Inbound marketing is, as we've said before, often a rather frustratingly indirect process. Like 
herding cats, you have to slowly move visitors to your website through a large sales funnel, and at pretty much every step along the line, you have to keep enticing them to dig just a little deeper into what you have to offer.
It's annoying, but it's just life when you're trying to sell on the Internet and people are able to go browse to another page whenever they like.
Lead generation is one of the most important steps in this process, because that's when you start finally identifying the likely sales leads and separating them out from random visitors who just stumble onto you. The point someone actually becomes a lead is when they're willing to swap their personal or contact information in exchange for a “premium” freebie, such as an ebook, video, or free video.
It's an agreed exchange. Folks who sign up know they're going to be marketed to, so it's pretty much an instant acknowledgment that this person MIGHT go on to become a sale.
Lead generation companies specialize in helping you generate these leads. By looking at your website, your web traffic, and your Calls-to-Action and Landing Pages, they can make changes or suggestions for how to alter your strategy and get the most possible people converting into leads.
So let's see how lead generation companies do it!
How Lead Generation Companies Help You
There are several different ways that full-service lead generation companies can bring you more quality leads.
Call To Action Optimization
For starters, there are your Calls-To-Action (CTAs). CTAs are among the most direct lead-generation tools on your site. With bright, “popping” colors and a well-worded message, you can entice a lot of casual visitors to your blog to look into what other services you offer.
Internet marketing companies, however, have tools at their disposal that you may not be able to afford on your own. With robust analytics software, your lead generation firm can run scientific A-B tests of multiple CTAs at once, and analyze the results to find the best CTAs for your website. This is, in fact, a totally custom service. CTAs that would work well on another site may not work with yours.
Doing A-B testing means that you can quickly figure out which techniques work best with your visitors, and no one else's.
Landing Page Improvements
Your landing page is just as vital a part in the process. CTAs get your proverbial foot in the door, but you still have to pitch your offer in such a way that a visitor wants to swap their private info in exchange for your goodies.
With teams of expert writers, lead generation firms can optimize your landing pages to make them more effective, and again, analytics can be used to demonstrate this statistically.
Good writers and layout designers can:
· Strip out unnecessary content to make it as lean as possible.
· Optimize your headlines and body pitch to make the process flow smoothly.
· Add pictures or video to your landing pages to help generate conversions.
· Keep track of which improvements work best, and look at implementing them across all your landing pages.
Additionally, clever design and implementation of your site can make it so that visitors are naturally led down these conversion paths, like an IKEA customer who just came for the meatballs and ends up walking out with an armload of sale items.
Lead Generation Companies Pay Off
To get the most out of your website, you need to maximize your lead conversion. All the site hits in the world won't pay off if no one is actually buying anything. A lead generation firm can bring you those leads, give your sales staff a steady flow of new leads, and turn your website into a sales-driving tool, rather than just a sideline.
