Lead generation usually improves when a business defines what a useful lead looks like, finds out which channels already bring them, makes enquiring easy and follows up quickly. Measuring results by useful leads rather than raw enquiries helps show where to put effort. A lead generation job is finding people who may want a product and making first contact. Contacting people brings UK direct marketing rules, which need checking before a campaign starts.
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How can a business improve lead generation?
Lead generation usually improves when a business is clear about what a good lead looks like, finds out which channels already bring them in, makes it simple to enquire, and follows up quickly and consistently. These are practical judgements rather than fixed rules, and the right mix depends on the sector, the customer and the budget.
Whether the work is done in-house or with outside help, marketing and lead generation services tend to cover the same ground: attracting enquiries, capturing them and following them up. Contacting people brings legal rules too, which are covered in a shorter section further down.
What is a lead generation job?
A lead generation job is the work of finding people who may want a product or service and making first contact with them. Typical tasks include building and cleaning contact lists, writing messages, making calls, running targeted adverts, and passing interested contacts to sales staff.
Direct marketing can also include background activities, such as profiling the people a business wants to send marketing messages to. [1]
The work changes with the sector. For sector examples, the guide to finding mortgage leads covers brokers.
Which mistake costs lead generation most?
A common and costly mistake is treating lead generation as a volume exercise: counting every enquiry as a lead, with nobody owning the follow-up, can hide how much spend is going on enquiries that never turn into useful work. A business can then spend more on marketing while the same number of good opportunities are lost.
A second mistake is launching marketing without planning it. Starting direct marketing and then finding out it is not compliant might cost time and money. [1]
Buying lists without checking where the data came from is a third. Poor data wastes spend, whatever the channel.
A practical process for fixing weak lead flow
A sensible order of work for an established business looks like this.
- Define a useful lead in plain terms: the type of customer, the kind of job and the location or size that suits the business.
- Review each channel already in use, such as the website, search, referrals, email, phone and social media, and note which ones produce useful leads rather than just enquiries.
- Improve the enquiry journey. Check that contact details are easy to find, forms are short and calls or messages get a prompt reply.
- Agree who follows up each lead, how quickly, and what happens to leads that are not ready to buy.
- Measure results regularly by useful leads and cost per useful lead, then move effort towards what works.
Small changes at the enquiry and follow-up stages can often improve results without increasing spend on new leads.
Which UK marketing rules apply when contacting prospects?
Different channels have different rules, so planning the channel comes before the campaign. This section is a short summary, not a full compliance guide.
The Corporate Telephone Preference Service (CTPS) and the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) act as a general objection to receiving live direct marketing calls, so before making live B2B calls a business needs to screen against both registers as well as its own 'do not call' list. A business cannot call numbers registered with the CTPS or TPS unless the business has consented to the marketing calls, and cannot call the number of a business that has previously objected to its calls. The rules on making some types of live direct marketing calls are stricter: for claims management services, for example, a business must have consent to make live marketing calls. Automated marketing calls need consent from the people receiving them.
For emails and texts, a business must not send electronic mail marketing to individuals unless they have specifically consented to electronic mail from that business, or they are an existing customer who bought, or negotiated to buy, a similar product or service from that business in the past and were given a simple way to opt out when their details were first collected and in every message. [2]
The soft opt-in does not apply to prospective customers or new contacts, such as those from bought-in lists.
A business counts as a corporate subscriber if it is a corporate body with separate legal status, such as a company, limited liability partnership, Scottish partnership or some government bodies, and the consent requirement for electronic mail marketing does not apply to it, although the sender must still give a valid address for the business to opt out or unsubscribe. Processing personal data of named business contacts still needs to comply with the UK GDPR. Sole traders and some partnerships are treated as individuals, so a business can only send them electronic mail marketing if they have specifically consented or the soft opt-in applies. When relying on the soft opt-in, it must give them the chance to opt out when it collects their details and in every subsequent direct marketing message.
The ICO guidance behind this section is under review following changes made by the Data (Use and Access) Act, so check the current ICO guidance before launching a campaign. [3]
For automated marketing calls to another business, the business must have consent from the business it intends to call, and this consent must specifically cover automated calls from the caller. [3]
What should happen when someone opts out?
People may unsubscribe from a business's direct marketing, either completely or from a particular type of message, and the business should act on the request promptly. A sensible habit is to keep a suppression or 'don't contact' list and check new lists against it, which also saves spend on people who do not want the messages.
If a business withdraws its consent, any direct marketing to that business that was based on that consent has to stop. If an individual contact withdraws consent or objects, the business must stop processing their personal data for B2B marketing purposes.
For a lead generation team running several channels, sharing the list across email, text and calling means that a preference recorded on one channel is visible to everyone running the others.
Sources
Rates, thresholds and dates in this guide come from these sources. Check the source for the current figure.