Qualified leads: a complete guide for digital product creators
Having a hard time finding leads for your online business?
First of all, it's important to understand that every digital product creator goes through this phase. And it doesn't mean your business is doomed to fail.
With the right strategies, you can generate qualified leads, and even at a lower cost than you might think. To help you with this mission, Cademí's experts explain in this article:
Start reading, and if you need help, count on our team.
What are leads
First of all, it's important to understand what leads are.
In digital marketing, this is the term used for potential customers who have already shown interest in the product or service being offered. That interest is usually shown by filling out a form to access some information or join a waitlist.
Imagine, then, that you've mapped out your buyer persona and created Google and Meta Ads campaigns for them. Anyone who signs up on your landing page, whether to get a lead magnet or just to join a waitlist, becomes a lead.
So, in short, a lead is a persona who has started the buyer's journey.
What are qualified leads
At first, it may seem like all leads are qualified. But that's not quite the case. Even though they're more targeted contacts, you can still narrow them down further.
The simplest way to think about lead qualification is to split leads into:
- Cold leads: interested, but far from making a purchase;
- Hot leads: closer to being ready to buy;
In some cases, usually with high-ticket offers, there's a second segmentation among hot leads to understand how ready they are to buy the product.
Imagine, for example, a mentorship for bakers who want to earn up to R$ 100,000. Even if a lead fits the persona's traits (a woman who makes a living from baking and wants financial independence, for example), her business may be just starting out and need to go through other steps before she can implement strategies to grow profits on that scale.
That's why it's important to have a product ladder. That way you can keep those leads who, although qualified, aren't at the right moment to buy a given product, and prepare them to get there.
To qualify leads at this stage, it's crucial to know your product and your target audience in as much detail as possible.
How to generate qualified leads
Now that you know what leads and qualified leads are, the question is: how do you get those contacts?
If your product is high-ticket, again, there will be some exceptions. But we've already covered all of them here on the Cademí blog (click to check them out). In general, lead generation can be based on a few strategies:
- Paid traffic through Google Ads: you create campaigns with strategic keywords to rank first in Google searches;
- Paid traffic through Meta Ads: your ad creatives are shown to the selected audience on Instagram and Facebook;
In both cases, the ideal is to send people to a landing page where they'll sign up with the information you want to collect. Generally, this LP is a pre-registration or a lead magnet opportunity.
Lead generation can also happen organically. Good options for that are:
- SEO-optimized content: blog articles and YouTube videos created to show up in Google searches;
- Social media: an online presence with relevant, engaging content to build authority and interactions;
- Partnerships and co-marketing: borrowing authority is a great way to bring new leads to your business. Build strategic partnerships with other digital product creators;
- Affiliates: working with affiliates is a simple way to spread your company's name and increase your number of leads and sales;
Whatever you choose, it's important for the process to include testing and optimization based on results. A/B testing will help you understand the best approaches and the CTAs that work best. Then, based on that data, stick with the options that bring the most results.
Tips for generating leads on a budget
One of the problems in the lead generation stage is the cost per lead.
According to studies by WordStream, a U.S. Google partner specializing in solutions to improve online campaign performance, cost per lead has risen 91% over the last three years.
This leads to digital products that keep getting more expensive and, at the same time, businesses that make little profit or can't sustain themselves.
One possible way around this problem is internal sales, using the diamond funnel. In short, you bring leads from lead magnets, which tend to convert more easily and therefore cost less, into your platform. Then, once they're inside your member area, you sell them other products.
This strategy is exclusive to Cademí, because with the first Member Hub you no longer pay for the number of students you have. If you want to learn more, click here and schedule a strategy call with one of our experts.
