Lead gen ideas worth trying (and picking one)

Lead gen ideas are the easiest content on the internet to find and the least useful to read. You get forty of them, each one sounds fine, and you close the tab with the same empty pipeline and a slightly worse mood.

The idea was never the bottleneck. Almost every idea on every list works for somebody. What decides whether it works for you is whether it matches something you already have: people who know you, work you've already done, a customer list, a point of view. So I've grouped the ten below by that, rather than by channel. Pick the group that describes you, and ignore the rest.

If you want the channel-by-channel view of outreach (cold email, calling, LinkedIn and so on), that's in my 13 prospecting methods. If you want the asset-led version, it's in lead magnet ideas. This one sits between the two: concrete ideas, sorted by your starting position.

If you already have people who know you

This is the cheapest group and the one most people under-use, because it doesn't feel like marketing.

1. A specific ask to past clients

Not "know anyone who needs us?". That gets you a polite no. Try "who do you know who's just taken on their first hire?" or whatever your real best customer looks like. A narrow question gives someone a name to think of. I used to send the vague version and wonder why nothing came back. Once you have picked one, lead generation performance metrics shows what to track.

2. A "what changed" note to closed-lost deals

A deal you lost six months ago is a different deal now. Budgets reset, bosses move on, the thing they chose instead disappoints. Send a short note that says what's new at your end and asks if a fresh look makes sense. It's the lowest-effort lead gen idea I know, and you already have the list.

3. A referral that costs the referrer nothing

Write the forwardable blurb for them. Two sentences they can paste into an email to a friend. Most referrals don't happen because the referrer would have to compose something, and nobody has the energy on a Thursday.

If you have expertise people would pay for

You don't need an audience for these. You need one honest piece of useful work.

4. A free teardown of something the prospect already has

Look at their landing page, their proposal template, their onboarding emails, whatever sits close to what you sell. Give them three specific things you'd change and why. Record yourself talking through it if you can, because a face and a voice do more than a paragraph of critique.

I did a version of this in growth roles, and the pattern held: the teardowns that got replies were the ones where I'd clearly looked at their actual thing, not a template with their name merged in. The slightly awkward truth is that it takes about twenty minutes each, so you can only do it for a short list. That's the point.

5. A decision sheet for the choice your buyers are stuck on

One page that compares the options your buyer is weighing, including you, with an honest read in each cell. People in the middle of a comparison are the warmest traffic around, and almost nobody serves them anything except a sales page. It's also a decent lead magnet if you want to gate it.

6. Answers in the places your buyers already ask

Communities, forums, subreddit threads, the comments under a post by someone your buyer follows. Answer properly, without a link, for a few weeks. People check the profile of someone who was useful. This is slow and it's the one that surprised me most, because the leads that came from it arrived already trusting me.

If you have data or proof nobody else has

7. Publish what you see in your own work

Not a survey of three hundred strangers. Something you can observe from your own client work or your own numbers, written up plainly with the limits stated. "Here's what we saw across our last twelve projects" is more believable than a glossy industry report, and no competitor can copy it because they don't have your projects. Only claim what you can actually back up, and say how small the sample is.

8. A calculator or grader for a number your buyer cares about

Cost of a bad hire, time lost to manual reporting, what a missed deadline really costs. An input box and an output that tells them something about their own situation. The build is heavier than a PDF, but it keeps working while you sleep, and the output gives you something specific to open a conversation with.

If you can borrow someone else's audience

9. A swap with someone who sells to the same buyer

An accountant and a bookkeeper. A web designer and a copywriter. A recruiter and an employment lawyer. You each put the other in front of your people, with a real recommendation rather than a logo on a footer. Slow to set up, and then it quietly feeds you for years.

10. A joint session instead of a solo webinar

A solo webinar means you have to bring the whole audience. Two or three people in adjacent niches each bring a few, and the attendees get three angles for the price of one registration. Keep it small and specific, and follow up with each person individually afterwards.

How to pick the one you'll finish

Here's the filter I'd use, and I'd use it before reading a second list.

First, start from what you have. If you've got a customer list and no audience, you're in the first group. If you've got a strong view and no list, you're in the second. Ideas from the wrong group will feel like hard work for no reason.

Second, check it against your worst week. Whatever you pick has to survive a fortnight where everything else is on fire. If it needs a four-hour block, it won't happen. Ten minutes on a Tuesday will.

Third, run one for a month before you add another. I know how that sounds when you want leads this week. But two half-run ideas give you two sets of unreadable results, and one finished idea gives you an answer. For a view on fitting this into a small team's week, see SMB lead generation.

Then write down one number to watch. Replies, calls booked, whichever step comes right after the idea fires. If you want to be sure what counts as a lead in the first place, lead generation vs sales draws that line properly. And if you've been tempted to simply pay for attention instead, inorganic lead generation covers when that's worth it.

What happens when someone says "send it over"

Most of these ideas end in the same place. Somebody replies with interest and asks you to send the details. A proposal, a pricing PDF, a deck. Then you wait, and you have no idea whether they opened it, got past page two, or forwarded it to the person who actually decides.

I've spent a lot of Fridays in that silence, which is a big part of why I built LiveDocument. You record a short video walkthrough over the PDF or image, share it as one link, and see how long people spent on each page. It doesn't find leads for you and it isn't a CRM or an email tool, so it sits after the idea has already worked. What it does is stop a good lead going quiet because the document did a worse job than you would have done in the room. There's more on how I use it for outbound at the sales use case page, and the follow-up side is in how to follow up after sending a proposal.

Questions people ask

What are the best lead gen ideas for a small business?

The ones that use what you already have: past clients, your own expertise and your own results. A specific ask to old clients, a free teardown of a prospect's actual material and a swap with a complementary business all cost time rather than money, which is what a small team has least of to waste on ads.

What are some free lead gen ideas?

Referral asks, closed-lost revival notes, answering questions in the communities your buyers use and partner swaps all cost nothing but your time. A teardown costs about twenty minutes per prospect.

How many lead gen ideas should I run at once?

One, then two once the first is routine. Running five at once just means five things done badly, and you can't tell which one produced anything.

How long do lead gen ideas take to work?

It depends on the idea. A closed-lost note or a referral ask can get a reply within days. Community answers and published findings take weeks of showing up before they pay back, so don't judge them on the first fortnight.

If you've picked your idea and the part that keeps going wrong is what happens after the interest, that's the gap I built LiveDocument for, at livedocument.com.

Lead gen ideas: ten that work, and how to pick the one you'll finish