Catching a buyer’s attention is hard work. Over half of marketers put at least half of their budget toward lead generation, and about half call it their top priority. You don’t have to carry all of that in-house.
Lead generation outsourcing means handing some or all of your lead attraction and nurturing to another party, such as an outsourced sales team. Done right, it cuts your costs and still brings in prospects.
Below, we cover what lead generation outsourcing can do and how to find the best fit for your business.
Key takeaways
You can outsource the whole lead generation process or just parts of it, like content creation, analytics, data management, or web optimization.
Businesses outsource to cut costs and free their internal teams up for the work only they can do.
Pick the outsourcing model that fits your budget and your capacity to manage it, then make sure your whole funnel is ready before the leads arrive.
Two mistakes cause most of the damage: skipping the planning phase, and starting with a vague customer profile.
The Benefits of Outsourced Lead Generation
Outsourcing lead generation pays off the same way outsourcing other business functions does. You spend less, your own team gets time back, and you get access to people and tools you would otherwise have to hire and buy.
| What you get | What it looks like in practice |
|---|---|
| Lower costs | No recruiting fees, no equipment, and no software licenses for a role you only need part of the week. |
| Time back | Your marketers stop writing cold email sequences and go back to strategy, product marketing, and campaign work. |
| Faster hiring | A provider already has sourcing and training in place, so you skip the job posting and interview rounds. |
| Skills you don’t have | Someone who already knows paid social, SEO, or CRM hygiene, instead of a team member learning it on the job. |
| Room to scale | Add hours or people when a campaign ramps up, and pull back when it ends. |
What Can You Do With Lead Generation Outsourcing?
Lead generation services handle a wide range of work, from building interest and sharing information to creating content and optimizing web platforms. You can outsource the entire process or hand off specific pieces.
Here are three ways to decide what to outsource.
Outsource Stages of the Funnel
Hand off specific stages. You could hire a virtual assistant to generate interest with TOFU content and ads, or contract an agency to build MOFU lead-nurturing workflows.
Designate Specific Tasks
Maybe your team writes great content but struggles with web optimization. Outsourcing lets you offload specific lead generation techniques (prospecting, B2B cold calling, or optimizing pages for search and performance) to a virtual sales professional.
Manage New Channels
Buyers expect a multichannel experience: your website, social media, email, ads, and more. Learning each platform takes weeks you probably don’t have, so outsourcing a channel or two saves you both time and money.
No commitment
Meet your assistant before you pay anything
Magic handles the sourcing, screening, and onboarding. You aren’t charged until you start working together.
Lead Generation Outsourcing Best Practices
Quality leads start with a strong setup. Here’s how to get your outsourced services off to a good start.
Choose the Right Outsourcing Model
There are three main ways to approach outsourcing.
| Model | How it’s billed | What it asks of you |
|---|---|---|
| Traditional setup | By the hour or by task volume | Very little. You hand one or more processes to a lead generation business and they run them. |
| Managed service | By results, backed by service level agreements | Closer collaboration. You agree on the targets and review against them. |
| Outsourced team | By the week or by the hour, per person | Oversight during ramp-up. Freelancers and virtual assistants give you the most flexibility in exchange. |
Before you sign, look at your objectives and your budget, then pick the model that fits. Some companies would rather pay more for a contract with a lead generation firm. Others want the flexibility and lower cost of a modern outsourced team. You can compare the two with our cost savings calculator.
Outsource for Omnichannel Marketing
Buyers like to gather information at their own pace, across channels. How they behave online should shape how you outsource.
For example, you could outsource top-of-funnel content creation to capture leads early, then use a provider to run targeted ads across social networks. Prospects move deeper into your funnel, and your team follows up by email, chat, or call.
Have Your Funnel Ready
However you outsource, every step of your funnel should be ready to take in leads. Here’s what to have in place when analyzing your marketing funnel.
| Funnel piece | What it does | How to set it up |
|---|---|---|
| Lead magnets | Trades something useful for a prospect’s contact info | White papers, survey results, and templates all work. |
| Landing pages | Collects a lead’s details | Give each lead magnet its own page. Use a capture form for general-purpose magnets. |
| Retargeting | Brings back leads who left without converting | Search, display, and social ads, plus email marketing. |
| Lead scoring | Ranks leads by how closely they match your customer profile | You’ll need analytics and a CRM your team keeps clean. |
Short on budget or time to manage these stages? They’re easy to hand to a dedicated team.
Focus on Website Optimization
Your website determines who arrives and who converts, so don’t overlook it.
Start with page load speed. It’s part of Google’s ranking algorithm, and slow pages lose both rankings and visitors. Google research found that a 2-second increase in load time raised bounce rate by 32%, and a further two seconds pushed it up 90%.
Beyond speed, design for conversions. Keep the interface clean and make the information a buyer wants easy to find.
Common Mistakes When Outsourcing Lead Generation
Three things go wrong most often.
Not Being Prepared
Handing work to a provider without a plan wastes the first month. Set aside time to guide them through the adjustment period, the same way you would with a new hire, then keep up regular evaluations and realignments.
Poor Lead Qualifying
A vague customer profile means your provider spends your money on leads that were never going to buy.
Define what makes a marketing-qualified lead and a sales-qualified lead. Define a negative persona too, so your provider knows who to skip. You won’t have every detail up front, so refine the targeting as you learn more.
Related Topic: What is Lead Qualification? A Beginner’s Guide
Only Relying on One Source or Channel
A single lead source is risky for two reasons.
You can’t control changes to a channel you don’t own. An algorithm shift can make those leads harder to reach overnight.
One channel also caps your reach. Prospects who prefer email, search, or social simply never hear from you.
Outsource What You Can, Optimize What You Have
Outsourcing lead generation lets you test new sources while you keep improving the ones already working. You get the work off your plate and reach opportunities you couldn’t staff for, and your team stays focused on growth.
Get started
Start with one assistant on your lead gen.
Magic sources, screens, and onboards your assistant. You meet them first, you aren’t charged until you start working together, and there’s no long-term contract. See the pricing page for part-time and full-time rates.
