Lead Generation Tools: A Short List of Today’s Most-Liked

One could make a monstrously long list of lead generation tools. It’d boggle your mind and most likely, you’d tune out. We chose to make a short list.

So, a disclaimer is fair: there are a ton more solutions than presented here – and, of course, many are great.

The list featured in this post follows up on this lead generation guide and subsequent posts where we’ve examined how to generate leads, lead generation strategies, campaign planning, and lead generation examples. Here we make you aware of the best lead generation tools, based on the endorsements of experts and credibility in the market.

Although the plethora of lead generation tools don’t always fit perfectly in a single box, we categorize them logically.

Landing pages

The term ‘landing page’ has various, and often confusing, definitions. We define a landing page as a ‘response page.’ As such, the measure of a landing page is the percentage of people that respond to it – or the conversion rate.

A number of lead generation SaaS providers focus on facilitating the creation, publishing, testing, analysis and refinement of landing pages. Landing page solutions generally offer templates to speed time-to-completion and integrate with existing websites, marketing automation and additional platforms.

A trio of leaders have emerged:

Unbounce

Unbounce enables you to create and publish a landing page without the help of a developer.

Instapage

Instapage is a popular landing page builder touting ‘personalized post-click landing page experiences.’

Leadpages

Leadpages targets small businesses with a robust offering featuring landing pages and additional lead capture mechanisms.

Pop-ups

The Urban Dictionary defines pop-ups as the annoying windows that open when you access a webpage. Though users often agree, this sentiment seldom deters digital marketers because (1) pop-ups are proven lead generators, (2) their popularity makes them less offensive than before, and (3) they’ve become more sophisticated and engaging.

In our recent post featuring lead generation examples, we shared several case studies of how online marketers use pop-ups effectively. Now, let’s look at two leaders that have advanced the fine art of the web page pop-up:

OptinMonster has seized a lead in the online lead generation software space with its rich feature set and versatility.

WisePops is popular with e-commerce brands. It offers a generous library of templates and a highly granular set of controls.

Chat

Live chat improves the user experience and provides potential buyers with the information they need to make informed decisions. Because it helps businesses communicate with prospects in real time, it’s very effective when it comes to capturing leads and driving sales.

Chatbot technology, which works 24/7, is effective too. Automated chat replies to customer inquiries immediately, is always consistent, and scales to meet any demand.

Two established leaders in the live chat and chatbot space include:

The Intercom solutions suite enables brands to acquire, engage and support customers.

Drift bills itself as a conversational marketing platform that connects your business with the best leads in real-time.

Forms

For decades, online lead generation has begun with a visitor filling out a form and rest assured, you’ll find a form on a landing page. Buyers have grown weary of forms, however, they are often frustrated by the interaction, and fearful of the barrage of emails and calls that are likely to follow.

Some lead generation companies have responded in clever ways with stylized, simplified, and often, multi-step forms that make the experience more inviting.

Leadformly

Leadformly promises customers they’ll convert more leads with conversion optimized, mobile responsive, lead generation forms with built in “conversion-boosting best practices.” IMO, the solution’s silver bullet is the point-and-click approach used for multi-step forms.

Typeform strives to make data exchange friendlier and more beautiful to help marketers gather better data. It’s a versatile solution used for lead capture, surveys, and more.

Marketing automation and tool stacks

There’s a whole lot of sprawl going on in the marketing automation business, meaning the creators of software tools continue expanding feature sets. Several of the lead generation tools listed thus far empower customers to buy a single solution that crosses traditional boundaries, each of the following have integrated ‘stacks’ with numerous capabilities.

With its hard-to-beat pricing and robust features, ActiveCampaign’s marketing automation platform has won-over many a-marketer in recent years.

HubSpot’s been chased by competitors for a decade and it continuously responds with expanded functionality and free online lead generation tools.

GetResponse (which I depend on) bills itself as a marketing machine. The integrated solution includes email marketing, marketing automation, landing pages, and a new auto-funnel feature.

Wishpond’s platform includes tools for landing pages, social promotions, website popups, online forms, lead-tracking marketing automation, email marketing and analytics.

Here are a couple of lead generation tools that focus on specific markets.

Kajabi is an all-in-one platform built to accommodate the many needs of those that offer online courses.

Sumo is purpose-built for e-commerce brands. It claims its features reduce cart abandonment, grow email lists and increase order value.