Lead generation is the lifeblood of any successful business. Without a steady flow of fresh leads in your sales pipeline, closing new deals becomes extremely difficult.
However, capturing and nurturing high-quality leads is easier said than done. Most businesses struggle to generate enough leads through their websites or content alone. That‘s where leveraging the right lead generation software can make all the difference.
This definitive guide will explore the 18 top lead gen tools available today across key categories like chatbots, popups, lead capture, and more. I‘ll also provide tips for how to choose the best options based on your business needs so you can start converting more visitors into customers. Let‘s dive in!
Chatbots
1. Drift
Drift is the premier conversational marketing platform, with bot automation that feels like you‘re chatting with a real person. Key features include:
- Smart chatbots for 24/7 lead engagement
- Lead scoring and routing to sales teams
- Appointment scheduling and payments built-in
- Highly customizable with no coding required
Pricing starts at $50/month for up to 100 contacts. It‘s ideal for small service businesses all the way up to enterprises.
2. ManyChat
ManyChat allows anyone to create Messenger chatbots to capture leads, nurture customers, and drive sales on autopilot.
Standout features include:
- Drag and drop bot builder
- Broadcasting to send bulk notifications
- Tags for segmenting your subscribers
- Zapier integration to connect with other tools
Plans start free for up to 100 subscribers then upgrade to $10/month for more contacts. It‘s great for ecommerce brands using Facebook Messenger.
Email Opt-ins
3. ConvertBox
Trusted by over 8,000 businesses, ConvertBox specializes in on-site personalization and conversions. Capabilities include:
- Tailored messaging based on visitor demographics
- Smart choice funnels to guide visitors
- Lead generation forms connected to your ESP
- A/B testing for continuous optimization
Get full access with annual plans starting at $588/year when billed annually. ConvertBox works great for marketers who want to maximize on-site conversions.
4. OptinMonster
OptinMonster makes it easy for bloggers and businesses to create custom popups and subscription forms. Highlights include:
- Beautiful templates for every use case imaginable
- Lightbox popups, floating bars, slide-ins, and more
- Integrates with all major email providers
- Real-time behavior automation
- Trusted by over 1 million sites
Plans start free for up to 1,000 subscribers then upgrade starting at $19.50/month. It‘s the most widely used lead capture tool for WordPress sites.
Lead Management
5. Hubspot
Hubspot offers an all-in-one inbound marketing, sales, and service software platform for growing businesses. Core features consist of:
- Email automation workflows
- Landing page and blog builders
- Robust CRM and marketing analytics
- 200+ integrations with apps like Mailchimp
- Free versions available
Paid plans start as low as $45/month with discounts for annual subscriptions. Hubspot can scale from early stage startups to large enterprises.
6. Nutshell
Nutshell provides collaborative CRM software with built-in automation for sales teams. Key traits comprise of:
- Shared inbox to assign and track leads
- Contact insights using AI algorithms
- Custom views and opportunity scoring
- Over 25 integrations with your stack
Plans begin at $19/user/month when billed annually. It‘s exceptional for sales teams looking to optimize their pipelines.
7. Nimble
Nimble delivers simple contact management directly inside your email client. Central components incorporate:
- Automatically tracks emails and archives conversations
- Social media profiles integrated with contacts
- Sales alerts when contacts engage with your emails
- Affordable tiered pricing for teams
Solo plans start free then upgrade to $9/month. Nimble seamlessly combines email and CRM saving time for entrepreneurs and SMBs.
8. Keap
Formerly Infusionsoft, Keap provides sales and marketing automation software for small businesses. Pivotal proficiencies include:
- Contact management with lead scoring
- Customizable sales funnels and ecommerce
- Appointment setting and online booking
- Robust email marketing features with automation
- Affordable pricing & 14-day free trial
Prices start at $99/month with discounts available for annual plans. Keap works well for coaches, agencies, shops, and service businesses.
Lead Enrichment
9. Clearbit
Clearbit empowers growth marketers with the data they need to land their best-fit accounts. Core abilities consist of:
- Firmographic lead enrichment with 150+ fields
- Identifies key decision makers at targets companies
- Charts to visualize account data
- Affordable cash plans or monthly credits
Plans start at $199/month for 5,000 credits or save big with annual contracts. It supercharges your ability to identify high-value leads.
10. Discover.org
Discover.org provides affordable B2B contact data to help you find and qualify more leads. Key features add in:
- 170M+ contact records and 50M+ companies
- Filter contacts by industry, title, tech used, and more
- Charts to analyze lead list trends
- SQL access for custom queries
- Integrates with your CRM and sales tools
Plans start free for 25 records/month then upgrade to 500 records at $50/month. Great for startups and businesses on a budget needing more target account data.
11. Leadfeeder
Leadfeeder helps you uncover anonymous website visitors to capture more leads. Visitor identification features allow you to:
- See every website visitor‘s company and contact data
- Get alerts when defined visitors return
- Quickly export lead contact info to any CRM
- Affordable plans for any business size
- 7-day free trial
Prices start at €59/month when billed annually. It‘s one of the top online lead capturing tools available today.
LinkedIn Tools
LinkedIn Sales Navigator makes it simple for sales teams to find their ideal customers on LinkedIn. Major options consist of:
- Advanced LinkedIn search with filters
- Get alerts when prospects are active
- InMail integration to reach key accounts
- Lead recommendations engine
- Track competitor pages
Plans start at $64.99/month per user when billed annually. If your customers are on LinkedIn, Sales Navigator is a must-have tool.
13. Dux-Soup
Dux-Soup allows you to scrape targeted contacts and leads from LinkedIn to fuel your outreach campaigns. Core features encompass:
- Boolean search operators for precision targeting
- Lead list filtering by job title, company, location, and more
- Data extraction based on your criteria
- SQL access to manage leads
- Affordable pricing starting at $58/month
It‘s the leading LinkedIn lead generation tool used by agencies and enterprise sales teams alike.
Outreach & Scheduling
14. Reply
Reply helps teams successfully execute sales outreach campaigns via email and LinkedIn. Robust capabilities consist of:
- Lead enrichment with social profiles
- Email templates and sequencing
- Campaign tracking with notifications
- Built-in VoIP audio calls
- Affordable plans start under $100
It‘s an ideal lightweight CRM for small businesses and startups.
15. Hey Oliver
Hey Oliver provides easy-to-use tools for messaging automation across multiple channels. Key features include:
- Chatbot messenger on site and social
- Multi-channel campaign broadcasting
- Drag and drop workflow builder
- Audience targeting and segmentation
- 14-day free trial, no credit card
Plans begin at $16 per month when billed annually. It‘s great for digital marketers who want fast automated chat plus multi-channel messaging.
16. TexAu
TexAu stands for "Text Automation" allowing you to orchestrate SMS, chat, and messaging from one platform. Core capabilities cover:
- Chatbots with custom branding
- Multi-channel engagement flows
- Auto social media follow up
- API access and webhooks
- Plans from $7 to $299 per month
It‘s built around robust automation for those needing complete messaging control under one roof.
Lead Validation & Verification
17. Validately
Validately provides on-demand, real people for survey testing, content feedback, product validation and more. Primary aspects entail:
- Get feedback from your ideal customer profile
- Tests anything from images to pricing
- Manage public links or targeted to individuals
- Results under 2 hours for most tests
- Pay per test-taker starting at $1
Perfect for agile marketers and product managers wanting fast public opinions.
18. NeverBounce
NeverBounce performs real-time email verification to keep your lists clean and optimized. Core features consist of:
- Confirms opt-in and deliverability
- Identifies disposable/role emails
- Monitors new mailing list imports
- 99.998% accuracy acclaimed
- Integrates with every major ESP
- Generous free tier based on number of emails
It‘s the global leader in email verification sued by 120,000+ customers including major enterprises.
How to Choose the Right Tools
With so many compelling options for capturing more leads, it can get overwhelming determining the right platforms for your unique business needs and budget.
Here are a few key criteria to keep in mind while evaluating tools:
Features – Make a list of must-have capabilities based on your goals then cross-check tools. Don‘t overpay for unnecessary extras you won‘t utilize.
Ease of Use – With lean teams, you want platforms that don‘t require extensive onboarding and training. Seek out intuitive interfaces to save time.
Integrations – Choose tools with existing connectors to your core systems like email, payments, messaging, and CRM. Otherwise, you risk disruptions in your funnel.
Scalability – Even if you‘re just starting out now, consider anticipated business growth when assessing options so you have headroom before needing to switch platforms down the road.
Price – Lead generation tools range from completely free to several hundreds if not thousands per month. Set targets for your average deal size and customer lifetime value, then work backward to arrive at an acceptable CAC range to stay profitable.
Reviews – Independent review sites like G2Crowd allow you to research a product‘s rating based on real customer experiences before buying so you can determine if it‘s truly a fit.
By identifying the lead gen tools aligning closest to the above criteria for your specific situation, you‘ll feel confident investing in platforms facilitating healthy business growth rather than just going by brand familiarity alone. Test a few out with free trials to experience the interfaces first-hand as well.
Just remember – no software alone will magically make your campaigns succeed without equally investing in high-quality content, messaging, and value delivery to convert those new leads into delighted customers.
Wrap Up
Generating and nurturing more quality leads is imperative for organizations seeking to grow faster in today‘s digital landscape. The right tools make this process more effective and efficient so your sales teams can have the rich pipelines needed to hit goals.
This guide unpacked 18 of top lead generation software options available today spanning chatbots to lead management to outreach tools. I also provided insider tips on how to approach evaluating tools against key factors like scalability and ease of use.
The hardest step is simply getting started instead of pushing off selecting platforms allowing you to capture website visitor data, score leads, automate campaigns, and continually refine your messaging through built-in analytics.
Now that you know the range of solutions able to cost-effectively drive results, what‘s one new tool you‘ll test out this quarter to step up your lead gen game? The only wrong next step is to keep delaying because the competition surely isn‘t. Move forward armed with these recommendations so you can reach your biggest business goals yet.
