Your Definitive Guide to Lead Generation

Call-to-Action: A text link, button, image, or some type of web link that encourages a website visitor to visit a landing page and become a lead.

• Awareness Stage: where buyers are aware of a pain point, but do not know how to solve it.

• Consideration Stage: where buyers have defined their challenge and are considering ways to solve it.

• The Decision Stage: where buyers know the solution they need and are looking to make a purchase decision.

Buyer persona: A semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers.

• TOFU: The Top-of-Funnel stage. Prospects in this beginning stage are typically trying to solve a problem, and thus want to be educated and acquire relevant information to determine the best solution.

• MOFU: The Middle-of-Funnel stage. Offers in this stage are potentially the most important in the funnel, as they distinguish “good fit” leads and begin to pull them in. Prospects have moved on to determining the best solution for their problem, so you can now focus on why your company’s products/services are their best choice.

• BOFU: The Bottom-of-Funnel is the stage of the buying process leads reach when they’re just about to close as new customers. They’ve identified a problem, have shopped around for possible solutions, and are very close to buying.

Cost-per-lead (CPL): The amount it costs for you to acquire a new lead.

Cost per customer acquisition (CAC): The price you pay to acquire a new customer. Calculated by dividing all the costs spent on acquiring more customers by the number of customers acquired in the period the money was spent.

Return on Investment (ROI): A performance measure used to evaluate the efficiency and profitability of an investment, or to compare the efficiency and profitability of multiple investments. The formula for ROI is: (Gain from Investment minus Cost of Investment), all divided by (Cost of Investment).

Account-Based Marketing (ABM): A framework focused on targeting specific accounts or account segments, usually by purchase history, firmographics, product need, or strategic value. The objective of ABM is to add new accounts or increase revenue per existing account rather than focus on individual leads.

Advocate Marketing: The combination of customer service and marketing to have customers satisfied. A satisfied customer is rewarded for the advocacy they perform for the company.

BANT: Budget, Authority, Need, and Time. A method for qualifying both likely and desirable sales prospects, who should have the proper resources for your product/ service.

B2B: Business-to-business; the exchange of products, services or information between businesses.

Prospect: A person or account who shows interest in what you are selling. In most cases, they fits your target market and have the means to buy.

Small and Medium Sized Businesses (SMBs): Also called Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SME’s), and refers to businesses with numbers between 1 and 999 employees. In general terms, a small business has less than 100 employees, while a medium business has between 100 and 999.

A/B Testing: The process of comparing two variations of a single variable to determine which performs best in order to help improve marketing efforts. This is often done in email marketing (with variations in the subject line or copy), calls-to-action (variations in colors or verbiage), and landing pages (variations in content).

Analytics: The discovery and communication of meaningful patterns in data. In marketing, it’s looking at the data of one’s initiatives (website visitor reports, social, email, etc.), analyzing the trends, and developing actionable insights to make better informed decisions.

Click-through rate (CTR): A percentage of how many users click on a link included in a webpage or email, which provides a way of measuring the success of the campaigns.

Conversion Path: A conversion path is a series of website-based events that facilitate lead capture.

Conversion Rate: The percentage of people who have completed a specified action on a page, such as completing a Lead Capture Form.

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO): The process of improving your site conversion using design techniques, key optimization principles, and testing. It involves creating an experience for your website visitors that will convert them into customers.

Friction: Any element of your website that is confusing, distracting, or causes stress for visitors, causing them to leave your page.

A/B Testing: The process of comparing two variations of a single variable to determine which performs best in order to help improve marketing efforts. This is often done in email marketing (with variations in the subject line or copy), calls-to-action (variations in colors or verbiage), and landing pages (variations in content).

Analytics: The discovery and communication of meaningful patterns in data. In marketing, it’s looking at the data of one’s initiatives (website visitor reports, social, email, etc.), analyzing the trends, and developing actionable insights to make better informed decisions.

Call-to-Action: A text link, button, image, or some type of web link that encourages a website visitor to visit a landing page and become a lead.

Content Management System (CMS): A web application designed to make it easy for non-technical users to create, edit, and manage a website.

Conversion Path: A conversion path is a series of website-based events that facilitate lead capture.

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO): The process of improving your site conversion using design techniques, key optimization principles, and testing. It involves creating an experience for your website visitors that will convert them into customers.

CTR: Click-through rate; a percentage of how many users click on a link included in a webpage or email, whichprovides a way of measuring the success of the campaigns.

Friction: Any element of your website that is confusing, distracting, or causes stress for visitors, causing them to leave your page.