Comprehensive Guide to Lead Generation

Outsourcing Lead Generation: A Comprehensive Guide for Choosing the Right Provider

Have you ever heard about Lead Generation?

The key to your business’s success is to get good leads. For this reason, every marketer’s top goal is to find tips and keep the sales pipeline going.

But getting new leads can also be your biggest problem: More than six in 10 B2B marketers say their company has difficulty finding new people who might want to buy from them.

Even if you can’t figure out the right way to get leads, it’s easy to feel like lead generation is a pain on your side.

That’s where outsourcing leads come in.

 

What is Lead Generation Outsourcing?

Monash Business School defines Lead Generation as the activity of identifying potential customers. This is true. 

But Stratford University explained it more in-depth.

According to them: Lead generation, at its most basic, is creating interest in and awareness of a product or service offered by a business among the general public.

This awareness and interest can be used to make sales immediately, like on TV and in the newspaper. In this case, the business directly tries to get people to buy something by giving them information.

Awareness and interest can also be made to lead to sales by first directing a consumer to free content, which, in turn, will lead to more awareness and interest.

As the relationship between the business and the person who might buy from them grows, the person’s trust and confidence in the company also increase. At the right time, the company directly offers to those who might buy from them. 

Because of the trust-based relationship that already exists, the chances of the customer responding positively to this offer are much higher.

Lead generation is used in various industries like mortgage, healthcare, and manufacturing. And there are two types of lead generation: B2B and B2C. B2B (Business to Business) lead generation deals with getting the information of businesses to pitch a sale. Whereas B2C (Business to Customer) deals with getting the information of customers or consumers to make a sale.

Remember that the marketing approach also differs since these two types of lead generation have different scopes and targets.

 

Why Outsource Lead Generation? 

Having a service provider do a business task for you is called “outsourcing.” A BPO company handles all marketing, inbound, and outbound calls. Whether you run a small or big business, this service is for you!

All these while giving you hiring and training of agents and providing real-time reports with the use of sophisticated BPO technology.

Companies outsource isn’t just one reason, but rather a lot. And it all depends on the company and what it needs. 

Remember that outsourcing is when a company hires someone else to help them. The reasons for this may and will change over time.

In a paper published by marketjoy.com, they further explain the importance of outsourcing. They listed down ten reasons why you should outsource lead generation:

1. Improves efficiency.
2. Cost-effective.
3. Helps create sales-ready leads.
4. Empower your sales team.
5. It enables you to gain momentum.
6. Expand your business.
7. It allows you to get real-time data.
8. It helps you go beyond the ABC (Always Be Closing)
9. Gives you high-quality market data.
10. Reduces headcount cost.

As you can see, there are many reasons why firms outsource. But is it advantageous all the time?

Is it Better to Outsource Lead Generation?

Every marketer has to deal with b2c and b2b lead generation at some point. 

Even though you might think of hiring a specialist agency to get leads at an extra cost, you don’t want to lose half of your money on a lousy lead generation campaign. 

The good news is that hiring someone else for lead generation is very cheap. Businesses that keep in touch with leads make more money than those that don’t.

A lead generation company might not be worth it because you think they will run off with your money. Make a few calls and then stop. Most agencies will not only get the job done, but they will also do it in different ways.

Even though they may specialize in just one thing, lead generation agencies can also help with content marketing, email marketing, SEO, social media, etc. It’s not just more sales when you hire someone else to do lead generation for you. You also get a lot of different things.

But let’s focus on the opposite of outsourcing for a moment.

 

What is In-Housing?

Those who work for you in the office are called the in-house team.

In-house refers to an activity or operation that a company does itself rather than hiring someone else to do it. Employees and time are used exhaustively by the company to do business.

This is the opposite of outsourcing, when you hire outside help to do those tasks.

Whether to keep things in-house or outsource often comes down to considering the costs and risks. Depending on the size and nature of your primary business, the method used to calculate these costs may differ from one company to the next.

There are some jobs that a company might choose to do on its own. While it can be cheaper to outsource, there are also times when it makes sense to hire in-house experts instead.

Keeping these activities in-house may also give the business more control over the services and people who provide them. There may also be fewer security risks, depending on what kinds of information would have to be given to an outside party if the work were done by someone else instead.

Internal employees may, sometimes, have a better sense of how the business works, giving them ideas about how specific tasks should be done. This allows them to work with the business’s core vision at the forefront of their decision-making.

 

What’s the Difference between Outsourcing and In-house?

There’s a lot of difference between outsourcing and in-house business models.

Outsourcing has a standard onboarding process depending on the outsourced work. It lets businesses hire a third party for lead generation work.

Another way to hire people is to go step-by-step. Companies use job postings, job referrals, ads, and other methods to reach a pool of candidates, and then choose the best one to hire.

Many businesses use outsourcing services when they don’t have the skills they need in-house.

As a small business, outsourcing is a good idea only for short-term projects. Companies can get the job functions and skills they need without paying for a full-time employee. “Shared services” are also an option for people who don’t want to sign a long-term deal.

Meanwhile, hiring in-house staff can be very costly for a business. A company with full-time staff would have to pay them well. Also, give them room to grow, and offer other on-site perks to keep them excited about future projects and help the company in different ways.

Unlike outsourcing, a service provider takes care of an organization’s hiring needs while cutting costs.

In-house staffing has a set working schedule; sometimes, in-house staff don’t finish their work on time. This is true if employers give someone else the job hours before their shift ends or after regular work hours.

On the other hand, outsourcing allows businesses to run around the clock. With this arrangement, companies can get more done faster and be more productive.

Outsourcing is more flexible than hiring in-house staff, but it isn’t always the best choice for every business. 

To determine if an organization needs to grow, thinking about outsourcing or hiring in-house staff is essential. Otherwise, neither outsourcing nor in-house staffing will work in the long run.

 

Which is Better?

Which one is the best for you to use? There isn’t a correct answer. Everything comes down to which one is best for your business.

In-house means that when you make leads yourself, you have more control over the whole process and can see what is happening at all times. You are in charge of your team, strategy, and results.

But it takes a lot of money to start a team from scratch. Take into account both the long-term and short-term costs. There are the salaries of your team first. Adding in the covered benefits and bonus costs makes it even more pricey.

Besides training, you’ll also need to provide hardware and software and set up many other things.

On the other hand, outsourcing can help you deal with management issues with people or performance management, like paying for the most up-to-date software and techniques.

However, because the BPO company only does limited service, they might not have the industry-specific knowledge to understand your product thoroughly.

As you can see, both have good and bad things about them. So it’s up to you to figure out how to measure them. It is best to make sure you understand what your business needs first.

How Much Do Companies Pay For Leads?

A tried and true way to keep your firm’s cash flow steady is to keep a stable ROI. To do this, you must make, seek, and convert leads.

Turning visitors to your website into paying customers is very important to the success of your business.

There’s no point in getting leads if they don’t help your company make money.

Getting leads helps with cash flow because it ensures you’re always converting clicks and visitors into actual sales and completed transactions. However, tips are not free.

Here are the usual costs of leads:

• Media agencies and operations: the costs to hire an agency for your lead gen efforts
• Media placement and distribution: the cost of paying external sources such as Facebook and LinkedIn for your ads
• List purchases: the cost of buying or hiring third parties to receive or generate lists
• Campaign creation: the internal expenses of developing an effective marketing campaign
• Incentives: Reward costs, e.g., discounts, sending gifts

Furthermore, you can compute your company’s cost per lead by using this formula:

Cost Per Lead (CPL) = Ad Spend (or the total money spent on marketing)/ # of tips from the campaign

You can check a CPL calculator here if you are still unsure about your computation.

According to blogs, these are the identified average cost per lead by industry and generation channel:

 

Average Cost per Lead by Industry

Industry	Cost per Lead on Average
Finance	$ 160
Technology	$ 208
Healthcare	$ 162
Manufacturing	$ 136
Travel & Tourism	$ 106
Retail	$ 34
Education	$ 55
Telecom	$ 45
Marketing	$ 99
Consumer Products	$ 105
Media & Publishing	$ 108
Non-Profits	$ 31
Business Services	$ 132

 

Average Cost per Lead by Lead Generation Channel

Lead Generation Channel	Cost per Lead on Average
Events & Tradeshows	$ 811
Public Relations	$ 294
Referrals	$ 73
Video Marketing	$ 174
LinkedIn Advertising	$ 75
Webinars	$ 72
Display Advertising	$ 63
Content Marketing	$ 92
Traditional Marketing (TV, Radio, Print)	$ 619
Search Engine Advertising	$ 110
Social Media Advertising	$ 58
Search Engine Optimization	$ 31
Email Marketing	$ 53
Online Retargeting	$ 31

 

How Do You Choose a Lead Generation Company?

Lead generation helps businesses find new customers and get them into the sales funnel. Knowing if a lead generation service will benefit your business is hard.

But there are things you can check to ensure you partner with a quality company.

 

1. Company Experience

For one lead generation company to be better than another, they need to use the correct method. But age is a factor as well. That doesn’t mean a newer company won’t be good at their work. 

Instead, it would be best to look at how long its employees have been around and how long the business has been in its field. Newer companies can still get great results if they work with people who are already good at their jobs. 

If the company has recently had a lot of turnover and mainly works with new people, choosing an older company might not be a good idea.

If you want to see how well a company has done in the past, you can find out what businesses they’ve worked with and how well those businesses did. 

They should be able to show how their services worked for other businesses. The way they use their skills can show how adaptable they are. It also shows if they can improve lead generation services for their clients.

It’s essential to look at the general statistics for the company. If two companies are all the same except for their specialized experience, choosing the one with more technical expertise is better. If the numbers aren’t the same, select the company with more experience and better statistics, even if the numbers don’t match.

 

2. Company Focus

A big scam regarding outsourcing lead generation is “guaranteed leads.”

Many businesses try to convince customers they will deliver a certain number of leads. They then focus on doubling the tips without ensuring their quality. 

Remember that their main goal is to make money, not get leads. Remembering that quality will always be more important than quantity when getting new information is essential. So, please don’t get too excited about it.

It’s best to choose companies that balance quantity and quality.

The more you pay attention to quantity, the less you pay attention to quality. It’s not possible to get everything at once in this world. So, think about the trade-offs you’re making.

 

3. Technology

Especially in the modern world, having some digital component to your lead generation is a must! 

A good lead generation company should have complete digital tools to automate, manage, and track their work. If you look at how much and how well the technology is used, you can get a good idea of what the company values. And how up-to-date it is with its strategy and how it does it.

Ideally, the software should be able to work with your customer relationship management (CRM) system. It should be easy to integrate with your software as well.

 

4. Price

When you compare lead generation companies, you need to consider the price and the total cost of this marketing investment. 

Keep in mind the scope of the services, customer and administrative support, and the size and relevance of the database. Choose the company that can give you all the services you need for your money.

The main goal of lead generation is to help your business grow. 

Understanding your agency’s goals and targets and the services providers offer will help you determine if your business is a good fit for a lead generation company. 

Find out how having lead generation services that produce high-quality, engaged leads that are accurate and likely to turn into sales can help your business grow and make more money.

 

5. Review the Terms

Before you agree to work with a particular company, be honest about what you want and what their services can help you with. It’s always good to hear from confident and capable professionals who promise to get you what you want, but vague statements and a vague plan of action are red flags.

In the lead generation industry, things can change at any time. To figure out which one is best for your needs, your marketing and sales team must do the research. Also, look for organizations that are going the extra mile rather than those profiting from random contact lists.

 

What is the Future of Lead Generation?

More and more people rightly focus on developing new ideas, so prospects would want to be contacted. That’s when the process of making marketing messages to keep people interested in your company starts.

Furthermore, all firms want to know what to capitalize on these year’s B2C and B2B Lead Generation Trends. So to help you out, we compiled all the innovations for lead gen marketing we can find:

 

1. Voice and search marketing

Mobile users are a lot more likely to use Voice Search. They use it more than once a week. If your company wants to target teens, this is one of your options.

It is estimated that around half of all the searches done on Google are done via Voice. The increasing adoption of this search option is partly down to the fact that Voice Searches are increasing in accuracy; according to Google, their Voice Searches are 95% accurate.

Following search engine optimization (SEO) best practices, you should be in good shape. But there are ways you can improve your bottom line with voice searches.

Users who search by Voice will use longer keyword phrases with three to five more words than those who search by text. Because this is the case, you need to start thinking about and researching longer, long-tail keywords now. 

This information will help you with your lead generation effort, allowing you to be exact with your customer’s needs and wants.

 

2. On-page lead qualification

When a person signs up for an account, looking at and qualifying them is called “on-page lead qualification.” 

When you do this, you don’t have to spend time manually qualifying each lead, which can hurt your lead generation efforts in the long run.

This new trend asks leads to give you more information after signing up and showing interest in your products or services. Using this data, marketers can build multi-step buyer journeys that CRMs can use to qualify leads.

 

3. Chatbots

Chatbots can successfully solve 80% of customer problems 

But Chatbots can be used to get specific information from leads as well. This technology can help you determine how qualified leads are to sell or how far they are in the buying process.

To do this,  set up questions with your chatbot that people must answer before they can be a lead. These questions should be specific to your company’s sales process to be effective.

These might be a simple question that qualifies a person for you immediately. But other people might have to answer in more detail, and that’s okay. A chatbot can showcase relevant products or services to the prospect based on the answers to specific questions. 

 

4. Email Marketing

Email marketing is still a popular and effective method of communication. Customers prefer email as their primary mode of communication 72% of the time. As a result, it can be an excellent lead-generation strategy.

Email marketing aids in the development of brand credibility and trust. Aside from that, using email marketing will help you build relationships with both your customers and prospects.

Email marketing allows you to communicate with cold and warm leads, send weekly newsletters, educate tips about your product, stay top-of-mind, and segment and personalize to become even more dependable.

 

5. Influencer Marketing

One of the most crucial lead generation trends is influencer marketing. Increasingly, businesses are identifying and collaborating with influencers in their fields. This trend has been around for quite some time and has proven dependable.

Influencers can have a following of thousands to millions of people who are loyal, believe what they say, and follow the trends they set.

The followers are exposed to the brand since the influencer has their audience’s trust. This can result in increased lead creation, higher conversion rates, and a positive return on investment for your company.

 

Lead Generation Outsourcing Companies

Now you know the trends and the price of Lead Generation, let’s look at the top firms in the industry.

The following are the top Lead Generation Outsourcing Companies.

 

1. Magellan Solutions

Magellan is a call center and business processing outsourcing company in the Philippines that handles both inbound and outbound calls. 

They bring innovative and creative ideas to business operations’ strategy and operational performance. They do this by delivering the correct BPO and customer management solutions that span the whole customer lifecycle. And by combining unique experiences and capabilities across industries and business activities. 

Magellan builds and implements solutions for businesses and customers worldwide using its extensive business process knowledge and resources. 

The firm has 18 years of expertise, offering best-in-class outsourced solutions to SMEs and large worldwide corporations.

As the leading lead gen company, the goal is to identify new ways to extend the market and generate hot leads in various sectors. With their pool of professional agents, you can get real estate leads, healthcare leads, telecom leads, and more. 

To boost customer engagement and grow your client’s base, their personnel go through months of cross-training in telemarketing, sales lead generation, and demand development.

 

2. Callbox

On the Callbox About Us page, they introduce themselves as the largest outsourced B2B lead generation provider.

“Founded in 2004, Callbox is the largest provider of outsourced B2B lead generation services and outbound sales support for businesses and organizations worldwide. Using an account-based marketing approach to reaching a global database of contacts from over 35 million businesses, Callbox enables companies to establish and expand markets by connecting with prospects through six lead generation avenues: Voice, email, social, chat, website, and webinars.

To increase sales productivity, Callbox supports its clients by giving their sales teams access to a whole stack of sales and marketing tools that drive up lead gen and qualified opportunities. Equipped with decades of marketing expertise and powered by intuitive sales technology, Callbox helps companies grow their business exponentially.”

 

3. Flatworld Solutions

Flatworld Solutions is another BPO company that offers a variety of services. Their about us page says:

“Flatworld Solutions (FWS) is a global corporation offering IT, Business Consulting, and Outsourcing Services solutions. Founded in 2002 and incorporated in 2004 with the single-minded purpose of using technology to equip and enable businesses to build efficiency, negate global distances, save time, and increase bottom lines worldwide, Flatworld has earned its stripes with a decade of satisfying experiences. Over 18488 customers and millions of dollars in increased client revenue, 3500+ efficient and enabled employees with solution-centric leadership tell the story of expanding possibilities.

Flatworld operates across geographies, with sales and delivery centers in India, the Philippines, the US, and the UK. These offices provide strategic support and placement of personnel for customer-enhancing solutions. Flatworld India is an ISO 9001-2008 accredited delivery provider that meets stringent global quality standards in all its service offerings.”

Here are more firms you can get in touch with for your Lead Generation needs:

• Anchored
• SCIENCE Technology
• Fusion BPO Services
• TDCX
• Hit Rate Solutions
• Concert 8 Solutions Inc.

 

How Lead Generation Companies Work

As we have established, a lead generation company collects information about people and businesses. They do this so that they can make a sale. They also organize the data into different groups for market targeting. Some may even group leads by how “warm” they are.

When a lead generation company does business, they usually offer a lot of things, like:

• Database marketing
• In-house marketing teams
• Databases of firms and professional information

When you hire a lead generation company, they can help you target and personalize your campaigns.

A lead generation company will develop campaigns that are specific to your needs. It will also have inbound programs that will help you warm up leads. They do this to keep nurturing the tips and use other marketing techniques to get the needed information.

The databases they have will help them make a sale. This info can quickly and easily help determine which leads are interested in buying your products.

The people who do this work look at things like public records and trade references. They also look at digital and print publications, and they look at trade publications on the web.

 

Lead Generation Process

You know what lead generation is and how it works, but what about the lead gen process?

The following is the universal practice that lead gen companies do. But the step-by-step is not uniform to all. A company can choose to add, delete, or modify it anytime it wants.

1. Initially, a visitor comes across your business through one way you spread the word about it, like your website, blog, or social media. A captivating copy and pub mat can help you big time in getting interested.
2. Your call-to-action (CTA) can be an image, button, or message encouraging people to do something on your website or page. Keep in mind that there are certain CTAs effective per medium. For example, an image is more effective in social media than a website. At the same time, a button works better on a website than on social media. When this person clicks on it, the process of lead generation starts. That CTA will send your visitor to a landing page, a web page meant to get leads’ information in exchange for an offer. It’s important to note that a request is what’s being “offered” on the landing page, like an ebook, a course, or a template. You need to ensure that a visitor thinks the offer is worth giving up their personal information for.

3. Your visitor fills out a form in exchange for the deal. There you have it! You got a new lead.
4. It’s now the task of the sales team to connect with your prospect. They can do this via phone call, chat, or email. It may take them a few days or weeks to convince someone to buy the product. But with persistent and constant reminders, people will eventually initiate to purchase the product. When you put all of these things together, you can use all of your channels to get people to your landing page and start getting leads.

 

Lead Generation Tips

How about lead generation best practices?

Any business needs to get new leads to stay alive and grow. If you want to grow, you need more customers; there is no easy way around it.

The tips and tricks below will help you get more leads are strategies BPO companies use. But you can apply them to your small business as well.

 

1. Build Buyer Personas

Monash Business School defines a buyer persona as:

“[The] fictional representation of an organization’s ideal customer based on a range of real facts (such as demographic information, leisure interests, etc.) and reasonable assumptions (such as income).”

Buyers’ persona differs from your target audience because they are more specific. They are suitable for businesses because they help them determine their marketing strategies. 

Remember your buyer personas when you’re planning your marketing strategy. 

It would be best to consider them when choosing which communication channel to use, what words and tone of Voice to use on landing pages, emails, and social media posts, and how often to post.

 

2. Focus on the Intent of the Content

If you want to make great content, you need to know why you are making it in the first place. You can’t make something without a reason.

You make it to attract customers, influence your target audience, or even make people who buy from you become your long-term customers. So before you start making high-quality content for your brand, you need to know what you want to do and how you want to do it.

After you figure out why you’re making this content and who you’re making it for, you can make a better visual element for your audience. As a result, you will be able to get more people to read your posts because you have created something that your target audience is interested in.

 

3. Always Reply to Queries

You need to respond quickly when people post comments or questions on your site or social media accounts. 

This is because social media is a very interactive communication platform and a two-way conversation. Responding quickly will show that you are a brand that genuinely cares about its customers.

 

4. Join Social Media Groups and Communities

When you find a social media group and community that fits your business, you can reach out to them.

You only have to dive in and start making good, long-term friends with these people. Share the things you make that you think will be useful to them. Even share some special deals or offers you have and a link to sign up for your email list. 

But remember that these communities and groups have their own rules of engagement, so make sure you follow them.

As you interact with these groups, if you don’t follow the rules, the moderators will flag you, delete your content, or kick you out of the group.

How Can We Help You With Lead Generation

Magellan is the leading SME-focused Lead Generation BPO among all outsourcing companies in the Philippines.

With over 18 years of industry experience, we offer high-quality support and call center services. On top of that, we are a certified ISO 27001:2013 company.

We combine technology such as ACD, CRM, and IVR with agent skills to ensure our agents have all the necessary tools, equipment, and knowledge to serve customers. 

Progress shouldn’t break the bank, so we keep our services flexible and competitive.

Contact us now to discuss how we can help your business succeed. Complete the contact form below and talk to us for FREE!

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