What are leads, what types are there and why they matter in marketing?

[muskanislam99]

You've probably heard or read the word "lead" and perhaps wondered what it is and why it's important for a marketing strategy. Below, we present an article in which you'll discover the meaning of this concept and its relevance for your company.

We will also look at the differences between “opportunities” and “prospects,” and how to generate leads with the help of online marketing.

Table of Contents

What is a lead?
Types of leads
Differences between lead, opportunity and prospect
Why are leads key in content marketing?
Strategies to generate leads



What is a lead?
A lead is a person who shows interest in a company's products afghanistan whatsapp lead services through various actions: perhaps they visit your website regularly, follow you on social media and share your posts, participate in a dynamic or webinar, download some content, use a free trial or subscribe to your newsletter, among others.

Thus, leads are considered a fundamental part of a digital marketing strategy, as they allow companies to know, classify and adequately develop their buyer personas (their target audience or ideal client), and determine how much interest and level of commitment they have with your brand .

However, not all leads are created equal and not all leads are qualified in the same way. Let's think about two users, for example: the first one doesn't plan to buy your product or service at the moment, but is interested in your content and wants to continue receiving it; the second one is thinking about buying.

Both are leads and require different actions and follow-up, but both can become customers at different times. To understand this better, let's look at how leads are classified.


Types of leads
Marketing qualified lead (MQL)
Sales qualified lead (SQL)
Product qualified lead (PQL)
Service qualified lead
1. Marketing qualified lead (MQL)
A marketing qualified lead is a contact who is interested in your products or services. They have taken actions such as repeatedly visiting your website, interacting with your social media, subscribing to your newsletter or adding items from your store to their wish list, but they are not yet ready to buy. At this stage, leads are learning about your offer through the content you publish.

What to do with a marketing qualified lead?

Your marketing team can continue to nurture these leads with valuable content, with the goal of converting them into SQLs.

2. Sales qualified lead (SQL)
A sales qualified lead is a contact whose actions indicate a clear interest in purchasing a product or service. For example, the user may have viewed pricing pages and compared plans, or may have even already added some products from your store to a cart.

At this stage, leads are ready and very likely to become customers.

What to do with a sales qualified lead?
These leads are ready to engage with your company, ask questions and spark conversations, so your sales team could reach out to them via email.

3. Product qualified lead (PQL)
A product qualified lead is a contact who has already used your product successfully, which shows that your offer is useful to them. At this stage, the lead has used the resources you offer, knows their functions and advantages, and would be willing to purchase your paid versions to obtain greater benefits.

A PQL is common in companies that offer some free versions, timed trials, or operate under the freemium model, such as HubSpot.

What to do with a product qualified lead?

At this point, your company has the contact information and history of the use or interactions that the lead has with your brand. Therefore, it is convenient for a sales representative to use this information as an argument and offer a product or service that is appropriate to what the client needs.

4. Service qualified lead
A service qualified lead is a customer who already pays for your product or service. However, at this stage the user wants to purchase more products or a more complete plan, since their company has new requirements or is looking for updates.

What to do with a product qualified lead?

These leads are looking for your company to provide them with an excellent user experience, efficient support, and timely attention so they can continue to work with you. They also require your team to identify potential opportunities for additional sales, cross-selling, or an upgrade that will help them grow.

Differences between lead, opportunity and prospect
Lead, opportunity, and prospect are marketing terms that have different meanings; let’s take a closer look at what each term entails.

The lead is the person who has responded to a digital marketing strategy and, in return, has filled out a form leaving their contact information.
After going through a nurturing process, the lead becomes a prospect ; this prospect then begins to consider your product as the solution they are looking for.
The opportunity , on the other hand, arises when the prospect is clear that the product or service you offer solves their main need, according to their specific characteristics.
Why are leads key in content marketing?
Knowing your leads is key in this process because it allows you to carry out more specific and better targeted campaigns for each type of user and their level in the sales cycle , in order to better interact with them.

Thus, a company will be able to design different content strategies to organically lead leads towards the acquisition of the product or service. When creating your content strategy you must take into account:

What are the needs of your leads?
If your offer meets their needs.
What type of content and formats interest them most.
What channels do they use and prefer?
How they make their decisions.
How long does it take them to decide to buy?
What type of promotions or offers are you most interested in?
How much they identify with your brand.
Strategies to generate leads
Any brand wants to increase its contact base, attract them to its offer and make more sales. But getting leads is not an easy path, it requires a lot of work. That is why we propose these lead generation strategies.

1. Define a value proposition
The offer can range from downloadable content such as an ebook, demo, webinar, or any other type of content that educates you or adds value to your experience.

2. Find the right way to spread the value proposition
It can be through social media or through a call to action that encourages the user to click in order to get something in return.

Calls to action can be added to your landing page and most visited blog posts.

3. Show the commercial offer strategically
If the lead has downloaded valuable content, it is important that this information includes the commercial offer. Avoid being invasive or insistent; the goal is to generate interest in the consumer .

4. Nurture your leads
The process of following up with leads is called lead nurturing , which consists of informing, educating and engaging the lead. The better you know each lead, the better personalized content you can create.

If the sales cycle is not completed, these leads are also useful for improving the marketing strategies you have implemented. Another of the primary objectives for content marketing is to continue learning more and more about users.

5. Use the tools that exist on the networks
Facebook gives you the possibility to increase or generate leads through its tool called Facebook Lead Ads , which allows you to create ads to attract interested users, without having to leave the platform. You can also use the tools offered by other platforms such as LinkedIn Sales Navigator .

6. Take advantage of a CRM
A CRM or customer relationship management software allows you to better manage your leads by automatically tracking interactions with your users, regardless of whether they occurred via email, social media, or a call.

HubSpot offers you free tools that you can use to generate leads within the same platform. These allow you to attract users through surveys, forms, and more, and thus easily increase the conversion rate.

As you can see, leads are your goal and the reason for your marketing strategies. Discover how to generate leads beyond paid advertising campaigns.