Lead generation, or the process of capturing the interest of potential customers and bringing them into your sales funnel, can have a higher success rate if incentivized. A recent Google study shows that 90 percent of customers will give their email addresses in exchange for an incentive. Small perks like one-time coupons and email sign up incentives can help marketers generate email lists.
With good planning and execution, incentivized lead gen can generate more leads than non-incentivized lead generation ideas and tactics.
This blog will discuss the following at length:
• What is incentivized lead generation?
• What is incentive marketing?
• How incentivized lead generation increases marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) and sales-qualified leads (SQLs)
• Lead generation ideas: What are incentives you can offer to new audiences?
What Is Incentivized Lead Generation?
Incentivized lead generation is the practice of offering a reward in exchange for fulfilling a call to action (CTA). Marketers provide marketing incentives to encourage online audiences to take action – specifically, to give their email addresses for direct marketing purposes.
Of course, some incentives are more attractive than others. For example, the Google study’s respondents said recurring discounts, free product samples, extended product warranties and coupons would most likely convince them to give their email addresses.
“Incentivizing things like following social accounts, signing up for a webinar or mailing list, etc., can be a great way to grow an audience for smaller businesses,” Tristan Harris, Thrive Internet Marketing’s Demand Generation Senior Manager, said.
But he also warned that incentives in marketing won’t produce meaningful results if the company fails to meet the audience’s expectations after they sign up.
“A lot of companies treat their mailing list as a pure lead generation source without focusing on delivering value to their subscribers, which leads to people opting out and ignoring their messaging.”
So how do you ensure that audiences drawn in by incentivized lead gen campaigns will stay to become qualified leads? Incentive marketing is an answer.
What Is Incentive Marketing?
In incentive marketing, the target audience is not a mere spectator but an active participant. Advertisers use various devices to motivate them to follow a call to action. Those devices can be material items or opportunities – incentives designed so specifically for the target audience that they will find it hard to resist.
By combining incentive-driven lead generation with marketing, you attract more qualified leads for your business.
How Incentivized Lead Generation Increases MQLs and SQLs
Visitors who accept incentives in exchange for their email addresses become marketing-qualified leads (MQLs). Once your team successfully pulls them into your sales funnel, they become sales-qualified leads (SQLs).
Well-planned and executed incentivized lead gen can bring your business more high-quality MQLs and increase SQLs. But what are incentives that encourage people to provide their email addresses willingly?
For Harris, it boils down to which incentives offer real value.
“I personally believe that incentivizing lead gen while providing no value to your audience is unacceptable. From a marketing standpoint, providing cheap incentives [with] no value is not very useful.
“It’s important to remain cognizant of the fact that audiences will not stick around or engage with your brand unless you’re providing something of value. Sure, a chance to win a gift card is great, but it’s not what moves your audience toward converting into a lead.
“Answer the question, ‘How can I provide value to the audience we’re trying to build?’ before sinking resources into an incentivized lead gen campaign,” Harris said.
Lead Generation Ideas: What Are Incentives You Can Offer to New Audiences?
Marketing incentives are so common that most customers expect to receive a benefit for participating in promotional campaigns. But they must be valuable for customers to take you up on your offer.
DoorDash, one of the country’s biggest restaurant food delivery services, does this well. They offer incentives like free delivery or $15 off for the first three orders (with a minimum spend) for new users who download the app via affiliate links.
DollarFinancials.com offers an exclusive $45 coupon for new DoorDash users.
UrbanTastebud.com with a free delivery offer from DoorDash.
Offering incentives in marketing is beneficial for lead generation because it benefits all parties involved:
• The target audience receives and enjoys a reward.
• The brand or business behind the marketing incentive gets more online engagement and obtains leads and referral traffic.
As DoorDash demonstrates, this reward system is a great way to introduce a service or product to new audiences and lure competitors’ customers. Research shows that many consumers abandon their favorite brands that don’t offer any perks for a competing brand with an irresistible offer. Incentives in marketing can, therefore, influence brand loyalty.
When brainstorming marketing incentives to supplement your lead generation campaign, put yourself in your customers shoes: What are incentives they can’t resist? You’ll find out by considering your target market’s interests, goals and pain points.
To help you start, here are examples of incentives to beef up your lead generation ideas:
1. eBooks
If you have limited resources for incentives, then eBooks would be perfect for you. Offering free eBooks is the cheapest and fastest marketing incentive you can come up with, especially if you’re already writing content regularly.
You can produce a series of four to five related, long-form articles for your first ebook and compile them into one PDF file. Then, work on the formatting and make it look professional, industry appropriate and attractive to your target audience.
2. Webinar Pass
Webinars are excellent email sign up incentives because they offer valuable content and can attract people who are genuinely interested in your product, service, or niche.
Here are more reasons to hold webinars:
• You can show your expertise and establish yourself as an authority in your field.
• You can build beneficial relationships in your niche by inviting known influencers and subject matter experts as speakers.
• These regular sessions can become valuable marketing and lead-generation tools if you keep producing high-quality webinars.
3. Discounts and Coupons
Offering discounts and coupons as email sign up incentives casts a wide net over your target audience. While it’s not sustainable in the long run (you can never be sure that you’ll catch a few long-term customers with each throw), it’s a great way to reach people who may not have heard of you before.
You can also offer discounts or coupons for popular products and services among your target audience. For example, mobile network companies provide subscribers with free Spotify Premium, Apple Music, HBO Max and other streaming services. These perks are so attractive that many customers choose mobile networks based on these benefits.
4. Gift Cards
Many customers prefer gift cards because they have an equivalent dollar amount and can be used to purchase any product or service. In addition, gift cards are valid for years and often never expire. Therefore, they will attract people interested in your business and can see themselves buying your products and services in the future.
5. Customer Loyalty Program
A free subscription to a customer loyalty program is a leveled-up version of gift cards. It encourages repeat purchases, engagement and brand loyalty. Free customer loyalty program membership as an incentive can pay for itself in long-term sales and customer retention.
6. Incentivized Advertising
A roundabout way of incentivizing lead gen is framing the opt-in opportunity as a reward. You can do this with incentivized advertising, which offers a benefit in exchange for watching a video advertisement.
Well-produced ads explicitly crafted for the different stages of the buyer’s journey can heighten anticipation for articles, studies, references and other content that people can only get if they sign up for your mailing list.
Incentivized advertising accomplishes many things:
– Attracts high-quality leads (people genuinely interested in your content will willingly watch your ads and sign up afterward).
– Raises the perceived value of your newsletters, eBooks, freebies and other incentives.
– Obtains email addresses for newsletter and email marketing.
– Creates a sense of urgency and scarcity that you can leverage to get responses to your call to action.
Optimize Lead Generation Ideas With a Lead Generation Agency
Consumers cannot resist incentives if they think the perk is worth whatever they are asked to do. For example, a free coffee voucher or gift card for their next visit is a good enough reason for many to write and share an online review.
A lead generation agency can leverage this mindset to make audiences interested in a brand. With incentives as a reward, they can help you set up lead generation forms and increase your conversions. If you’re not yet working with an agency, now would be a good time to consult one about doing incentive marketing for your business.
Thrive Internet Marketing Agency can help you strategize for an incentivized lead generation campaign that can bring long-term benefits to your business. Our lead generation specialist will work closely with you to ensure that plan aligns with your marketing and sales goals and fulfillment capabilities.
If you want your digital marketing efforts to have a more significant, positive impact on your bottom line, consider incentivizing your lead generation efforts. Reach out to Thrive Internet Marketing Agency to get started.
