7 Unpleasant Truths About Lead Capture

Lead capture is the main concern of marketing professionals and managers – according to themselves.

When asked about their goals for the year for the “State of Marketing” (HubSpot) survey , the most common answer, which 35% of respondents agreed, was that the top priority is to generate qualified leads.

Capturing qualified leads is essential for sales results and here on the blog we already have several content on the topic.

Today, we're going to cover some details about this process that no one will tell you about, as it's not exactly what you'd like to hear.

What is lead capture?

Generating new leads is directly related to generating business and expanding opportunities for your company's marketing and commercial areas.

Lead generation enables companies to gain personal information from people who are potential customers. And best of all, in a way that this data is made available by the consumer, thus creating a bond of trust and relationship between the person and the brand.

How to capture leads?

When someone leaves a contact with your company, they show an interest in something you are offering. But this does not always mean that this consumer is ready to make a purchase.

Therefore, it is necessary to create hooks and capture offers thinking about different moments in the marketing and sales funnel , so that consumers with different levels of purchase maturity are interested in providing the contact for you.

Lead capture can be done through many tools, such as landing pages, forms, e-books, webinars, podcasts, conversational marketing tools, surveys, free trials, etc.

We'll cover some of these tools below.

What are the main lead capture tools?

Website Builders / Landing Pages

A Landing Page is a page designed to offer the visitor a specific purpose. According to a survey by Marketo, 68% of companies develop lead capture strategies through Landing Pages.

Also known as capture pages, they can be used to deliver rich materials such as e-books, infographics, webinars, courses, demos…
The possibilities are endless – and your brand captures lead data in exchange for this delivery of value.

In addition, here we can also mention some complementary features, such as static forms and pop-ups, as another way to generate leads using the same dynamics.

The website or landing page builder is a tool that enable your company to develop a strategy in these channels, customizing layout and content according to the needs and objectives of that brand.

Email Automation Tools

If you already have a contact base, you can generate and qualify leads from it.

To nurture the captured leads, you must build a strategy and think about the flow that this lead must go through, from the first contact with your brand to the moment of closing the purchase or hiring.

Post-sale actions must also be thought of, to maintain a relationship with customers and build their loyalty for new acquisitions.

In this planning, the ideal formats and channels must also be considered for each of these phases.

You can make use of specific marketing automation platforms to make this whole process much more practical.

Online chat / WhatsApp button / Call now

A more interesting and modern way than exploring static forms is to provide fast, personalized service: that's what consumers expect today.

Therefore, tools like online chat, WhatsApp button and call options can be interesting to generate leads.

But it is worth remembering that these tools only work during business hours, as long as you have a company employee who can provide this service.

This can generate frustration for some potential customers who will not follow this time pattern.

Ad platforms

In addition to exploring ads to drive visitors to your website and Landing Pages, you can now use your own ad platforms to generate leads without them leaving the channel they're browsing.

The most used ad platforms already allow you to create campaigns to capture leads, through features such as Facebook Lead Ads, Linkedin Lead Generation Form and Google Ads Lead Form Extension.

Online Events

Especially for the B2B industry, even offline events continue to be a very effective way to generate leads. A 2018 Marketing Charts study demonstrated that events are the leading source of lead generation for this industry.

With the year 2021 marked by the restrictions of the pandemic, another option for generating leads is holding online events, which require registration to participate, such as webinars and conferences.

This type of strategy boomed during the period of social isolation.

Social networks

In addition to ads on social networks, you can also make organic posts that direct you to pages of interest, generating traffic from those who already follow these channels and already have some level of contact with your brand.

According to the survey “State of Marketing” (Hubspot, 2021), social networks were the main channel used in marketing strategies this year.

And not just for relationships: many companies are generating qualified leads through these channels. According to the same HubSpot survey, these were the channels that generated the highest ROI for companies:

7 Unpleasant Truths About Lead Capture

Okay, but we're sure you've heard and read a lot about lead capture and tips on how to do it. However, there are some points that no one really addresses on the subject

We will present some truths about lead capture that you might not like to hear.

But believe me, keeping this in mind is essential for you to win quality leads that will truly bring the result you expect for your company.

1. You will have to invest (a lot) of money before you have any return

You might think that generating new contacts is not that complex.

In fact, there are many ways to generate leads. But generating qualified leads that will really bring sales results is not so simple and requires a high initial investment.

In fact, 53% of marketing managers spend at least half their budget on lead generation.


Source: BrightTALK

Don't fall for tools or companies that promise leads with very low investment. You'll end up with purchased mailings that won't do any good.

In order to have a return with the capture of leads, really invest: in qualified professionals, time, services and robust tools.

2. More leads doesn't necessarily mean more sales

This truth can be disappointing, but you need to know that generating a high number of leads doesn't necessarily have to do with increasing sales.

There is a huge difference between generating leads and generating qualified leads , who are actually within the public that is looking for your solution, who have the purchasing power for it and who are at the right time to make the purchase.

Your brand can generate many contacts, who will never make a purchase or close a contract. They can reach as much as 79% of your contact base.

In fact, the trend is that the more leads you generate, the lower your conversion rates will become. Therefore, it is essential to invest in the nurturing of your contacts.

3. Testing is essential — and it takes time and investment

Lead generation doesn't follow a ready-made formula.

Many factors interfere in what works and what doesn't: your market, the consumption habits of your audience, the chosen channels, the type of offer used as a conversion hook, among many other aspects.

Also, in a market that is changing so quickly, a strategy that works today will likely not work the same in 2 years.

Therefore, one of the most important things in capturing leads is to always keep moving, testing new strategies, following your audience closely, analyzing results...

And of course, it takes time and investment.

4. If the site is not good - the leads will not convert

You understand what works for your audience and have tested the best ad options. It's been getting good results and driving qualified traffic to your site – but conversion rates are still low.

The problem could be your website.

A bad, unattractive site that doesn't make your brand's value proposition clear or with unconvincing conversion hooks won't make visitors take the next step.

Invest in your site's user experience, make it easy to find the information of interest to them, be clear about the benefits they'll find, explore social proofs, and make it easy to convert.

5. With the wrong segmentation of your campaigns, you will bring many leads, but you won't generate any sales

It could also be that you've nailed the ads in your campaign, with the right copy and look, and are generating leads like never before!

But if you're getting the wrong audience to your page, even if they see leads, they won't continue in the marketing funnel to arrive at the time of purchase.

Or they will become a problem for your company in a short time, generating the much dreaded churn .

This doesn't necessarily mean that your nutrition and qualification strategy needs to change. It could just be that the leads aren't the right ones.

The generation of qualified leads starts at the moment of attracting the qualified audience as traffic. For example, let's say that your company offers a local service, with service only in your city.

If you don't target the campaign correctly, you'll end up generating leads outside the region your company wants. That's why targeting paid media campaigns correctly is critical.

6. Weekly exchanges with your sales team are essential (even if you don't like it)

Some marketing and sales teams have some resistance to working together or, even if this resistance does not happen, each team ends up focusing on its own result.

In reality, the integration between the teams and marketing and sales strategies is essential, as the ultimate goal is the same: to bring new customers and revenue to the company.

7. If you don't have a nurturing strategy, you'll end up with hundreds of leads sitting on your base

Got qualified traffic and interesting leads for your business strategy? This is only the first part of the battle.

Don't think that by magic they will close a deal with you. Likewise, approaching them commercially right from the start can have the opposite effect and alienate the potential consumer.

You need to get it ready for this moment of purchase and this can be done through lead nurturing.

Nurtured leads represent 20% more sales leads and spend on average 47% more than those who are not . Is this data enough to convince you?

We know some truths can hurt, but they're also much more helpful in building a good lead generation strategy than comfortable lies.

Inlook's conversion optimization tools

Inlook is an all-in-one conversion optimization software, to make sure you are always on the top of your game

Sign up free