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16 Hidden Facebook Marketing Tools That Will Increase Your Engagement by 154%

Facebook engagement is easier and more valuable than you ever imagined.

I found this out the hard way.

At one point, I was spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a month on Facebook Ads.

Sure, I was getting some huge successes. But I was also wasting a ton of money.

For example, I once spent $400,000 on Facebook fan page likes.

I still feel dumb for that one.

The engagement just wasn’t there. I had a large number of fans, but very little actual engagement.

I had no idea that hidden tools within Facebook’s apps, extensions, and insights (and a few external tools) could have made my Facebook ad spend 80 times more effective.

Facebook marketing is like an iceberg. Most people see the top part — Facebook ads. They spend their entire time optimizing that little bit of potential.

The real power is underneath. It’s hidden.

That’s why I created this list.

I want you to know exactly what those hidden Facebook marketing tools are and how you can increase your engagement by 154 percent, as I did.

Before we get started, for the first few hidden tools you need Mobile Monkey to utilize all of the tactics (it’s free).

Some of the hidden tools I’ll share are within Facebook; you just don’t know about them.

Hidden Facebook Tool #1: Facebook Messenger Marketing

This one is hiding in plain sight: Facebook Messenger marketing.

Hidden Facebook Marketing Tools That Will Increase Your Engagement

For some reason, not very many marketers are taking advantage of Messenger marketing, even though it’s the hottest opportunity in digital marketing today.

What does this mean for you? It means that you can gain first mover’s advantage.

Using Facebook Messenger for marketing is as simple as it sounds… you send messages to customers on Facebook Messenger.

What makes this channel different from other marketing methods like email marketing is the results.

Where else can you get engagement results like that?

I don’t know of any, and I’ve done quite a bit of online marketing.

The best way to get started with Facebook Messenger marketing is with MobileMonkey.

MobileMonkey is a powerful chatbot builder that I use personally. Chatbots are essential for scoring sky-high open rates, CTRs, and conversion rates.

And best of all, it’s free.

Hidden Facebook Tool #2: Comment Guard (Private Reply via Messenger)

A comment guard is a Facebook Messenger marketing feature that allows you to add new contacts to your contact list when they comment on your Facebook post.

Here’s how it works:

  1. You post something on Facebook as usual.
  2. People comment on your post.
  3. Anyone who comments on the post gets your automatic private reply in Messenger.
  4. When they engage with this reply, they are added to your Facebook Messenger contact list.

The mobile screenshot below displays exactly what happens.

Hidden Facebook Marketing Tools That Will Increase Your Engagement messenger tool

Say you post something on your Facebook page that has high engagement potential, such as a meme, a quiz, a contest, a question, whatever. All the comments aren’t just comments anymore; they’re warm leads.

You’ll need to use MobileMonkey in order to pull this off, but it’s really easy.

  1. Just click the “FB comment guard” button using the MobileMonkey app.
  2. Create an autoresponder message.
  3. Point them to your Messenger chat landing page.
  4. Add the comment guard to your selected Facebook post.
Hidden Facebook Marketing Tools That Will Increase Your Engagement comment guard from mobile monkey

Hidden Facebook Tool #3: Click to Messenger Ads

A Click-to-Messenger Ad is a normal Facebook ad with a twist. Instead of sending people to a landing page, you send them to a Facebook Messenger bot sequence.

It looks like this:

Hidden Facebook Marketing Tools That Will Increase Your Engagement messenger bot example

Once the person starts the Facebook Messenger sequence, they are a lead. Then, the chatbot takes over to bring them through the conversion funnel.

For example, you could have your chatbot ask users questions, and send them offers based on their responses.

It can be hard to manually respond to thousands of messages. Instead, you can direct those chat from your Messenger Ads directly to a MobileMonkey chatbot, which can ask qualifying questions and engage users at scale.

Facebook strategies messenger bot sequence

Check out this article, for step by step instructions on leveraging this strategy.

Hidden Facebook Tool #4: Chat Blaster

Chat blasting is a powerful method for getting your message in front of your entire Facebook Messenger list in minutes.

I’ve managed chat blasting campaigns that scored a 96.9 percent open rates in just sixty minutes.

facebook hidden strategies chat blasting

With MobileMonkey, you can schedule chat blasts, bulk send, develop interactive Messenger sequences, create special offers, and anything else that helps your marketing.

To start, just click “Chat Blaster” in the app.

facebook hidden tools chat blaster from mobile monkey

Chat Blaster also has the ability to segment audiences. Many of the campaigns I manage involve thousands of contacts, so I want to narrow down my contacts to just the right targets.

Creating segments is simple using MobileMonkey, which allows you to “Create Audience” with a click.

facebook hidden tools segment audience for chat blast

Your audience can perform self-segmentation when the chat blast sends.

example of audience segmentation mobile monkey chat blast hidden facebook tools

Hidden Facebook Tool #5. Warm Engaged Invites

One tactic that I’ve used to build my Facebook audience is by personally inviting people who engage with my Facebook page to become a page fan.

From your business Facebook page (desktop), find a post that has engagement.

hidden facebook tools facebook fan ask

Using this tool, you view the people who engaged with your post and can invite people to like the page.

The reason why this is valuable is that you’re able to target engaged fans. If you have a lot of Facebook fans, but not a lot of engagement, Facebook’s algorithm will punish you.

Instead, identify those people who will be engaged and manually invite them.

Hidden Facebook Tool #6: Send Personal Invites in Messenger

Another strategy is inviting your friends to like your business page, and also sending the invite in Messenger.

This allows you to personalize the message and give them two touches instead of just one.

Click on the “Community” button on your Facebook page, then click “Invite Friends to Like Your Page.”

Here, you can invite friends and create a personalized message. Be sure to check the box at the bottom to send the invite using Messenger.

invite friends to like your facebook page

Hidden Facebook Tool #7: Competitor Ad Espionage

I’m a huge fan of ethical espionage.

In the world of SEO, it’s not that hard.

Just plug in a URL to something like RankSignals.

hidden facebook tools rank checker

Boom, you have intel.

rank checker hidden facebook tools

A lot of this data is really helpful.

rank signals back link checker

With so many brands now spending millions of dollars on Facebook ads, how do you get a handle on that kind of information?

You will not be able to get your competitor’s targeting info and ad spend but you can find out where, how often, and what the competition is advertising.

Hidden Facebook Tool #8. View Competitor’s Ads

Ever wish you could see exactly what ads your competitors are running? Actually, you can — right in Facebook.

Let’s say I’m the competition and you want to spy on me. First, find my Facebook page and tap the “i” button. (It might be on the right or under the “Details” tab, depending on the device you’re using.)

I to spy on competitors Neil Patel facebook hacks.

On this page, you can find out if the page has ever changed names, when it was created, and where the page managers are located. This can be handy intel.

facebook hidden tool access ad library

Tap on “Go to Ad Library.”

If the page is (or has) run ads, you’ll be able to see them here. This means you can see the ads they are running now and see what they have run in the past.

Granted, you don’t have access to insights about how well ads performed, but you can see if they tend to use the same ad copy or types of images and use those strategies for your own page.

Hidden Facebook Tool #9:  Page Competition Gauge

I like to have a solid understanding of who my competition is and what they’re up to.

How do I know who my competition is? Thankfully, Facebook’s algorithm has figured it out for me.

To use this feature, go to your Facebook Page Insights. From Insights, scroll down until you see “Pages to Watch.”

hidden facebook tools pages to watch

By default, Facebook shows you five potential competitors, but you can view more by clicking “See More Suggested Pages.”

When you add a competitor to your watched pages, you’ll be able to keep up with their activity, growth rates, total likes, and the frequency of their posts.

This information will help you understand how you’re doing and what you might need to change.

Hidden Facebook Tool #10: Find Where Your Followers Are Coming From

It is important to figure out where your followers are coming from so you can know how to get more.

One helpful way to get this information is again through Page Insights.

facebook hidden tools insights
Then look for “Where your page follows happen.”
facebook hidden tools where your page follows happen

Facebook shows you follow quantities according to five locations:

  1. Uncategorized Desktop
  2. On Your Page
  3. Search
  4. Page Suggestions
  5. Ads

If a particular source shows large follow rates, try to reverse engineer what happened, then do it again.

Hidden Facebook Tool #11: Identify Audience Signals on Page Insights

One way that I use metrics to improve my targeting is to view my Facebook page insights, particularly the demographic information.

When viewing this information, I’m looking for strong positives — indications that my audience favors a particular demographic.

For example, this page demonstrates a strong positive for men and women between the ages of 25-44.

Facebook page insights demographics

If you’re 21, there’s only a small chance you’re going to be interested in my page. By contrast, if you’re a 30-year old male, there is a far stronger likelihood that you will have an interest in this page.

This information helps me know how, where, and upon whom to focus my marketing and advertising efforts.

Hidden Facebook Tool #12: Pull Email Addresses

Building an email list is tough these days. No matter how appealing your content upgrade, asking for someone’s email address is tantamount to asking for their social security number.

With Facebook Messenger marketing, that’s no longer the case.

You can create a Facebook Messenger chatbot that asks for an individual’s email address. Then, all they do is click a button to pre-fill their address.

Facebook does all the work for you.

Here’s what the bot looks like in MobileMonkey.

facebook hidden tools ask for email address

As long as you set the input type as email, Facebook will know to pull the user’s email address as they’ve entered it when creating a Facebook account. No typos, nothing.

facebook hidden tool use mobile monkey to ask for email addresses

This is another case of using two different channels to get information and engage your users. When you use a chatbot, it makes the process automatic and easy.

Hidden Facebook Tool #13: Pull Phone Numbers

If there’s one thing harder to get from a customer than their email address, it’s their phone number.

Again, powered by chatbots, it’s a cinch. Using input type “phone” in MobileMonkey means that you’re guaranteed to get the user’s primary phone number as they provided when and if they stored their phone number in Facebook.

facebook hidden tool get phone numbers with mobile monkey

It’s understandable that people are hesitant to enter their phone number on an unfamiliar platform

Understandably, people are hesitant to enter their phone number on an unfamiliar platform — a contact form on your website, for instance.

It’s quite a different comfort level when they are asked for a phone number in a familiar messaging app, and Facebook automatically adds the number.

All that your contact has to do is tap their phone number.

facebook hidden tool ask for phone number

Hidden Facebook Tool #14: Website Chat Widget

This one seems obvious, but again it’s surprising how few websites are putting the power of a website chat widget to work.

Check this out. If you go to MobileMonkey’s website, there is a chat widget on nearly every page.

facebook hidden tool chat widget

If you’ve logged into Facebook Messenger on that browser, all you have to do is click and you’re introduced to a Messenger sequence with MobileMonkey.

This sequence powered by a chatbot brings you further down the funnel.

One of the unique and powerful features of this funnel is that it is self-guided. You feel as if you’re in control — making choices and selecting options.

Regardless of your choices, however, you are making deeper connections with the brand and the marketing funnel.

Hidden Facebook Tool #15: Track Specific Facebook Conversions

The good thing about Facebook Ads Manager is that you have access to a ton of information.

The bad thing about Facebook Ads Manager is that you also have access to a ton of information.

Take conversions, for example.

If you’re tracking them, good for you. But which conversions are you tracking? Here are the options:

Hidden facebook tools conversions

I call this one “hidden” because true conversions are essentially in Ad Manager underneath a lot of other noise.

You have to narrow down your conversion tracking to just the conversions that you need to know about.

For one of my businesses, I only focus on five types of conversions.

facebook hidden tools ad conversions

Everything else is useless.

I’ve written about this before; when you get clarity on what to track, you’ll do a lot better at making real progress with your Facebook advertising.

Hidden Facebook Tool #16: Messenger Drip Campaigns

If you’ve been in internet marketing for any amount of time, you know how potent a good drip campaign can be.

Imagine increasing this potency by 10x.

That’s exactly what a Facebook Messenger drip campaign can do. Again, the power is in the chatbot builder.

MobileMonkey’s drip campaign feature just takes a click to get started.

hidden facebook tool drip campaign

Unlike an email drip campaign, which can take days or weeks to complete, a Facebook Messenger drip campaign can be completed in a matter of minutes or hours.

Plus, when you use a chatbot, the entire sequence can be interactive. You can create choices and engage the user on a far deeper level.

Facebook Hidden Marketing Tools FAQs

How can I use Facebook as a marketing tool?

You can use Facebook to run ads, create and promote your own Facebook business page, join groups related to your industry and post your promotional content there.

Why is Facebook a great marketing tool?

As of 2021, there are about 2.85 billion Facebook users, meaning you have access to an unbelievably huge audience.

What are some Facebook marketing tools?

Facebook offers content curation, ad builders and campaign building, A/B testing, campaign measurement and reporting, hashtag targeting, and more.

How do I start marketing on Facebook?

If you want to market on Facebook, your first step should be to perform competitor research. Look into how your competition uses it to market their products or services, and figure out what they are doing well, and go from there.

Hidden Facebook Marketing Tools Conclusion

There’s way more to Facebook than meets the eye.

There’s a reason why so many of the hidden marketing tools above focus on Facebook Messenger.

Facebook Messenger marketing has fundamentally changed the game, and it’s done so in two  areas where marketing rises or falls:

  • Interactivity and dialogue: Messenger marketing, even when powered by a bot, has a personal feel. Instead of bullhorn marketing — telling your audience to do buy, read, visit, or watch, you are opening up a conversation.
  • Speed of engagement: Unlike the glacial speed of email marketing (like drip campaigns), Messenger marketing has a much swifter cadence. Many people have a Pavlovian response to the crisp ding of their Messenger notifications. They want to see who’s sending them a personal message. This means your open rates and click through rates are shooting up.

It’s not going to last forever. Like the banner ads of decades past, Messenger marketing will lose its luster as people become accustomed to it.

By engaging Messenger marketing now, you’ll have a far stronger advantage.

What Messenger marketing tactics does your brand or business currently use?

DataOps Solutions: Software, Tools, and Alternatives

Data is changing the way we do business. The amount of information available to us as business owners and that we should be processing and using to our advantage is staggering.

The amount of digital data, made and distributed, is 79 zettabytes. A zettabyte is one sextillion bytes. It’s a lot. By 2025, that number may skyrocket to 181 zettabytes.

We call it big data, but even small data is coming at us faster and faster.

It’s what they do with data that matters. It doesn’t mean much unless it’s leveraged.

Data can provide invaluable insights into everything from demographics to customer behavior, even future sales forecasting and more. It can be an unparalleled resource for you as you make decisions moving forward with your business.

Furthermore, data can come in real-time, allowing you to make on-the-fly decisions and pivots to respond to the market and capture live opportunities.

Again, none of this matters if your data is out of data or too hard to access. That’s where DataOps comes in.

What Is DataOps?

DataOps is a relatively new term that encompasses a wide range of tools to solve the problems of what to do with data coming in and how to make it pertinent to those who need it.

When you’re working with a batch of data, there are a few things that need to happen to make it relevant:

  • It needs to be organized in ways that make sense: This means pulling in the relevant data and weeding out unnecessary information.
  • It needs to be analyzed: How does it compare to past data or concurrent data?
  • It needs to be interpreted: What do all those numbers mean for your brand? What should you do in reaction? How can you be proactive knowing this data?

All those things need to happen quickly. Then it needs to continue happening as more data comes in. The cycle needs to continue at speed.

DataOps are the architectures and software developed to do all of this at scale, in an agile, responsive manner.

How to Implement DataOps

Whether you go with a DataOps tool or build something in-house to address your needs, there are a few steps you should take to ensure smooth and effective processes.

1. Use Automated Testing

To rely on your data and the DataOps that are delivering and activating processes, you need to know you can trust the information.

Run automated tests through the programs to look for bugs and ensure that data is coming through as you expect it to. This step is about making sure the actual tools are working properly.

2. Perform Data Monitoring

In addition to automated testing, you’re going to want to conduct data monitoring. Here you will be checking in on the quality of the data being processed.

This goes back to your goals. What are you trying to measure? Use your standards for what qualifies as “good data” and check in regularly. Ensure your processes gather and analyze “good data” and not be tainted by irrelevant or inaccurate information.

These regular check-ins improve confidence in the system.

3. Work in Multiple Environments

Just as in DevOps, DataOps should occur in various environments or spaces. Think of these as levels where you can experiment and test your DataOps. You’ll want environments for developing DataOps, for testing and analyzing, and for going live.

Keeping these separate gives you the freedom to develop new workflows or ideas in a staging environment before moving to a live one. This prevents your data from becoming skewed by bad development or bugs. You can work them out in an earlier environment.

This also allows your team to work concurrently in the early stages of development and idea testing through bug testing, all before you go live. Your team can also work on various ideas concurrently without crossing streams or backtracking, potentially messing up one another’s projects.

4. Containerize Code

A fundamental purpose of DataOps is to stay agile. Containerizing your code keeps it streamlined and simple. Containerizing means packaging in simple, reusable bits of code so that it can be used across platforms or languages.

It also means that it can be repurposed or tweaked slightly and rerun for another project. This keeps the whole operation agile, allowing you to act quickly with updates and new launches as you continue to hone your data operations.

5. Perform Regression Testing

As you’re moving forward with DataOps, regression testing is critical. With each new update and new operation you are utilizing, you’ll want to ensure new problems aren’t introduced and old problems aren’t reintroduced. Regression testing runs a program through its spaces to ensure that it’s still working properly with the new changes. If any bugs do crop up, you can step back to the previous version, ensure that it’s running properly, and then take the update back to development before introducing it again.

5 DataOps Tool Examples

As DataOps evolves, many programs and tools are being developed to support this approach to data analytics and processing. The software you pursue will depend on your goals, the amount of data you are dealing with, and other tasks or tools you need to integrate. Some of the options listed here may be bulkier than you need.

Before purchasing, read up on the features offered and how it works with tools you are already using to determine whether this is the right option for you.

You should know that while all of these promise a certain level of ease and approachability, they do start from a place of general knowledge and confidence with data software and API integration. You may want to turn to your web development team for support here. Some software developers listed here also offer in-house support and consultations that can help get your DataOps off the ground.

1. Fraxses

Fraxses promises to help brands who have access to lots of data, but need help with integrating that data in ways that actually work for them.

In a video example on their homepage, a retail brand was getting lots of great data, but didn’t have a way to access and integrate data directly from their customers that they could integrate in real-time on a single platform or dashboard.

video example mlops tool

Fraxses offers these kinds of solutions in the agile formatting required by DataOps. For example, the tool:

  • doesn’t rely on a single language but can be written in whatever you need
  • is decentralized
  • is low code or no code
  • can be democratized

Fraxses describes itself as a mesh or fabric you can lay over your existing data structures and platforms to pull together and interconnect the information you need.

2. RightData

RightData describes DataOps as DevOps plus analytics. They offer brands DevOps level of support for their analytics and data management, with the constraints of DataOps, which includes:

  • an agile approach
  • continuous delivery of data
  • a quick release times or sprints
DataOps Tools - RightData

RightData is a DevOps integration to support data and analytics management in your brand. Their promise is that they can keep up with the testing and monitoring part of the cycle after you’ve developed a system. This keeps your DataOps rolling forward and working seamlessly and quickly.

RightData also focuses on customer privacy and security, which is a key component to DataOps. Data breaches can cause an instant stop to your DataOps continuous processing and clog up the whole system. Maintaining security is key to moving forward in confidence.

Companies who want to learn more about working with the RightData DataOps tool can contact them directly for a demo and quote.

3. MLflow

MLflow stands for Machine Learning flow and it is a cloud-based platform on which you can run DataOps.

It’s an open-source platform, that can work on any language or with any coding. MLflow can be used by a single user or an entire company with many users.

It was created to solve the problem of too many data analytics tools making it too hard to move through a DataOps cycle with agility and continuity. DataOps relies on seamless reproduction to move ahead in quick sprints, not marathons of time waiting for data to be crunched while it grows irrelevant.

MLflow brings a solution to the community that brands are welcome to try, develop, and work together to make better.

If you’re into this kind of tinkering, you may want to explore MLflow.

4. K2View

K2View brings all the DataOps solutions that a brand needs under one roof so you don’t have to think about integrating this and that or whether your DIY DataOps fabric is covering all the bases.

Its premise is simple. They promise an all-in-one DataOps solution that brings you all the benefits including:

  • a single dashboard to monitor and digest all the information you need, whenever you need it
  • full, in-depth information on any product, customer, location or area, demographic, and more data that is up-to-the-minute and relevant, rather than lagging or growing old
  • continuous delivery of data
  • an adaptable and flexible framework that reacts to the data coming in
  • security support

The various integrations also ensure that anyone at your company who needs access to the data gets the interpolated and real-time information they need, from marketing to point of sales, from management to the floor.

You can contact K2View for a quote and can also check out a Proof of Concept for free for two weeks.

5. Tengu

Tengu is another DataOps platform available to you as a brand owner. Also low or no code, Tengu promises to be an approachable, off-the-shelf option for someone looking to start working with a DataOps solution. It can be used in the cloud for remote or spread out teams or directly at a single physical location if you want something more secure.

Not wanting a lack of knowledge to be a limiting factor, Tengu is built around self-service so users can get access to the features you need, and you can set it up with little technical experience.

They also boast that they are more than just the technology they deliver. They support their customers with consulting on how they can be better using their data and what kinds of systems will help them do that.

Those interested in Tengu can contact them directly to learn more about Tengu’s pricing levels and various consulting services.

Frequently Asked Questions About DataOps

What Is DataOps?

DataOps is a type of agile and continuous methodology, for the managing and interpreting of data for a company. With this approach, brands can process their data faster and more pertinent to their needs.

Why Is DataOps Important?

DataOps works at scale to crunch data quickly and more efficiently, in repeatable sprints, so companies have access to the information they need in real-time, in a single location, across departments.

How Do You Use DataOps in Marketing?

You can continuously gather data from customers, their experiences, the products people are buying, and more to make real-time decisions about how to reach more of your target audience.

What Are DataOps Tools?

DataOps tools integrate into your existing data collection software to process and deliver data information in a primary platform or dashboard. Examples include FraXses, RightData, MLflow, K2View, and Tengu.

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Guide to DataOps: Conclusion

Data is critical to our sales and marketing cycles. While there are plenty of great data analysis software options, sometimes you need that information coming in faster. With speed comes the need for efficiency, accuracy, and security. DataOps is the answer, in flexible and agile environments, constantly dripping in reliable data your brand can use to build better sales processes, respond to customer needs and wants, and hit your goals with more efficiency.

Which DataOps tool are you going to try first?

9 AI Tools for Successful Marketing Funnels

Customer engagement has quickly become a widespread use for AI in the retail industry and beyond. With more customers expecting a hyper-personalized, real-time experience, the demand for AI technology in marketing has never been greater.

It makes sense, then, that so many marketing AI tools and software are targeting the conversion funnel. From lead generation to lead nurturing to conversion, funnel AI tools help marketers improve their strategy and streamline their processes.

Even small businesses need to adopt AI technology to keep up. The good news is there are many tools and software platforms available, so you are likely to find one that meets your needs.

Here is a deeper look at nine of the top AI tools for successful marketing funnels.

1. Systeme

Systeme offers an all-in-one sales funnel software that enables you to build and manage your funnel like a boss. From creating a landing page to teaching an online course to managing your affiliates, Systeme provides an array of tools.

The free plan only allows up to 1,000 contacts, so you’ll need to upgrade if you need more. Systeme also offers three paid plans, including:

  • Startup $27/month: Up to 5,000 contacts
  • Webinar $47/month: Up to 10,000 contacts
  • Enterprise $97/month: Up to 15,000 contacts

If you need more than 15,000 contacts, custom plans start at $147 per month.

If you are just starting out, you will be happy to know that all plans include:

  • unlimited emails
  • unlimited file storage space
  • unlimited membership site members
  • no transaction fees (Stripe and PayPal platform fees may apply)
  • affiliate programs
  • online support

For a truly all-in-one platform, Systeme stands out as both robust and affordable.

Who Should Use Systeme?

Marketers looking to consolidate their suite of marketing tools and processes and rely on one tool.

2. Exceed.ai

According to data from Sales Insights Lab, 50 percent of prospects aren’t a good fit for what you sell. Instead of using your salespeople to weed out the duds, Exceed’s personalization and lead qualification automation can do it for you in less time.

Use Exceed.ai in the lead nurturing and conversion stages of your funnel. With Exceed’s top-notch AI technology, engage your leads in human-like conversation. The platform can even schedule meetings for your reps and bring you that much closer to the sale.

You’ll need to request a quote from Exceed.ai to learn more about the package that fits your budget.

Who Should Use Exceed.ai?

Businesses and organizations that need the greatest help in their sales funnel’s lead nurturing and conversion stages.

3. Saleswhale

All too often, lukewarm leads are left to cool down. While you may have trouble allocating resources to less-than-enthusiastic leads, Saleswhale has your back.

Saleswhale is a SaaS product that uses AI to identify, engage, and convert neglected leads. Using automated follow-ups, referral handling, and interest qualification, Saleswhale’s AI assistants offer a best-in-class experience for you and your leads.

With the free plan, you can begin to nurture and convert up to 200 leads per month. For additional leads and active email campaigns, paid plans include:

  • Starter $495/month: Up to 500 leads/month, one active campaign
  • Plus $1,495/month: Up to 2,500 leads/month, three active campaigns
  • Professional $2,495/month: Up to 5,000 leads/month, 10 active campaigns

Who Should Use Saleswhale?

Companies strong in lead generation, but who need assistance in lead nurturing and conversion.

4. Appier

Similar to Systeme, Appier is an all-in-one sales tool with a full suite of AI services. This SaaS can help with prospecting to transaction with its robust data science platform.

Where Appier excels is in cross-advertising solutions. Using AI, Appier can effectively segment your audience to drive maximum lead conversions. You no longer need to create campaign after campaign hoping to hit the mark, as Appier will do the dirty work for you.

Appier’s pricing is not available on their website, so you’ll need to reach out to learn more about their tools and their potential fit with your business.

Who Should Use Appier?

Companies looking for a comprehensive suite of AI-powered marketing tools.

5. ClickFunnels

If you are looking for an end-to-end sales funnel solution, then consider ClickFunnels.

Utilizing AI sales models and neural sales data, ClickFunnels aims to improve the marketing experience for businesses of all sizes.

ClickFunnels enables you to easily create funnels, build websites, and manage affiliates. This means you can collect, nurture, and convert leads using just one platform. With more than 100,000 entrepreneurs using or having used the platform, it has undoubtedly made a name for itself in the industry.

While there are no free plans available, there are plans for almost any business’ budget. These include:

  • Basic $97/month: 20 funnels, 100 pages, three payment gateways, and three domains
  • Platinum $297/month: Unlimited funnels, unlimited pages, nine payment gateways, and nine domains
  • Two Comma Club $2,497/month: Unlimited funnels, unlimited pages, 27 payment gateways, and 27 domains

All plans come with chat support and video training.

Who Should Use ClickFunnels?

Companies who want an all-in-one solution that offers hand-holding and easy-to-use templates.

6. Data Studio

Previously known as BrightFunnel, Data Studio by Terminus is a funnel reporting tool that connects marketing platforms to deliver beautiful, insightful analytics.

When your sales funnel is fully implemented, it is crucial to evaluate it regularly. While many marketing tools and services provide their own data and reports, they may not be as robust as you need. With Data Studio, you can create custom reports for marketers, executives, and stakeholders.

Pricing is not readily available on the website, but you can schedule a demo to learn more about the platform.

Who Should Use Data Studio?

Marketing teams who need a cohesive analytics and insights platform to bring their sales funnel data to life.

7. Akkio

According to HubSpot, the top priority for marketers is generating leads. However, as any marketer can tell you, not all leads are created equal. You can spend your time manually poring over the data to determine your best path forward, or you can let Akkio take the reins.

Akkio is an AI marketing platform with tools to support every stage of the funnel. Where it excels, however, is in its augmented lead scoring and churn reduction technology. Using data-driven insights, Akkio aims to narrow in on the leads with the greatest chance of a conversion.

For as low as $50 per month, billed annually, you can give Akkio a try with very little risk. The features included in all plans are:

  • unlimited users
  • unlimited data
  • unlimited flows and deployments
  • integrations and API
  • model reports

Who Should Use Akkio?

Companies looking for a scalable, data-driven solution.

8. Bant.io

If you are hurting for qualified leads, you should know you’re not alone. According to HubSpot, 61 percent of marketers consider lead generation to be their top challenge. The good news is there are marketing AI tools, like Bant.io, that can help.

Bant.io offers an impressive array of lead generation tools and services. These run the gamut, including:

  • email
  • social outreach
  • pay per click ads
  • retargeting ads
  • sales chatbot

Unlike many one-size-fits-all options, Bant.io plans are customizable to meet your business’s needs. Just add the modules you need and leave the rest. The modules include:

  • Email outreach: $795/month
  • Social outreach: $495/month
  • Retargeting ads: $395/month
  • PPC ads: $395/month
  • Sales chatbot: $95/month

With Bant.io’s automated services at your fingertips, you will soon find yourself buried in qualified leads who are ready to take the next step.

Who Should Use Bant.io?

Marketers who favor a piecemeal approach to lead generation.

9. Funnel.io

It’s not enough to have a marketing funnel in place. You must evaluate every step of your funnel on a regular basis. While most funnel tools will have their own reporting, they may not always present you with the big picture. That’s where a reporting tool like Funnel.io comes in.

With 500+ data connections available, Funnel.io makes it easy to build reports that touch on all areas of your business.

Can’t find the data source you need? The team at Funnel.io will work with you to get it added to their platform.

There are a variety of plans available, including:

  • Essentials $399/month: Connects to 260 platforms, five seats, email support
  • Plus $999/month: Connects to 500+ platforms, unlimited seats, email and chat support
  • Enterprise $1,999/month: Connects to 500+ platforms, unlimited seats, priority email and chat support, and a Customer Success Partner

All plans are billed annually.

Who Should Use Funnel.io?

Marketers or agencies looking for a comprehensive and collaborative reporting platform.

Frequently Asked Questions About Marketing Funnel AI Tools

Do you have questions about funnel AI tools? Take a look at the most frequently asked questions below.

What Role Will AI Play in Marketing in the Future?

With increased expectations from both B2C and B2B customers, there will continue to be a need for AI tools in marketing and sales. This isn’t just within the retail industry, but healthcare, food services, technology, and beyond.

What Should I Look for in a Sales Funnel AI Tool?

First, you want to find a tool specializing in the sales funnel stage your business most needs help with (lead generation, lead nurturing, conversion, or all stages). Then consider how easily the tools available fit into your daily workflow so you can choose the right one for your business.

When Should I Consider an All-in-One Solution?

Whether you are just getting started or you would like to consolidate your marketing efforts, an all-in-one solution can be a smart option. The benefit is having all of your data in one place which can improve your ability to use it.

What Types of Businesses Benefit Most From Sales Funnel AI Tools?

With the explosive growth of marketing funnel tools utilizing AI technology, there are tools available for just about any budget. From small businesses to large corporations and marketing firms, just about any business can benefit from AI-driven sales funnel tools.

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AI Tools for Successful Marketing Funnels: Conclusion

Marketing automation and AI are here to stay. This is why companies big and small need to make the shift to using marketing AI tools sooner rather than later.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to marketing automation. Luckily for marketers, there are plenty of tools, platforms, and software to choose from.

Whether you choose an all-in-one solution or a platform that specializes in just one step of the funnel will depend on your needs. Whatever you choose, just know you are taking an important step in future-proofing your digital marketing processes.

Which of the above marketing funnel AI tools would be a beneficial addition to your business?

7 AI Tools For Email Inbox Management

If you are drowning in a sea of emails, email inbox management may be the answer.

Trying another life hack may not be enough. As soon as you get to your inbox to zero, the emails keep pouring back in.

To fight the chaos, AI email tools give you a leg up by acting as your personal email assistant to keep your inbox organized.

Each email inbox management program has different features and benefits, so consider what you really need in an AI email tool before getting distracted by all the bells and whistles.

Here are a few questions to stop and consider before making a decision:

  • What am I spending too much time on?
  • What do I not have enough time for?
  • Which tasks would help me reach my marketing goals?
  • What do I dream someone else could just do for me?

These questions will help you stay focused on which options will save you time, rather than just adding more tasks to your daily routine.

1. SalesHandy

SalesHandy focuses on helping those with sales jobs or sales goals to hit those goals faster and more consistently.

The primary offering of SalesHandy is email tracking, which you can access in their unlimited free version.

AI Tools for Email Inbox Management - SalesHandy

With email tracking, you can find out when people open your emails. You can even set it up to give you a little notification on your desktop, so you don’t have to go back and check. You’ll start to learn who is most interested and if people are opening right away, or maybe later in the day or week, etc.

You also mute or turn this feature off temporarily. This is especially helpful if you are on a sales blitz and focused on a campaign for a period of time. You can put your energy in, get the notifications, and then turn it off when you are ready to focus on other tasks.

You can also create email templates, so you spend less time drafting emails.

As mentioned, this service is free, but you can upgrade to $9 a month per person to get access to features like link tracking to see what people are clicking on and mail merge. There are further upgrades for teams that offer access to additional features.

SalesHandy provides a Gmail Chrome extension and Outlook integration.

2. Front

Get your team involved with your email inbox management with Front. Front gives you the power to assign labels and team members to your emails.

Even better, you can use various integrations and workflows to automate the process so you spend less time processing emails as they come in.

AI Tools for Email Inbox Management - FrontApp

According to Front, this can help your customers feel like VIPs by increasing response time and relevancy.

Commenting internally within your email inbox allows other team members to collaborate before putting out an official response, and assigning means it goes to the right person to send the response.

Pricing starts at $19 a month, per person, for teams of 10 or less. This allows you to connect your email, as well as social media and SMS messages with your team. You can also use its basic assigning and commenting function, create rules, and integrate other tools.

Upgraded plans provide customized options, including more integrations, rules, and data tracking, so you can see how well your systems work.

3. Drag

Drag brings team collaboration to Gmail inboxes. With this app, you can create a unique email address to serve your customers and work together as a team to keep up with it.

For instance, you could set up an account for customer service or help desk. It could also be useful for sales teams or CRM. This keeps your email clear by sending crucial emails to one inbox that multiple people can help manage.
AI Tools for Email Inbox Management - DragApp
Drag brings a host of tools to the shared inbox. Your team has access to emails as they come into your account and then can jump in and provide responses as necessary.

Drag also serves as a dashboard of its own. From here, you can assign emails to team members and set labels or due dates. You can add notes or tasks associated with emails as they come in. There’s also an internal chat feature for team members to speak in real-time about projects or issues.

Within this dashboard, you can create various lists and move emails between lists as they are processed. Automation features can improve your efficiency further.

Other features of note include email templates, data tracking and analysis, and to-do lists.

You can get started with the basics with Drag’s free option. You’ll gain access to most of their features, although you can only have one inbox, and your emails will be labeled with a “Sent by Drag” watermark.

To remove the little ad in sent emails, unlock more inboxes, and other expanded features, paid features start at $8 a month, per user.

4. EmailAnalytics

Are you ready for more Gmail AI email tools? EmailAnalytics promises to help you wrangle your emails and get those responses out faster.

AI Tools for Email Inbox Management - EmailAnalytics

The EmailAnalytics dashboard uses data to provide a better picture of what’s working with your email systems and highlights opportunities for improvement across the board.

See an overview of your email activity, including who sends and responds the most, what time most emails come in, and your response time. You can also monitor the number of emails by certain categories.

This serves as a monitoring tool to keep an eye on how things are going throughout the team, and you can create reports for the team to help them get on board with improved systems.

You can try EmailAnalytics for free for 14 days. That gives you enough time to get familiar with the product and see if the data is useful for your team.

After the trial period, individual plans start at $5 a month. By definition, this plan is for personal users who want to track their use. You can also go “Pro” with more features. For team pricing, you will have to contact the company directly for a quote.

5. Clean Email

So many email inbox management tools have features to get you on track or improve your sales or customer service processes, but sometimes you need help keeping your inbox organized and lighter.

Clean Email promises to help you clear your inbox of the emails you don’t need so you can focus on the ones you do.

AI Tools for Email Inbox Management - CleanEmail

How does it make this magic happen? Through bulk actions and automated organizations, you can make large sweeps to improve your inbox. For example, you can filter and collate emails into groups, such as from certain senders or a certain number of years old or larger themes such as social media notifications. Once they are labeled, you can delete them in bulk.

To make it even more magical, you can automate these actions.

In addition, Clean Email offers unsubscribe and data protection features.

Plans start at $9.99 a month for a single account.

6. Smart Assist

Are you ready for a digital assistant to take care of email management for you? Smart Assist is here to help.

Smart Assist breaks its process down into a few steps. First, you train your assistant to recognize certain emails, such as flagging specific senders or subject lines.

Then you tell it what should happen to those emails. Do they need to be deleted? Or sorted? Or do you need to respond to them? As your assistant starts to work, you’ll need to check in periodically and make any changes to improve the workflows.

Pricing starts at $4.99 per month per user for basic features. To bring these features to a team, you’ll need to pay $14.99 per month per user or $24.99 per month per user for organization or corporate level support.

7. SaneBox

SaneBox promises to do just what the name implies: to keep you (and your inbox) sane. It’s a simple concept. By filing emails into folders by category, you can stay focused on the most important emails, so you aren’t distracted by the ones you don’t need.

SaneBox creates folders and then files emails. The filing action has already happened wherever you check your emails, such as mobile, desktop, or in an app.

In other words, you don’t need to use a separate app or software. SaneBox works natively.

sanebox email inbox management AI

Utilizing AI email tools technology, SaneBox learns your behavior to categorize where new emails should go. The more it learns about how you interact with your emails, the more useful the service becomes.

SaneBox has three different pricing levels. The first at $7 a month is available for one email account and you can choose one optional feature. For $12 a month, you can use SaneBox on two email accounts and get five optional features. For $35 a month, you can use it on four email accounts and get unlimited features.

Frequently Asked Questions About Email Inbox Management

How Is AI Used in Emails?

Artificial intelligence for email inbox management learns how you interact with emails, how you want them filed, or what action to do, and can categorize them appropriately. This helps you focus on the most important and urgent emails.

How Will AI Change Email Marketing Strategy?

AI email tools can keep you focused on interacting with customers and driving sales. These tools can also help delegate emails to team members and collaborate before a response is sent.

How Do I Manage My Email Inbox?

You can file emails by sender, by priority, or by other categories so you can devote your time to the emails that drive the most ROI. Integrating AI email tools can automate this process, so you don’t have to handle email inbox management manually.

What Does Email Management Include?

All AI email tools offer different features. Look for basic filing, labeling, delegation, and clean up, along with features to collaborate with the team members.

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Email Inbox Management: Conclusion

Email marketing is still one of the most effective digital marketing strategies. Taking the time to craft personal emails, with real responses to people, is valuable.

However, it is easy to get bogged down if your inbox is out of control. Integrating one or more of these inbox management solutions can free up time so you can focus on getting work done.

Which AI inbox tool are you going to start using first?

9 AI Tools For Media Creation

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools for media let you create content at scale in a previously impossible way and you don’t even need design experience to create something impressive.

AI isn’t new. The film and gaming industries both use it regularly, for instance. But, these sectors have only scratched the surface of AI capabilities.

On a seemingly daily basis, new AI tools emerge to help people create articles, video scripts, logos, and more. Naturally, these tools have investors excited. However, they’ve plenty to offer to content creators, marketers, and digital agencies too.

Let’s look at how some of these AI tools for media can transform the way you work.

1. Podcastle

AI Tools for Media Creation - Podcastle

Podcastle, which has raised more than $1 million, is an extension for the Google Chrome browser. This free tool lets you create custom podcasts with just a few clicks.

With Podcastle, you can:

  • quickly transcribe your podcasts
  • create and edit content with the text editors
  • turn text into podcasts
  • revoice content
  • record live interviews
  • make autosaves
  • access unlimited content publishing and projects

Getting Started with Podcastle

Set up a Podcastle account by clicking on the green “create” link in the top right-hand corner.

Depending on what you want to do next, visit the tutorials page for step-by-step instructions.

Podcastle Cost

Podcastle’s free service gives you access to:

  • 45 minutes of one-time audio recordings
  • four hours of monthly audio recordings
  • capacity for one host and two interviewees
  • magic audio processing

And more.

There’s also a “storyteller” package for $11.99 a month. Storyteller has all the above features, plus:

  • additional recordings and interviewing capacity
  • 10 hours of transcription every month
  • high-quality downloads and revoicing
  • unlimited magic audio processing

2. Let’s Enhance

AI Tools for Media Creation - Let's Enhance

Let’s Enhance takes any photo you upload and analyzes the photo quality, color, contrast, etc. Then, if the picture needs enhancement, it automatically color corrects and retouches the image with minimum input.

Other features include:

  • batch processing
  • custom sizing
  • resolution increasing
  • resizing and upscaling

This program isn’t just for personal use. Let’s Enhance is also recommended for real estate and e-commerce, where you need clear, high-quality images.

Getting Started With Let’s Enhance

Upload an image to Let’s Enhance, and the algorithm enhances it as much as possible without compromising quality.

The algorithm provides a slider for tweaking parameters like contrast, hue, brightness, and saturation. You can also apply additional filters.

Let’s Enhance Cost

Let’s Enhance has subscription, business, and pay-as-you-go options.

Subscriptions for personal use run from $0 for a one-time, five-credit trial to $34 for 500 image credits per month.

Businesses can pay from $72 for 1,000 credits per month to $290 for 5,000 credits per month, plus get API access.

Pay as you go options range from $9 to $39 and let you use the program only when you need it.

3. QuillBot

AI Tools for Media Creation - Quillbot

QuillBot is one of the few quality paraphrasing tools on the market. This comes in handy when you want to avoid being repetitive when writing long pieces. It may also help you rework product descriptions.

The program has two main modes: one with synonyms and one without.

The first preserves the original sentence’s meaning while only changing certain words.

The second mode alters the word order so the sentence sounds more natural.

Other features include:

  • grammar checker
  • summarizer
  • citation generator

Getting Started With QuillBot

Upload or paste a document into QuillBot, then hit the “Paraphrase” button.

There’s nothing more to it! (However, be sure to proofread, just to be safe.)

QuillBot Cost

The free version gives users a 700 character paraphraser and a 5,000 character summarization limit. Free users also get:

  • three synonym options
  • three writing modes
  • Chrome and doc extensions

Premium gives a 25,000 Summarizer and 10,000 Paraphraser character limit and processes 15 sentences simultaneously, as well as:

  • four synonym options
  • seven writing modes
  • wider range of tones
  • sentence shortener and expander

Premium costs $14.95 for month-to-month use, $9.95 a month if paid semi-annually, or $6.67 per month for the annual option.

4. KinetiX

Investors believe in Europe-based KinetiX, which recently secured $608k in capital funding. It turns your videos into 3D animations with quick editing options and filters.

Other features include:

  • customization and collaboration
  • prototyping
  • 3D visualization
  • access to characters and animations
  • automated workflow

Getting Started With KinetiX

KinetiX uses a drag-and-drop interface available on the front page. Just drop in any .fbx file or paste in a YouTube URL and click the “generate” button underneath.

You can upload a selection of video content, like your own recordings, MP4, and YouTube content.

The tool then creates an animated character in seconds.

KinetiX Cost

The KinetiX tech AI tool is free for personal use. However, if you want to use it for commercial purposes, fees begin at 15€ per month.

5. Articoolo

AI Tools for Media Creation - Articoolo

Articoolo is an AI writing assistant that generates content in a fraction of the time it would take to write it yourself.

Additionally, it has a

  • quote and image finder
  • title generator
  • article summarizer
  • writer’s helper

Most marketers and business owners need content in a hurry at some point, or you may spend time looking for that perfect quote or image. This AI app can do that quickly.

It’s also great for anyone that wants a starting point with title ideas or to rewrite large volumes of content for repurposing.

Getting Started With Articoolo

To start using the tool, enter your topic and then wait for Articoolo to get to work. That’s all you need to do!

Articoolo Cost

Pay per use ranges from $19 for ten articles or $99 for 100 articles.

Subscribers pay $29 a month for 30 pieces and up to $99 a month for 250 articles.

6. Word.ai

AI Tools for Media Creation - Word AI

Word.ai helps copywriters rework content with a natural-sounding voice. It creates up to 1,000 rewrites of an article, giving users plenty of variety if they want to use the same piece of content in multiple ways. It can also work as an editing tool.

Other features include:

  • sentence restructuring
  • split sentences
  • quality enhancement
  • clarity enhancement

Getting Started With Word.ai

  1. Click the green button in the top right-hand corner of the screen. The button will take you to the subscription deals.
  2. Click the “start my free trial” button for your preferred option.
  3. Then Word.ai asks you to sign up and create a password.

Word.ai Cost

New users get a free three-day trial. After that, you can pay $57 per month or an annual fee that breaks down to $27 per month (quite the deal in comparison!). For heavy use, they offer an enterprise level at various prices.

7. Synthesia

If you need to create video content in a hurry, Synthesia could be the tool. Each video can be up to thirty minutes long, and you can upload any custom backgrounds and your own avatar.

Features include:

  • 50 available languages
  • PowerPoint capabilities
  • synthetic or authentic voices
  • background music

Aside from marketing videos or product demos, you could use it for:

  • training
  • personal videos
  • video chatbots

Getting Started With Synthesia

  1. Click “create account” in the top right-hand corner to create a free demo video and understand Synthesia better.
  2. To start creating your content, enter your text into the browser. Your video will be ready in minutes.

Synthesia Cost

Personal pricing is $30 a month for video credits. Custom pricing is available too, but you must speak to the sales team.

8. Rephrase.ai

Rephrase.ai is a powerful video creation tool that enables people to quickly create and share quality videos in a matter of minutes.

You can add text, images, animations, and video clips within the easy-to-use interface.

It has a wide use of applications, including educational and explainer videos, personalized customer touchpoints, digital marketing, and outreach. To understand how the video creator works, they offer a handy tutorial.

Getting Started With Rephrase.ai

  1. Begin by signing up and selecting the category you’re interested in.
  2. Answer a series of questions about how and why you plan to use the program.
  3. Watch a short instructional video, then accept terms and conditions.

Rephrase.ai Cost

Plans begin at $25 for ten banner credits a month. Each credit equals one minute of video. Rephrase.ai also has an enterprise option—contact them for details.

9.Designs.ai

Designs.ai incorporates several AI tools for media creation, including a logo and banner maker and a mock-up generator.

You create designs by dragging shapes on the canvas, which you then adjust with your mouse or keyboard input. You also have the option of changing variables for fonts, colors, and backgrounds.

Features include:

  • cloud storage
  • massive image library
  • speech maker
  • assistive tools
  • unlimited usage and projects
  • branding kit

Getting Started With Designs.ai

Click “Try for free” in the upper right-hand corner, choose which project you want to try out, and follow the prompts to get started.

Designs.ai Cost

Design.ai’s basic tier is $29 per month, and its pro level is currently $69 per month. If you pay annually, you save 34 percent. For large-scale work, contact them about an enterprise contract.

Frequently Asked Questions About AI Tools for Media Creation

What Are the Different Types of AI Tools for Media Generation?

AI tools for media are in extensive use and serve a wide variety of purposes. These include natural language generation, voice synthesis, sentiment classification, and text summarization.

How Do AI Tools for Media Help in Content Creation?

Tools that generate content are usually made for a specific purpose and consist of software-generated texts and visuals. They may include chatbots and automatic translation tools, as well as writing assistants for blogs, social media, and PPC ads. The list goes on and on.

These tools help save you time and resources, especially if you lack the expertise to create the content or visuals yourself.

How Much Do AI Tools for Media Cost?

There is a range of AI tools to create content that engages customers and improves conversions. The costs vary depending on your needs and the type of tools you’re using.

What Are the Three Types of AI?

AI is a broad term used to describe a machine that can perform human intelligence processes. The three types of AI are narrow-AI, general AI, and superintelligence.

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There is a range of AI tools to create content that engages customers and improves conversions. The costs vary depending on your needs and the type of tools you’re using.


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AI is a broad term used to describe a machine that can perform human intelligence processes. The three types of AI are narrow-AI, general AI, and superintelligence.


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AI Tools for Media Creation Conclusion

For a long time, artificial intelligence has helped us perform everyday tasks more quickly and efficiently. Now, AI became more intelligent, creating media like articles and videos.

With these tools, a marketer can create quality content with ease, even if they don’t have expertise in making videos, creating podcasts, or graphic design.

Even for the experienced, AI tools for media have multiple advantages, saving people time and freeing up their resources for other tasks.

Tools like Rephrase.Ai, Word.AI, and KinetiX are changing how we create content and make it

Lead Generation: What is it, Effective Strategies & Tools

coin stacks

Lead generation is the process of creating consumer interest in your products or services. With lead generation, you can attract leads (your potential customer) into a marketing software system with the hope of nurturing them through the buying process.

Once a lead is generated, you can then instruct them about your offerings and begin converting them into a customer.

Without leads, your business will most assuredly fail, so today, I want to show you proven hacks that will grow your leads by 113 percent.

Ready? Here are my top lead generation tips.

What Is Lead Generation?

A lead is a person who indicates an interest in your product or service.

Lead generation is the process by which you generate this interest, and place people in your sales funnel. In inbound lead generation, this is most likely to happen by someone filling out a form and giving you their contact details.

Marketers, particularly B2C marketers, rely on several channels to drive leads to their businesses and boost their conversion rate:

  • SEO
  • paid ads
  • social media
  • email
  • landing pages

Often, these channels don’t yield results marketers can bank on though. If you’ve spent a lot of time creating content, hoping to attract the right leads, but you still aren’t getting results, it can be discouraging. Hear this: you’re not alone.

At one time in my content marketing career, I struggled to acquire leads.

With a renewed focus on lead generation, I was able to turn this around, and you can follow these tips to do the same thing.

Why Is Lead Generation Important for Businesses?

Lead generation is a key goal for most businesses because, without leads, there are no sales, and consequently, no revenue.

Sure, a firm may have several important goals, but a large percentage of organizational goals focus on lead generation. When done well, lead generation can nurture qualified prospects from tentative interest all the way to the customers and ambassadors your brand relies on.

Lead generation is important because it asks the fundamental question, “what does your potential customer want?”

Once you’re able to answer that question and tie it to a high-converting landing page, you’ll consistently generate leads. You’ve still got to turn the lead into a customer, but it’s the starting point, and once you’ve got a sales pipeline full of leads, it’s much easier to tweak your sales strategies.

6 Proven Lead Generation Hacks

Hack #1: Lead generation starts at home—review your homepage messaging

For most marketers, their homepage receives the most visits. Tandberg (since acquired by Cisco), a leader in the field of teleconferencing,increased its lead generation by 50% from a simple homepage CTA that blended with other elements such as the headline, subtitle, and images.

If you’ve been actively promoting your site, your homepage will begetting visitors from referring sites, social media sites, search engines and other sources.

Stuart J. Davidson shared how he reached140,753 page views within twelve months, since re-launching his blog. Since the homepage receives a tremendous amount of traffic, don’t you think that reviewing andadjusting your homepage messaging might help you generate more leads?

I’m confident that it works; that it is, in fact, one of the best lead generation tips for you to absorb. For example, Alex Chris, founder of Digital Marketing Pro, said that one of the areas he tweaked, which led to over 400,000 visitors per month to his site, was the homepage. This also led to several thousand leads!

He showcased five sticky posts, together with a list of the latest posts. He also added a must-read section on his sidebar, which is important if you want people to find your best content the moment that they arrive at your blog homepage. This is how Chris’ homepage looks as I write this article:

lead generation example

Although the sidebar usually shows up on every page on most WordPress themes by default, you can permanently set it for your homepage only.

On the flip side, if you have an offer (e.g. an e-book, a report, software) on your landing page, you’ve got to ensure that your messaging (copy) and offer are in sync.

The two should synch, so that visitors will not be confused when they get to your homepage.

Hack #2: Link to your webinars directly in your content

One of the best lead generation tips you should take away from this post is how a webinar can work brilliantly in your favor.

A webinar is a relatively low-cost way to get your useful message in front of a targeted audience who actually asked for it when they registered.

A small consulting firm used webinars to generate over 100 new, qualified leads and resulted in six opportunity-based meetings. This, in turn, led to $50,000 in services being discussed.

And, 52% of marketers believe that webinars and seminars are the most effective methods for generating targeted leads.

If you can host a webinar and link to it directly in your content, your leads will take you more seriously, because you’ve provided value before asking them to register.

This is quite different from a webinar landing page that doesn’t offer much value to the user.

For example, the screenshot below shows how Quality Matters links to its webinar registration page from within its success stories (a blog post).

lead generation example

The challenge that most people face, when they host webinars, is getting enough people to register. But, you can drive webinar registration by linking directly to it. Uberflip knows how to invite blog readers to register for upcoming webinars right from a post. Here’s an example:

lead generation example

If you’re not using webinars todrive leads to your business, you have to start today. – Lewis Howes

When people are engaged, magical things can happen, right on the spot.

Engagement is the sole purpose of hosting a webinar. Stay time (duration) is influenced by the ease of entering into the webinar, the topic, and whether or not attendees stick around during the Q&A.

If you want to take your lead generation to the next level, you should consider hosting a webinar. Successful internet marketers know the power behind a well-planned webinar.

You can generate leads, nurture them and build a thriving business, solely with webinars. According to a survey conducted by ReadyTalk, 30%–40% of webinar attendees are turned into leads.

There’s no doubt that bringing the right people together in a virtual platform increases trust, leads, and sales. No matter what your industry may be, you have to recognize that people want to belong.

People want to learn from the experts.

And, you don’t have to be an influencer to successfully host a webinar.

The most important factor in increasing user engagement is how useful your webinar is.

lead generation example webinar

In fact,38% of attendees will stick around if your topic is hot and what you’re sharing with them will yield significant results in their business and life.

If you’re a B2B marketer, one of the most effective ways to generate qualified leads, apart from word-of-mouth referrals, is webinars. When you bring people together for the sole purpose of educating them, you’ll generate hot leads.

However, you need to make your webinar a part of your content. Naturally, your blog readers, email subscribers, and customers might have developed an emotional connection with your content. When they’re reading your post, they have a mindset that you’re only interested in solving their problems.

Blogging is a great way to build trust. If you want more people to register, reserve their slot and attend your webinar, then you have to establish a level of trust with them. That’s when blogging comes into play.

The role of webinars in the sales process can’t be ignored, because most companies have experienced higher sales when they hosted a webinar.

The more useful and interesting your blog posts are, the better. Consequently, when you link to your webinar from within your content, it’s a sign that you want to offer more value to your readers without giving them the idea that you’re out to make some quick bucks.

When you have the attention and trust of your attendees, you can recommend a product or service that’ll help them. You have a responsibility to qualify your leads and map your leads’ buying journey. Every stage of the customer buying process is important during the webinar.

Yes, you can sell, but there is a smart way to do it, especially when you’re mindful of your brand and reputation. You don’t want anything that will hurt it or separate you and your audience.

Here’s exactly how to sell during the webinar:

Welcome questions: For each webinar that we host, we usually leave up to 30 minutes for questions.

Without a doubt, this is a sure way to tell attendees that we care about them and not their money. It created a stronger bond that led to more qualified sales and customers in the long run.

Give value before asking for anything: Whether you’re hosting a webinar, writing a blog post, or speaking at an event, you have to offer tangible help before asking for the sale or any other thing that would require the attendee to move out of their comfort zone (e.g., purchase your product). This how to draw in your potential customer – and, hopefully, keep them.

Educate them. Use interesting storytelling methodology to engage them. Address the questions that are occupying their minds. You can then pitch your offer because you truly believe that it can help them move forward.

Launch a poll: Polls can foster engagement and improve customer satisfaction. Polls are simple survey questionnaires that look like this:

For example, through a poll, Tomoson found that nearly 60% of marketers plan to boost influencer marketing budgets.

lead generation example budget

Similarly, you can use polls during your webinar.

Make them an irresistible offer: If you want to make more sales or acquire better leads, you have to offer your attendees what they can’t resist. If your offer is great and timely you’ll see an increased sales conversion that ranges from 5%–60%. Remember that when you sell or recommend an offer during the webinar, you need to brand your slides. In other words, your company logo, colors, and icons should be used prominently in the presentation design.

When you do that, your brand will always stay fresh in attendees’ minds. This is a priceless and efficient way to get the sale the moment that you ask for it.

Premium content: Another proven way to sell during the webinar is to offer premium content. It could be your new training videos that you haven’t released on YouTube or a few chapters of your upcoming book.

To grow your business and nurture a passionate audience and customers that will stand the test of time, you’ve got to feed them with premium content.

This is the type of content that offers tremendous value and scarcity.

This means that users can’t find it elsewhere, not even in a Google search. Hosting a webinar and linking to it from within your post is one of the ten most effective ways to promote your premium content.

A webinar is quite different from a blog post, video or podcast. According toAscend 2,

When you compare all of the lead generation tactics, webinars are the second most effectivedelivery mechanismof premium content for digital marketers.

Yes, you have to have adedicated webinar page on your site, but always link to both your old and your new webinars within your content. Our dedicated page now accounts for over 20% of our webinar leads per month.

Don’t forget the purpose of this section. It’s not about hosting a webinar, but rather link to your past and future webinars from within your content because you want to establish contact with first-time visitors to your blog and also cement the relationship that you’ve got with your customers.

If you want more people to register for your webinar, you’ve got to partner up with influential bloggers and leverage your homepage (which always attracts the most views).

You’ve also got to blog about your webinar and link to the landing page from your blog posts. Also, don’t forget to market your webinar through social media. And, don’t be afraid of paid media or promoting your webinar through keynote speakers.

Linking to or citing a high-value webinar within your content will position you as a go-to expert in your industry who cares about people. Several marketers who applied this technique have succeeded wildly at lead generation.

Hack #3: Use Google as your login

You should use Google as your login because you can personalize your efforts. Effective marketing can be efficiently deployed when you see and address your customers not as a group, but as individuals. That’s why SugarCRM and Trello believe in connecting with individuals.

image21

Most digital companies have not been using this hack to get more leads. The truth is that Google is popular, and most bloggers, content marketers, and online entrepreneurs have a Google account.

The social world has brought us convenience across the web. Our full names, residential addresses, phone numbers, and more are now stored on trusted sites such as Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, and Twitter. This has made it possible for marketers to create a flexible and simple sign-up flow.

You can acquire more customers to your business by limiting the amount of information that they need to input in the forms. That’s how successful companies are built. It can work for you, too.

These days, you don’t need to request much information from your prospects before they can become qualified leads. Better yet, you don’t need them to fill a long-form before you can keep in touch with them.

Since they’ve got all of their personal details on trusted sites like Facebook and Google, you can just ask users to sign up using those sites. For example, you can sign up with Facebook if you want to join Pinterest.

Since Pinterest started using this strategy, they’ve increased their users. Pinterest now has over 50 billion pins and millions of active, loyal users.

Hack #4: Specialize: Separate your lead generation team from your sales team

If you want to convert the visitors that come to your landing pages and take your lead gen to the next level, you’ve got to continually test out your landing page elements, including the headline, subtitles, bullet points, call-to-actions, and more. Consider this a prime piece of real estate in your marketing strategy. In other words, take advantage of what is to offer and experiment with what drives the best results.

You’ve got to keep testing before you can get it right. A/B testing is not negotiable.

But, there’s an aspect of your content marketing strategy that you have to set limits on. It’s about who’s in charge of generating leads and who manages the sales process.

To grow your leads by 113% or more, you have to “specialize.”

In his classic book, Is It Wise To Specialize?, author John O’Sullivan shares the powerful influence of specialization on a child, and how early sports specialization can have an effect on a child’s athletic performance.

O’Sullivan recognized that we’re always tempted to do more. Life itself will push us beyond our limits, but we must learn to specialize. Niche down and identify areas where your strengths are.

When it comes to lead nurturing, which is an all-important aspect of running a successful online business, you’ve got to separate your lead generation team from your sales team.

According to Marketo, lead generation describes the marketing process of stimulating and capturing interest in a product or service for the purpose of developing [a] sales pipeline.

On the other hand, the sales team is primarily concerned with the exchange of goods and services for money; it’s the action of selling something.

As you can see from the two definitions, lead generation isn’t about selling. Sales also don’t dwell so much on stimulating interest, because that aspect is being coordinated by the team in charge of lead generation.

After selling to a customer, the sales team also has the responsibility of initiating a great customer experience that leads to a high rate of customer retention.

Retaining the customer is important if the business wants to thrive.

Each marketing practice requires a different mindset. For example, the team in charge of lead generation creates awareness for a product.

They also inspire, educate and persuade prospects to take action. But, the sales team is responsible for increasing the revenue of the organization.

Remember that the objective of having separate teams that will handle lead generation and sales is to improve your customer satisfaction.

That’s truly where the profit lies.

Hack #5: Use strong verbs to write powerful headlines that draw attention

A verb is a “doing” word. Or, better yet, it’s an “action” word.

If you want to create a lasting impression in your writing, you have to draw attention with verbs. But first, answer this question:

What makes a headline powerful?

Isn’t it the structure, keywords used, length, topic, and, most importantly, the action word (verb) that appear in a given headline? Each of these can and should evoke curiosity and persuade people to click.

If you can give adequate attention to crafting your headline, you’ll not only generate targeted leads, but there’s a possibility that your search rankings will improve tremendously because of a lower bounce rate and the additional time that your visitors are spending on your page.

Copywriters all over the world know the power behind a well-crafted headline. It’s the same reason why Ted Nicholas believes that 73% of buying decisions are made at the point of the headline. And, eight out of ten people will click your headline if it catches their attention. So, what are you going to do about your headlines?

No matter the platform — your blog, social media networks, other blogs (when you write a guest post), or when you create any type of content that will drive leads — you’ve got to make sure that your headline contains strong verbs. According to Wikieducator, you’ve got toput muscle in your writing.

A strong verb is a specific, descriptive verb used in writing. Strong verbs are used to convey a direct message. You’ve always got to have it in the back of your mind that we live in a fast-paced world.

Think about it. We’re all about fast Internet, fast websites, fast food; we want everything now. There is no time to wait. Now, imagine how impatient your target audience will be if your writing isn’t straight to the point or doesn’t offer any immediate reward.

So, how can strong verbs enhance your writing?

verb writing tips

When you use strong verbs in your headline, it’ll make you a better writer. Your writing will be concise and descriptive. This is exactly what your prospects want.

Here’s an example of a weak verb in this sentence:

  • She is going to school

Though the sentence is correct, it’s weak. We can omit the “is going” and replace it with a strong verb. The question that you need to ask yourself is, how does she go to school? Does she crawl, skip, walk, run, ride a bicycle, etc.?

Let’s make the sentence better by including a strong verb:

  • She walks to school
  • She rides to school
  • She skips to school

In the same vein, instead of using weak verbs in your headlines, you should replace themwith a strong verb. That way, you’ll convey your message or idea in a more concise and captivating manner.

Examples of strong verbs are:

  • Nurture
  • Terminate
  • Improve
  • Increase
  • Revive
  • Change
  • Expand
  • Boost
  • Attack
  • Focus
  • Write
  • Drive
  • Engage

I’m not the only one who understands the power behind strong verbs. Authority content marketers, like Brian Clark and the entire Copyblogger Media team, use strong verbs to craft headlines that you can’t ignore. Take a look:

image06

Seth Godin, the renowned author of over fifteen bestselling books, also uses strong verbs to write his captivating blog posts. Take a look:

image00

Note: Strong verbs in your headline will not grow your leads 113% all by themselves. But, they can add flavor, meaning, conviction and clarity to your headline, so that your readers and potential customers will relate to your message.

Having strong verbs in your landing page headline, blog post headlines, and more will increase your conversions, especially when you testthem out.

For example, at a time, CityCliq, a company that provides low-cost, search engine optimized webpages for businesses, ran an A/B test. They used VWO software to test four different versions of their landing page headline:

  • Businesses grow faster online!
  • Online advertising that works!
  • Get found faster!
  • Create a webpage for your business

At the end of the A/B test, the fourth headline version, which sends a direct, more descriptive, more relevant, more concise and clear headline, outperformed the others. It generated a 90% increase in conversion rate.

image30

In addition to using strong verbs in your headlines, you also have to focus on length. Headlines that are too long tend to be easily forgotten or ignored.

According to areport by the Guardian, an international news agency that’s been creating headlines for decades, headlines with just eight words generateda 21% higher click-through rate than longer headlines.

If you can’t come up with headlines of exactly eight words, a study by Nielsen Norman Group revealed that headlines between five and nine words seem to garner higher click-through rates, too. So, the next time you write a headline, make sure that you integrate strong verbs.

Hack #6: Create an irresistible offer and syndicate across blog communities

Ultimately, you want to get people to say “yes” to your offer. As marketers, that’s exactly what we want.

It all boils down to creating a top-notch and high-value offer. This simple formula explains it better:

High value offer + persuasion = irresistible

If you have difficulty growing your leads, it could be that your offer isn’t compelling. It’s not irresistible.

How do you recognizean irresistible offer? Chris Guillebeau shared a unique perspective on it:

A compelling offer is like a slice of orange at mile 18. It’s a marriage proposal from the guy or girl you’ve been waiting for your whole life. An offer you can’t refuse is like the $20,000 Bonderman Fellowship offered every year to graduating seniors at the University of Washington.

You want them to say yes to download your latest e-book, yes to your email forms, yes to your webinar or yes to your premium physical product on Amazon.

An irresistible offer will help youattract clients and retain them. To do that, follow the irresistible offer rules, as laid down by Jonathan Mead, founder of Paid to Exist.

Remember that when your offer is scarce, relevant, in high demand and exclusive, it becomes desirable.

People will naturally want to get their hands on it.

For example, in 2004, when Google launched a private beta of their free email service (Gmail), only 1,000 leaders were invited to share their honest opinions. These leaders were also allowed to invite their fans, friends, and family to test out the free email service.

Guess what happened during the initial beta phase of Gmail? Demand was high because it was exclusive to a group of people — not to the whole world.

At a point, Google started selling Gmail service. In fact, its eBay invitations were sold at $150 and other specific accounts sold for thousands of dollars.

Isn’t it funny that a free email service can be sold for $150 or more, just because it was exclusive, robust, and praised by thought leaders? That’s the power of an irresistible offer. When you offer one, your prospects and customers will see the gap between their problems and your solutions.

gap in offer illustration

If you’re looking for an idea to create an irresistible offer for your audience, let me give you an example. Let’s assume that you created a report that will help people save on money on plane tickets.

People read, apply your tips and share their success stories on how they saved $200, $380, or $350. Many others can testify of the ease of securing their tickets at a reduced cost.

As you can see, the report is compelling and offers some practical advice that works. In this case, the length of the report doesn’t matter. Even if it’s only two pages, it’s an irresistible offer, because anyone who wants to save on airplane tickets will be attracted to the report.

Domino’s Pizza had an irresistible offer. Tom Monaghan was on the verge of bankruptcy when he strategized on how to take his company to the next level. It was a risk, but a single promotional idea changed everything:30 minutes or less… or it’s free.

dominos pizza homepage

Most people ordered Domino’s Pizza just because of the terms. (They’ve since dropped the guarantee.)

BlueHost also delivers irresistible offers—their web hosting plan starts at $3.49 per month, whereas other competitors such as A Small Orange, Godaddy and Hostgator start at $4.00 per month.

The difference may not be clear to you, but to a total beginner who just started out with a site, this is compelling because they can save some money.Your compelling offer has to be something that people want to buy.

In the same vein, if you want to get more email subscribers, your lead magnet has to be highly valuable, free to download and exclusive. A typical example is Michael Hyatt’s:

michael hyatt home page

In order to be sure what offers will be irresistible or weak, you’ve gotto test it out. In his book, How to Create Irresistible Offers, author Robert W. Bly says that it’s possible to improve the response rate to your promotions anywhere from 10%-90%, just by creating and testing different offers.

Derek Halpern uses a powerful lead magnet to persuade people to join his email list. Though a lot of people don’t like pop-ups since the majority of them annoyingly disrupt reading, his offer (headline) makes a bold promise, so people tend to respond to it, especially first-time visitors.

ebook offer example

In all, the way people perceive your offer will go a long way in persuading them to become leads or to drive them away. Perceived value can be applied to your lead magnets for building a list. You couldpresent the retail value of the offer that you’re giving away for free.

See also:

Types of Lead Generation

There are lots of different ways to generate leads. A convenient distinction in lead generation is outbound versus inbound, although there will be a crossover between the two.

Different businesses will use different lead generation tactics, so it’s about tweaking the type of lead generation you do until you find what works best.

Inbound Lead Generation

Inbound lead generation is when the prospect initiates the interaction with your business. Most often, this is done through content marketing.

A potential customer will find your content through the search engines or a social media link, love your article, and fill in a form with their contact details. From here, you can use your email marketing to progress the lead through the sales funnel, building the relationship until the prospect is ready to buy.

Seventy percent of marketers are actively investing in content marketing as a lead generation strategy, and it’s something that businesses have focused on a lot more in recent years.

The main types of inbound lead generation are:

  • videos
  • blogs
  • guides and e-books
  • pillar pages and content clusters
  • social media posts
  • infographics
  • newsletters
  • press releases

These are all content types that are strategically placed so people discover them organically.

Outbound Lead Generation

Outbound lead generation is when you initiate the interaction with the prospect. This may be done through a paid advert on Google or social media, cold email outreach, direct mail, or many other channels.

While inbound lead generation has become very popular in recent years, outbound marketing is still very important. Most businesses will find the best strategy is a mix of both inbound and outbound marketing to achieve their lead generation goals.

Some outbound marketing options include:

  • paid search ads
  • social media ads
  • radio ads
  • TV ads
  • direct mail
  • cold email
  • cold calls
  • print ads

Each option has its benefits and drawbacks, so it’s important to consider your budget and find out what will work best for you.

Lead Generation and SEO

A basic requisite for lead generation is to have people interacting with your business.

In the modern world, this is most likely to happen online, which means you’ve got two options: organic traffic or paid traffic.

When you’re looking for an answer to a question, what’s the first thing you do? The vast majority of people will type a query in a search engine. Google processes more than 3.5 billion searches every day, and the businesses that appear at the top of these search results are benefiting.

Search engine optimization is the perfect tactic because you reach people at the exact moment they’re looking for the information you have. You know they’re engaged, and they’re ripe to be converted into a lead.

The other big benefit of SEO is that you’re not paying for each click.

You’re building assets through your content, and if you practice good SEO, that page will be able to keep converting leads year after year.

Lead Generation and Paid Ads

The problem with SEO and inbound marketing, in general, is that it can be a slow process.

When you create a blog, you’re aiming for it to rank at best a few months down the line. If you need immediate results, then paid ads can be a much better option.

By investing in paid search ads or social media ads, you can get your brand in front of a very targeted audience. This is great for your visibility and allows you to drive a high volume of traffic to your landing pages.

Unlike with SEO though, you’re paying for each click, so it’s vitally important that everything you do is optimized. From your headlines to your landing pages, everything has to be geared towards turning visitors into solid leads.

Running paid ads is something of an art, and it can take time, but with these essential paid marketing steps, it can become a big part of your lead generation.

5 Top Lead Generation Tools

Automation is a huge part of marketing and sales, and the right tools can make all the difference to your lead generation.

Here are some of the most important parts of your lead generation and the tools I recommend to help make your processes more efficient.

CRM – Zoho CRM

It’s one thing getting leads, but you’ve also got to be able to organize them.

Once someone gives you their contact details, what happens to them? Ideally, you want to put them into your CRM, from where you can organize your sales funnels.

In my list of the best CRMs, I found that Zoho CRM was the best option. It’s a great all-in-one platform that makes it easy to track your leads from prospect to repeat customer.

Email Finder – Voila Norbert

For outbound marketing, one of the most important things is being able to find new prospects to add to your sales funnel.

Many people use LinkedIn to research potential customers and find contact emails. People don’t love getting cold emails though, so as you might imagine, they don’t advertise their contact details too easily.

This is where a lead generation tool like Voila Norbert comes in. Once you’ve found a potential customer, it will find relevant email addresses so you know you’re reaching the right people with your email outreach.

Form Generator – Gravity Forms

Getting contact details is just as important for inbound marketing, and your forms play a big part in this.

It’s easy to think a form is just a form, but an optimized form will result in a lot more leads. Luckily, it’s easy to generate highly optimized forms using simple plugins.

For WordPress websites, I found that Gravity Forms is a great option, allowing you to quickly generate lead-generating forms.

If you want to see some more options, then check out my favorite form plugins for WordPress.

Landing Page Builder – Leadpages

Landing pages are an essential part of lead generation. Small changes to your landing pages can make a big difference to your conversion rate, and you want it to be as easy as possible to optimize this process.

In my article on the “4 Best Landing Page Creation Tools,” I found that Leadpages was the best option.

Leadpages offers tons of features with lots of highly optimized templates to choose from, simple A/B testing, and an intuitive layout, it’s a perfect platform to build successful landing pages.

Email Marketing Services – Sendinblue

Email marketing plays a massive part in nurturing leads.

Most leads are going to end up in your sales funnel because they’ve given you their email address, so you need the right email marketing service to help you with the process. In my article on the best email marketing services, Sendinblue was one of my top options because it’s so easy to use.

Sometimes it’s best to keep things nice and simple, and that’s exactly what Sendinblue helps you to do.

4 Amazing Lead Generation Examples

Lead generation is an art, and there’s always room for optimization. Here are some examples of companies that have had great success with different lead generation campaigns.

You’ll notice that many of these campaigns have similarities, and one, in particular, is the omnichannel approach. This is a great way to ensure you’re maximizing your reach and bringing as many leads into your sales funnel as possible.

Here are four amazing lead generation examples to check out:

These case studies can give you some good ideas on how to improve your lead generation, but the most important thing is finding out what works for you. It’s important to pay close attention to your analytics and keep A/B testing your approach.

It’s all in the optimization, so make sure you’re testing everything out to get the best possible conversion rate.

Conclusion

Don’t get fooled by every fancy lead generation tool out there. Use tools for the right purpose—automation.

But, remember that driving quality leads and engagement to your business will take time.

Building any real, successful business takes time. Nurturing your social network presence, crafting a solid email marketing campaign, diligently working on creating and producing quality content–all of these tasks require a significant amount of time and focus. You’ll expend energy, but you have to move out of your comfort zone to achieve results – particularly when it comes to building your lead generation campaign.

You need data-driven content to nurture your leads. And, if you want to maximize your time, you have to repurpose your content and expand your reach so that you can drive fresh leads to your business.

You may not grow your leads by 113% in a week, but, with consistency, you’ll likely surpass that milestone.

“Hacks” are not some magical push-button tactics that don’t have a strong foundation. On the contrary, they’ve been proven to work and many successful brands and industry leaders still use them to acquire new leads and convert them into customers.

Real satisfaction comes from what you learn in the process of applying these proven lead generation tips.

It’s the same with increasing sales. You have to make up your mind to learn along the way because your customers believe in you—and you can’t afford to let them down with outdated advice.

What other lead generation hacks have worked for you? Share your case studies, questions, or opinions.

Internal Linking Guide: Actionable Tips, Strategies, and Tools

Internal links are a crucial part of a successful SEO strategy.

Small but mighty, simple yet complex, internal links help navigate users through your digital content and give search engine crawlers information about how your website works.

Internal links are found on almost every page on the internet. You’re probably already using them, even if you don’t know it. (Hint: there’s a few included in this intro,)

If you want to optimize your content for SEO, you need to understand how internal links work, where to place them, and why they matter.

In this post, we’ll dive into internal linking and cover best practices.

What Is Internal Linking?

Internal links are links from one page to another within a single domain.

These are different from external links, which point to pages on a different website.

Every website with more than one page should be connected through internal linking.

Think of your website’s home page. In the top navigation, you likely have a menu that links to other internal pages. This could be your About, Shop, and Contact pages.

This internal linking structure is essential for SEO because it establishes a site architecture and improves your link equity.

Having multiple web pages attached to a singular domain improves your chances of being ranked by allowing search engine crawlers to index more content.

Internal linking is a simple issue of site design and architecture, and the search engines expect it. All websites have a design and architecture that keeps them structured logically, such as this common silo model.

internal linking - silo model site map

Of course, site architecture and structuring can get far more complex.

internal linking guide - site architecture example

But as long as you have a strong internal linking structure, your website will be crawled, indexed, and ranked by search engines.

Internal linking is also an important part of your user experience, as it allows users to uncover related information or find what they are looking for, which improves dwell time.

5 Reasons Internal Linking Is Good for SEO

Internal linking is one of SEO’s most valuable weapons.

Why? Because it works.

Google’s machine-learning algorithm has come a long way since the early days of SEO. Nowadays, it’s nearly impossible to game the system.

As advanced as the algorithm is, there are still simple changes that will give you an immediate boost in SEO without gaming the search engines.

Internal linking is one of them. It’s not a trick or a gimmick, and it’s certainly not hard to do.

Here are some of the benefits.

1. Helps Google Index Your Site

Google’s crawler follows link paths throughout the internet to find and index websites.

If your website has strong internal linking, the Google crawler has an easier time finding new content you publish.

google crawler moving through internal links on website

Google’s bots regularly crawl the web for fresh content. If your content is woven together with multiple internal links, crawling happens a lot faster.

As a result, your content will get indexed faster, too.

Improved crawling and indexing can boost your SEO.

2. Increases Backlink-Earning Potential of Deep Content Pages

Take a look at where most of your website’s backlinks are coming from. You’ll probably see a lot of links that send users to your homepage.

When you compare the homepage backlinks to deep page backlinks, this is what you usually see:

internal linking start page and deep page

Unfortunately, too many home page backlinks are bad for SEO. We call this over-optimizing, and it should be avoided.

What you want to see is the pie chart reversed. The majority of your external links should point at deep internal pages, not your home page. That’s because the homepage doesn’t generally include the type of detailed information users search for.

When a website doesn’t actively publish and promote new content, its link profile looks like this:

internal linking structure ranking

Most of the links on the website go to social profiles or standard pages such as “About” or “Contact.”

This provides very little SEO value to the site.

If you create a strong internal linking structure, you can boost the link juice earning potential of the internal pages, by creating clear click paths and indexation throughout the website.

Why? Because you are increasing the overall crawl priority throughout the site with better distribution of your links.

3. Internal Linking Spreads the Strength of the Site to Internal Pages

When your website receives a link to the homepage, some of the link value is passed on to internal pages.

This is often referred to as “link juice.”

internal linking guide - link juice

If Page 1 then links to Page 2, the “link juice” flows from Page 1 to Page 2, helping it rank higher in the search engine results page (SERP).

The more tightly-knit a website’s structure (through internal linking), the better the overall site will perform in search.

4. Internal Linking with Optimized Anchor Text Is Good for SEO

An internal link is a simple string of HTML that links one website page to another. It looks like this:

<A HREF = “http://www.example.com/internalpage“> an article on cat food </A>

When you create an internal link with anchor text, as opposed to with an image or navigational text, however, the value of the internal link goes up.

Anchor text improves the value of the link by adding keywords and content to the linking process. Google isn’t just looking at an A HREF tag. They are also looking at the anchor text that is part of that link.

The days of keyword stuffing anchor texts are long gone. But, there is value in optimizing your internal anchor text.

Anchor text that flows well with the overall content, versus over-optimized anchor text, is best.

5. It Provides Value to Your Users

This is the most important point of all. Internal linking is an SEO technique, yes. But, it’s more than that.

Ultimately, internal linking is useful for users.

Think about it this way: When you’re researching a topic, do you check one source or multiple?

Do you enjoy exploring other content that reinforces your understanding of the topic?

Maybe, you just like the writing style of the article you’re reading and want to read more work by the same author.

Internal linking on a site increases the value of each piece of content by backing up claims and leading the user to related information.

While it may not drive conversions directly, internal linking does have a place within the marketing funnel—carrying people to a target destination.

As an added bonus, you can help readers stay on your site longer and increase their trust in you by using internal linking.

SEO is about user optimization, not just technical tweaks and sneaky tricks.

Even if you don’t care about the technical value of internal linking, at least do it for your users.

Internal Linking Best Practices

Now, it’s time to get into the nitty-gritty. How do you do internal linking? What’s the best method for creating the biggest value with links?

There are two things you need in place first:

  1. Written content on the site: Even if you have a single article, that’s okay. That’s your starting place. If you don’t have any written content but want to create some, check out our The Ultimate Guide to Writing Epic Content.
  2. Continually writing new content for the site: Getting into a regular publishing schedule is important for internal linking to be effective.

Okay, let’s get into it.

Link to and From Content-Heavy Pages

The best internal links are those that connect one article to another. This creates a strong internal linking structure deep within the site.

If you have good site architecture, you’ll have enough links to the site’s main pages, such as the homepage, About page, Contact page, etc.

You don’t need more links to these pages.

Obviously, if you’re trying to drive conversions using a squeeze page or sales page and the opportunity is right, link to it.

For the most part, I recommend creating links in and among long-form articles. This automatically spreads your internal linking naturally.

Create Text Links Using Anchor Text

What kind of internal links work best?

It’s simple: Links with descriptive anchor text.

What do we mean by descriptive anchor text?

You’re familiar with anchor text, right? An anchor text is the word or words that link to another page. They typically appear as blue text to the reader.

This is anchor text.

Your internal links should use anchor text, but not just any anchor text will do. Include phrases that describe what the target link is about.

Here are some examples of strong anchor text:

If you wanted to link to an article about the 10 most important SEO techniques, you could do it this way:

Here are a few important SEO techniques you should be using.

If you wanted to link to an article about Google Hummingbird, you could do it this way:

Google’s algorithm has been updated with new machine learning capabilities.

Each of those examples is associating the subject of the link with relevant phrases. The first anchor text contains “10 most important SEO techniques,” which is the subject matter of the article you’re linking to. The second anchor text has the phrase, “Google’s algorithm has been updated,” and the linked article contains information about Google, Hummingbird, algorithms, and updates.

Here are three things not to do with your internal linking:

  1. Do not try to create an exact match between the anchor text and the link target. This technique, known as “exact match anchor text” has been associated with SEO penalties via the Penguin update. Today’s search engines are sensitive to the regular use of exact match anchor text because it wouldn’t frequently happen in regular content. It appears unnatural because it is.
  2. Do not use phrases like “click here.” This adds no value. Anchor text needs to be related to the linked page in some way.
  3. Do not link more than one sentence. An entire hyperlinked paragraph is unsightly and makes for a poor user experience. Just stick to a few words or a phrase when using anchor text to point to an internal link.

Add an Appropriate Number of Links Per Page

When you write a new piece of content, you should include five or more links to old articles. This is really important to your internal linking strategy and how the search engines review and rank your content.

Why?

Websites have a “freshness value” that Google detects and uses as part of its ranking algorithm.

According to Cyrus Shepard, “links from fresh sites [or pages] pass fresh value.”

two web pages show fresh internal linking

Pinging old pages with a new link helps to boost its likelihood of increasing rank in the SERPs. In the eyes of the search engines, readers who follow your internal links are actually “refreshing” your older content by showing it’s still relevant.

However, be careful not to over-stuff your content with links.

According to Moz, search engine crawlers have a limit of 150 links per page. After that, they stop spidering.

Overstuffing your page with links could negatively impact your SEO.

Be sure to link, but don’t overdo it. This will help both the search crawlers and your user experience.

Update Old Articles With New Internal Links

You’ll get the most power from internal linking if you combine it with another SEO technique—updating old content.

When you update old content, Google’s crawler sees it again, indexes it again, and may increase its ranking in the SERPs.

We always recommend updating your old articles regularly. Here is a good process to follow on your old blog articles:

  • Add a new paragraph of content at the beginning, explaining your updates.
  • Add several new paragraphs throughout, adding additional or updated information.
  • Remove or replace outdated stats or information.
  • Add several new internal links to content you’ve recently created.
  • Add links in places where it’s logical and value-added.

Remember, internal linking isn’t only about linking new content to older content. It’s also about circling back to older content and creating internal links that connect to your newer work.

You’re accomplishing two things by doing this.

  1. It updates old content, which improves its ranking value.
  2. It creates an internal link between an old established page on the site and a new not-so-established page.

Add Links Where It Makes Sense

Now that you’ve learned so much about internal linking, you’re probably wondering where you should put your internal links?

It’s tempting to get lazy and throw them in at the end of an article: “For more awesome content, click here!”

Don’t do that, please. Or at least, don’t do just that.

Instead, look for areas in the content where the subject matter overlaps. These are logical points of connection to create an internal link. For example, you can add links to define complex terms or explain a related topic.

Think of internal links as a reference point that improves the experience of the reader.

Only Add Dofollow Links

Don’t add a nofollow tag to your internal links. Nofollow links do not have any impact on the search engine rankings of the destination site.

On top of that, Google does not transfer PageRank or anchor text across nofollow links. It won’t even crawl them.

While some data from Ahrefs has shown nofollow links can be useful when used externally, there is no reason to use them in your internal linking strategy.

Link to High Converting Pages

Do you have pages on your website that convert visitors more than other pages?

If so, link to these pages.

Some articles in our blog have super high conversion rates. The content is compelling, and the CTAs are so powerful that users convert in droves.

We always make sure to link internally to these pages.

This is where internal linking has more than just SEO value. It can have revenue value, too. The more visitors you can drive to a high-converting page, the more conversions you’ll have.

Take Site Navigation and Information Architecture Into Consideration

Site navigation and internal linking go hand in hand.

Internal links define site architecture and hierarchy by creating funnels that direct users through your website.

Ultimately, this is an important part of your UX/UI and will impact how long people stay on your web pages and how often they come back.

When building an internal linking strategy, consider the most important content on your site and how you’re promoting it.

If you have a piece of cornerstone content that you want more eyes on, point more internal links to it.

Create Lots of Content

The best way to have a healthy internal linking structure is to have lots of internal pages.

When you create lots of content, you’ll have lots of linkable content. The more links to the more places, the better your internal linking strategy will be.

Remember, simply having a lot of web pages doesn’t equal a robust internal linking strategy.

While internal links are essential to your website navigation, repeatedly linking to your homepage won’t move the needle on your SEO score.

Instead, consider writing a blog or creating landing pages that house resourceful content.

Whatever your strategy, do it well and do it often.

Internal Linking Practices to Avoid

Now that you know how to use internal linking correctly, let’s review some of the practices to avoid.

Adding too many links to your content can be detrimental to your score. Remember, Google does not crawl pages that have more than 150 links. It’s also important to note that your header, footer, and menu links are included in your on-page link count.

Don’t overdo it!

Keyword stuffing in anchor text is another internal linking practice to avoid. This black hat tactic was popular in the past, as SEO’s thought it would improve their chances of ranking.

These days, sophisticated search algorithms penalize keyword stuffing in anchor text. So, don’t do it.

Using internal links in header text should also be avoided. Links in headers signal spam to Google crawlers and can negatively impact your SEO.

Finally, be sure to check all of your internal links before posting them. Broken links don’t spread any link juice and signal to Google that your website is low quality.

Internal Linking FAQs

How many internal links should I include per post?

There’s no set number, but 5-10 for every 2,000 words is a good best practice. Remember, Google won’t crawl pages with more than ~150 links, so be careful about overstuffing your content.

Should I add internal links to my pages with more or less traffic?

According to Databox, internal links can spread link juice from low-traffic web pages to high-traffic ones. That being said, it’s also important to point as many links as possible to your cornerstone content so it benefits from increased traffic.

What is an example of internal linking?

Internal linking is a link that points to another page within the same domain. Internal links show up as hyperlinks, like this: Tips for building better evergreen links.

Are internal links backlinks?

No, internal links stay within your website domain, they do not come from an external source. Backlinks are external links that point to your domain.

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Summary of Internal Linking Guide

Internal linking is a core part of a solid SEO strategy. When done right, it enhances the user experience and can help you rank higher in the SERPs.

While internal links are part of any strong website design, it’s important to find ways to include internal links in your content to ensure you’re getting the most out of your content. Make sure to use optimized (but not over-optimized) anchor tags, and add internal links that provide users with more information about a topic they’re interested in.

What internal linking practices have you found to be the most effective?