Ecommerce audiences reward companies that prioritize marketing personalization efforts. Research shows marketing personalization can cut customer acquisition costs in half, boost revenues by up to 15%, and increase marketing return on investment (ROI) by 30%.
Still, before you can personalize your marketing campaigns, you need to know who your customers are, how to contact them, and what information would encourage them to convert.
In other words, you need targeted leads—customers most likely to convert—and the more of them the better. There’s plenty of software available to streamline the sales process for you. Here’s how lead generation software helps businesses earn more high-quality leads—plus six of the best options for ecommerce companies.
What is lead generation?
The lead generation process involves identifying potential customers, capturing their interest, and motivating them to engage with your business. When they share their contact information with you, you can continue nurturing that relationship. A lead gen strategy can help you get more prospective customers into your sales funnel.
Inbound vs. outbound lead generation
Businesses categorize lead generation efforts according to which party initiates contact: the business or the prospective customer. Inbound lead generation tactics encourage a company’s target audiences to reach out to the business. Potential customers become leads when they contact the business by phone or email, fill out a lead capture form, or engage with the company on a social media platform. For example, a visitor might come across a blog post and decide they want to inquire about a service.
Outbound lead generation tactics involve actively reaching out to potential customers. Taking this approach can be expensive, so it’s more popular with business-to-business (B2B) brands and companies with high average customer lifetime value (CLV).
What is lead generation software?
Lead generation software is a type of marketing software that helps businesses identify prospects, gather contact information, and capture leads. You can use it to earn more leads, improve lead quality, and increase the efficiency of your lead generation campaigns.
Many lead gen tools support lead management, which includes both the lead generation process and the work of using lead data to support a business’s sales and marketing efforts. In general, these tools allow you to undertake:
- Lead capturing. Lead capture is the process of gathering key contact information from prospective customers, such as name, company, role, and email address. Businesses typically collect lead information with landing pages or forms and store data in a customer relationship management system (CRM) or similar tool.
- Lead nurturing. Lead nurturing involves serving leads with specific content to move them through the sales and marketing funnel. Nurturing leads can boost interest and increase a prospect’s likelihood of conversion.
- Lead qualifying. Withlead qualification (or lead scoring), you can determine where a new lead is in the buyer journey and personalize your efforts. For example, many companies hand off leads who appear ready to convert—often called sales-qualified leads (SQL)—to sales teams, focusing their lead nurture efforts on mid-funnel prospects.
What to look for when choosing lead generation software
The right lead generation tool for you depends on your budget, needs, and business goals. Here are criteria to consider as you research options:
Tool type
Evaluate the feature set and scope of different lead generation software tools. If your goal is more qualified leads, you might select a lead capture tool. But if you also want to optimize marketing and sales processes, you could opt for a marketing automation platform, a sales-focused customer relationship management tool, or CRM tool with built-in lead generation features.
Analytics
Built-in analytics and reporting features provide valuable insights into customer behavior and make it easy to monitor your lead-generation efforts. Many tools include analytics dashboards and reporting automation. Some also use predictive analytics to recommend specific strategies based on your unique goals and performance data.
Ease of use
Choose a tool appropriate for your level of technical experience. User-friendly interfaces, features like drag-and-drop content editors, and high-quality customer support systems can cut your learning curve and help you get the most out of your tool.
Flexibility
Many tools let you customize sales funnels, content templates, dashboard appearance, and reports, and some include pre-built integrations that can sync your lead generation system with your existing tech stack. Choose a tool that both integrates with your other sales and marketing technologies and supports your desired level of customization.
Cost
Lead generation software can be free or it can cost thousands of dollars each month. Look for a tool that fits your current budget and lets you measure the ROI of your purchase.
Many tools are also scalable. You can get a free version with limited features or subscribe to paid plans that include additional features or higher user or contact limits. Both large and small businesses can start with a free plan before deciding whether or not they need to upgrade.
Automation
Marketing automations save time and expand your sales and marketing team’s efforts. Tools can speed up recurring or time-consuming tasks like prospecting, list cleaning, lead scoring, and pipeline management. You can also look for tools that use artificial intelligence (AI) to make content generation and audience segmentation more efficient.
6 top lead generation tools
Generating leads can be a time-consuming process, but theright lead generation tool can extend your team’s capacity and help you earn high-quality leads. Here’s an overview of six of the best lead generation tools to jumpstart your research process:
HubSpot Marketing Hub
HubSpot’s suite of marketing tools, HubSpot Marketing Hub, helps businesses capture, qualify, and nurture leads. It includes A/B testing and automated lead-scoring features. It also supports personalized ad campaigns through Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google Ads. Business owners can build skills through HubSpot Academy, the company’s free educational resource hub.
Type: Marketing automation software
Features
- Lead capture forms
- Email marketing tools
- Ad software
- Marketing automations
- Campaign management tools
- AI-powered content creation
- 24/7 customer support
- More than 1,600 third-party apps and integrations
- Learning resources
- Analytics dashboard
- Free plan offered
Pricing
- Free: $0/month for up to 5 users
- Starter: $20/month per seat
- Professional: $890/month, 3 seats included
- Enterprise: $3,600/month, 5 seats included
Pipedrive
Pipedrive is a sales pipeline management and CRM system. Users build custom sales pipelines, and the tool tracks lead progress, generates sales forecasts, and uses AI technology to identify high-value leads. Higher-tier plans also offer 24/7 customer support.
Type: Lead generation assistant and sales CRM
Features
- Reporting dashboard
- Lead capture forms
- Custom sales pipelines
- 24/7 customer support
- Contract management
- Marketing automations
- Email management
- AI sales assistant
- Revenue forecasting
- More than 400 apps and integrations
- Free trial offered
Pricing
- Essential: $24/month per seat
- Advanced: $44/month per seat
- Professional: $64/month per seat
- Power: $79/month per seat
- Enterprise: $129/month per seat
Marketo
Adobe’s marketing automation platform, Marketo, includes email marketing, lead generation, and lead management automation tools. It also offers AI-powered audience segmentation, content generation, and live chat tools. Adobe doesn’t publish plan prices, but you can contact its sales team to learn more.
Type: Marketing automation platform
Features
- Marketing automations
- Analytics dashboard
- Cross-channel nurturing capabilities
- SEO tools
- Paid media integrations
- Attribution tracking
- Marketing personalization
- AI tools
- Social media marketing tools
- Email marketing tools
Pricing
- Four plans: Growth, Select, Prime, and Ultimate
- Contact team for pricing
BDOW
BDOW (formerly Sumo) is an intelligent website pop-up tool that uses flexible, branded forms to capture lead information from website visitors. It supports discount codes and provides a built-in autoresponder to immediately connect with new leads.
Type: Lead capture tool
Features
- Intelligent lead captures forms and pop-ups
- A/B testing
- Discount codes
- Autoresponder
- Customizable designs
- Email broadcasts
- Social sharing
- Advanced visitor targeting
- Advanced analytics
- Ecommerce design templates
- Free plan offered
Pricing
- Free
- Starter: $15/month
- Plus: $25/month
- Pro: $49/month
Salesforce
Salesforce Marketing Cloud (formerly Pardot), is a B2B lead generation, sales CRM, and marketing account automation platform that offers AI-enabled lead scoring, data analytics, engagement insights, and content creation features. You can create custom landing pages, manage and monitor marketing campaigns, and use cross-channel marketing automations to attract new leads.
Type: Marketing account automation software and sales CRM
Features
- AI-enabled lead scoring
- Generative AI content creation
- Engagement history dashboard
- Automated Slack alerts
- Account-based marketing dashboard
- Predictive analytics
- Email marketing tools
- Cross-channel engagement tools
- Landing page tools and forms
- A/B testing
Pricing
- Engagement: $1,250/month
- Growth: $1,500/month
- Intelligence: $3,000/month
Mailchimp
Mailchimp is an email and marketing automation platform designed to help businesses generate leads and nurture them through the sales funnel. It offers personalized landing pages, opt-in forms, surveys, A/B testing, and audience targeting/segmentation tools. You can also use the platform’s drag-and-drop builder and content generator to create marketing emails in just a few clicks. Mailchimp offers a 30-day free trial.
Type: Email automation platform
Features
- AI-powered content generation
- Audience segmentation and targeting
- SMS targeting campaigns
- Behavioral segmentation
- Predicted audience segments
- Sales funnel visualization
- Analytics dashboard
- A/B testing
- Industry benchmarking
- Email marketing templates
- More than 300 apps and integrations
Pricing
- Essentials: $13/month
- Standard: $20/month
- Premium: $350/month
Lead generation tools FAQ
How do you choose the right lead-generation tool?
The best lead gen tool for your business should fit your budget and include the features you need to earn more high-quality leads—like automated emails, content generation, and audience segmentation. Consider ease of use, scalability, and cost along with features like app integrations and marketing automations to find the best tool for you.
Which is the best lead generation platform?
The best lead gen tool for your business depends on your budget, goals, and the sales and marketing software you’re already using. Look for a tool that fits your budget, integrates with your current systems, and helps you meet your target audiences where they already are.
How do you do lead generation?
The lead gen process involves identifying your target audiences, creating content that motivates engagement with your brand, and using web forms or landing pages to capture key contact information.
