Lead generation is an essential part of any business, ideally delivering a steady stream of fresh potential customers. But you clearly know that, since you’re here looking for the best lead generation tool!
Lead generation software (or a lead generation tool) automates the process of bringing in more, higher-quality leads.
In this article, we’ll go over the most important features that any software for generating leads should have, and take a look at the 20 best lead generation platforms. We’re sure you’ll find one that makes your sales and marketing teams much more efficient—and profitable!
Let’s get right into it!
What is a lead generation platform?
Lead generation is the process of attracting prospects to your business in order to increase future sales.
And that’s exactly what a lead generation platform does. It helps you identify, attract, and convert potential customers into leads.
The primary goal of a lead gen tool is to generate interest in a product or service and capture information about potential customers who have demonstrated interest to nurture them toward a conversion.
There are two types of lead generation methods: inbound and outbound lead generation. Lead generation tools often cater to these two types by offering specific features and tools.
Inbound lead generation focuses on creating valuable content and experiences that attract potential customers to your brand organically. Rather than pushing marketing messages outwardly, businesses leveraging inbound strategies aim to pull prospects in by addressing their needs and interests.
Inbound lead generation key tactics are:
- Content marketing
- Email marketing
- Social media marketing
- SEO
Outbound lead generation involves proactive outreach to potential customers through various channels. Unlike inbound strategies, outbound methods initiate contact with prospects, aiming to capture their attention and stimulate interest.
Outbound lead generation key tactics are:
- Cold calling
- Email campaigns
- Direct mail
- Paid advertising
What kind of tools can be used to generate leads?
Different tools use different approaches to collecting more leads. There are lead generation platforms available for both sales and marketing teams.
Some help with on-page lead generation, others focus on various social media channels, and still others help generate leads by creating landing pages.
Some examples of lead generation tools are:
- Landing page builders
- Popup and other onsite messaging tools
- Website personalization tools
- Email address finders
- Prospecting and cold outreach
- AI prospecting tools
- CRM tools
- Advertising tools
- Sales lead generation tools
- Lead tracking software
There’s no one best lead generation tactic, since which approach works best for you depends on the specifics of your business and sales process.
You’ll most likely want to use multiple tools to build a lead generation funnel.
Quick overview of the top 10 lead gen tools
If you’re short on time, here’s a tl;dr of the top 10 lead generation software tools to try out.
| Top 10 lead generation sotware | Free version of free trial | Pricing |
|---|---|---|
|
OptiMonk |
Free version |
From $29/month |
|
HubSpot |
Free version |
From $50/month |
|
Pipedrive |
14-day free trial |
From €19.90/month |
|
LeadPages |
14-day free trial |
From $99/month |
|
Unbounce |
14-day free trial |
From $90/month |
|
Sumo |
Free version |
From $39/month |
|
OptinMonster |
No |
From $19/month |
|
Sleeknote |
7-day free trial |
From €62/month |
|
EngageBay |
Free version |
From $14.99/month |
|
ActiveCampaign |
Free trial |
From $29/month |
What are the 20 best lead generation tools?
Now let’s jump right into our list of the 20 best lead generation tools!
We believe that OptiMonk is the best lead generation tool out there. While we’re clearly biased, we also have proof.
It’s a powerful website personalization platform that allows you to create personalized shopping experiences with ease.
You can launch high-converting campaigns (including embedded content, popups, or other on-site messages) to collect leads and generate revenue for your store.
Let’s see how OptiMonk can help you to generate more leads!
Key feature #1: Easy to use editor
Building beautiful lead capture forms has never been easier. OptiMonk allows you to easily drag and drop new elements to your lead capture popup, side message, sticky bar, or even embedded forms.
All the new elements you add are automatically optimized for mobile, but you can also hide elements on mobile, or edit your elements separately for mobile and desktop.
Some of the customization options in OptiMonk’s drag and drop builder include:
Size, layout, and position
Colors
Images
Opt-in form fields and copy
Key feature #2: Multi-step opt-in forms & custom form fields
Multi-step opt-in forms help to collect more qualified leads.
You can grab your website visitors’ attention with a teaser. Then you can show a multi-step popup that asks for contact details only in the second step. This helps you create more engaging opt-in forms.
You can also use custom form fields to collect any additional contact details you need besides the first name and email address. You can gather info like date of birth, gender, address, and more.
If you’d like to get started with a multi-step form, check out one of these templates below:
You can also gather valuable zero-party data about your customers’ needs and preferences in your business area.
Quiz funnels are an increasingly popular way to generate information about qualified leads that can be used to personalize various touch points along the sales pipeline.
Key feature #3: Intelligent targeting and triggering options
Using OptiMonk’s many targeting and triggering features, you can personalize your messages for each visitor segment based on their behavior. This will help you display the right message to the right visitor at just the right time.
The advanced targeting rules allow you to use all sorts of customer data, including country, URL targeting, cart value, and more.
You’re able to combine several targeting rules to create very specific customer segments in order to make sure the messages you’re displaying are relevant to each customer.
Other key features:
-
Access to a huge template library: 300+ beautiful, mobile-optimized templates at no additional cost.
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Google, AdBlock & GDPR safe: OptiMonk campaigns are fully GDPR compliant and Google-friendly. Both you and your customers are safe and secure.
-
Detailed analytics & insights: Get in-depth insights into how your campaigns are performing and why.
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30+ email, CMS, and ecommerce integrations: Including popular solutions like MailChimp, Klaviyo, and HubSpot.
-
A/B testing: Test alternative versions of your marketing campaigns to find out which brings in the most qualified leads.
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Smart tags: Create 1:1 personalized messages that make your visitors feel like your offers are talking to them directly.
Pricing:
Free, or from $29/month.
2. HubSpot
HubSpot is an integrated platform with marketing, sales, customer service, operations, and customer relationship management (CRM) software designed to empower your team and help your business grow. It’s got all the common features of a CRM.
Essentially, you get an all-in-one solution including many marketing automation functionalities such as chatbots, live chat, and forms.
Main benefits:
Lead capture form builder: Easily build forms using a simple drag-and-drop editor. Add them to your website to convert anonymous visitors into leads that automatically flow into your CRM.
Landing page creation: Design and launch beautiful landing pages without the help of developers or IT.
Lead tracking & management: Practice lead nurturing based on the data you’ve collected, and automatically turn that lead data over to your sales team.
Email marketing: Hubspot allows you to send emails and A/B test campaigns.
Pricing:
From $50/month, or the CRM software is free.
3. Pipedrive
Pipedrive’s lead generation software is an easy-to-use CRM tool that allows you to get more qualified leads and grow your business. Pipeline helps streamline each step involved in converting a lead into a sale.
Main benefits:
Measurable results: Pipedrive’s comprehensive analytics page helps you get your sales process down to a science.
Lead management: Allow your team to add color-coded labels to each deal to help you organize your data and speed up your sales process.
Custom fields: Create up to 25 custom fields that are important to your business.
Pricing:
From $29/month. 14-day free trial available.
4. LeadPages
LeadPages is a landing page builder that helps small businesses improve their lead generation efforts and close sales. You’ll be able to create attractive landing pages without any coding knowledge by customizing their pre-built templates.
Main benefits:
Built-in conversion guidance: LeadPages predicts your page’s performance before you publish it and tells you what to tweak.
Mobile-responsive templates: They offer a gallery of more than 200 professionally-designed templates that you can customize using their drag and drop builder.
Real-time tracking: Analyze your landing page’s performance with real-time tracking and run A/B tests to get more leads.
Pricing:
From $49/month. 14-day free trial available.
5. Unbounce
Unbounce is an AI-powered landing page builder with features that allow you to quickly create beautiful, high-performing marketing campaigns and capture leads.
Main benefits:
Easy-to-use builders: Unbounce has easy-to-use builders for any skill level. Using their drag and drop editor, you can create lead generation landing pages in just minutes.
Templates: You won’t have to start from scratch! Get inspired by their range of pre-made templates for eBooks, eCourses, webinars, and more.
AI copywriting: Trouble finding the right words? With Unbounce, you can generate content that your site visitors will love.
Pricing:
From $99/month. 14-day free trial available.
6. Sumo
Sumo makes a suite of ecommerce apps that includes a powerful lead generation tool. Using their lead generation tool, you can create high-converting forms that generate new leads quickly and reliably.
One of Sumo’s catchphrases is “set it and forget it,” which encourages users to set up their popups quickly and then let them run. It’s a great option if you don’t have much time to invest in running your popup campaigns.
Main benefits:
Fully customizable design: Collect lead data using forms that you customize to match your site.
Welcome emails and email campaigns: Once you’ve collected lead data from your website visitors, you can send them messages using Sumo’s email marketing tool.
Pricing:
The basic plan is free, or from $49/month.
7. OptinMonster
OptinMonster is another lead generation tool that helps ecommerce businesses convert their website traffic into leads using popups and other onsite message tools.
Main benefits:
Drag and drop builder: Customize all your lead capture form details with their easy-to-use drag and drop builder.
Multiple form types: Choose between classic popups, floating bars, fullscreen overlays, and slide-ins.
Page-level targeting: Hyper-segment your leads by using OptinMonster’s enterprise-grade targeting and segmentation rules.
Pricing:
From $16/month. There’s no free trial available.
8. Sleeknote
Sleeknote is a popup builder tool that allows you to create beautiful popup lead capture forms quickly and easily. This lead generation tool lets you collect more emails, increase your sales, guide website visitors around, or get in touch with them.
Main benefits:
Split testing: A/B test different headlines, images, and copy to discover what leads to the highest-converting campaigns. Then, apply all those lessons to your next lead generation campaign.
Customizable templates: Create beautiful, eye-catching forms that are consistent with the look and feel of your website.
Pricing:
From €62/month. 7-day free trial available.
9. EngageBay
Engagebay is an all-in-one CRM software that allows you to capture quality leads and improve your communication with new and existing customers. In the CRM software, you can store unlimited contacts and keep track of all your customer details in one place.
Main benefits:
Marketing automation: Engagebay takes some pressure off marketing teams with automated marketing processes.
Live chat software: you can use the automated chat function to provide timely customer service to both potential customers and existing customers.
Pricing:
Free, or from $14.99/month.
10. ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is a customer experience management tool that leans heavily on AI and automation. It’s on this list because it allows you to create lead generation popups and inline forms.
Main benefits:
Advanced segmentation: This lead generation software delivers different messages to leads at different stages of the customer awareness journey. This is great for lead nurturing!
Social media messages: Run consistent messages on multiple social media channels using this software.
Integrations: ActiveCampaign integrates with over 800 other marketing tools, making it among the most well-integrated lead generation platforms on the market.
Pricing:
The pricing depends on the tools you’d like to use. The email & marketing automation tool starts from $9/month (if paid yearly). Free trial available.
11. Mailchimp
Mailchimp is primarily known as an email marketing tool, but it also allows you to create on-site popups and lead generation forms to collect new leads.
Main benefits:
Create lead generation popups: You can build and launch popups using Mailchimp’s convenient (but limited) lead gen tools.
Send email marketing messages: Use Mailchimp’s advanced email marketing platform to build an automated sales pipeline.
Pricing:
Free, or from $11/month.
12. GetResponse
GetResponse is another all-in-one marketing platform that has email marketing features as well as a lead generation software that helps online stores collect contact information from their website visitors by using lead capture forms and landing pages.
Main benefits:
Large popup template library: Choose from over 200 templates to find the perfect lead capture popup.
Paid ads: Use GetResponse’s lead generation software to find quality leads on social media networks and on search result pages.
Analytics: Track which messages and channels are the most effective for finding new leads.
Pricing:
You can start for free (up to 500 contacts).
13. Wishpond
Wishpond offers several online marketing solutions in addition to their lead generation software, including tools for building landing pages, websites, and payment processing.
Main benefits:
Triggering options: Choose whether your popups appear based on entry, exit, or scroll triggers.
Suite of tools: Take advantage of Wishpond’s other tools for ecommerce.
Pricing:
Speak with a Wishpond specialist for details.
14. Sendinblue
Sendinblue is another all-in-one marketing solution that doesn’t just allow you to generate leads, but also send email & SMS marketing messages and build landing pages.
Main benefits:
-
Customizable signup forms: Use Sendinblue’s lead generation tool to create signup forms for your website and landing pages.
-
Regulatory compliance: Sendinblue’s lead generation campaigns are fully GDPR compliant. This saves you a good deal of work.
-
SMS marketing: After you generate leads, you can follow up via SMS, which is an incredibly powerful sales tool.
Pricing:
Free, or from $25/month.
15. Typeform
Typeform also allows you to create multi-step lead generation forms that have a similar style to Google forms. This is a great lead generation system for finding out more about your target audience, as well as receiving feedback from your customers.
Main benefits:
-
Ask different kinds of questions: Let your respondents answer questions with text fields, multiple choice options, checklists, and ratings.
-
Collect feedback: You can also use Typeform to collect valuable feedback to improve your site.
Pricing:
Free, or from €25/month.
16. Agile CRM
Agile CRM is an easy yet affordable Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software that helps to automate your sales, marketing, and service in one platform.
Main benefits:
Collect leads: Use custom popups, signup forms, coupons and surveys to increase your conversions.
Lead scoring: The automated scoring, with real-time alerts, lets you qualify leads faster and more accurately.
Pricing:
Free, or from $14.99/month.
17. CallPage
With CallPage’s lead generation tool, you can generate more sales calls and qualified leads from your website using a click-to-call widget.
Main benefits:
Automated callback: Get more phone calls to your business by offering an instant call option via a click-to-call widget.
Call forwarding: Encourage visitors to have an immediate conversation with a consultant in 28 seconds, or give them an option to schedule a call later.
Pricing:
From $25/month. Free trial available.
18. AeroLeads
AeroLeads is an email finder tool that is especially useful for sales teams. It helps to find an email address and build an email list for your business.
Main benefits:
Search 650M+ profiles: A database of over 650M+ prospects. All emails are validated in real-time.
Chrome extension: The chrome extension will help you to extract emails and add prospects from LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, Aeroleads Search, and any other website.
Pricing:
From $49/month. Free trial available.
19. LeadFuze
LeadFuze calls itself a search engine for leads. It’s a prospecting tool that helps to create a list of leads and candidates for your business by aggregating the world’s professional data and the companies they work for.
Main benefits:
List building: A bot helps to build your lists and add new leads automatically that match your criteria.
Verification: Get double-verified emails. No need for your own list cleaner.
Pricing:
From $132.30/month. Free trial available.
20. LeadsBridge
LeadsBridge is an Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) solution that enables companies to enhance their omnichannel strategy by orchestrating their business data.
This is one of the best lead generation tools for getting the most out of your potential leads by bringing together all the data you have about each customer.
Main benefits:
Lead sync: Synchronize all your lead data automatically and interact with your leads instantly, moving them through the pipeline faster and more efficiently.
Audience targeting: Segment your leads, prospects, and customers by common traits to retarget at every stage of their journey through the funnel.
Pricing:
Free, or from $29/month.
How to choose a lead generation tool?
Here’s a comprehensive guide on how to choose the best lead generation software for your specific needs:
1. Define your objectives
Before diving into the options, clearly outline your lead generation goals.
Are you looking for an inbound or an outbound lead generation software? Are you looking to increase brand awareness, capture more leads, or streamline your conversion process?
Understanding your objectives will guide you toward tools that cater to your specific needs.
2. Asses your budget
It’s crucial to assess your budget. This involves not only considering the initial costs but also any onboarding or add-on fees that may increase the overall expense.
And it’s equally important to evaluate the return on investment (ROI) the tool can deliver. Assess the value provided against the cost to ensure that the tool aligns with your budget and generates a positive impact on your lead generation efforts.
3. Consider scalability and flexibility
Consider the scalability of the lead gen tool to accommodate your business growth.
A tool that can adapt to the evolving needs of your organization ensures a long-term solution, preventing the need for frequent tool changes as your business expands.
4. Read user reviews
Empower review by delving into testimonials from users who share similar business goals. Their experiences can provide valuable insights into the real-world functionality and effectiveness of the lead generation tool.
5. Take advantage of trial periods and demos
This hands-on experience allows you to assess the tool’s features, functionality, and overall suitability for your business before making a commitment.
Features to look for in lead generation tools
There are some common features that you should look for when it comes to the best lead generation tools.
1. An easy-to-use interface
A lead generation tool should always be designed for marketing and sales teams, not web developers.
Look for a lead generation tool that doesn’t require any coding skills so anyone on your team will be able to use it and allows you to set up a new campaign in just a few clicks. If a tool has a drag and drop campaign builder, that’s usually a sign that it’s easy to use.
2. Integrations
You’ll probably want to connect your lead generation system with your CRM platform, lead management software, and email marketing tools, so it’s important to have direct, well-supported integration options.
Make sure to check whether you can integrate the tools you’re currently using with the lead generation platform you’re considering, so you’ll be able to easily sync all your new leads.
Also keep in mind that some lead generation tools do have integrations available, but require you to be on a premium plan to access them. This might be a problem for small businesses, so don’t forget to consider your budget as well.
3. Analytics
It’s important to analyze how well your lead generation campaigns work so you can optimize them and improve your results. Having access to up-to-date statistics is vital.
You should keep an eye out for exactly what data all your candidate lead generation tools provide. Although two lead generation tools might both promise an “analytics suite,” one might offer much more data about your lead generation campaigns than the other.
Lead gen FAQ
What is B2B lead generation?
B2B lead generation refers to the process of identifying and attracting potential business clients in a business-to-business context. B2B contracts generally involve longer and more expensive commitments compared to B2C transactions, the lead generation process in the B2B space requires a higher degree of customization. Unlike B2C lead generation, which often relies on mass marketing techniques and appeals to a broader consumer base, B2B lead generation seeks to establish deeper and more meaningful relationships with a smaller number of target businesses.
Is lead generation software primarily a marketing or sales tool?
Lead generation software serves as both a marketing and sales tool, combining the efforts of both departments to generate and nurture potential sales opportunities. Marketing teams contribute to lead generation by leveraging inbound strategies, such as forms and landing pages, to attract and capture potential leads. On the other hand, the sales department focuses on outbound lead generation, actively searching for and approaching companies that align with the ideal customer profile.
What are some upcoming trends in lead generation technology?
Anticipate the use of more advanced buyer intent data, empowering businesses to create highly personalized outreach methods. This data will enable a deeper understanding of potential customers’ preferences, allowing for more effective targeting and engagement.
A focus on account-based marketing is also set to emerge as a valuable trend. This approach focuses on targeting a narrower, more qualified pool of leads, aligning marketing efforts with specific accounts with a higher likelihood of conversion. By tailoring strategies to individual accounts, companies can allocate their resources more effectively and maximize their lead generation potential.
You should also expect the advancement of automation tools, fueled by AI technology, to enhance lead generation efforts. AI-powered lead generation tools are anticipated to become more powerful and sophisticated.
What is lead scoring?
Lead scoring is a strategy used to assess the suitability of potential prospects for an organization and their likelihood of making a purchase. It involves assigning values to certain variables that are crucial for a business, such as industry, lead source, and website visits. Through this process, leads are filtered and sorted, allowing organizations to identify the most promising prospects. By focusing efforts on these hot leads, businesses can determine which prospects are most likely to purchase, thereby saving valuable time and resources that may have otherwise been spent on leads that are not a good fit.
Recap
As you can tell from this long list, there are plenty of great lead generation tools to choose from. Your lead generation tool should have the basic features we identified, as well as extra features that will help you accomplish your marketing goals.
However, you shouldn’t just pick one lead generation tool and run with it. Ideally, you want to create a lead generation system that keeps new leads flowing into your sales pipeline.
To do that, you’ll need to use a few lead generation tools at once to pull from different channels. We’d recommend slowly adding more tools to your lead generation system and experimenting with what brings you the most success (especially when you have access to a free plan or free trial).
If you’d like to start using embedded forms, popups, and other onsite messages to generate leads on your website, sign up for a free OptiMonk account today!
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