5 lead-generation ideas to try in 2024

Does your marketing team have shiny object syndrome? It’s a common diagnosis in today’s marketing landscape, where new technologies pop up constantly, making it hard for you to focus your efforts.

According to a recent KORTX survey, 40% of digital marketers have difficulty keeping up with trends. Sure, keeping tabs on how your industry is evolving is important. However, prioritizing exploration of all the latest trends can often divert attention and resources away from established strategies that you already know work well. 

A recent report by Vital showed that generating leads was by far, the biggest challenge reported by the marketing professionals they surveyed. Keeping up with the latest trends also landed in the top 10. 

So, how can you balance innovating and experimenting to improve lead-generation efforts while continuing to hit your targets? The trick is to identify what’s already working and then look at new and exciting trends within that already successful channel.

Let’s look at five fresh spins you can take on already proven lead-generation strategies to experiment responsibly in 2024.  

Offer courses to engage customers through education 

Research by Conductor found that customers are 131% more likely to buy from companies immediately after engaging with educational content. When asked to choose between four brands, 83.6% chose the company offering educational content.

With gated content like educational courses, it’s also about quality and value. Is the content meaningful enough for prospects to warrant taking a few minutes to fill out a form and give you their contact information? Educational content often receives positive responses from customers for several reasons:   

• It helps build trust: When a company shares knowledge and expertise through educational content, it establishes itself as an authority in its field. According to this year’s Edelman Trust Barometer, 66% of people trust “company technical experts” to tell them the truth about innovations and technologies, third behind only scientists and peers. 

• It empowers: Educational content gives customers the tools and knowledge they need to make better-informed decisions. It also provides valuable information and insights that customers can apply to their lives or work. It helps them understand complex concepts, solve problems, or learn new skills.

• It builds relationships: By offering value beyond the product or service, businesses can differentiate themselves as not just companies but partners in learning and growth, helping build stronger relationships and fostering loyalty.

• It promotes long-term engagement: Educational content has a longer shelf life than purely promotional material. Customers are more likely to return to educational resources for reference or to learn more, leading to sustained engagement.

Courses are the perfect type of educational content to try out in 2024. Unlike other gated educational content you might have used in the past (research reports, industry trend reports, ebooks, podcasts), courses are highly interactive. Customers aren’t just consuming the content; they are participating in it. 

Recent research by Mediafly found that companies that leveraged interactive content saw a 94% higher increase in content views than those that only used static content. 

Courses also provide a great opportunity to get feedback from customers you know are willing to engage with you. Use surveys to ask them what they thought about the course, what they found most valuable, and what they’d like to learn next. These answers can provide useful insights into customer pain points that can help further refine your lead-generation efforts. 

Use interactive quizzes for fun and effective interactions 

Quizzes are one of the most irresistible types of interactive content. They appeal to people’s curiosity and their innate desire to learn more about themselves and their interests. They also offer individuals a chance to gain insights into their traits, preferences, and behaviors in a fun and casual way. 

Mediafly’s research found that interactive content sees 52.6% more engagement than static content, and it’s hard to find content that’s more interactive than quizzes.

Here’s an example of how you can combine a quiz and educational content for a lead-generation strategy that’s bursting with interactivity: 

Say you’re a software company that offers project management tools. Create a quiz titled "What's Your Project Management Style?" asking questions to assess the user's approach to project management, such as their preferred work style, communication preferences, and organizational skills.

Upon completing the quiz, users are provided with a customized result that categorizes them into different project management styles, such as "The Planner," "The Collaborator," or "The Innovator." Users can then be routed to a custom landing page with resources about how your software helps them maximize their working style.

You can use many types of lead-generation quizzes for various purposes, including engagement, data collection, segmentation, lead qualification, and nurturing—let your imagination go wild when creating and testing them. 

Double down on video to align your lead gen with customer preferences  

The statistics backing customer preference for video content are hard to deny. According to Wyzowl's research: 

• 91% say they watch explainer videos to learn about products or services

• 82% have been convinced to buy a product/service by watching a video

• 89% want to see more videos from brands 

• 87% say video quality impacts their trust in a company

Semrush found that 45% of marketers believe video is their best-performing content, and 30% of marketers who don’t use short-form video told Hubspot they'd start using it in 2024.

While marketers already know how great video is, you can double down on video as a lead-gen tool by incorporating interactivity.

With compelling video content, you can capture the attention of potential leads, engage them effectively, and drive them toward conversion. You can also showcase products or services, educate audiences on industry trends and best practices, provide demonstrations and tutorials, or share customer testimonials and success stories with video. 

You can even create videos with built-in forms to create interactive video conversations. Record and upload videos with questions, prompts, or instructions, allowing customers to provide video or text responses. This interactive format enables businesses to gather feedback, conduct surveys, capture leads, or provide customer support in a more engaging and personalized way. 

Embrace artificial intelligence (AI) to boost team productivity 

According to recent Salesforce research, 53% of marketers view generative AI as a "game-changer," and 51% already use or experiment with it at work. The research also notes that marketers believe that generative AI saves more than five hours of work per week by eliminating busy work and allowing them to concentrate on more strategic work. 

AI solutions have already been integrated into almost every marketing tool to automate repetitive tasks, provide insights, and optimize marketing strategies. AI algorithms can analyze lead data and behavior patterns to score leads based on their likelihood to convert. You can also use AI-powered predictive analytics to anticipate customer needs and preferences.

AI also enables personalized marketing and lead nurturing campaigns, collecting and analyzing customer data and behavior to deliver targeted content and offers. You can also use AI to create automated outreach campaigns tailored to different segments of your target audience.

Generative AI is also great for brainstorming and ideation, helping you create email campaigns, messaging, and even survey questions when you need help to spark your creativity.  

Measure customer sentiment to inject emotion into lead-gen communication 

Zendesk research uncovered that two-thirds of consumers are more likely to become repeat customers if they have the impression that a business cares about their emotional state. One of the best ways to inject emotional insights into your lead-generation activities is to use sentiment analysis tools.

Running on natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) algorithms, these tools can analyze customer conversations and determine their sentiment, categorizing interactions as positive, negative, or even neutral based on the language used.

Customer sentiment analysis uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative data that you can collect through:

• Sending feedback surveys with questions gauging customers' satisfaction, preferences, and experiences.

• Monitoring social media platforms to track mentions, comments, and conversations about their brand or products. 

• Collecting online reviews to understand customers' experiences and satisfaction levels.

You can use customer sentiment to identify common pain points or challenges that potential customers are experiencing. By understanding customer frustrations or concerns, you can tailor lead-generation efforts to offer solutions that resonate with customer needs.

Analyzing sentiment lets you identify key messaging elements that evoke positive emotions and highlight them in your campaigns. Similarly, businesses can alleviate doubts and build trust with potential customers by addressing negative sentiment or concerns.

Sentiment analysis can also steer product development by providing data on how customers react to new and old features and services. You can use it to identify signals such as enthusiasm, interest, or dissatisfaction, helping you tailor your offerings based on things they’ve reacted positively to.

Sentiment analysis enables you to understand how current and potential customers feel about you and your product, helping you identify areas for improvement, act on them, and track changes over time.

Use templates to help brainstorm innovative lead-gen campaigns  

If you’re unsure where to start innovating lead-generation efforts, templates are an evergreen, tried-and-tested way to get your creative juices flowing. 

Using lead-generation templates to get started can streamline the brainstorming process, providing a structured framework to guide your idea generation. Check out these lead-generation examples and templates for a bit of inspiration.