Give ‘Em What They Want – Generate Leads with Custom Content

If you have a traditional desk job, you’ve likely commiserated with the characters in The Office on more than one occasion. There is an episode deep in the sixth season, “New Leads,” that got less-than-stellar ratings but probably resonates with people none-the-less. In the episode, the Dunder Mifflin sales team lets the company’s new “sales is king” policy go to their head. Michael Scott tries to teach them a lesson that goes horribly wrong – as all Michael lessons do – that results in valuable sales leads ending up in the local dump.

Even though humor is always welcome in the office, your method of acquiring leads doesn’t have to be a (literal or figurative) mess like it was in The Office. Read on to see how you can generate quality leads with quality custom content.

(Still asking, “What is content marketing strategy?” Check out our other content marketing blogs!)

Your Audience


Content marketing generates leads by offering customers instantly relevant, consumable collateral—blogs, infographics, videos, podcasts and more—often in exchange for their contact information. Before you can create “can’t-miss content,” you have to get to know your target audience. Do a little discovery work by creating buyer personas (to ease the process, check out this free buyer persona activity).

Your Content

With truly thoughtful content designed for specific personas, you’ll breakthrough the clutter to appeal to consumers’ needs and connect with them in a meaningful way. Selling sweet baby onesies? Post a blog that gives a sleep-deprived mom tips for baby bedtime success. Marketing to educators? Promote a downloadable PDF that provides a high school math teacher with strategies to connect with his struggling students. Check out 40+ content suggestions to get your thought train moving.

Your Process

The goods are no good if you don’t create an effective lead generation process behind the scenes.

• Landing Page

  This is where your content will live. Keep the design simple, the copy informative and the call-to-action clear. Check out examples of good landing pages.

• Form

  This crucial step—the lead generation form—will live on your landing page and capture visitors’ information. Keep it simple. The form shouldn’t be too long, or you risk the dreaded form abandonment. Only collect the information needed to keep targeting the customers with related marketing messages or to hand them over to sales.

• “Thank You” Page & Email

  Your mother always told you to “be nice,” didn’t she? Be sure you set up a “Thank You” page and/or email that lets customers know that you really do appreciate their interest. You should also include the content you’ve promised them, ways to share that content and where they can go for more information.

Although Michael Scott’s business advice isn’t usually worth following, he sometimes gets it right: “Make friends first, makes sales second.” And switching from traditional marketing to an inbound strategy using content marketing can help you do just that by inviting customers to engage with your brand in a way that’s meaningful to them. Are you ready to make the jump? We’d love to help. Contact us today!

Tools to Help You Succeed with Leads


From content to conversion, your leads need a streamlined path to follow to get into the hands of sales. Develop integrated landing pages, forms, and customer databases with platforms like HubSpot.

Customers trust each other more than they trust companies. Take advantage of vast social networks and boost your content’s exposure by encouraging customers to share content with tools like Pay With a Tweet and Sumo Highlighter.

Updated: Apr 13, 2022