Best AI Lead Generation Ideas
Overview of AI in Lead Generation
AI in lead generation is the next big jump in digital technology and we see it as an asset for your business.
But over time we have seen technology bringing advantages, again and again and again.
Whether it is the development in how we grow more of our food.
Or…
Creating aeroplanes, removing the need for risky and lengthy voyages across dangerous seas.
Another development is the invention of the internet, that has moved our world forward in leaps and bounds.
Every move forward has taken someone to see the opportunity and act on it.
And that is the same today using artificial intelligence to find your businesses future opportunities in lead generation.
And honestly answer the question: Who isn’t looking for opportunities in business?
Importance of AI for B2B Lead Generation
A challenge I see around incorporating artificial intelligence within B2B businesses is, are your teams ready and willing to use it.
Because if I have read numerous articles and heard many conversations about AI taking jobs, your team members have as well.
Basically operating your business with the implementation of AI is a significant change that brings about significant advantages.
I believe it is important that our attitude of ‘it will take jobs’ highlights a required shift that is needed in how we perceive this ‘new’ technology.
As an example,
If you are running a sports team and could upgrade to a new (performance advancing) piece of equipment, all your players and staff would want it immediately.
I see it as a tool to not just boost the overall team and business results. It can boost individual team members due to the fact it can improve efficiency helping manage workload.
As well as boost productivity, for example AI can do the heavy lifting of finding those previously hard to find prospects. Allowing your sales team to focus time on generating revenue.
Therefore AI has the ability to give your team members a real advantage.
This advantage is by giving your creatives that burst of vision, helping create visuals or enticing copy.
Another point is you can use AI to develop your guidelines and provide ideation on what the strategy will be to execute a new product launch.
Additionally this advantage can be informing your sales team of ‘in market’ prospect opportunities and deep analysis suggesting additional SKU’s to improve your customers product range.
And importantly this advantage should be in empowering your business to optimise lead generation.
Understanding AI Lead Generation
Definition and Explanation of AI Lead Generation
This frequently asked topic is about viewing AI for lead generation as less about the ‘dark stormy vision’ of intelligent robots taking over our jobs and more about your decision to incorporate technology.
Once AI technology is accepted it is about data analysis to uncover deeper insights.
Alongside those insights it is able (with the correct prompts) to provoke thought aiding our informed decision making.
For instance in B2B I believe with more AI data analysis in our businesses we can qualify prospects quicker. This is time efficient, and maximises where our focus is directed.
To demonstrate one major area AI benefit, I can now utilise new technology to not only support the generation of leads. In addition with AI technology can now tailor the volume of outbound contact to be personalised, relevant and human to be engaging for each prospect.
Distinction Between Traditional and AI Driven Lead Generation
Technology propels you forward, taking us to new places in faster, quieter, and cleaner ways.
This is where AI-driven lead generation surpasses the outdated methods and mindsets of the past.
For example, understanding your customers and target prospects becomes much more detailed in subtle difference between groups.
Rather than categorizing customers simply as ‘we like independent corner shops’ or ‘we sell to medium-sized metal manufacturers,’ AI can delve deeper.
By using massive datasets, AI tools like Ocean.io leverage natural language processing to learn from the words your business and teams use. Consequently, they create highly structured profiles and prospect lists for you to target effectively.
Benefits of AI in Lead Generation
How to Enhance Targeting and Segmentation for Lead Generation
Your next customer is out there.
However, we often lose sight of who our true customer is and where they spend their time.
Let’s take a small leap to imagine how AI could enhance your targeting capacity.
AI can analyse multiple data points, such as the duration spent on specific web pages and interaction behaviour across your online platforms.
It excels at interpreting patterns within these actions.
By analysing these patterns, AI can understand interest, intent, and future behaviours.
Unlocking this data using tools like GetCensus enables greater segmentation potential and more effective targeting methods.
Why would you speak in the same style to different customers digitally when we focus so much on personalised verbal and non-verbal communication in person?
Creating rapport and building trust happens when we converse one-on-one.
By creating highly detailed customer segments, you enable better interactions and conversations.
Improved Lead Scoring and Qualification
Imagine standing back and observing all prospects, understanding their situations, assessing their engagement, and evaluating their fit to your products and services simultaneously.
Wouldn’t that create a better pipeline of businesses to qualify and then convert?
Mastering prospect qualification with AI shifts the focus from a salesperson’s ‘gut feel’ to facts, knowledge, and engagement analysis.
If your sales team aims to handle only highly active, engaged leads that are relevant and likely to convert, then leveraging technology like Exceed.ai gives them that superpower.
Once prospects meet your criteria, the virtual sales assistant in Exceed effectively hands them over to your skilled sales representatives to book and close more sales.
How to use Personalisation and Customer Engagement in Lead Generation
If what you read and saw was tailored for you, wouldn’t you be more likely to read it?
As a business, the closer your prospects feel to you, the more likely they are to make a purchase.
The first aspect of personalisation involves collating data to power AI opportunities.
The power of this data isn’t to treat all customers as just ones and zeros.
Instead, it is to dive deeper to truly understand your desired customer, making initial communications in lead generation thoughtful and engaging.
Integrating this new data into a solution-oriented approach for lead generation allows prospects to be closed more efficiently and appreciatively.
This deep data dive becomes a foundation of knowledge. Tools like LeadGenius provide access to a personalised crawler.
This digital crawler explores the online space, following your instructions for specific projects, whatever your focus or rather whoever is your focus.
For example, if you shift towards a new industry, this crawler can access different and new data fields, providing the insights you need.
The second aspect of personalisation is the ability to create tailored communication for each prospect and customer.
Avoid generic, one-size-fits-all messages that reduce click-through rates and action taking.
AI’s power in personalisation lies in the data and having enough knowledge to communicate in a tailored way.
We’ve all dealt with disjointed systems where customer and prospect data is scattered in multiple places.
Often, some of that data is outdated.
With the right software, data can be crawled for accuracy across the internet.
This data can then be maintained in one place, offering more accurate knowledge on customers and prospects than ever before.
Armed with accurate data on key stakeholders’ activities, your communication will be personalised, relevant, and more likely to generate responses.
AI Technologies for Lead Generation
Natural Language Processing Benefits for Lead Generation
Ever heard of NLP?
Simply put, this aspect of AI enables computers to interpret content.
This interpretation can occur in emails, texts, or even on social media.
NLP understands queries, intent, and phrases, then generates human-like replies.
The power of NLP lies in training the AI system to know your business.
So, if a busy prospect seeks information at night, the AI system interprets their intent and understands their query. In real time the prospecting can receive a professional response with the information they need.
Simultaneously, they are able to be integrated into your lead generation pipeline if the AI is instructed to collate prospect data.
This process involves an AI chatbot embedded directly within your website.
As a result, it drives your lead generation 24/7, acting like a sales representative and customer support manager.
Machine Learning Opportunities for Lead Generation
Why does machine learning offer such a great opportunity for business?
Machine learning, a branch of artificial intelligence, allows computers to exhibit human-like qualities once the model is developed.
These qualities include decision-making and making predictions.
Your ability to leverage this technology comes from data.
After the AI system processes both historical and current data, it can observe patterns, preferences, and even nuanced language cues.
Imagine understanding past customer behavior comprehensively, identifying why they may have lapsed, and monitoring current customer data to react swiftly if those behaviours reoccur.
Additionally, it provides a deeper understanding of prospect behavior.
This understanding can enhance your lead scoring for future prospects, improve predictions of who is likely to convert, and ensure time is spent on prospects with a high potential for ROI.
Data Analysis and Predictive Modelling
The method for generating meaningful insights involves several key steps:
- Data Collection: Gather data from various sources, including website activity, social media interactions, and recorded interactions with team members.
- Data Processing: Clean the data to ensure its accuracy.
- Exploratory Data Analysis: Observe patterns, preferences, and correlations through this process.
- Lead Identification: Match insights from patterns and correlations to identify potential leads.
- Segmentation: Group leads with similar characteristics into segments, allowing for targeted and personalized communication.
These steps deliver benefits through an increased number of insights.
This approach provides greater precision in focusing your efforts to achieve ROI.
As a result, ROI increases with more knowledge, enabling you to understand the lead better. Knowing which specific segment they belong to allows you to personalise your solution to their needs.
Implementing AI Lead Generation Strategies
Content Optimisation for Lead Generation
Using AI for lead generation inevitably brings us to the topic of content optimisation.
We’ve discussed how we can personalize our communication with prospects and customers.
Additionally, we’ve covered how to be more strategic with our in-depth, data-driven prospect and customer segments to ensure your offer meets their needs.
When it comes to content, we must create it for the people who matter.
Create content that drives lead generation focused on where your prospects spend their digital time.
Use AI to analyse your current content and ensure it resonates with the algorithms controlling the platforms where you post and schedule content.
With the right software, we can achieve this, and even better, MarketMuse allows us to conduct the same analysis on your competitors.
Often, social media is evaluated based on whether it ‘feels right,’ ‘looks right,’ or non-ROI metrics like follower growth.
However, using MarketMuse’s AI, you can focus precisely on what content to create to drive your lead generation.
Social Media Integration
Once we have the data and understand our content optimisation, we can begin leveraging the many platforms we use to support lead generation.
There is no bigger free option than social media for creating huge reach with curated content, content that is relevant to your audiences and the individuals within those audiences.
You can achieve this in a relatively short time, with the opportunity to test what works, discard what doesn’t, and amplify what succeeds to maximize your ROI.
We aim for simplicity so our AI-informed decisions can quickly lead to the creation of content for multiple social media platforms.
Following this, we can schedule it all from one place to save time and resources.
Perhaps you’ve experienced the hassle of creating content in one tool, saving it in another, and then uploading and scheduling it from yet another.
This approach is not very effective.
What we need is a single platform, and Simplified delivers on this front.
From creating short, fast-paced videos for YouTube Reels, TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram Shorts to generating animations, AI-bespoke images, and engaging blog content, Simplified handles it all.
The platform also manages and schedules your content.
Importantly, through its built-in social media manager, you can access every comment and question, allowing you to engage and move the right leads into your lead generation pipeline.
Email Marketing and LinkedIn Outreach with AI
Hopefully, outbound sales are already part of your lead generation strategy.
On a deep level, the success of a B2B sales organisation can depend on individual salespeople.
Even the best and most motivated salespeople have slower days.
AI-powered lead generation can optimise your sales force by providing the right digital tools.
Just as mobile phones improved customer relationships, an AI-powered platform can maximise your team’s current activities.
Every email sent to a cold prospect and every LinkedIn message written to a lead can be personalised, tuned, and crafted to increase replies and grow your pipeline.
For instance, Copy.ai can personalise a cold outreach email by taking your desired prospect’s top-line details, such as their name, and generating a company research breakdown.
It will find relevant news from the company, focusing on topics important to them.
The software then summarises the news.
This provides your sales force with a foundation to personalise an outreach email, using the news as a focal point.
Imagine every email being specific to that prospect.
LinkedIn Outreach and Lead Generation Opportunities
Additionally, many of us have turned to LinkedIn for outreach and lead generation.
By diving into B2B digital marketing and LinkedIn data, you can uncover commonalities to create an initial short outreach that resonates with your prospect.
Using Copy.ai, you can efficiently farm data across a significant number of leads.
Leveraging technology shifts your team members’ efforts from time-consuming research to personal approaches, fostering relationships, and converting leads into customers.
Start with company research to understand unique business details about your prospects.
As Copy.ai farms the data, you will uncover news articles your leads post about themselves.
Knowing what they publish offers great insight into what publicly matters to them.
Typically, what matters gets measured.
Your sales team can then craft highly bespoke communication to gain attention, influence, and build relationships.
This personalised communication will be further enhanced by Copy.ai‘s ability to explore the profiles of your leads’ employees.
This feature speeds up the identification of key stakeholders with the right responsibilities, such as those assigned to make buying decisions.
You can summarise the skills of these individuals.
With deeper insights into the right person, you can curate your approach to align with their values—whether they are a big-picture visionary or a hands-on, detail-oriented thinker.
Software Platforms for AI Lead Generation
Now, let’s explore some of the AI software you can integrate to achieve the benefits discussed.
For businesses like yours, where lead generation is crucial for progress, generating ROI, and differentiating from competitors, these tools are worth noting.
Hubspot Conversations for Lead Generation
Best for businesses with multiple teams that are answering team specific questions.
If you receive a conversation via chat, social media, or email, it can be directed into an ‘all communications’ sales inbox.
Consequently, it can be automatically sorted, ensuring questions about delivery, statements, or packaging are sent to their respective department teams.
Grange & Cairns Assessment
If your business is structured with ‘one person per department,’ this may not be ideal for you.
However, as businesses grow and align their organisation with sales, opportunities, and operations, communication becomes increasingly challenging.
For lead generation, this can result in inbound messages being lost, not passed to the relevant people, and sometimes missed altogether.
Conversations by Hubspot, who are they?
HubSpot (https://www.hubspot.com/) is an American business founded in 2006.
They excel in helping clients grow traffic, convert leads, and analyse activities.
Whether you are in sales, marketing, operations, or service, HubSpot has something to offer.
Even their free package includes a sales pipeline, ensuring you don’t miss vital lead information.
This is crucial when trying to monitor the progression of leads through a pipeline without resorting to multiple spreadsheets.
Conversation by Hubspot ‘Top Features’
The conversations tool itself is actually one feature.
This in itself shows how impressive the Hubspot software is.
But to identify this features top tools (within a tool):
Multiple Inboxes: Sending the right message to the right department saves time, reduces distractions, and limits the risk of losing key information.
Triage Messages: Whether the communication comes via chat, social media, or email, the information can be directed to a specific inbox.
New Visitors: If the communication is with a new connection, create a contact record and ensure all relevant information is captured.
Hubspot Experiential Reviews
Whenever testing or starting something new it is always good to know from those that have gone before you.
Here are some of the pros and cons for Hubspot.
Thumbs Up:
- User-friendly interface.
- Impressive implementation support.
Thumbs Down:
- Misleading sales information.
- Dissatisfied with communication.
6sense for Predictive Analytics
6sense is for businesses optimising ROI and utilising AI powered predictive analytics.
Have ‘Purchase Here’ buttons
Predictive analytics with 6sense is about bringing to you the buyers who are ready to engage.
Use the power of digital data and the trial of digital breadcrumbs buyers leave as they start a sales cycle.
This means you can be many steps ahead of your competition.
Grange & Cairn Assessment
So if you have an overflowing pipeline, perfect prospects that convert into customers delivering high lifetime value maybe this isn’t for you.
However if you are at a strategy change, refocusing on your ideal prospects or simply needing to boost your pipeline and convert those keen (6sense helps you find them) prospects into happy and loyal customers this could be your opportunity.
6sense, who are they?
6sense https://6sense.com is a global business with 1,300+ employees and has a mission to transform B2B sales and marketing experiences through AI, big data and machine learning. They are part of the global 1% program, this means 6sense gives 1% of their time, equity, product and profit to their communities.
They are ready for you if you want to empower your revenue through increased efficiencies.
6sense Predictive Analytics ‘Top Features’
Have ‘Purchase Here’ buttons
Again 6sense is a very complete software package in their area of expertise.
These ‘top features’ we are going to zone in on their predictive analytics https://6sense.com.
So if you want to stop wasting time on low-quality leads and boost your outreach…
These are the top features:
- AI trained to identify prospects most likely to convert into customers.
- Build prospect awareness and interest with AI automation tuned to their collected data profile and responses.
- Uncover opportunities as AI delves into data assessing buyer intent.
6sense Experiential Reviews
We all start something new so it is always good to know from those that have gone before you.
Here are some of the thumbs up and down for Hubspot.
Thumbs Up:
- Highly effective account based marketing, with best in-class segment targeting.
- Platform is praised for elevating pipeline quality and the reflective sales growth.
Thumbs Down:
- Comprehensive dashboard can be overwhelming for new users.
- Some dissatisfaction from users over slow loading times.
Hootsuite Social Media Automation for Lead Generation
Best for link AII lead generation with social media.
Have ‘Purchase Here’ buttons
And with Hootsuite https://www.hootsuite.com you have a great tool to empower social media with AI.
So if you question what is the ROI of social media.
If you question what is the right content for your prospective customers.
And if you question how you can superpower your team to achieve revenue growth with social media keep reading about Hootsuite social media automation for lead generation.
Grange & Cairn Assessment
Once we become educated we can become knowledgeable.
And we have all heard the saying ‘knowledge is power’.
And with social media it is important to remember that it is not a static, finished product.
Simply, we cannot learn about it parrot fashion.
And with Hootsuites https://www.hootsuite.com best in class suite of analytics tool you are ready to learn the dynamic world of social media.
For your lead generation you need to be able to analyse all the platforms you perform B2B marketing i.e. LinkedIn as one major tool.
With Hootsuite you can understand how social media engagement is driving website traffic, allowing you to measure your content’s impact on your pipeline.
Become a Hootsuite Data Master
And you can tailor Hootsuite to understand what is important for your business and revenue growth.
So that once your Hootsuite dashboard identifies top performing content it’s AI functions can repurpose it to recreate the magic.
With analytics understood you can focus on what you create.
And for your lead generation, what you create has to resonate with your business audience, give them value, educate them and not be a simple task of just putting a product catalogue onto a social platform.
Hootsuite has 14+ years of knowing what works on social media so when they build their own OwlyWriter AI they could train it on winning formulas.
And if your team experience a social media writers block OwlyWriter AI by Hootsuite will remove this problem.
It can create relevant content ideas to capture the interest of your prospects.
And it can create the captions that will spike their awareness and make your prospect take action to learn more.
Hootsuite Content Posting
Now the right content is made Hootsuites software will help fine tune the posting time to when your prospects are online.
As there really is no point posting it when you are ready if no one is online to see it.
We want it to be published and for it to get a spike of engagement.
This helps the social media algorithm see it as good content, providing it is. Which it certainly should be with all the above.
On time saving benefit is the bulk scheduler.
Once all your new fantastic content is created you can plan hundreds of posts in one go, set with specific times for different days. This literally saves hours versus just uploading and individually scheduling one post at a time.
Hootsuite, who are they?
Hootsuite was founded in 2008 out of the founders’ problem to find a tool to manage social media.
Dissatisfied that is when Hootsuite was created the journey began.
Alongside their expertise in social media and the obsession for their customers they want to be the best employee experience in the software as a service sector.
Hootsuite ‘Top Features’
Have ‘Purchase Here’ buttons
For lead generation Hootsuite’s features provide you the room to grow and do so in a strategic manner.
Once you understand the analytics it will push you towards the right content, published at the right time.
And there are great features to expand your pipeline further.
- Social listening. Observe your prospects on social media, listen in to keywords, hashtags and observe trends. Get to know what they are interested in.
- Performing content into paid content. Know that in real time you see what content works. And when it does push it even further by making it an advert to reach more of your targeted prospects.
- Engagement tools. Social media is social. Hootsuite offers a one stop shop so you are able to engage with your audience on any platform.
Hootsuite Experiential Reviews
We all start something new so it is always good to know from those that have gone before you.
Here are some of the thumbs up and down for Hootsuite.
Thumbs Up:
- The ease that the creation and scheduling of content all whilst knowing it will perform and make the job more efficient.
- Responsive resolutions to support customers.
Thumbs Down:
- Some dissatisfaction on customer support and a higher price for its comprehensive packages.
Mailchimp Email Marketing Automation for Lead Generation
Best for businesses needing to optimise their B2B lead generation.
Have ‘Purchase Here’ buttons
This is where Mailchimp allows you to be proactive after you have gathered the prospect data.
How many times in B2B sales have we encountered lapsed contact after a prospect email has been gathered, and sometimes it is put down as ‘oh the prospect wasn’t ready’.
Well if we use email marketing for your lead generation instead of that being an opinion to stop prospecting we can nurture that lead and engage when they are ready.
Grange & Cairn Assessment
With a 127% increase in click-rates of automated emails Mailchimp (https://mailchimp.com/ )knows how to support users to achieve strong email marketing.
Mailchimp will be best for B2B businesses starting their email marketing campaigns to enhance their lead generation.
Begin by Segmenting
Segmenting your audience is the first important step in email marketing automation.
As we all like to have or at least feel like what we receive is personalised to us.
We can segment prospects via their interests, maybe some of your customers have a focus on innovation, sustainability or their family heritage lineage.
Knowing this means what you send can talk to these interests.
Additionally you can segment your prospect audience by their demographics maybe you supply into aviation, automotive and the marine industry.
So again we want these prospects to know you are talking to them, to the problems and challenges they encounter and are working to and offering them specific solutions.
Email is There a Wrong Time?
Are you email marketing to the right leads and the right time?
There are two important statistics that Mailchimp highlight.
70% of B2B marketers don’t have an established lead scoring system.
77% of B2B marketers saw an increase in lead generation ROI after implementing a lead scoring system.
The first 70% in a simple manner is if you do not understand why the prospects that convert to customers do that how can you actually target the next prospects to convert.
So rather than a ‘shooting a gun into a barrel’ approach incorporate into your prospecting a lead scoring system will laser focus your B2B business.
You will then focus on key criteria such as email opens, click through rates, content downloads and even engagements with polls/forms.
The data from these will start to show you if they are warm and receptive or cold and not connecting.
And one important point is make sure you analyse the different buyer personas you will be targeting. Where is their main focus, is it on cost saving, or is it on profit potential or maybe they are fixated on showing what turnover they can produce.
Mailchimp, who are they?
Mailchimp (https://mailchimp.com/ )was born out of Atlanta in 2001.
Passionate to provide small businesses the same advantages that large businesses could access through digital marketing.
As the clients of Mailchimp grew so need Mailchimp to serve companies of all sizes and marketing teams of all sizes and expertise.
Mailchimp ‘Top Features’
Have ‘Purchase Here’ buttons
- Predictive segmentation. With Mailchimps predictive analytics the software works with you to understand where a lead is in your pipeline and who to focus on to convert.
- Drag and drop to custom code. If this is your first time conducting lead generation with email marketing the ease of drag and drop to create unique prospect segment emails will take place in no time. If you require more unique formatting custom code can take you to the next level.
- Deliverability. Mailchimp is known as a leader in email deliverability, this is crucial if you want emails to be delivered to your top prospects and not end up getting spammed and pushed away from their attention.
Mailchimp Experiential Reviews
We all start something new so it is always good to know from those that have gone before you.
Here are some of the thumbs up and down for Mailchimp.
Thumbs Up:
- Integration and ease of use has allowed clients across various industries to use the Mailchimp features and generate ROI.
- Affordability is cited in positive reviews, making it a cost effective solution and minimising the ‘learning-curve’ cost.
Thumbs Down:
- Fully AI generating campaign feature is not yet part of the rostrum of features that users referenced as an opportunity for enhancement.
Grange and Cairn Conclusion
B2B businesses implementing AI for lead generation is around the corner.
And as mentioned the biggest challenge could actually be getting team members adoption of the new technology.
Especially if they don’t understand how businesses are using AI.
As a performance enhancing tool, to improve accuracy of lead targeting, to improve effectiveness of approaches to leads and to maximise where time is spent.
That in itself is the threat of other businesses using AI, they will start to move faster and with more intelligence.
With the integration of AI you are going to be able to:
Trust that you will be able to capture the required data to close the warm leads and generate a positive revenue ROI with the likes of https://www.hubspot.com/ software.
Build a comprehensive pipeline of leads where software like https://6sense.com has analysed the buyers activity, so you are focused on the correct leads.
Participate in the digital locations your leads are and with using https://www.hootsuite.com software will know what content working, listen to what is being said and be armed to bring your engaged followers further into your lead generation pipeline.
Personalise your approach with https://mailchimp.com/ with detailed understanding about who they are to take your leads on a journey to maximise the ROI of sales to successfully convert.
Editorial process
Our articles are curated by experts in B2B business with expertise in AI. And are focused on the technological opportunities that exist for B2B businesses.
The reviews are constructed through the analysis of hundreds of actual experiences and condensed into our concise thumbs up or thumbs down format.
Some of the links in this article may be affiliate links. This means at no cost to you they may provide us compensation that helps fund the costs of this site.
James Ambel
With over a decade of B2B expertise across multiple industries and a passion for integrating new technology to elevate his ROI James’ writing allows all of this to come together. His belief is many B2B businesses could maximise their time, focus and ROI to an even higher level.