HubSpot CRM Strategy for Lead Generation

This article is written for CMOs seeking an effective, results-driven lead-generation strategy. Treat this article as a toolbox that enables you to build your own lead gen machine as opposed to adopting a cookie-cutter, one-for-all solution typically found in how-tos. Before we start, however, let’s highlight a crucial fact: you can’t build a machine without an engine. And in this scenario, the engine is HubSpot CRM.

Thinking of a CRM as a sales-only tool is a mistake you can’t afford. Especially when HubSpot CRM builds the alignment of departments that are crucial to an effective lead-generation strategy. But enough about that: let’s start building.

The advantage of HubSpot CRM is that it has quite a few lead generation tools integrated: forms, emails and chatbots. All three are highly customisable, allowing you to choose everything from how they look to how they function. And, most importantly, to whom are they being shown.

Though three tools might not seem substantial, their potential, especially in the realm of marketing, is infinite. It all depends on where and how you incorporate them into your strategy - and the options are only capped by your creativity. 

The 4 Ls of a lead gen strategy

Before we jump right into exploring the options out there, let’s talk about the four pillars of a lead generation strategy. They’re referred to as 'the 4 Ls’ and are the following:

• Lead Capture - the means of creating a lead.
• Lead Magnets - the assets that are valuable to your target audience
• Landing Page Conversion Tactics - the way we communicate that value so that users become leads in exchange for the asset
• Lead Scoring -  prioritising your leads based on levels of engagement with your content and evaluating their readiness to buy.

Excluding one of the Ls automatically deems the strategy ineffective. 

If we don’t implement lead capture - we are not collecting information, therefore not generating leads. If we have no lead magnets, users have no reason to give us their information. 

If we do have lead magnets but no landing page conversion tactics, the lead magnets become useless as people won’t part with their information for something they don’t see value in. If we skip lead scoring, we end up wasting time contacting people who may be entirely irrelevant to us and potentially miss out on opportunities of approaching the ones that are.

Think outside the box

As previously mentioned, the methods of integrating HubSpot’s lead generation tools are boundless. But it would be unfair of us to leave you without a few examples. 

Before we throw a bullet point list, remember that users today demand to be given something before being asked for anything. So, the ideas below are for lead magnets, focusing on providing value before you ask for personal information:

• Short, educational videos
• Gated offers with best practices
• Free-to-use tools
• Templates 
• Worksheets 
• Checklists
• Quizzes 
• Ability to download resources in PDF format 

These are just a few assets the users could find useful enough to trade their information for. As we’ve said before - it’s up to your creativity, so don’t be afraid to experiment.

Lead Generation Opportunities on HubSpot CRM

At this stage, you might be asking yourself how HubSpot contributes towards that - let alone how this is the heart of everything. Or where is the alignment of sales and marketing we have briefly mentioned in the intro? And you’re right to ask these questions.

Leads are generated and nurtured by marketing efforts that include consistent delivery of value and a highly personalised approach. HubSpot CRM stores and automatically update information on all the leads, therefore enabling the marketing team to deliver the right content to the right people, at the right time. When the marketing team passes leads to sales, a unified CRM allows the sales team to access the contact record of the lead and therefore carry on with smooth, consistent communications at any time. 

With your questions now answered (if they weren’t - give us a call for a more in-depth chat), let’s talk in more depth about how you can build your strategy with HubSpot.

Content-driven lead gen

We have already discussed that in order to generate leads, your proposition needs to add value to the users - and it needs to be communicated to them. And we have also discussed that before asking, you need to provide. One of the most effective ways to do that is content. 

By producing good, relevant and targeted content that is capable of educating the prospect, you position yourself as a trustworthy provider of a solution they’re seeking as well as generate interest in your products. This means that you start the relationship off by providing value and this creates an opportunity for lead generation using HubSpot tools and assets. Let’s illustrate this with an example.

You can write a how-to blog post, walking your reader through the steps they have to take to contribute to solving their problem. At the bottom of the blog post, position a CTA, offering them even deeper insights on the topic via downloading an eBook. If they found your piece valuable but feel they need more information, they will click on it and be taken to the landing page. 

This is where they will be presented with a form to fill out to access the resource. For conversions, you have proven that you understand their problems and know how to address them via the blog post - and then you offer them further help with it, but in exchange for their data. 

If they understand the value you deliver, they will be more than likely to have this trade. 

HubSpot CRM allows you to create CTAs, Landing Pages and Forms on the same platform. This means all the data collected through it will be stored in the same place, therefore easily accessible. You will have full visibility of how many users visited the article and how many clicked on the CTA. Additionally, you will see how many of those who went to the landing page have filled out the form versus those who did not. 

Not only this is a way of generating leads, but this gives you insights on the journey towards converting/not converting which in turn allows you to create better value and optimise the lead gen strategy.

PPC across the channels

In the previous approach, users get to the landing page by tailoring their journey by providing value first. 

PPC, whether it’s done through search engines or social media, makes the process shorter as normally the ads take users straight to a landing page with a lead capture element. 

Of course, you can always combine it with the approach described above - the users would land on a content page, find it relevant and then hit the CTA. However, using PPC for lead generation is to shorten the cycle by putting your value proposition in front of the target audience instead of having them explore. 

In other words, it’s a more direct approach.

Besides what we’ve described before regarding creating landing pages and supporting assets, HubSpot CRM also syncs with PPC platforms. 

So, for example, if you’re running a Facebook ad lead gen campaign, you won’t need to export the leads generated on the platform to then import them into the CRM. When synced, HubSpot uses the information to either create new contacts or update the existing ones automatically.

Email is not dead

It is actually thriving. And to this day it remains the most effective strategy for generating leads online.

The key to email lead generation is providing value and capturing attention. HubSpot CRM is ideal for that because not only does it come with tons of great, captivating email templates, but also heaps of automation options. 

First of all, in our previous article, we’ve spoken about how important it is to create a personalised customer experience to market your products and services more efficiently. HubSpot enables you to do that not just on your website, but also on emails. This means the content users get in their inbox will be highly relevant as it is addressing their previous interactions with the website. 

There are two routes to this: providing a curation of great, relevant content with CTAs that take users to landing pages OR including a link to the landing page with a lead magnet to the email.

For example, the user gets an email with smart content that contains two relevant videos, three relevant blog posts and a worksheet. The videos and the blog posts are educating the user further, and downloading a spreadsheet would enable them to also act. So, if they decide to get a worksheet, they will be taken to a landing page they can download - in exchange for their data. 

Since this email would be smart, using individual data about the receiver that’s stored on HubSpot, the user would get multiple relevant pieces of content simultaneously and present an opportunity to get extra value for simply filling a form. Naturally, the user would feel they’re the ones benefiting from this and therefore their information is a bargain price to pay. However, do not forget that being too persistent can also make users unsubscribe from these communications.