How to Buy SEO Leads: Top Strategies to Stay Competitive

What are SEO Leads?

This term can refer to any sales leads developed by an SEO agency. These are simply a list of people who may be interested in SEO (Search Engine Optimization) services. 

According to another definition, SEO leads are potential customers who’ve discovered your business through the internet. More specifically, they found you in a search engine like Google’s organic search engine results, not by clicking on paid advertising or browsing social media. 

To generate more of these leads, your website needs to rank high on search engine results pages (SERPs) for keywords and phrases relevant to your industry. When people have made an effort to look for exactly what you’re selling, they’re already primed to buy. With only a little follow-up based on intelligent lead scoring, they are converted into paying customers who may continue to provide revenue for some time to come.

You can improve your website’s ranking through various techniques, including:

• Keyword Optimization: Words and phrases potential customers might search for are integrated into your website.
• On-Page SEO: Correctly using website elements like content, meta tags, headers, and internal links to appeal to search engines.
• Off-Page SEO: Building high-authority backlinks, engaging on social media, and encouraging online mentions to increase the website’s online visibility. 
• Technical SEO: Ensuring your website is fast, mobile-friendly, and easy for search engines to index.

Done well, the cost per SEO lead is low and the conversion rate high. After all, anyone who is already actively searching for specific information or solutions can easily be guided into taking the next logical step and spending some money with you. 

Benefits of Buying SEO Leads

Unfortunately, gaining new prospects from organic search and introducing them into the sales pipeline can be difficult. All of your SEO competitors are vying for their business. 

Given this challenging landscape, it makes sense to steal a march on them by buying email leads instead of hoping prospects will land on your website. Purchasing leads saves a great deal of time and money, at least in the short term.

You can also improve your sales team’s efficiency by using a lead database that’s highly relevant to your target market. The best lead providers use a combination of techniques to ensure lead quality, including advanced algorithms, automated validation processes, and manual checking.

For example, in the challenging SaaS marketing environment, lead generation is not so much about generating a lot of names but about locating those potential customers who are most likely to buy. Spending time on these companies is usually a good use of a salesperson’s time. For this reason, leads from companies like BookYourData are filtered by company size, industry niche, region, specific pain points, and multiple other factors to ensure the right prospects are targeted for more intense attention.

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In fact, purchased leads can often be matched closely to your ideal customer profile, ensuring you spend most of your effort on the ones who are likely to buy. By separating these into market segments, you can also configure cold email software and similar tools to provide the most relevant sales pitches, further increasing conversion rates.

8 Ways to Get Quality SEO Leads

Buying leads is a common strategy for many companies that do much of their business online, such as web design firms looking for new customers. It’s not, however, a problem you can simply throw money at and hope to get a high ROI on your digital marketing campaign.

All lead providers don’t offer the same level of industry specificity, lead freshness, contact accuracy, or lead exclusivity. By following the following steps, though, you can avoid buying a pig in a poke, meaning leads that don’t reflect your target audience or outdated contact details.

Buy SEO Leads From a Database

Nowadays, it’s not hard to buy a list of email addresses. Unfortunately, some of these simply won’t meet your needs.

Researching potential providers is a good starting point; it’s possible to verify their credibility by browsing reviews, ratings, and testimonials from other users. Unfortunately, lead-generation scams do exist, so a little due diligence goes a long way. Here is what you need to do:

• Evaluate Lead Quality: The value and significance of leads obtained from a third party can be assessed using different types of criteria. Reputable companies will typically be happy to provide information on conversion rates achieved by other clients and relevance to your target audience. Others may offer a small number of sample leads before asking you to negotiate a larger purchase. 
• Integrate Leads into CRM System: Thousands of newly acquired leads won’t do you much good stuck in a drawer. Typically, these are followed-up by first integrating them into your CRM system. Having compatible file formats avoids having to enter this data manually and risk errors. 
• Prioritize Data Privacy and Compliance: To avoid fines and damage to your reputation, you simply have to pay attention to regulations like GDPR or CCPA whenever you do business in applicable jurisdictions. Legitimate database providers take compliance with regulations seriously, for example not selling individuals’ email addresses, phone numbers, and other personal details without their consent.

One reputable company that ticks all the above boxes is BookYourData. Their interface also offers extensive filtering and customization options, making it easy to purchase quality leads even if you lack experience at this task.

Verify the Provider's Credibility

It’s hard to overstate the importance of a lead provider’s trustworthiness. Buying low-quality, poorly qualified leads not only place you in touch with fewer potential clients, they can also harm your company’s reputation. Imagine you’re a recruitment company emailing professionals about completely unsuitable jobs…they may never respond to another message from you!

Credible lead services are identified via:

• Utilize Online Resources: Industry forums, review sites, and social media helps you get an idea of other people’s experiences.
• Request Case Studies or References: Most lead providers can provide case studies or references that prove their past performance.
• Look for Industry Certifications and Accreditations: While there aren’t many dedicated industry bodies, certifications like ISO help confirm the provider’s commitment to quality standards.
• Ensure Transparency in Lead Generation Methods: You’ll need to ask the provider questions about how they acquire leads responsibly.

Finally, look into the provider’s after-sales service. If the service you pay for is negotiated through a particular representative, can you get in touch with them later?

Only Buy Relevant Leads

You should not just be looking at the cost per lead and the volume available, but whether their engagement potential is measured by some reasonable standard. In particular, your target audience should be defined by demographics, industry, geographic targeting, and specific needs. This information allows fine-tuning of your marketing strategy.

You can then optimize your sales approach and make better use of each lead. For example, if your business is to provide search engine optimization services to construction companies, you’ll be able to give priority to prospective clients who show a genuine desire to upgrade their websites. 

Fortunately, most lead providers provide detailed lead profiles. Classifying prospects according to industry, number of employees, turnover, and other relevant data cuts down a lot of complexity. Alternatively, you can ask for a few random sample leads in order to ensure they can supply what you’re looking for. 

Choose the Best Lead Database

When selecting a lead database as with choosing a new car, you have several distinct options available. This is why you should compare a few different companies: not every one will align with your business and product. 

As we mentioned, consulting user reviews and evaluating the lead quality of each gives an idea of what each platform can do for you. Ideally, you’ll select one with a large and diverse pool of leads as well as an understanding of your target market, though most lead companies tend to be generalists.

Another factor is each database’s update frequency. Clearly, the freshness and accuracy of leads affect the efficiency of your outreach campaigns. Ask providers about their update schedules and processes. 

Integration capabilities are something else to keep in mind when choosing a lead database. In order to save time and prevent errors, their system and delivery format should integrate seamlessly with your existing CRM and marketing tools. 

Of course, you’ll also look for pricing packages offering the best ROI while fitting in your budget. Flexible or pay-as-you-go price structures make this style of lead generation feasible even for smaller companies and agencies.

5. Amount of Data

Depending on your approach to marketing, data completeness may not be essential…but it’s always better to have more information than less, especially while qualifying leads. Different databases vary in the amount and depth of data provided for each lead. Comprehensive lead profiles include detailed information such as contact information and company particulars, enabling much more personalized and targeted outreach efforts. 

Unfortunately, insisting on the greatest level of detail for every lead may mean not being able to afford as many as you’d like. By estimating your conversion rate and amount of revenue you expect from each new client, you can strike a balance between the quantity and scope of purchased leads.

Data verification is another crucial aspect to consider. Most databases employ some kind of feedback mechanism to detect and correct errors and omissions to ensure the accuracy of lead information, but these don’t all work equally well. Getting email verification and perhaps phone validation can pay for itself, as you’ll have to deal with fewer invalid or outdated contacts. 

Once these questions have been answered to your satisfaction, it’s time to evaluate the database’s accessibility and user-friendliness. An intuitive interface and easy export options allow your team to quickly access and utilize lead data, allowing for more nimble, responsive campaigns and initiatives.

Filter Criteria

Chasing after leads who are unlikely to ever buy from you is a terrible waste of time. The solution is to apply appropriate filter criteria when purchasing leads. Most lead databases allow you to arrange them by multiple parameters, including location, type of business, company size, and job title. Though using this tool effectively requires a little forethought, these filters can narrow down your lead searches considerably, leaving only the most relevant prospects.

Of course, each of your campaigns may require tweaking these filters to, for instance, a particular geographic area or industry niche. In this case, real-time filtering and updates become very useful features. These tools keep your lead list current and allow you to quickly adapt to changes in the market.

It’s important to understand that different combinations of filter criteria can be useful when targeting narrow groups of customers. Experimenting with multiple queries and checking what kinds of leads each turns up is often eye-opening; your lead provider may be able to provide some guidance.

Accuracy Rate

No large lead database can be expected to contain zero errors. However, good companies keep these to a minimum: each false lead or outdated phone number leads to frustration and wasted effort.

To ensure the accuracy of their leads, reputable providers employ various verification processes to check the accuracy of email leads and other important information. Real-time validation is the most useful: this ensures that lead data is accurate at the time of purchase. This is particularly important to email campaigns, where each outdated address harms your sender reputation.

Most lead providers are happy to provide accuracy reports or audits on request. Remember: false leads cost both cash to purchase and time to follow up, without offering any chance of success. Companies that are transparent about their accuracy rates and even guarantee a certain number are worth looking at twice. It’s also good practice to monitor purchased leads’ quality on an ongoing basis to ensure you’re still getting your money’s worth.

Compare Pricing

Each lead database provider has its own set of pricing models. Depending on their financial resources and marketing strategies, established businesses buying leads may choose to purchase the entire database. Smaller, younger companies might opt for smaller upfront payments.

The following are the most common pricing models you will find:

1. Pay-Per-Lead (PPL): This model charges a predetermined amount for each supplied lead. As businesses only pay for useful information, this provides transparency, predictability, and scalability. As part of negotiating their contract with the lead provider, they will typically be careful about defining what constitutes a qualified lead to avoid paying for worthless prospects.
2. Subscription-Based: Monthly or annual payments allow access to a minimum number of leads or even unlimited leads. This makes budgeting simpler, but does not guarantee that all leads will be qualified. Subscriptions may also include marketing tools or lead management software.
3. Bulk Purchase: Buying leads in bulk means paying less for each. This approach is great for quickly expanding your lead database, but sometimes implies lower lead quality and accuracy.​

As is so often the case, cost has to be weighed against lead quality. Cheaper lead databases tend to have lower conversion rates and therefore less unattractive ROIs. Especially if your total market contains relatively few customers, investing in high-quality leads with a proven accuracy rate may be the wiser choice in the long run.

Where to Buy SEO Leads

Now that we have a firm grasp on SEO leads, it’s time to examine possible sources of them. The following companies are all utilized by marketers who want to expand their pool of prospects as quickly and painlessly as possible.

1. BookYourData

BookYourData is set apart from others by its extensive, searchable database of sales leads in various industries, including detailed information on potential SEO clients. The platform’s advanced filtering capabilities allow users to target specific segments by niche, company size, and geographical locations in order to focus their marketing campaigns. 

Real-time email verification is provided as standard, eliminating almost all outdated records, thus reducing bounce rates and improving ROI. In short, this suite of tools allows you to efficiently identify high-quality prospects, streamline your outreach efforts, and enhance your lead generation strategy.

BookYourData features:

• Guaranteed 97% accuracy.
• Real-time address verification.
• Subscription-free, pay-as-you-go billing.

You can Leverage BookYourData’s pay-as-you-go model to buy the precise SEO leads you need.

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2. Hunter.io

Hunter.io is a powerful email outreach platform that helps businesses find and connect with relevant leads. When your ideal customer profile is input into its advanced search features, you can identify potential customers very quickly. 

For example, this company’s Domain Search lets you locate leads within specific companies, while the Email Finder provides verified email addresses for individuals. Hunter.io also offers an Email Verifier to ensure high deliverability rates and protect your sender reputation.

3. Apollo

Apollo.io is a relatively full-featured sales intelligence platform that, among other things, facilitates discovering and engaging with high-quality leads. Its database contains accurate contact information for over 275 million contacts and 73 million companies. 

The platform’s Contact & Account Search dashboard makes it easy to find new leads that meet your marketing strategy’s needs. Once these have been identified, its Sales Engagement tools make it easy to craft personalized outreach campaigns. Apollo.io also includes a pre-built Workflow to streamline your sales process and Deal Management features to track customers progress through your sales pipeline.

4. LinkedIn Sales Navigator

LinkedIn Sales Navigator, leveraging the professional social media website’s vast network of professionals, is a revolutionary tool for companies that need to generate more leads. Results are based on an ideal customer profile you enter. 

The Advanced Lead Search feature allows you to identify decision-makers using over 40 filters, including job function and seniority level. The website also uses special algorithms to identify data such as past relationships and buyer intent signals, providing valuable insights and helping you prioritize your outreach efforts. 

You can also engage with buyers on LinkedIn itself using personalized InMail messages and “warm introductions” through hidden allies.

5. Lusha

Lusha, available as a Chrome extension, is an effective tool for locating contact information for leads you identify on the internet. Specifically, it makes it easy to find prospects’ email addresses and phone numbers while browsing platforms like LinkedIn their own companies’ websites. Manual searches can get you the same information, but not nearly as quickly.

Lusha also incorporates a built-in Prospecting Platform, simplifying the chore of managing campaigns and scoring leads at scale. You can also use it to continually enrich and update your existing CRM data with up-to-date company information. This way, obsolete data is purged while you get a constant stream of new prospects to target.

6. ZoomInfo

ZoomInfo is built around a large B2B database containing detailed information on various businesses and the professionals who work for them. This platform, with its range of competitive pricing plans, is popular among businesses of all types and sizes who regularly purchase leads. 

ZoomInfo’s powerful search engine lets you specify the industry, location, and company size of the prospects you’re interested. Once you’ve downloaded these records, you’ll see their current email addresses and direct phone numbers and contact them at will.

A potent tool for the lead generation and nurturing process, ZoomInfo can provide you with increased conversion rates, shortened sales cycles, and an impressive return on investment.

7. RocketReach

RocketReach is a reliable tool for finding useful contact information for the kinds of companies you’d like to take on as clients. Creating an account to use this platform is a simple process, as is installing the RocketReach Extension for the Chrome browser. Equipped with this, you can use its Advanced Search & Bulk Lookup feature to mine leads based on specific criteria such as job title, experience, and location. 

RocketReach provides verified email addresses, phone numbers, and social media profiles. This lead provider prides itself on supplying accurate data you can utilize in most kinds of outreach efforts.

Factors to Consider Before Purchasing SEO Leads

Purchasing leads is a serious business decision; you don’t want to make it in haste or with insufficient research. Your goal shouldn’t just be to invest in a list of high-quality leads; you have to take steps to make sure this aligns with your business goals and target audience. 

The following checklist can help you avoid certain problems when purchasing SEO leads:

• Quality of the Leads: It’s essential to evaluate the accuracy and relevance of the lead data provided by the vendor. This includes checking that leads are generated through legitimate and ethical means, such as organic search traffic or opt-in forms, not questionable practices like scraping or buying email lists. Just as importantly, you’ll want to hunt down leads who have shown genuine interest in SEO services, not those who are merely testing the waters.
• Target Audience Compatibility: Every company should draw up an ideal customer profile and target audience, meaning those who are most likely to do business with you. This can be based on demographic data as well as specific pain points your solution addresses better than the competition’s. Then, make sure that the leads you purchase match the characteristics of your desired clients, as this will increase the likelihood of successful conversions and long-term partnerships.
• Pricing and Budget Considerations: Since cash is always in short supply, you and perhaps an accountant should go through the various pricing models of lead providers. You may have to compromise in order to select one that suits both your budget and marketing goals. There are various billing systems available, each with different implications for your cash flow and lead quality.

Buying SEO Leads: The Good, Bad, and Ugly

When it’s part of a coherent marketing strategy, buying leads is a powerful powerful too for accelerating business growth. A younger, less well-known SEO company can use it to stay ahead of the competition. It’s not a substitute for optimizing your own online presence and pursuing traditional marketing avenues, but it does lend a significant boost to other efforts.

You shouldn’t just jump in blindly, though. Do your research: check the vital statistics of several lead databases before signing a deal with one of them. Also, remember that the market for SEO services is a fast-moving one: don’t allow new leads to gather dust, but follow them up promptly.

As with all forms of marketing, though, the name of the game is still nurturing them with personalized, value-driven outreach. Ideally, each conversion will signify the start of a long-lasting, profitable relationship.

Services like BookYourData, with experiencing in streamlining the lead generation techniques of its clients, can be great partners on this journey. These companies owe their existence to providing accurate and up-to-date leads, filtered by exactly those parameters that matter. Even smaller businesses can utilize lead-generation services to make their marketing more targeted and successful, ultimately driving growth and increasing ROI.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are Purchased SEO Leads Worth the Investment?

Purchased SEO leads can be a good use of your marketing budget if they meet certain standards. High-quality, targeted, accurate, up-to-date leads that are relevant to your business will almost certainly boost sales. 

Is It Possible to Get a Sample Before Buying SEO Leads in Bulk?

Yes, many lead providers offer samples before asking clients to commit to a larger purchase or subscription. The purpose of this is for clients to assess the quality and relevance of the leads and confirm that bought leads are worth the money.

How Quickly Should I Follow Up with Purchased SEO Leads?

Purchased leads have a short shelf life in the SEO industry. They should be acted on quickly, ideally within 24-48 hours. Doing this shows prospective clients that their business is important to you and allows you to get ahead of competitors.

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