Lead Generation for Digital Marketing Agencies: 4 Proven Strategies

How many times have you heard the phrase ‘we need more leads!’ in the last month? Probably dozens, if not hundreds, of times, right? Well, the good news is, you’re not alone: 40% of marketers in digital marketing agencies find generating qualified leads the single biggest challenge preventing business growth. Agency lead generation requires a strategic, multi-channel, and data-driven approach specifically tailored for agencies to attract, qualify, and convert leads effectively.

And if you’re one of the marketing or sales team members whose lead generation efforts just aren’t hitting the mark, it can be difficult to pinpoint the issue. Perhaps your content is great, but you’re marketing in the wrong place. Perhaps you’re generating plenty of high quality leads, but can’t seem to convert them. Maybe you’ve stripped your lead generation strategies all the way back and realized that your marketing efforts are pitch-perfect, you’re just advertising them to the wrong target audience.

Simply put: lead generation for digital marketing agencies is a minefield. And to get your lead generation process wrong is to waste a great deal of time and resources. In fact, a shocking 80% of marketing agencies feel their lead generation efforts are only slightly effective. Setting clear lead generation goals is essential to measure and improve the success of your campaigns, ensuring your strategies align with desired outcomes and industry benchmarks.

So in order to help you into the other 20%, we’ve compiled an comprehensive guide to lead generation for digital marketing agencies. We’ll discuss the lead generation basics, the importance of target audience refinement, and go over four tried-and-tested lead generation strategies you can implement for a healthier sales pipeline today.

Let’s take a look!

What is lead generation for digital marketing agencies?

Digital marketing agencies want to bring their cutting-edge digital marketing strategies to a continuous stream of new clients. These new clients are what we mean by ‘leads’ (or ‘potential customers/potential clients’). Lead generation, therefore, is the process a marketing agency uses to attract more leads. An agency's lead generation involves implementing specific strategies and utilizing tools to ensure a continuous flow of interested prospects, which is essential for sustained growth.

Lead generation, while the same in principle, is different in practice for different industries. For example, a lead generation strategy for a digital marketing agency may place more emphasis on creative social media posts than, say, a finance company (as their potential clients are more likely to hang out there).

Here are some other key considerations for digital marketing lead generation:

• B2B lead generation

Whereas many companies may engage in B2C lead generation marketing, for marketing agencies, the client is always another business.

• Longer sales cycles

When dealing with B2B lead generation, there are usually multiple stakeholders involved in the decision-making process, lengthening the sales process.

• Lead qualification

When offering highly customized, personalized solutions, it becomes harder not only to identify leads but to qualify them, too. Qualified lead generation is crucial for agencies to ensure a healthy sales pipeline and attract high-quality clients. Clearly defining your services can help eliminate unqualified leads, saving time and resources by focusing efforts on well-suited prospects.

• High competition

Already worth over $360 billion, the digital marketing market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 13.1% - that means digital marketing is a rapidly growing industry with many agencies competing for the same clients.

• Specialization

Due to high competition, may agencies may find they need to ‘niche down’ and specialize in a smaller area. And of course, the product or service an agency offers influences their lead generation strategies.

The importance of identifying your target audience

For many companies, it’s not generating leads, but generating high quality leads that’s the problem. In fact, on average, 80% of leads never convert.

Your goal, therefore, should be to address lead quality by refining your ICP (your Ideal Customer Profile) and targeting your lead generation strategies more effectively. Focusing on attracting qualified prospects is essential to improve lead quality and conversion rates. Here’s how to do it:

• Define your ICP

An Ideal Client Profile (ICP) is a detailed description of the perfect client for your digital marketing agency. This profile includes specific characteristics such as industry, company size, revenue, location, and other demographics.

An ICP helps agencies focus their marketing efforts on prospects who are most likely to benefit from their services.

• Segment your market

Market segmentation is the process of dividing a broad target market into smaller, more manageable groups based on shared characteristics. This approach allows digital marketing agencies to tailor their strategies and messaging to meet the specific needs of different segments.

• Develop buyer personas

Defining your target audience isn’t all about job titles and employers - today, effective lead generation relies on semi-fictional representations of your ideal clients based on data and research. They provide a more humanized view of your target audience, capturing detailed characteristics and helping you understand your potential clients on a deeper level. Marketing professionals are often a key audience for digital marketing agencies and should be considered when creating personas.

Building a lead generation funnel

A well-structured lead generation funnel is the backbone of any successful lead generation strategy for digital marketing agencies. This funnel guides potential customers through a series of steps, transforming initial interest into loyal clients. The process begins with creating awareness among your target audience through valuable content—think insightful blog posts, engaging social media posts, and irresistible lead magnets like ebooks or webinars.

Once you’ve captured their attention, the next step is to collect their information using opt-in forms and dedicated landing pages. This is where your agency’s lead generation efforts start to pay off, as you turn anonymous visitors into leads. From there, nurture these leads with targeted email marketing campaigns and personalized content that addresses their unique needs and pain points.

The final stage is all about conversion: presenting relevant offers and solutions that encourage leads to take action and become customers. By building a lead generation funnel tailored to your target audience, digital marketing agencies can streamline their lead generation process, convert leads more efficiently, and drive sustainable business growth.

Top 4 proven lead generation strategies for digital marketing agencies

Okay, now we have a better understanding of the specifics of lead generation for digital marketing agencies and the importance of first creating a detailed target audience. It's also crucial to develop a comprehensive digital marketing strategy that leverages multiple marketing channels to maximize lead generation effectiveness. Let’s jump into some strategies every lead generation campaign should use.

1. Content marketing

Content marketing - the process of producing and distributing valuable content your potential customers want to see - is fast becoming a favored lead generation strategy. In fact, a huge 87% of B2B companies use content marketing to generate leads.

That’s because content marketing allows agencies to kill two (or more) birds with one stone: they can establish thought leadership, increase brand awareness, advertise their services, and even cut costs all while generating leads. It’s a win-win strategy.

But you have to get it right. Marketing agencies looking to generate high quality leads with content marketing may want to consider publishing:

• Blogs
• Educational videos
• Entertaining podcasts
• Case studies
• White papers
• Lead magnets

Using a lead generation form to capture contact information in exchange for a lead magnet can help move prospects into the sales funnel and improve lead acquisition and tracking.

Content marketing is a great way to generate qualified leads at lower cost (HubSpot found that inbound leads are 61% cheaper than outbound leads).

2. Social media marketing

Frankly, if you’re not going to engage with social media as one of your lead generation tools in 2024, you may as well pack it in. Around two thirds of marketers use social media marketing for lead generation, and that number’s growing.

There are two things to consider when developing a social media lead generation and marketing strategies: platform and engagement.

Different social media platforms attract different demographics, so it’s crucial to make sure your sales team is using marketing channels where their prospective clients like to hang out. Facebook Lead Ads, for example, streamline the process of capturing leads directly within Facebook by allowing users to submit their information without leaving the platform. Using lead forms on social media platforms is also highly effective for capturing contact information and automating lead nurturing, making it easier to target specific audiences and integrate with your CRM.

As for engagement, it’s critical not only to post on social media, but to engage with your audience, too. That means liking, sharing, and commenting at the right times and within the right groups.

3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO services)

SEO isn’t just a way to generate leads in itself, it is the backbone of many other lead gen forms (including content and social media marketing). By using the right keywords in the right density throughout your blog posts, web content, landing pages, ad campaigns, and more, your content will rank higher on search engines, thereby attracting more potential clients through inbound lead generation.

Integrating Google Ads with SEO can help target high-intent users and generate more qualified leads by combining organic and paid search strategies. Paid advertising also serves as a proactive outreach method that complements organic SEO efforts, allowing agencies to reach a broader, targeted audience quickly.

If you’re a digital marketing agency specializing in, say ad campaigns for FinTech companies, LinkedIn posts containing keywords like ‘FinTech lead generation’ and ‘FinTech marketing’ will attract high quality leads.

4. Email marketing

64% of small businesses alone use email to boost their digital marketing campaigns and lead generation process. And it’s no wonder why: it’s relatively cheap, quick, and reliable. The average email open rate in Marketing and Advertising industries is around 31.67%.

But email marketing isn’t simply a case of sending off a thousand emails at once. To successfully engage qualified leads, you need to consider:

• Subject line
• Opening line
• Personalization (personalized emails achieve an impressive 41% click-through rate)
• Call To Action
• Design

If a marketing agency can nail all of these aspects and produce killer marketing emails that find the right inboxes, they’ll not only be able to reach more qualified leads, but to engage them more effectively.

And don’t forget, there are a ton of email marketing software, lead generation tools, and marketing channels that can help you create and send better sales emails. Check out Techradar’s 2024 list for the latest insights.

By capturing and leveraging lead data from your email campaigns, agencies can optimize their follow-up and conversion processes. Additionally, analyzing email performance metrics is essential to improve lead generation outcomes.

Leveraging technology to generate leads

In today’s fast-paced digital marketing landscape, leveraging technology is essential for digital marketing agencies aiming to generate leads efficiently and at scale. A wide array of lead generation tools and software can automate and optimize every stage of the lead generation process. For example, marketing automation platforms enable agencies to nurture leads with personalized email campaigns and scheduled social media posts, ensuring consistent engagement with potential clients.

Lead generation software helps capture, organize, and assign leads to the right sales team members, making it easier to follow up and move prospects through the sales funnel. Search engine optimization (SEO) tools are invaluable for improving your website’s visibility on search engines, driving more organic traffic, and ultimately generating more leads. Social media management tools allow agencies to plan, publish, and monitor social media posts across multiple platforms, maximizing reach and engagement.

By embracing these technologies, digital marketing agencies can save time, boost productivity, and generate more leads, all while delivering a seamless experience for both their team and their prospective clients.

Optimizing landing pages for higher conversions

Landing pages are a critical component of any digital marketing agency’s strategy to generate more leads and increase conversions. Unlike general website pages, landing pages are designed with a single goal in mind: to turn visitors into leads or customers. To optimize landing pages for higher conversions, agencies should focus on crafting a clear and compelling headline that immediately communicates value, followed by a concise description that addresses the visitor’s needs.

A strong, visually prominent call-to-action (CTA) button is essential to guide users toward the next step. It’s also important to ensure that landing pages are mobile-friendly, load quickly, and use secure HTTPS connections to build trust with visitors. Utilizing A/B testing and analytics tools allows marketing agencies to experiment with different layouts, copy, and CTAs, helping to identify what resonates best with their audience.

By continuously optimizing landing pages, digital marketing agencies can improve conversion rates, generate more leads, and maximize the return on their digital marketing efforts.

Building trust and credibility with prospects

For digital marketing agencies, building trust and credibility with prospects is a cornerstone of effective lead generation. When potential clients see your agency as a reliable and knowledgeable partner, they’re far more likely to engage with your marketing efforts and become high quality leads. One of the most effective ways to build trust is by consistently creating content that addresses the pain points and challenges of your target audience. This could include in-depth blog posts, insightful case studies, and practical guides.

Showcasing customer testimonials, reviews, and real-world success stories further demonstrates your agency’s expertise and track record. Transparency and honesty in all communications—whether through lead magnets, webinars, or social media engagement—help establish your agency as a thought leader in the digital marketing space. Actively responding to comments and questions on social media posts also fosters a sense of community and approachability.

By prioritizing trust and credibility, digital marketing agencies can attract more leads, nurture stronger relationships, and ultimately convert more prospects into loyal clients.

Establishing a referral program

A referral program is a powerful way for digital marketing agencies to generate leads and accelerate business growth. By encouraging satisfied clients to refer new potential customers, agencies can tap into a trusted network and reach a wider target audience. To launch an effective referral program, start by identifying what motivates your clients—whether it’s discounts on services, exclusive offers, or rewards for successful referrals.

Promote your referral program through targeted email marketing campaigns, engaging social media posts, and prominent placement on your website. Make it easy for clients to participate by providing clear instructions and simple referral forms. Not only does a referral program help generate more leads, but it also strengthens relationships with existing clients and boosts loyalty.

By leveraging the power of word-of-mouth and incentivizing referrals, digital marketing agencies can expand their reach, attract more high quality leads, and drive sustained revenue growth.

Generate leads with world-class lead generation companies

Finding enough qualified leads is a huge challenge for digital marketing agencies worldwide. If you’re having problems finding more leads, it could be time to rethink your agency’s lead generation approach.

By implementing or reorienting your content marketing, social media marketing, SEO, and email marketing, you may find yourself better able to attract qualified leads and convert leads more effectively. Your problem may even lay further down, with your audience research. Before embarking on any lead generation efforts, it’s imperative to gain a deep understanding of your ICP.

Of course, all this can cost a marketing agency a lot of time and money. That’s why many companies outsource their demand generation to a lead gen agency like Leadium. Lead gen agencies use specialized tools and techniques such as landing pages, chatbots, and sign-up sheets to capture qualified leads for their clients. Partnering with a lead gen agency can also help refine and optimize your overall digital strategy, ensuring your marketing initiatives are aligned for better lead generation results. Outsourcing has been proven to be cheaper, faster, and more effective than in-house B2B lead generation.

So if you’re interested in reaching more potential customers for less and partnering with a top U.S.-based lead generation agency, see what Leadium has to offer. Reach out today or visit our homepage for more information!