What is the best lead generation strategy?

Kasra Dash: So today we are going to be talking about the best lead generation strategy. There will be certain answers that James Dooley gives and certain answers that I give that might not line up, but I think we will agree on a lot of things. James, you have dealt with a lot of businesses throughout the UK and also in America. What do you think is the best lead generation strategy? James Dooley: In my opinion, the best lead generation strategy is teaming up with a professional lead generation company. You can put the onus on them. You tell them exactly what your perfect client looks like and they go and find that client. Whether they use Facebook ads, social media, SEO or PPC, it is up to them. If they fail to get you a client, you can switch them off and use someone else. That is outsourcing to a professional third party. But I want to put one back on you. What is the best strategy if someone wants leads tomorrow? Instant leads. Not SEO that takes time. What is the best strategy for leads today or tomorrow? Kasra Dash: For instant leads, it would be Facebook ads or Google PPC. Facebook lets you target specific demographics. Google PPC puts you in the sponsored section when someone searches for something like double glazing installation. The issue is that if someone does not know what they are doing, they can burn a lot of money. We hear this constantly. A business burns £5,000, £10,000, £15,000 on ads with no return. A doctor cannot be a doctor and a marketer at the same time. So they often need a PPC agency or a Facebook ads agency. James Dooley: For sure. Now I want to throw another scenario at you. If someone wants a long term sustainable channel and they do not need instant results, what is the best long term lead generation strategy? Kasra Dash: I would go with SEO. People claim SEO is dying, but nothing beats Google SEO or Bing SEO for long term leads. Once you are ranking, you can either maintain rankings without spending heavily every month or you can scale by ranking for more locations. You are known for this approach. Instead of only ranking for “accountants in Bolton”, expand to Manchester or surrounding areas. That is where SEO becomes powerful. You can increase the radius by 15, 20 or even 35 miles and bring in a consistent daily flow of enquiries. James Dooley: Exactly. And here is the real answer. The best lead generation strategy depends. If you need leads today because your workforce is quiet next week, you need paid ads. PPC, Facebook ads, YouTube ads, Twitter ads. They get instant leads. But they may not give the best long term ROI. SEO often does give the best ROI. It builds trust, visibility, case studies and testimonials. There are also lead gen strategies like pairing with FatRank or Promo SEO, or using directories like Checkatrade, Bark or MyBuilder. These can all offer a positive return. But the big issue is KPIs. Do you agree? People ask for lead gen advice without knowing any numbers. No cost per acquisition. No lifetime value. No average transaction value. And they want a strategy without giving any data. Kasra Dash: Yes. And I want to backtrack on something. I said SEO was the best long term option, but for some industries like driveways and kitchen remodelling, Facebook organic is doing better than SEO. They film timelapses of their work and post them as reels. That brings leads. So it depends on the business. The real problem shows up when businesses are doing omni channel marketing. They are paying Bark, Checkatrade, an SEO agency, a PPC agency, running Facebook ads, and they do not track anything. They do not know how many leads came from each source. If that sounds like you, you have a huge problem. We often go into companies spending £15,000 a month and they could turn off PPC and Facebook ads because they have had no leads for months. They simply do not know because they are not tracking. James Dooley: Exactly. Holistically, businesses should be omni channel and omnipresent. Be visible wherever your ideal customer might look. But track your KPIs. Otherwise you throw money away. When someone asks, “What is the best lead generation strategy?” the question becomes frustrating because the answer depends entirely on your numbers. One thing we have not touched on is GEO or LLM optimisation. Anyone who does not know what GEO is should check the guide in the description. We also have a video on GEO versus SEO. Many people claim they are the same. I believe they are completely different. PageRank is a big SEO factor. The infinite loop of self corroboration is a big LLM factor. Kasra, the other day I showed you how many leads we are now getting from ChatGPT. Referral traffic is rising because we are cited in LLMs. Why is it important for businesses to show up not only in Google and Bing, but also in Gemini, Perplexity and ChatGPT? Kasra Dash: The simple answer is your competitors are already there. But here is a more detailed answer. More people are now searching long tail queries. For example, “What are the best products to clean my shoes?” If your brand does not appear in that result and your competitor does, you lose the sale. LLMs take people from top of funnel to decision making quickly. If you do not appear there, you leave money on the table. James Dooley: Yes. And here is an example. One of our accountancy clients got a major new client from ChatGPT. The user had asked something like, “I am looking for the best chartered accountant in Manchester who can help me buy my business partner out, who is moving to Dubai, and I want the best tax relief.” Google could never answer that. ChatGPT did. And it recommended our client. That brought several different service fees and became a huge account. This is happening more and more. People are asking complex questions with multiple modifiers. LLMs can handle them. Google cannot. That is why businesses must get cited in LLMs. Kasra Dash: Yeah, that has been our video.