Top marketers in the lead generation space are grappling with the same issues that top retail marketers are struggling with, such as how to show up where consumers are searching, how much to use AI and how to standout in an increasingly crowded landscape.  

Chief Marketer’s sister brand LeadsCon had its fall networking event LeadsCon Connect in Chicago Sept. 30-Oct. 1 and we’ve gathered the top takeaways from the event for you here:  

Organic Social is Not Dead

If a brand has a page on social media, it needs to maintain it. Potential customers are looking at brands on social media to learn more and it’s not a good look if brands have no posts for months at a time, said Amy Zimmerman, Chief Marketing Officer at Florida Window & Door.  

And the content can be fluffy, Zimmerman said, joking that “Happy National Doughnut Day!” is perfectly fine to post.  

Zimmerman suggests posting real photos of team members, such as behind-the-scenes at the office or events. People want to look at people, so showing real folks rather than stock images builds authenticity and credibility for the brand.  

“It doesn’t need to be polished,” Zimmerman said. “Actually, the less polished it is, the more real it feels.” 

And if brands need proof, Zimmerman said Florida Window & Decor recently generated an $82,000 sale from a customer discovering the brand on its Facebook page.

How — and How Much — Much to use AI

Lead generation marketers are using agentic artificial intelligence throughout their businesses and have a diverse perspective on how to best incorporate the transformative technology.   

Senja Spelman, founder and CEO of lead generation marketing firm Sisu Synergy, recommends training any AI chat agent that the team uses to know about the business and to respond with questions and challenges. That’s because technology companies designed the AI bots to be affirmative and complimentary, which doesn’t lead to the best results, Spelman said.  

She also suggests using an AI agent as a tool to generate or refine ideas, but not as the sole creative contributor. AI tools only respond with what they know, which is content that marketers have already done, she said.  

“Marketing is meant to disrupt,” Spelman, said. “If you’re doing the same thing as everyone else because you’re getting your ideas from an AI model, then what are you disrupting?” 

Human vs. Machine

Florida Window & Door tested an AI agent to make its lead phone calls. It took a few months to get the conversation actually conversational, but after a while, a portion of shoppers couldn’t tell they were talking to a robot, Zimmerman said. 

The bot made 1.65 million calls that resulted in 165 in-person appointments, which was the call’s objective. The cost of marketing, however, was 36%, which is much higher than the industry standard of 15%, she said. Cost of marketing is a measure of the resources for the initiative, including cost of using the bot and acquiring the lead list. 

Still, it was a good learning exercise. Her takeaway was that she should have negotiated a better rate and that this bot could be used to augment some of its human call center employees.  

Other companies, however, have taken a different approach.   

Eric Peschke, Vice President of Marketing at Zintex Remodeling Group, has 75 employees at its call center in Dallas, and no robots or offshore agents.  

The home services company — which is on pace for 70% year-over-year sales growth this year to reach $103 million — said a phone call from a human agent is the best experience it can give its customers even if it is more expensive and harder to do.  

And that pairs into the next takeaway.

You Need to Spend Money to Make Money

While marketing has never been more traceable to revenue, companies need to be willing to spend if they want growth or profitability.  

Brands that are stuck at having the cost of marketing at 10-12% are likely not growing, Peschke said. Leadership needs to understand that costs have increased and companies can’t just operate the way they’ve always done before.  

At Zintex, its cost per lead is 18% and cost of marketing all in is about 22%, which is higher than industry averages. 

“But we’ve grown 70% this year,” Peschke said. “Do you want a lower cost of marketing or do you want more growth and sustain a higher cost of marketing?” 

Act Like a Local to Generate Trust, Business 

Even if a brand operates nationally, consumers still want to feel that local connection. And it sounds simple, but it could be as easy as talking about Chicago things (like sports teams and iconic places) in Chicago ads and Atlanta things in Atlanta ads, said Mark Silet, vice President of Strategy and Analytics at American Dream Auto Protect.  

Shoppers also want to see a local area code for a business phone number. If brands are trying to be local and are using an 800 phone number, they do not look local, he said.  

Another way to market your brand is to show up in the community where consumers are, including charitable giving and events. Not only will this get the name out there, but news outlets will cover these events. This will show up in Google and with AI results, which is increasingly were consumers are searching for answers, Zimmerman said.

“The more that you can get articles written about your company locally that is going to lend more credibility when people are searching,” Zimmerman said. “Those are the types of things that are going to come up.”