How to generate leads without ads
If you’ve ever stared at your pipeline wondering how to generate leads in sales, this blog has your name on it.
Sales can feel unpredictable. Either leads are interested, or they’re not.
But that kind of thinking can prevent you from reaching your personal sales goals—and even worse, it keeps your revenue numbers much lower than they should be.
We’ve compiled a list of twelve ideas for generating leads. (Bookmark this post for inspiration.)
How to generate leads without ads
1. Call your leads
Using cold calling to generate leads has been around forever because it works!
The success rate for having a conversation from a cold call is 65.6%. It’s especially effective if your most valuable leads don’t read your lead generation emails.
Here are a couple of other reasons why you should include cold calling in your B2B lead generation strategy:
It’s personal
Unlike emails or social media ads, cold calling allows direct, real-time conversations, enabling a personal touch that builds trust and rapport with potential customers. Moreover, the more data and research you do on a prospect, the more personalised you can make your call.
You can get immediate feedback
Speaking to prospects one-on-one provides instant insights into their needs, objections, and pain points, allowing you to tailor your approach in real-time.
Cold calls have a high conversion potential
Cold calling allows you to segment your lists based on specific industries, demographics, or decision-makers, making your efforts more focused and efficient.
A well-executed call can also lead to immediate interest, follow-up meetings, or even sales, making it a powerful tool for securing leads quickly.
Thanks to AI-powered cold calling tools like Cognism, your team can gain immediate access to verified B2B contact data, real-time sales insights, and personalised lead recommendations.
This makes finding and connecting with sales leads easier than ever before.
Don’t believe us? Here’s what User Evidence said:
“Since onboarding Cognism, my team’s connect rates have increased, we have saved about 10 hours a week and have generated 161 opportunities in under 3 months.”
Amanda Newman
SDR Manager
@User Evidence
How to generate leads without ads
Here’s our list of cold-calling resources to help you generate sales leads:
- 6 Tips to Win at Sales Call Planning
- Common Sales Objections and Rebuttals
- Cold Calling Examples From Real Life: What (Not) To Say
- How to Get Over the Fear of Cold Calling
- How to Get a Cold Call List?
- Cold Calling Tips
- When is the Best Time to Cold Call in B2B Sales?
- The Ultimate Guide to Discovery Calls: Tips and Best Practices
- Cold Calling Scripts: Hub of the Best Templates
2. Email your leads
Like cold calling, cold emailing your leads is a fast and cost-effective way to generate leads in sales.
You don’t need a large team to send loads of email sequences, either. Sales automation software handles all that for you. So all you need to do is write the sequences, set them up and schedule them for when you want them sent out.
When executed correctly, with personalised messaging and strategic follow-ups, cold emailing remains a powerful and efficient tool for generating leads.
Here’s why it’s a good idea:
It’s non-intrusive
Unlike cold calling, emails allow recipients to read and respond at their convenience, making it a less disruptive way to initiate contact.
Moreover, if your lead doesn’t convert from an email, they might learn a little about your company by clicking on the valuable content you’ve shared. This will keep your company top of mind for future opportunities.
It can all be automated
As I mentioned earlier. The great thing about email drip campaigns is that they can be automated. This allows for efficient follow-ups and lead nurturing without manual effort.
Even better, you can use the same software to track open rates, click-through rates, and responses to measure effectiveness and refine strategy based on real-time data.
Emails are global
Say you want to enter a new market, like NAM or APAC. You might be limited by time zones or phone availability. Setting up an email campaign for these regions is easy, so you don’t need to worry about reaching prospects—unless you have bad data.
But even bad data is preventable with a sales leads provider like Cognism. Trusted for its compliance, Cognism’s database is excellent for teams looking to enter new European markets.
Here’s what one happy customer said about using Cognism’s emails:
“Our open rates used to be between 2-6%. Now they range from 40% to 60%”
Elaine Fullarton
Digital Marketing Principal
@Tharsus
3. Improve your social selling
Social media is more than a tool to share pictures of your latest weekend adventure. Platforms like LinkedIn are excellent for connecting with leads, mainly through social selling.
Social selling is a lead generation technique involving interacting with leads by posting engaging content, commenting, sharing, and direct messaging.
Social selling is less about building your connections (although that is a by-product) and more about increasing awareness about your brand.
When done correctly, prospective buyers automatically associate your name with a brand. And they’re more likely to contact you directly when they need your solutions.
Here’s an episode of Beyond the Sales Floor which dives into the plays Microsoft’s sales team uses to increase sales leads:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/eYNfzoTcWVc?si=MLoOUMxR-LoNQdmK&enablejsapi=1&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cognism.com
4. Identify ready-to-buy leads
Finding sales leads, particularly those ready to buy, might be one of the quickest ways to generate sales leads.
The trick? Look for intent signals.
Specific signals indicate that leads are interested and ready to spend money with your brand. Look for data like:
- The frequency of web visits.
- Who downloaded high-intent content?
- Which prospects are engaging with sales emails?
Once you connect that data with individual prospects, spend extra time nurturing them. This can be the difference between a conversion and lost revenue.
By leveraging intent data providers, you can skip the top and middle of the marketing funnel and find leads that are ready to buy.
Intent data is generated by tracking customers’ online behaviour, i.e. the websites they visit and the content they consume. As a result, you can get insights into your target accounts’ interest in your product or solution. You can then prioritise these leads before your competition even realises.
Cognism partnered with Bombora, the leading intent data provider on the market. The unique combination of accurate contact data and 12,000 intent topics allows our customers to get targeted leads for sales teams.
5. Create BOFU content
One way to create new sales leads is through organic sources. This type of lead generation takes a couple of months to get results, but once you set it up, your website can attract a steady number of hot leads without paying for ads.
Choose high-intent, long-tail keywords rather than high-volume ones, optimise your content to attract organic traffic from search engines and personalise CTA buttons to match the page’s content and intent.
Use smart CTAs tailored to individual users based on data stored on their CRM contact record.
For example, they can display customised messages to a first-time visitor, an existing customer, or a lead. Smart CTAs convert 202% better than generic CTAs!
💡 Check out the best places where you can get leads for free.
6. Use sales triggers
Imagine how easy it would be to connect with potential prospects as soon as they enter the market.
Insider secret: Cognism helps you identify sales triggers.
Sales triggers, like securing new funding, watching hiring trends, and launching new products, are key indicators of sales opportunities. You can also use them to get in front of your ideal customer profile (ICP) before your competition does.
These events open the door for your sales team to slide in with a well-crafted pitch that’s a push in your brand’s direction.
For example, when a company that fits your ICP appoints a new executive into a decision-making role, it’s your chance to make your move. Other signals can include new funding, sector announcement, or development.
To track sales triggers, you can set up Google alerts, follow your target audience on LinkedIn or sign up for their newsletters. A simpler and more effective way is to use a sales intelligence provider like Cognism to make the most of sales trigger events and signal data.
One way to get the best sales leads is to use sales triggers and signal data. Learn more about Cognism’s signal data.
7. Use lead generation tools
Adding a lead generation tool to your sales tech stack is a proven way to generate leads.
Depending on the tool, you can use it to:
- Uncover industry insights and trends, so you know precisely when to send a message.
- Verify prospects’ data, like phone numbers and emails.
- Understand and analyse intent signals.
Cognism is the leader when it comes to compliant, accurate B2B data. Want to play around with it? Here’s an interactive demo of how to generate leads from corporate websites 👇
8. Try email signature marketing
Figuring out how to generate sales leads can be an arduous task. But sometimes, it’s as simple as including a link in your email signature.
Your email signature is prime real estate. Think about it.
How many emails do you or your team send a day?
Email signature banners can maximise the power of your emails.
Think of what content, offers, webinars for lead gen, or events you can promote there to generate the best leads.
Here’s an example of how we do it at Cognism:
