My Top 5 Lead Generation Tools

These tools helped me scale my freelance writing business from a one-man operation to a full-blown content marketing agency with a team of eight freelance writers and marketers. Add these tools to your arsenal to start generating more leads for your business.

Hubspot CRM

If you're not already using a CRM or a Customer Relationship Management tool to keep track of your leads, you're leaving business on the table. If you're conducting regular prospecting activities (which you should) it's difficult to keep track of all the conversations you have on a daily basis.

Hubspot's free CRM helps you keep track of all your business opportunities. Set reminders, schedule follow-ups, and much more. I've used several CRM's throughout my career and Hubspot is by far my favorite.

If you're ready to give it a try, you can create a free account here.

Mailshake

Cold email is a staple in any freelance writer's business. From reaching out to new companies for business to pitching stories to media, it's an incredibly effective tool. How do you manage cold email campaigns at scale? Mailshake.

This software is specically designed to scale your cold email outreach efforts. Send hundreds of emails and follow-up sequences within a scheduled timeframe to nurture leads and pitch new clients on autopilot. Mailshake integrates with Gmail to send emails directly through your email service provider so it looks like you're reaching out to contacts personally one-to-one.

Ditch unpersonalized broadcast emails from MailChimp or Constant Contact.

I wrote a detailed breakdown on my favorite way to use Mailshake here.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator

CRMs and automated email tools are great for nurturing leads, but you need to find these new business opportunities before you can use them!

Sales Navigator is my favorite tool for finding businesses who need freelance writers. The search features are incredible. Type in the exact criteria of your target market, put together lists of decision-makers, and reach out to them directly on LinkedIn.

Sales Navigator is a $99/month premium account feature, but
it's a worthy investment. If you land even just one client with it,
you'll easily pay for the subscription fee.

Dux-Soup

Once you've found a list of your ideal clients with LinkedIn Sales Navigator, you have to start reaching out to them. Pitching your services and following up is time-consuming. Especially if you've created a list of 1,000+ decision-makers at companies you'd love to work with.

Scale your outreach efforts with Dux-Soup.

The tool comes with free and premium subscription options depending on how aggressive you'd like to be with your outreach. I personally recommend their professional plan for $15/month.

You can check out Dux-Soup here.

Loom

Video is one of the most effective ways to personalize your
outreach. Whether you're introducing yourself or demonstrating how you can improve the copy on a prospect's website, video is a great way to show how you can help.

Loom is a free screen-share video tool that lets you easily send a link to your recording through email, LinkedIn, or anywhere else you're communicating with people. Download the Chrome extension and start recording with a single click. It's super fast and efficient which is great if you're sending out several messages pitching new clients.

Loom also has built-in analytics that tell you when people watch your videos. Use these features to plan your follow-up based on their actions.

Download the Loom Chrome extension here.

I've used several tools and resources throughout my time as a writer and entrepreneur. These are the tried and true that are still part of my workflow today.

I hope you find them as helpful as I have.

Aside from these tools, if you need help building an outreach strategy, check out my masterclass.

I’ve spent my career building and refining a repeatable process for growing a freelance business.

In the masterclass, I teach the same strategies I used to land clients like Forbes, Entrepreneur, Foundr, Google, HP, Capital One, SAP, and more.

To your success,

Dan