Understanding Lead Sources: Where Your Customers Come From and Why It Matters
As a business owner, you know how important it is to know where your audience gets in touch with your brand first. But more than this, it’s even more important to see the entire path they take until they buy from you.
Lead sources shouldn’t only be looked at as touchpoints. They are much more since they can even be seen as insights that can have a huge impact on your marketing and sales strategies.
What Are Lead Generation Sources?
If you’re looking for a simple lead source definition, you can say that it’s the channel the prospect uses to first learn about your brand or business. As you can imagine, there are many different types of such sources.
Let’s say that someone is trying to find your product. No matter if this person searches the web, gets a referral, visits your website, or sees your company in an Instagram story, this is the lead source—often influenced by marketing efforts. But when you’re the one trying to get in touch with a prospect, whether you’re using email, a TV ad, or the phone, these are also business lead sources.
As you can understand, there are many different ways someone can find your company. So, it’s normal to say that there are two source types:
#1: Online or Digital Sources:
- Email campaigns
- Pay-per-click (PPC) ads
- Search engines
- Backlinks
- Blog articles
- Social media
- Virtual events
#2: Traditional Sources:
- Cold calls
- Trade shows or other in-person events
- Direct mail
- Referrals
- TV ads, billboards, or other advertisements
Why Is Lead Source Tracking So Important?
Most people usually look at leads because they know they can be a great help in sales prospecting. For example, when you know where a customer found your business, it is normal to want to use that information to get more qualified leads. But more than this, with this information, it is in your marketing department's hands to create highly engaging content to attract more qualified prospects to your company.
The Most Popular Lead Source Examples
As we already mentioned above, there are multiple quality lead source channels that a prospect may use to get to know your brand. Some may have more potential than others, but they’re always valuable. Here is a short lead source list of the most important ones:
#1: SEO (Search Engine Optimization):
When you use SEO marketing, you know that you need to have your pages optimized to rank well in search engines like Google. The organic search that you’re trying to reach is a lead generation source that can be extremely powerful. So, adopting the right SEO practices can help you get prospects.
#2: Social Media:
There are many social media platforms, such as YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook, among many others. These are usually great marketing vehicles to showcase your business and brand to a potential buyer by using paid ads or even organic videos or posts.
#3: Paid Ads:
No matter if you’re thinking about marketing through social media targeting, PPC, or simply display ads, these are all huge in terms of lead generation. They don’t require much effort, but you need data to ensure you get the most out of your money as well as identify your best options.
#4: Email Marketing:
While email marketing is no longer as successful as it used to be, it still plays a role in lead sources. After all, you can reach new potential customers using a newsletter, share a bit of your content, or simply arrange any sort of campaign.
#5: Content:
While blog posts are a great way to create organic traffic for SEO, having both gated and ungated content may also be a great lead source. Remember that your focus should always be on quality.
#6: Referrals:
These are, by far, the best leads you may have. After all, whenever a company is recommended by a friend or family member, it is a lot easier to turn the potential buyer into a paying customer than any other marketing lead source.
#7: Events:
When you organize an event, you’re showing your expertise to the world—not to mention, it is the perfect place to create new connections and drive more sales opportunities to your business.
It’s important to note that when we are talking about events, we are referring to both online and offline events. It may be a webinar, a sales podcast, an in-person or virtual event, or even a hybrid event.
Lead Source Management: How to Track It?
Tracking a lead will always start at the point where it first came into contact with your business or brand through a marketing or sales channel. Then, you’ll need to follow the path closely.
One of the most important things you need to keep in mind about tracking leads is that you want to add as many details as you can. But how can you know these details? Well, the easiest way is by using a CRM system like Flowlu. With Flowlu’s lead tracking features, you can automatically capture and categorize lead sources, helping you gain better insights into which channels drive the most conversions.
When you have defined a CRM lead source, you’ll need to create a complete tracking system where you can annotate all details regarding each potential customer.
5 Tips to Manage Lead Sources Sales
#1: Use a CRM System Like Flowlu:
CRM systems, or Customer Relationship Management systems, are tools that can help you store all information about your customers. Flowlu serves as a centralized database where you can track and manage all your lead sources effortlessly. Its automation tools also help ensure that no valuable prospect data gets lost.
#2: Simplicity Is Key:
If you decide to use a CRM like Flowlu or Pipedrive, you don’t need (and really shouldn’t) be too specific with categories. While you may want to add a channel or something, make sure to keep everything as simple as possible. If you prefer, it’s always best to use tags like social media, email, events, or others.
#3: Be Specific With Some Sources:
While simplicity should be key, there’s always an exception to the rule. In this case, the exception is social media.
As you can easily understand, there are a lot of social media networks, and it may be important to determine the exact source of the lead.
#4: Test & Test More:
When it comes to lead sources, it’s important to keep testing everything. From email campaigns to A/B tests, SEO pages, and other strategies, tests should be conducted so you know what works and what doesn’t.
#5: Monitor CTA Performance With UTM Codes:
Even though this may not seem easy, it really isn’t difficult at all.
Simply put, CTAs (calls to action) are essential for lead generation. So, when you’re running multiple campaigns, it’s normal to have different CTAs. This means you should track them to know which one delivers better results. To track your CTA performance, you should use UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) parameters. You only need to attach them to your CTAs to determine which one is the most effective.
In case you don’t know, UTM parameters include a lot of information, including the campaign name, medium, and source.
Bottom Line
As you can now understand, lead sources are extremely important for businesses. They’re not only a way to get more qualified leads, but they also help improve the sales and marketing departments.
Notice that when talking about lead sources, it is key to track them conveniently and effectively. This is why you should consider using a CRM system like Flowlu to help with this process. With Flowlu, you can automatically log and categorize lead sources, track the entire customer journey, and gain valuable insights to refine your marketing efforts. Its intuitive reporting tools ensure that you always know which channels are delivering the best results—helping you focus on the right opportunities.
There are many lead sources, even though they tend to vary depending on your business and industry. Nevertheless, some examples include referrals, direct email campaigns, participation in trade shows, online advertisements, and social media interactions.
There’s no such thing as the best lead source. It depends not only on your business and industry but also on your business model and ideal customer.
While lead sourcing is the process of identifying the first place where the lead got in touch with the business and then understanding their path, lead generation is what you do to attract and convert individuals into prospects without taking the source into consideration.
Flowlu makes lead source tracking seamless by automatically capturing and organizing prospect data in one place. It helps you identify where your potential customers are coming from, track their interactions, and analyze which channels bring in the most valuable prospects. With its built-in CRM and reporting tools, you can optimize your marketing efforts and focus on the most effective lead sources.
