A digital marketing lead is a potential customer that arrives to your business through a digital channel.
That could mean from a website to your website or from a login on an app or any number of things. The world is connected through all kinds of digital devices and channels and platforms.
There is a lot of opportunity to attract leads. Both early stage and late stage. With digital marketing, it’s important to understand the different stages of a lead so you know what to put in front of them so they’re satisfied.
Let’s go through examples of what a digital marketing lead is for a common business…
1. Top Funnel Lead
For those that have the patience, top funnel leads can be amazing. Any person is in “buying mode” only about 3% of the time. For any type of product. Some products more than others. But the general concept is that we’re usually not “in the market” for buying something.
But earning the attention of someone when they’re not in buying mode is not a worthless pursuit. In fact, it’s very much worthwhile especially if you create content that fits the channel and mood the person is in.
With digital marketing, a top funnel lead could be someone that reads a blog post or that watches a YouTube video. It could be someone that looks at social media throughout the day or someone that uses Wikipedia to learn something new.
The key is that people in this frame of mind are very early in the sales cycle. Many of them won’t convert right away. Some may never convert. But the appeal of targeting these folks with digital marketing is that you’re going after a very large portion of people and a big portion of any single person’s time.
2. Mid Funnel Lead
I would consider a mid funnel digital lead to be someone that is visiting your website again. Maybe it’s the second time. Maybe it’s the tenth time. Whatever the case, they’re interested in coming back to get more from you. Not necessarily ready to purchase something or even about your products. Just to get more content and possibly to learn more about what you’re doing in the world.
They might be interested in reading your About page. Maybe learning about the authors on your blog or perhaps even reading your homepage to learn about what you do. But they’re coming back again and looking for more from you.
Mid level leads are very important. You’ve gotten a person’s attention. Now they’re coming back again. If you can earn their trust at this point it’s almost a certainty that they will become a customer at some point in the future. But you don’t necessarily want to push it too much. Not until they are ready to take the next step.
3. Bottom Funnel Lead
This is the type of lead that most want. And they want it right away. It’s instant gratification. A lead that comes ready to buy. They’re in the 3% buying mode. They saw a product ad and clicked. They saw a link to a product in an email and clicked. They are ready to buy. And it won’t take too much to convince them.
There are a few different types of bottom funnel leads. They may be doing research. But they’re still interested in buying. You need the type of sales content that convinces them that you’re better than the competition. They could also be interested in your brand. You have to steer them toward the product that is the best fit.
4. Referral Lead
Possibly even better than a bottom funnel lead is a referral lead. In the digital world, this is when someone hears about you and your products from someone they trust. The trusted person explains what you do and what you sell and basically does all the work and then sends the lead to your online doorstep. And the person is ready to buy. You have little to do other than accept the money.
You want to cultivate these as much as you can. Treat your customers like gold. When you identify a customer that is a “referrer”, treat them even more special. Encourage their behavior as much as you can. Give them ways to easily send you people digitally and when they do, treat those referrals like gold.
5. Social Proof Lead
I wanted to add this one for the digital discussion. It probably fits into one of the descriptions above, but it’s worth calling out on its own. Social proof is huge in the world. It seems very important in the online world. The most people in any market are not early adopters. They want to see a little proof before they make a buying decision.
In the online world, the more you work to prove that you’re trustworthy and “in it for the long haul”, the more likely you are to get more social proof leads. These are leads that see the overall market for a certain product or service and search for the most well known, most used and most trusted brand.
It’s a long-term play in a lot of cases.
Conclusion
Digital marketing leads are obviously similar to leads in the offline world. But there are a few nuances. It can be difficult to tell what type of lead you’re getting. And that can lead to confusion on the type of content to present to the lead. So it’s good to understand it all and then adjust your strategy appropriately.