Blog
IT services

The Definitive List of Lead-Generating Software for 2024

Weronika Masternak

Weronika Masternak

17 min read
Jan 30, 2024

Generating high-quality leads is the lifeblood of any growing business. After all, how else can you hope to capture those valuable prospective customers actively looking for products and services like yours (which I know is better than your competitors!)?

But here’s a reality you may know all too well – companies in the early stages of growth or facing strict budgets can struggle to gain traction and capture contacts. Manual prospecting and haphazard outreach won’t cut it in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

The good news is that advanced lead generation software can provide that vital edge. Quality lead generation tools can equip your sales teams to identify your ideal prospective customers, reach them through targeted campaigns, and convert contacts into confirmed leads.

This definitive guide will explore the top lead-generation software for the upcoming year. I’ll provide an in-depth look at both well-established and newly emerging tools so you can determine which solution best aligns with your business goals and budget.

What’s a lead generation tool?

So, imagine you run a business and want to find people who might be interested in what you offer. You could go the old-school route: setting up a booth at a fair, cold-calling, or maybe putting ads in newspapers. But let’s be honest, that’s a bit like shooting in the dark these days. This is where lead generation tools come in — they’re the modern, tech-savvy way to attract potential customers.

A lead generation tool is a type of software or system used in marketing and sales to attract and gather potential customers (leads) for a business. These tools aim to streamline and enhance the process of identifying and engaging individuals or organizations interested in the products or services offered by a business.

Key features of lead generation tools typically include:

  1. Data collection. These tools can collect data from websites, social media platforms, and online interactions. This data often includes contact information and details about the potential customer’s interests or needs.

  2. Targeting and segmentation. They allow businesses to segment and target specific groups of potential customers based on certain criteria such as demographics, behavior, or engagement with previous marketing efforts.

  3. Lead scoring and qualification. Some tools provide scoring systems to qualify leads based on their likelihood to convert into customers. This helps in prioritizing follow-up efforts.

  4. Automation and integration. Lead generation tools often automate repetitive tasks like sending emails or social media messages. They can be integrated with other business systems like customer relationship management (CRM) software for a more cohesive workflow.

  5. Analytics and reporting. They usually offer analytics to track the performance of lead generation campaigns, providing insights into the most effective strategies.

Popular examples of lead generation tools include email marketing platforms, social media advertising tools, search engine optimization (SEO) tools, and specialized lead generation software that combines several of these functions. These tools are essential in modern digital marketing strategies, helping businesses expand their customer base efficiently and grow their market reach.

The issue? Finding those leads can be time-consuming and costly. But with the right lead generation software and tools, you can save time and money while still getting quality leads.

Difference between lead-generation tools and sales automation tools

Lead-generation tools and sales automation tools, while both crucial in the sales and marketing domain, serve different purposes in the sales funnel:

Lead-generation tools

Sales automation tools

In summary, lead-generation tools are focused on attracting potential customers and gathering data about them. In contrast, sales automation tools are designed to manage and optimize interactions with potential customers to close sales more efficiently. The two types of tools often work in tandem, with lead generation feeding into sales automation.

Key features to look for in lead-generation software

Lots of the top-notch lead-generation tools out there come with cool features that make the whole lead-getting process a breeze. When you’re in the market for the best lead generation tool or software for your business, you must check out these key features to ensure the tool you pick fits your specific needs and goals.

Let’s take a closer look at these must-have features in a more relaxed and easy-to-understand way.

Automated contact discovery

One of the standout features of these solutions is their ability to automate contact discovery. Through sophisticated algorithms and data-mining techniques, they can scour various online sources, including social media platforms and web searches, to identify and generate leads effortlessly. This automation saves valuable time and ensures a consistent flow of potential customers.

Lead scoring

The best lead generation software also incorporates lead-scoring mechanisms that assign values to leads based on various data points. These data points include demographics, interests, online behavior, and engagement levels. By prioritizing leads with higher scores, you can focus on the most promising prospects, increasing your chances of converting them into customers.

Customizable campaigns

Tailoring your outreach is crucial in attracting and retaining potential customers. These lead generation tools offer robust campaign customization tools that allow you to craft personalized messages and content. Whether it’s through email marketing campaigns, social media, or other channels, you can effectively target your audience with messages that resonate, piquing their interest in your products or services.

Advanced analytics and reporting tools

These tools provide in-depth analytics to gauge the effectiveness of your lead generation efforts. You can track user activity, collect data, monitor engagement, and measure conversion rates with precision. Customizable reports provide valuable insights into lead generation performance. This data-driven approach empowers you to make informed decisions, refine your strategies, and optimize your campaigns for even better results.

Integrations

Modern businesses rely on a diverse set of marketing tools and platforms. Lead generation solutions understand this need for seamless integration and offer compatibility with various marketing technologies. Whether it’s your customer relationship management tool, email marketing platform, or customer analytics tools, these solutions can easily sync with the rest of your marketing stack. This integration simplifies data sharing, ensuring your lead data is always up-to-date and accessible across your organization.

User-friendliness and support

Opt for lead-generating software with intuitive and user-friendly interfaces. This will reduce the learning curve for your sales team and help them leverage the software effectively. Also, ascertain the software provider offers responsive customer support, including training resources and assistance when you encounter issues or have questions.

The key here is to find the right lead-generation solution for your business that fits your brand voice, goals, and budget. With the right tool, you can generate more leads in less time for a more significant ROI. Simply throwing money at a big-dollar lead-gen campaign isn’t enough if your leads don’t align with your target audience.

Top 20 lead generation solutions for 2024

Choosing the right B2B lead generation software tool can feel a bit overwhelming – after all, a simple online search will bring you pages of potential solutions. To help you find the best of the best on the market, I’ve built a list of the 20 highly rated lead generation software options available as of December 2023!

  1. Zendesk Sell: A sales automation and lead generation tool designed to enhance productivity, processes, and pipeline visibility for sales teams.

  2. Pipedrive: A sales-focused CRM tool that helps users visualize their sales processes and manage intricate or lengthy sales cycles.

  3. HubSpot Marketing Hub: An all-in-one marketing platform that includes email marketing tools, social media marketing solutions, and an SEO and content management platform.

  4. Agile CRM: A comprehensive CRM solution offering sales, marketing, and service automation in a single platform.

  5. CallPage: This tool offers a callback automation system that converts website visitors into sales calls, improving lead generation and customer engagement.

  6. AeroLeads: A powerful online lead generation tool for finding contact details, ideal for B2B sales, building a sales funnel, and streamlining marketing efforts.

  7. LeadFuze: A lead generation software aggregating the world’s professional data to continue delivering fresh leads.

  8. LeadsBridge: This tool connects various marketing tools and platforms with hundreds of CRM and email software integrations.

  9. OptinMonster: A popular lead generation software that converts abandoning website visitors into subscribers and customers.

  10. Dealfront (formerly Leadfeeder): A web analytics tool that identifies company visitors on your website and provides insights for sales lead generation.

  11. DiscoverOrg: A comprehensive sales and marketing intelligence tool for outbound lead generation that provides a deep contacts and company information database.

  12. Leadpages: A digital lead generation platform that enables marketers to easily publish web pages, confidently generate leads, and consistently transform clicks into customers.

  13. Intercom: A conversational relationship platform that helps businesses build better customer relationships through personalized, messenger-based experiences.

  14. SharpSpring: A cloud-based marketing automation provider for small and medium-sized businesses.

  15. Albacross: A B2B platform that helps you turn your web traffic into valuable leads by providing insights on companies visiting your site.

  16. Leadberry: A B2B lead generation software that converts website visitors into sales leads through analytics and reporting.

  17. Snov.io: An outreach automation platform for marketers and sales offering a range of tools, including lead generation, email verification, and email sending.

  18. Lusha: Provides B2B contact information at a click, helping businesses enrich profiles and find the right prospects.

  19. Viola Norbert: An email finding and verification tool designed to help businesses with their outreach efforts.

  20. HelpDesk: A ticketing system for managing, tracking, and resolving customer service requests and improving customer support operations.

Now, let’s get into the details of these lead-generation software tools.

1. Zendesk Sell

Zendesk is a leader in tools designed to help your company capture and act on customer data. This lead generation software offers comprehensive sales engagement tools, including lead generation, prospecting, and enrichment solutions. 

You’ll appreciate this: Zendesk Sell allows users to easily create targeted prospect lists and engage contacts with personalized outreach.

2. Pipedrive

Pipedrive is a CRM platform with full lead capture forms, management, and pipeline management features. Pipedrive focuses on CRM-focused automation, making capturing leads easy and turning them into long-term customers.

You’ll appreciate this: Pipedrive offers a mobile sales app and allows for easy lead capture from web forms and chatbot conversations.

3. HubSpot Marketing Hub

A giant in the marketing world, HubSpot Marketing Hub is a marketing software with a lead management system and campaign management functions. They offer a free plan with limited lead generation features. 

You’ll appreciate this: HubSpot Marketing Hub integrates with popular CRM software and email systems, allowing for seamless lead capture and nurturing.

4. Agile CRM

Like Pipedrive, Agile CRM is a customer relations and auto-dialer program designed for small to mid-sized sales and marketing teams. 

You’ll appreciate this: Agile CRM offers features like appointment management, lead scoring, and email finder to help streamline B2C and B2B lead generation and nurturing and optimize marketing efforts further.

5. CallPage

If your business relies on calls to generate leads, why not use the power of automation and AI to enhance your systems? CallPage is a sales call platform with outbound lead management features, including an auto-dialer, live chat, and lead capture. 

You’ll appreciate this: CallPage promises automated callbacks in 28 seconds or less, allowing for instant connection with inbound sales leads.

6. AeroLeads

AeroLeads is an outbound prospect generation program that allows users to find personal and business contact information. Outbound prospecting allows you to target leads more effectively, and AeroLeads provides a web-based platform that is easy to use.

You’ll appreciate this: AeroLeads offers an extensive database of emails and integrates with popular CRM systems, making it easy to find and nurture new leads anywhere.

7. LeadFuze

LeadFuze is a contact finder for salespeople, recruiters, and marketers. They offer features like prospecting tools, a contact database, and lead nurturing and qualification. 

You’ll appreciate this: LeadFuze allows users to find hyper-specific leads based on factors like industry or company size, helping to target leads effectively and improving the sales process.

8. LeadsBridge

LeadsBridge is a lead generation software with social media marketing tools and over 380 integrations. This means you can plug it into various already-existing systems and optimize the lead generation process and capture.

You’ll appreciate this: LeadsBridge allows businesses to capture leads from various sources and integrates seamlessly with different CRMs, making lead management and segmentation easier.

9. OptinMonster

Focused on a plugin-style style, OptinMonster is a marketing-based lead generation tool with features like lead capture, segmentation, and email integration. 

You’ll appreciate this: OptinMonster offers various tools to help convert website visitors into leads, such as exit intent detection, landing page templates, and gamified wheels.

10. Dealfront (formerly Leadfeeder)

Dealfront is an all-in-one B2B sales and marketing platform combining lead generation, web visitor identification, data enrichment, and analytics.

You’ll appreciate this: Dealfront supports both outbound and inbound lead generation, providing a comprehensive solution for keeping sales funnels full of prospects.

11. DiscoverOrg

DiscoverOrg provides accurate and up-to-date data on target companies and contacts to improve B2B sales and marketing efforts. It helps businesses generate quality leads and improve sales.

You’ll appreciate this: When you need a scalable and accurate solution to access contact data, DiscoverOrg has plenty of features with various price points.

12. Leadpages

Leadpages makes it easy for anyone to create high-converting landing pages, pop-ups, alerts, and more to turn website visitors into leads. It offers a variety of templates and customization options to effectively engage and convert website visitors.

You’ll appreciate this: Leadpages is unique in capturing the needs of both landing page builders and-page-specific businesses. It gives them tailored options for customizing their pages so they can be sure to engage their potential customers.

13. Intercom

Intercom is a customer messaging platform that allows businesses to engage with their website visitors and capture leads through live chat, targeted messages, and chatbots. It helps businesses drive more meaningful conversations and generate qualified leads.

You’ll appreciate this: Using AI-powered data to capture leads makes it a time-saving and cost-effective solution for businesses. Plus, Intercom offers easily customizable templates to quickly create personalized conversations.

14. SharpSpring

SharpSpring is a marketing automation tool with lead generation features like landing page creation, email marketing, and lead scoring. It helps businesses attract, engage, and convert leads more effectively.

You’ll appreciate this: Built on the same systems as Constant Contact, SharpSpring has powerful segmentation capabilities and automated triggers that give you the ability to customize messages for each user.

15. Albacross

Albacross is a website visitor tracking tool that provides businesses with valuable data on companies that visit their website. It helps businesses identify potential leads and target them with personalized outreach.

You’ll appreciate this: You can start collecting insights on companies that fit your ideal customer profile within minutes of setting up the tool. It also has powerful segmentation capabilities to help you personalize outreach for each lead.

16. Leadberry

Leadberry is a B2B lead generation tool that identifies website visitors and provides their contact information. The lead gen tool is completely web-based and uses Google Analytics to give you insight into targeted leads.

You’ll appreciate this: Leadberry makes capturing and qualifying leads easy, so you can focus your time on generating more of them.

17. Snov.io

Snov.io is an email finder and verifier tool that enables businesses to find and validate email addresses. It helps businesses build a targeted email list and reach out to potential leads more effectively.

You’ll appreciate this: With Snov.io, you can quickly verify emails and ensure your messages reach the right people. Plus, it makes it easier to reach out to potential leads with comprehensive data on them.

18. Lusha

Lusha is a contact data enrichment tool that helps businesses find accurate contact information for leads. It provides phone numbers, email addresses, and social media profiles, allowing businesses to engage with leads through multiple channels.

You’ll appreciate this: Lusha’s data is highly accurate and helps businesses quickly identify contact information for leads. Plus, its pricing structure makes it an affordable solution for any budget.

19. Viola Norbert

When you need a basic email list for your marketing, Viola Norbert is a great resource. Norbert claims it can find and track down email addresses in a few seconds. With the Pro plan, you can also find and verify contact information for social media profiles.

You’ll appreciate this: This is the basics of the basics – giving you exactly what you need to get started with your email marketing list. It’s super simple and cost-effective, meaning you can start small and scale up as needed.

20. HelpDesk

As a customer service software solution, HelpDesk has everything teams need to manage incoming inquiries, questions, and support cases. Each customer request receives a unique ticket in the system for streamlined communication, status tracking, and resolution.

You’ll appreciate this: With real-time alerts and visibility when existing accounts and contacts visit your site or submit tickets, you gain the intel needed to route them to the appropriate team for conversion conversations.

Get more loyal customers

Try HelpDesk for 14 days to test the support strategies featured in the blog and save a bunch of time.

You'll be in good company

Free 14-day trial

Tips for evaluating and selecting lead generation tools

With countless options on the market, choosing the right lead generation software for your unique business needs can feel overwhelming. Here are crucial criteria to consider as you assess solutions:

Integrations

Look for tools with native connectors or APIs to integrate with the many other tools and platforms you rely on – your CRM, marketing automation, sales engagement, analytics, etc. Streamlined system-to-system data flows will maximize value.

Intended use case

Carefully evaluate the features offered to confirm that they align with how you intend to leverage the software. Will you use it mainly for collecting inbound leads from your website? Conducting outbound prospecting? Scoring leads? Personalizing email sequences?

Ease of use

Complex tools with steep learning curves lead to slow user adoption. Platforms with intuitive navigation and capabilities reachable in just a few clicks accelerate leverage. Consider the technical skills of your users.

Budget

Lead gen tools range widely in terms of monthly cost depending on factors like the number of users, contacts stored, emails sent, etc. Have a clear sense of the budget before evaluating options.

Free trial policy

The best way to gauge if a platform is the right fit is through first-hand experience. SaaS lead tools typically offer free trials ranging from 14 to 30 days to test functionality.

Invest in the best lead generation software for your team

From sales teams to marketing departments, choosing the right B2B lead generation solution is key for long-term customer retention. Not only can you find the right consumer who will become a potential customer, but you can also enhance your existing systems without overhauling your current workflow.

The above are the best lead generation tools on the market – each with its own unique features and capabilities. Take the time to research the various options, and take advantage of trials to see which fits best with your needs.

With the right tool, you can help ensure that your business’s new visitors and inquiries will convert into customers for years to come!