6 Ways to Leverage AI for Lead Generation

Advancements in technology have made it possible for anyone to harness the power of artificial intelligence and use the right tools to easily generate quality leads.

AI evolves with time, allowing you to fine-tune your lead generation process in real-time and make it more efficient by eliminating loopholes.

AI helps you devise proven strategies and use a variety of tools to generate, engage, and nurture leads as they advance from one stage of your sales funnel to the next.

How to do that?

Here are a few pointers that can help you get started.

1. Chatbots

Chatbots have come a long way since their inception back in 1966. Now, you can use this technology to converse with your site visitors, optimize their user experience, and convert them into quality leads.

People find out about brands through many sources like search engines, referral links, social media, forums, and more. Most of them, when they land on your site, have no idea what they’re looking for. It’s you who helps them navigate and find the answers that they seek.

Now, imagine having average website traffic of around a thousand visitors per day. There’s a certain number of people that you or your team can entertain. Not to mention, answering the queries of a thousand people every day can be tedious and exhausting.

This is where chatbots come in. Think of the bots as a brilliant team of representatives that is available 24/7 and capable of catering to the queries of thousands of visitors simultaneously with the right answers, always.

Chatbots help you automate the process of lead generation by helping you target the right audience via personalized messaging.

Putting bots to work, you can transform your products or services into digital ambassadors, with each having a personality of its own. This takes engagement to a whole new level by allowing potential leads to interact with your brand like never before.

2. AI-Powered Content Tools

Content is king. There's no denying that. Around 87% of visionaries consider content as a core of their marketing strategy. An efficient content strategy helps you get more traction on your site, educate your target audience, and convert website visitors into promising leads.

With well-written and targeted content, you can cater to different queries of your target audience, raise awareness, and transform site visitors into qualified leads.

Since content is to be produced in continuity, it can be overwhelming at times, especially if you’re just getting started. But, with AI-powered content tools, you can create stellar content, from landing pages to blogs and more without even breaking a sweat.

3. Machine Learning

Identifying the right leads is never easy. Hundreds and thousands of users may visit your site on a daily basis, making it difficult to shortlist the right audience for targeting.

Around 80% of consumers are more likely to prefer a company that offers them personalized experiences. Machine learning makes it possible for you to analyze the needs of your potential customers and helps create data-driven tailored targeting strategies.

Machine learning helps you weed out the junk traffic and focus only on promising prospects. Doing it manually is OK as well, but, the leads identified manually are more prone to human error and bias. Not to mention, the process can be time-consuming and exhausting.

AI enables you to set the lead generation process on autopilot - using predictive analytics to help you make informed decisions. In doing so, the time otherwise spent on manual shortlisting is utilized in nurturing leads and facilitating their transition to the next stage of your sales funnel.

AI optimizes the efficiency of your sales funnel by helping you weed out unqualified leads from the get-go - removing all unnecessary complexities from the lead generation process.

4. Lead Scoring Automation

You probably have a lead scoring model that you follow. But, is it capable of evolving in real-time with every touchpoint?

With artificial intelligence, you can build a smart lead scoring system that learns from the things that worked in the past and the ones that didn't.

Humans have the tendency of making the same mistake twice, but not AI. It learns, adapts, and becomes better. It continuously optimizes the lead scoring parameters to help you acknowledge the optimal conversion rates.

An AI-powered lead scoring system analyzes your conversion data along with other key metrics. And with each upgrade, it brings you better, more optimized results than the last time.

5. Intent Tracking Tools

Did you know that the e-commerce industry alone reports losses worth $4.6 trillion in sales in a single year due to cart abandonment?

Not every user that visits your site makes it to the sales funnel. It’s common for people to exit the site without performing a single action. But, with the right tools and strategy in place, you can convert them into quality leads.

How many times have you been startled by a pop-up the moment you were thinking about exiting a particular website?

That’s intent tracking tools, doing what they do best. The intent tracking technology makes it possible for you to design tailored campaigns and retarget site visitors.

The goal here is to either prolong a user's stay on the site or take them further down the sales funnel. It all depends on your marketing strategy. The intent tracking tools just facilitate the process.

6. Email Drips

Did you know that email marketing can generate up to 4,400% ROI?

That said. Two of the core factors that define the success or failure of an email campaign are the right timing and messaging as email personalization can increase email open rates by around 26%.

With the right tools in place, you can create targeted drip sequences that are optimized as per user demographics, their interaction with your site, past buying behavior, and other key metrics.

Email drips powered by AI help you keep the leads engaged and facilitate their seamless transition down the sales funnel.

So, these are some of the ways you can leverage AI for lead generation. Note that their implication may vary from one industry to another. But, that doesn't make one way less relevant than the other.