3 Types Of Lead Generation You Should Be Aware Of

Last updated on October 18th, 2025 at 07:32 am

Generating more leads is the easiest way to increase sales.

After all, if you get more people to enter your sales funnel, that should result in more sales, provided that everything else remains the same. 

That’s why today we are going to discuss the three most popular ways to generate leads online. 

What is a Lead?

A lead is a potential customer who has:

1. Expressed an interest in your product or service
2. Given you their contact details

Keep in mind that a person has to meet both of these criteria in order to be considered a lead. 

Someone who has visited your website but hasn’t given you their contact details is not a lead.

And neither is someone whose contact details you have somehow obtained but who has never shown any interest in whatever it is that you are selling.

What is Lead Generation?

Lead generation is the process of converting potential customers into leads by persuading them to provide their contact details.

This is typically done via lead generation funnels:

1. You create a lead magnet
2. You create a landing page for that lead magnet
3. You drive traffic to that landing page

People who give you their email addresses in exchange for your lead magnet enter your sales funnel and become leads.

The Top 3 Ways to Generate Leads Online

The real challenge of lead generation isn’t building a lead generation funnel, it’s driving traffic to it. 

So how can you get potential customers to check out your lead magnet landing page?

Here are the top three ways to do that:

#1: Paid Advertising

We recommend starting with paid advertising because it’s the quickest way to put your lead magnet in front of your target audience. 

Pick an advertising platform:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• YouTube
• TikTok

Then set up a small daily budget and start running ads. Once you are sure that your ad campaign is profitable, you can begin increasing its budget. Just make sure to do so gradually – it’s easy to burn money on ads if you aren’t careful.

It’s best to figure out paid advertising first and then expand to social media marketing and search engine optimization. Why?

Because paid advertising provides immediate traffic, allowing you to quickly test various offers. 

You may think that your lead magnet is amazing but it might turn out that potential customers simply aren’t interested in it. 

It’s best to find that out ASAP so that you could go back to the drawing board and come up with something better.

Once you have a free offer that your target audience responds to, then you can expand to other marketing channels.

#2: Social Media Marketing

Building an engaged social media following enables you to drive traffic to your lead magnet landing page without having to pay for every single click. 

Here are a few tips on how to do that:

Pick One Platform to Start With

You don’t want to spread yourself too thin – pick one platform to start with and stick with it until you have built a following on it. 

Here are some platforms that you might want to consider:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• Pinterest
• Twitter

Keep in mind that there’s no such thing as “the best” social media platform – it all depends on your business, offer, and target audience. 

What’s important is to go where your potential customers are already hanging out. So the question you should be asking is what platform do they prefer?

Figure that out and start there.

Make Sure That Your Posts Provide Value

t’s important to remember that people follow you in order to get valuable content, not to be bombarded with endless sales pitches.

Your aim should be to provide free value with each and every post. Share useful advice, case studies, links, etc. 

Even posts that promote your lead magnet should do that – you can share a relevant tip, then link to your free offer.

Promote Your Lead Magnet, not Your Products or Services

Talking about sales pitches…

You shouldn’t be pitching your products and services on social media. 

Instead, you want to direct that traffic to your lead magnet landing page by promoting your lead magnet to your followers.

Once a person gives you their email address, then you can start selling via email. 

Stay Consistent!

Building a social media following is a simple process. So why do so few people manage to do it?

Because it takes time. 

And it can be extremely challenging to stay consistent over an extended period of time. 

People get excited about building a social media following, creating their profiles, and starting to post updates… 

But then life gets in the way. They get distracted. The post frequency starts decreasing. And then finally the profile is abandoned completely. 

So it’s probably safe to say that you can get ahead of your competition simply by staying consistent for long enough.

An easy way to do that is to commit to posting on your chosen social media platform once a day for an entire year without fail. 

You can use scheduling tools such as Buffer or MeetEdgar to schedule content in advance. 

Once that year is over, you will probably have gained some momentum, so it should be easier to maintain consistency going forward. 

#3: Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search engine optimization, also known as SEO, is the practice of generating organic traffic by ranking your website content on the first page of Google’s search results. 

Here’s the main idea:

1. You do keyword research and choose a promising keyword.
2. You create a piece SEO content that is designed to rank for that specific keyword on the first page of Google’s search results. 
3. You build as many backlinks to that content as possible to show Google that it’s indeed valuable and deserves a spot on the first page of search results. 

Then rinse and repeat with another article, and another one, and another one. 

Do it with enough articles over a long enough period of time and you will end up with a blog that attracts organic traffic. 

Of course, there’s more to search engine optimization than the three-step process described above but it is the key to generating organic traffic from Google. 

As Adam Enfroy, best known for making $203,736 in his first year of blogging, explains:

“While you can read about a ton of fancy “hacks” and shiny new tools, there are fundamental principles that have not changed when it comes to SEO and blogging.

1. Content and links
2. Content and links
3. Content and links

This has remained unchanged for the last 10+ years.”

So if you want to build a popular blog that generates organic traffic, focus on these fundamentals instead of worrying about the latest SEO tricks. 

And make sure that your website is optimized for lead generation so that you could make the most out of that traffic. 

You also need to understand that it’s going to take time – be prepared to invest at least a year into search engine optimization before your blog starts gaining momentum.

Other Ways to Generate Traffic

Once you have a solid grasp on the three aforementioned marketing strategies, you might want to consider experimenting with other ways to generate traffic such as:

• Influencer marketing. Find influencers that your potential customers follow, then pay them for a shoutout and see what happens. Note that the shoutout should be for your lead magnet, not for your products or services. If you are happy with the results, pay for more shoutouts. If that influencer seems to be able to consistently drive traffic to your lead magnet landing page, consider working with them on a regular basis. 
• Live events. Attend industry conferences and give out free company merch that has a link to your lead magnet landing page. You can also do the same at other types of live events frequented by your potential customers.
• Traditional ads. Test out traditional ads such as newspaper ads, magazine ads, billboards, etc. Make sure that they feature a link to your lead magnet landing page. Start small and see what happens. This can be expensive so only do it if you can afford to lose the money you spent on the ads.

Want to Convert More Leads Into Paying Customers?

Generating leads is not enough. 

You need to convert them into paying customers and then into repeat customers. And that’s what sales funnels are all about.

Our 5-Day Lead Challenge will show you exactly how to implement them in your business.

You will learn how to:

• Generate unlimited leads
• Create your first lead magnet
• Build your first sales funnel
• Create a simple 6-email follow-up sequence
• And launch your funnel

…in just five days!

So don’t hesitate.

Join our 5-Day Lead Challenge. It’s completely free!