7 Undeniable Advantages of Hiring a Lead Generation Agency

Lead generation is at the core of any successful marketing strategy—it is the job of the marketing team to drive demand and interest that ultimately results in customers. A lot of marketers face internal obstacles that keep them from being as successful as possible when trying to generate leads. This is where hiring a lead generation agency can really help boost productivity and achieve real results.

Here are 7 undeniable reasons to partner with a lead generation agency:

1. ACCESS A TEAM OF EXPERTS

A lot of internal marketing teams are filled with employees who are doing their best to know everything, which in turn spreads them a bit thin. They must juggle many roles such as being subject matter experts, writers, copy editors, search optimization experts, graphic designers, conversion analysts, social media strategists, branding masters, and so much more.

The biggest benefit to working with a lead generation agency is access to expert knowledge from people who’ve found solutions for other companies. Agencies often work with a variety of industries granting them exposure and visibility for what really works in marketing. Agencies are also composed of inbound experts, a dedicated team to drill down on your content creation, strategy, and distribution plan to find and nurture leads. 

Instead of looking to hire a “marketing unicorn” with a big price tag, consider going with an agency. You gain access to a specialized team of experts who will support your internal marketing efforts, and help add a level of complexity to your marketing program.

2. FOCUSED ON RESULTS

The great thing about partnering with an agency is that they aren't inundated with the day-to-day tasks of your company. Their primary goal is to drive results for your business.

They can do this by setting S.M.A.R.T. (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely) goals. Utilizing marketing tools, like HubSpot, allows agencies to properly track and measure impact. 

For example, here is a snapshot of our marketing-qualified leads and how they found us. 

With an agency focused on driving new leads to your company through your website, you can focus on other initiatives, goals, and priorities.

3. GET THE MOST OUT OF YOUR MARKETING AUTOMATION SOFTWARE

Marketing automation software has come a long way in the past 10 years—marketers have access to more tools, analytics, and workflows than we ever have before. Staying up on trends in the marketplace can be a full-time job in itself.

If you already use any marketing automation software systems, look for an agency that specializes in those tools. They'll help you get the most out of your existing investment because chances are you are only scratching the surface of what these complex software systems can do for you. Check out this graph from Ascend2’s recent trend report, The State of Marketing Automation 2023. 

Nearly a quarter of marketing professionals surveyed reported their current automation strategy as top-notch in helping them obtain their desired goals. The majority–two-thirds–claimed some degree of success with the technology they have in place while only nine percent mentioned it produced minimal results. This data consists of marketers NOT working with an agency. Could you be amongst the 66% who just need a little help from an agency to get the most use out of your automation strategy? 

4. NO MORE COLD CALLING

LinkedIn found that less than 2 percent of cold calls resulted in a meeting–this is a really ineffective use of time for your sales team. 

When working with a lead generation agency your company will be able to spend less time cold calling and more time talking to prospective customers who are ready to make purchasing decisions. Inbound marketing brings the right people to you if you have the right content. 

How do you know they are ready to make purchasing decisions? By creating helpful content, you can give potential customers the power to do their own research–and make up their minds on when they're ready to move forward. By nurturing those leads and providing them with the right information on their own terms, you can shorten the sales cycle while significantly increasing your chances of success!

5. CREATE LEAD PRIORITIZATION AND FOLLOW-UP STRATEGY

By implementing lead scoring in your sales cycle, you can identify leads who are ready to hear from you. Keep in mind that those who are visiting your website are at various stages in the sales journey. Lead scoring allows you to specially curate a message to send to prospects depending on how deep they are in the sales funnel. If someone just landed on your site and is looking for surface-level information, now would not be a good time to hit them with an end-of-the-funnel offer. Lead scoring provides the visibility you need to correctly engage with your leads and build trust with them without running the risk of chasing away potential clients by being too aggressive or premature in communication efforts.

Lead scoring will also help you identify where your contacts are in the sales funnel. You’ll know if someone is “just browsing” “has some questions” or “wants to buy” what you’re selling now. Then you can create workflows that treat each one of these groups correctly.

6. SHORTEN THE SALES CYCLE

Establishing a reliable lead flow paves the way for more sales. By identifying qualified leads, you can recognize key signals that alert you when buyers are ready to be contacted by your team. Just like shopping in-store where customers often ask questions and gather info before speaking with an attendant, online prospects will act in certain ways depending on where they are in their journeys.

As previously discussed, creating content for prospects to engage with on their own terms is the key to decreasing the effort your team needs to put in to close a sale. Your prospective customers can do their own research on your products and services so that when it comes to buying, they know exactly what they want and can come quickly to a decision. You can customize the cycle to insert your people at the right moment. 

7. GET FOUND ONLINE

The goal of a lead generation agency is to help your company get found on Google. That is done by creating a blog strategy that is search engine optimized to help your potential prospects find you in search using relevant content that's strategically aligned to their buyer's journey. 

Once visitors are on your site, you need downloadable content for them to interact with. This creates an avenue for you to convert organic visitors to leads and leads to customers.

Another way to get found online is by harnessing the power of PPC (Paid Per Click) ads. PPC can be tricky, and like many things in marketing, if you do not have a designated person to manage it, it can quickly become a money suck with little return. Partnering with an agency that has a strong understanding of PPC will keep one more thing off your plate and ensure the money you are spending is going towards relevant keywords and search terms to help your business get found online. A combination of creating content that is search engine optimized and a PPC strategy that is closely tracked often yields the best results.

One of the key factors in any successful lead generation campaign is understanding how the game works and being able to implement successful content so you don't miss important opportunities. While this certainly can be tackled with an internal marketing team, you may find more success by partnering with a lead generation agency that is well-versed in inbound marketing. 

Sound like something your team would benefit from? We would love to chat or point you toward any of our favorite Minneapolis-based agencies.