step in the conversion process. However, it 's often overlooked by entrepreneurs in favor of acquisition, even though retaining a customer is significantly less expensive than attracting a new one.
Additionally, your lead generation strategy also helps build your brand awareness . Through marketing efforts to generate traffic and convert leads, you'll optimize your online presence. That's a lot of visibility gained. It also gives you the opportunity to cultivate word-of-mouth: your audience can recommend you to others. This creates a virtuous circle that's conducive to the growth of your business.
Understanding your target: who are your ideal customers?
Lead generation begins with a fundamental step: understanding who your ideal customers are. This is essential for building an effective digital strategy.
To generate leads, you first need to reach the right people. This involves defining their profile as accurately as possible. You can focus on customer segments , represented by marketing personas (also called buyer personas ).
Marketing personas are semi-fictional characters that borrow the key characteristics of each target segment, to which you also assign names, photos, family situations, etc. These marketing tools aim to save you time in developing your prospecting or communication campaigns.
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Example of a marketing persona
Let's take an example: we are targeting marketing managers in SMEs. We could imagine the following profile:
Sophie Thompson, 32, married, two children. She lives in a mid-sized French city and is the marketing manager of a technology company.
Her goals: Sophie wants to improve her company's visibility and, above all, increase annual revenue. To achieve this, she plans to strengthen her brand's online presence and generate qualified leads for her sales team.
Her challenges: Sophie lacks the time to optimally manage all marketing tasks. She needs to improve her digital marketing skills and is struggling to target the right audience and tailor her communication campaigns accordingly. Additionally, her management is pressuring her to deliver tangible results: she must demonstrate the return on investment of her marketing efforts.
We could then develop this persona by deploying a marketing scenario to which our company could respond. In this role, we would detail the solutions we could offer Sophie as a web agency specializing in lead generation.
By following this principle, you can, in turn, find the right arguments for each marketing persona you identify. It's also a valuable resource for your salespeople: they have a foundation to build on to develop a sales pitch and maximize conversion potential.
Structure your conversion funnel
Now that you know your audience, you can think about your conversion funnel. This represents the journey your prospects take from their first interaction with your company to their conversion into a customer. Structuring this process helps you better guide prospects from one stage to the next, thus optimizing your lead generation strategy.
A conversion funnel is generally divided into 4 stages:
Attract Internet users,
Convert visitors into leads,
Transform the prospect into a customer,
Build customer loyalty so that they become ambassadors.
At each of these steps, you iceland phone number data define the communication channel and the type of content to prioritize. This is essential for sending the right message to the right person at the right time.
To go further: Adapt your marketing content to the stages of the customer journey
Generate traffic to generate leads
Lead generation relies heavily on your ability to generate traffic to your website (storefront or e-commerce). It's essential to your lead generation strategy.
Your website allows you to centralize lead capture, whether through contact forms, sales pages, or landing pages . The goal is to attract qualified Internet users to these conversion pages to capture their contact information. These (especially email) are essential for guiding the lead to the next steps in the purchasing journey. Without them, you cannot deploy the rest of your conversion strategy.
Lead generation ( or " lead gen ") involves developing a marketing strategy that encourages the creation of quality contacts that could lead to sales. These commercial interactions can be direct (at the point of sale, for example) or indirect (via the company's website).
This is a key concept in both B2B ( business to business ) and B2C ( business to consumer ) marketing. Lead generation refers to all the strategies deployed to capture contacts (called leads ) and convert them into customers.
Why implement a lead generation strategy?
Implementing a lead generation strategy is primarily used to acquire new customers . By following a conversion funnel, you target Internet users likely to be interested in your product or service offering. Then, you qualify the leads you have managed to capture: this is what is called lead nurturing . The objective is, of course, to conclude a sale and, possibly, to retain this new buyer.
Retention is a key step in the conversion process. However, it 's often overlooked by entrepreneurs in favor of acquisition, even though retaining a customer is significantly less expensive than attracting a new one.
Additionally, your lead generation strategy also helps build your brand awareness . Through marketing efforts to generate traffic and convert leads, you'll optimize your online presence. That's a lot of visibility gained. It also gives you the opportunity to cultivate word-of-mouth: your audience can recommend you to others. This creates a virtuous circle that's conducive to the growth of your business.
Understanding your target: who are your ideal customers?
Lead generation begins with a fundamental step: understanding who your ideal customers are. This is essential for building an effective digital strategy.
To generate leads, you first need to reach the right people. This involves defining their profile as accurately as possible. You can focus on customer segments , represented by marketing personas (also called buyer personas ).
Marketing personas are semi-fictional characters that borrow the key characteristics of each target segment, to which you also assign names, photos, family situations, etc. These marketing tools aim to save you time in developing your prospecting or communication campaigns.
7b4c403a 713c 4c0e bb55 51371b08c383
Example of a marketing persona
Let's take an example: we are targeting marketing managers in SMEs. We could imagine the following profile:
Sophie Thompson, 32, married, two children. She lives in a mid-sized French city and is the marketing manager of a technology company.
Her goals: Sophie wants to improve her company's visibility and, above all, increase annual revenue. To achieve this, she plans to strengthen her brand's online presence and generate qualified leads for her sales team.
Her challenges: Sophie lacks the time to optimally manage all marketing tasks. She needs to improve her digital marketing skills and is struggling to target the right audience and tailor her communication campaigns accordingly. Additionally, her management is pressuring her to deliver tangible results: she must demonstrate the return on investment of her marketing efforts.
We could then develop this persona by deploying a marketing scenario to which our company could respond. In this role, we would detail the solutions we could offer Sophie as a web agency specializing in lead generation.
By following this principle, you can, in turn, find the right arguments for each marketing persona you identify. It's also a valuable resource for your salespeople: they have a foundation to build on to develop a sales pitch and maximize conversion potential.
Structure your conversion funnel
Now that you know your audience, you can think about your conversion funnel. This represents the journey your prospects take from their first interaction with your company to their conversion into a customer. Structuring this process helps you better guide prospects from one stage to the next, thus optimizing your lead generation strategy.
A conversion funnel is generally divided into 4 stages:
Attract Internet users,
Convert visitors into leads,
Transform the prospect into a customer,
Build customer loyalty so that they become ambassadors.
At each of these steps, you iceland phone number data define the communication channel and the type of content to prioritize. This is essential for sending the right message to the right person at the right time.
To go further: Adapt your marketing content to the stages of the customer journey
Generate traffic to generate leads
Lead generation relies heavily on your ability to generate traffic to your website (storefront or e-commerce). It's essential to your lead generation strategy.
Your website allows you to centralize lead capture, whether through contact forms, sales pages, or landing pages . The goal is to attract qualified Internet users to these conversion pages to capture their contact information. These (especially email) are essential for guiding the lead to the next steps in the purchasing journey. Without them, you cannot deploy the rest of your conversion strategy.