What Methods Do the Top UK Businesses Use for Lead Gen?

Generating leads is still critical to survival in a digital economy. Forward-thinking companies have customised their strategies to ensure lead engagement and conversion in 2024. With smart data technologies and the use of cutting edge innovations, they are partnering with SEO companies, parsing through email marketing automation platforms and real-time analysis of social media content.

SEO Agencies: The Cornerstone of Lead Generation

SEO is still a major part of digital marketing strategy, although it is now more holistic. Big UK businesses no longer accept the selection and optimisation of keywords as a standalone SEO strategy, but instead work with SEO agencies to create all-inclusive strategies that improve search engine rankings and the user experience – with the net result being deeper engagement and higher conversion.

Another major trend is long-tail keywords. These obscure, ultra-specific keywords are less competitive, but they attract more qualified leads. If you are a plumber targeting ‘plumbing help for a tap that won’t stop leaking’, you’ll attract customers that are far more likely to convert. Optimising for such granular terms, particularly when coupled with a local touch point, could dominate that niche.

Moreover, they can assist them in producing quality content that is aimed at answering the questions that their potential customers might have as well; which is no less successful than the ad-based models but without the pay-per-click option; as well as enhancing the position in the organic search rankings, and facilitating the status of the business as a thought leader in its field. Quality content that encapsulates value-adding answers to questions engenders quality leads that ultimately translate into sales.

Strategic Partnerships with Digital Marketing Consultants

As a result, the number of digital marketing consultants has dramatically increased. They are no longer just people who organise individual campaigns, but help companies agree on longer-term strategies that link digital marketing activities with overarching business goals. Many UK market leaders nowadays consult with experts to outline long term strategies that will help their business grow in a sustainable way.

One of the big upsides to working with digital marketing consultants is that they can help your company to identify the best channels for lead generation. Whether it’s SEO, mastery of the social media or email marketing automation, consultants can help you to invest in the channels that are going to give you the most ROI.

More importantly, consultants ensure that their clients’ content is consistent across all marketing touchpoints. When touchpoints are consistent, customers feel more connected to the story and are more likely to stay engaged – and stick with a brand – throughout the engagement. This consistency can also help new leads move from the awareness stage to the conversion stage.

Personalised Email Marketing Automation

Undoubtedly, email marketing will remain the largest and most lucrative marketing channel for lead generation. In 2024, expect to see a continued emphasis on automation and personalisation of marketing messages. In the UK, firms are ramping up the use of advanced email marketing automation to deliver dynamic content at scale, tailored to audience segments and behavioural triggers.

For instance, businesses can serve messages to an audience that has watched a certain product but has not yet purchased, or they can set up automated workflows to stay in regular contact with prospects, nurturing them and keeping the brand top of mind. This is helpful for sales cycles that are longer and involve more contact with prospects, as well as for letting staff focus on big-picture projects while still making sure that leads are nurtured.

Leveraging Social Media Insights for Real-Time Lead Generation

The most innovative companies in the UK are spending on sophisticated social media analytics to learn more about their customers, their needs and preferences. In real time, social media data allows companies to fragment the audience and to target marketing campaigns to that audience.

Social media intelligence also has the advantage of reacting to trends as they occur – for example, if a hashtag starts trending, being first to respond can put you ahead of the competition and recover those leads before they get snapped up. LinkedIn is now also something of a B2B lead gen product, pushing data-driven content to directors and senior staff.

A third use of social media intelligence is to support content marketing. If I share, comment on or like a video, a blog post or some other ‘content experience’, a company can tell that I like that type of content and produce more of it. A company’s goal could be to produce content that not only draws prospects, but also keeps them interested, and draws them deeper into the sales funnel.

Creative Content Marketing Techniques for Maximum Engagement

Importantly, content marketing still plays an important part of lead creation, but one with a better strategy and more creative flair (as one of my friends put it): ‘the UK is moving towards “creating content that works harder”’.

Repurposing also makes sense here: copy an entire blog post into a series of tweets, or write a brief summary with a link to the full post; turn it into an infographic or a video to maximise your reach with the audience that’s going to be most receptive to your message. Highly interactive content can also capture data from a user and use it to your advantage in lead-generation, such as quizzes or calculators. You can use the data collected to personalise follow-up communications, in turn increasing the likelihood of making a conversion.

Gated content – free, often longer-form, and usually technical and/or valuable content (such as whitepapers and webinars) that you offer up in exchange for a prospect’s enquiry information – is a great way to generate leads, but only if the gated content satisfies a well-understood audience need or desire.

Embracing Advanced Strategies for Effective Lead Generation

The world of lead generation for top UK businesses is less like the brash, pushy stereotype of the past and more like a data-driven, nuanced, and integrated business strategy. When this is underpinned by specialist SEO agencies, digital marketing consultants, email marketing automation, real time social media insight and content that (whilst marketing-led) is supremely creative, these businesses are not just generating leads, they’re converting customers. And where do we go from customers? We get champions.

This is a great time for businesses to leverage these more advanced strategies within their lead generation efforts. If you’re interested in learning more about how Iconic Digital can help your business with lead generation, book a call with us today. Iconic Digital is a digital marketing agency in London, England, with a wide range of services, including help with lead generation and digital sales funnels.

Get in contact with us today for a free digital marketing audit and take the next step to converting your leads.