A Guide to Using AI for Lead Generation (+ Bonus Tactic for Pros)

If you're in demand gen, you know the drill: the CEO wants sales-qualified leads doubled by next quarter. It’s a tall order, and AI-powered lead generation is likely on your radar as a potential game-changer to meet those targets. 

With new tools for lead generation constantly emerging, this can still feel like uncharted territory. 

We’ll walk you through five proven ways to use AI for lead generation—plus one bonus tactic to help you stay ahead of the competition. These strategies will help you bring more prospects into your funnels and convert them into paying customers.

1. Use AI to enrich your buyer personas

Before using AI to generate leads, you need to make sure it knows exactly who your audience is. A vague description won’t cut it. For example, if you feed machine-learning algorithms something generic like “targeting decision-makers in tech,” the results won’t be nearly as useful. Specificity is key.

One of the best sources for building detailed buyer personas (and data enrichment) is the conversations your team has with prospects. If your BDR and SDR calls are recorded, then you’re sitting on a goldmine of first-hand information about your audience’s needs and pain points.

It’s time to put this into action!

What you’ll need:

• Call recordings: Tools like Gong, or even some CRMs, allow you to record and archive calls. They will be our source of insight and training material at the same time.
• Transcription tool: Most recording tools come with transcription built-in, but if not, AI-based options like Riverside or Turboscribe can handle this.
• ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) framework: This will help you build a good prompt for AI providing you with a usable structure, focusing on customer pain points, buying motivations, and triggers.
• ChatGPT: With the data from the calls and a structured ICP framework, ChatGPT can help you organize and expand your buyer personas.

How to do it:

Step 1. Define key ICP parameters. List the key parameters that matter most for your ideal customer profile. Further, this will become your persona template. For example:

• Industry
• Location
• Company size
• Budget
• Pain points
• Business goals

Step 2. Transcribe and label the challenges mentioned: Begin by transcribing your call recordings, then use AI to highlight key challenges mentioned in each. This initial labeling organizes insights for later steps. 

Step 3. Cluster similar responses. Prospects often phrase similar issues in different ways. Ask AI to group related challenges and goals into broader themes. For instance, “budget constraints” and “limited resources” could be clustered together, which condenses scattered insights into clear categories.

Step 4. Refine your persona template. Feed the clustered insights into a buyer persona template. Here’s a prompt example of how to turn these insights into a refined persona with artificial intelligence: 

Step 5. Iterate and validate. Review the AI-generated personas, and, ideally, validate them with your sales team. This iterative approach ensures that your personas are grounded in real interactions and align closely with your target audience.

Here’s an example of AI-generated buyer persona for Improvado:

Buyer Persona: Emily Thompson

Job Title: Head of Marketing Analytics
Industry: E-commerce
Company Size: Mid-sized, experiencing rapid growth
Location: Urban tech hub

Background

Emily Thompson is a seasoned professional with over 10 years of experience in marketing analytics. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Marketing and an MBA with a focus on Data Analytics. Working at a mid-sized e-commerce company that's experiencing rapid growth, Emily is tasked with optimizing marketing campaigns across multiple channels—such as Google Ads, Facebook, and email marketing—and aligning analytics with overarching business goals.

She is known for her strategic thinking and ability to translate complex data into actionable insights. Emily is passionate about leveraging data to drive decision-making and is always on the lookout for innovative ways to enhance marketing performance and workflows.

Challenges

• Data Integration Difficulties: Emily struggles to combine data from various platforms like Google Ads, Facebook, and the company's CRM system. The disparate data sources make it challenging to gain unified insights and hinder comprehensive analysis.
• Pressure to Prove ROI: With leadership increasingly focused on ROI and attribution metrics, Emily feels the pressure to demonstrate the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. However, the lack of efficient tools hampers reliable attribution and reporting.
• Budget Constraints: Tight budget limitations restrict her ability to adopt advanced analytics solutions, making it difficult to streamline operations and adopt new technologies.
• Time Consumption: Manual reporting processes are time-consuming, reducing the time available for strategic planning and optimization.

Goals and Motivations

• Optimize Marketing Spend: Emily aims to ensure that every marketing dollar is spent efficiently, maximizing return on investment and business growth.
• Enhance Campaign Targeting and Personalization: She is motivated to improve campaign effectiveness by leveraging data for better targeting and personalized customer experiences.
• Consolidate Reporting: Emily seeks to consolidate reporting for cross-channel campaigns to reduce manual effort, increase accuracy, and gain holistic insights.
• Stay Competitive: Aware that competitors are utilizing advanced analytics, she is driven to adopt similar or superior tools to maintain a competitive edge.

Common Objections

• Cost and Implementation Time: Concerned about the expenses and time required to set up new tools, especially under tight budget constraints.
• Data Privacy and Security: Worries about the risks associated with data privacy and security when integrating third-party solutions.
• Learning Curve: Uncertainty about how quickly she and her team can adapt to new platforms without significant disruption.
• Resource Allocation: Skeptical about whether adopting new tools will require additional staffing or retraining.

Buying Triggers

• Leadership Focus on ROI: Increased emphasis from executives on demonstrating clear ROI and effective attribution drives her to seek better solutions.
• Need for Unified Platform: Pressure to adopt a unified data platform to streamline reporting processes and enhance data accuracy.
• Competitive Pressure: Recent benchmarking indicates that competitors leverage advanced analytics for data-driven marketing, prompting Emily to consider similar advancements.

Communication Style

• Professional yet Approachable Tone: Prefers communications that are formal but friendly, avoiding overly technical jargon.
• Clear and Actionable Insights: Values straightforward information that she can act upon immediately.
• Focus on Solutions: Responds well to messaging that highlights cost-effectiveness, ease of implementation, and robust data security.
• Reassurance on Learning Curve: Needs assurance that new tools will be easy to learn and will free up time for strategic initiatives.

Preferred Information Channels

• Industry Newsletters and Blogs: Subscribes to stay updated on the latest trends and solutions.
• Webinars and Workshops: Attends online events for professional development and to explore new tools.
• LinkedIn and Professional Networks: Active on professional platforms for networking and industry insights.
• Conferences and Trade Shows: Values face-to-face interactions and hands-on demonstrations of new technologies.

Technology Preferences

• Current Tools: Relies on basic analytics software and spreadsheets, indicating openness to more sophisticated yet user-friendly solutions.
• Integration Capability: Looks for tools that can seamlessly integrate with existing platforms like CRM systems and advertising channels.
• Scalability: Prefers solutions that can grow with the company and adapt to increasing data complexity.

Quotes

• "I need a way to unify our data sources without exceeding our budget."
• "Demonstrating ROI is crucial, but our current tools just aren't cutting it."
• "Data security is non-negotiable when considering third-party integrations."
• "I want my team to spend less time on manual reports and more on strategy."

2. Use AI to find more prospects to target

AI can significantly broaden your prospecting in B2B by helping you identify new accounts that match your ICP. Tools like ChatGPT can assist in discovering companies similar to your high-value customers or refining existing account lists based on additional criteria.

Here’s how to implement this:

What you’ll need:

• ChatGPT

Tactic #1: Finding similar accounts

If you’re focused on B2B lead generation and want to find companies that resemble your high-value clients, you can prompt ChatGPT to compile a list of lookalike companies. Here are sample prompts:

• “Find [150] companies similar to [Company Name] in terms of industry, size, and region.”
• “Gather a list of companies in the same [scope/scale] as [Company Name].”

Tactic #2: Refining the list by additional criteria

Once you have an initial list, use AI to narrow it down further by asking ChatGPT to evaluate these companies against specific criteria (e.g., recent growth, tech stack, or industry focus):

• “From this list of companies, identify those that also have [specific criteria, e.g., recent funding rounds, use of marketing automation tools, or HQ location].”

For a more tailored list, specify all attributes in a prompt and have ChatGPT find companies that meet your exact criteria.

• “List companies that are in [industry], have [employee range], are based in [region], and are similar in scope to [Company Name].”

Note: The knowledge cutoff date for OpenAI's GPT-4o model is October 2023, so consider double-checking or cross-referencing any leads it generates to ensure accuracy.

3. Use AI for targeted outreach

AI can simplify identifying ideal prospects and crafting personalized outreach emails, allowing you to create a high-quality lead list and deliver messages that resonate. With AI tools, your outreach becomes faster, more targeted, and more compelling.

What you’ll need:

• Prospecting tool: Use a lead prospecting platform, such as Instantly.io or Hunter.io, to locate decision-makers within your target companies and build email lists.
• AI-writing tool: ChatGPT, Supersonic, Jasper, or any other tool you might prefer to generate personalized outreach emails.

How to do it:

Step 1. Build a targeted prospect list. If you’ve already used AI to identify companies and personas that match your ICP, it’s time to drill down to the decision-makers within those companies. With a prospecting platform, you can find qualified leads and their valid contact information, emails or even work phone numbers, without long manual research.

Step 2. Generate tailored outreach emails. Use AI-based writing assistants to draft personalized emails for each contact. These tools can help you create messages for each lead’s industry, role, and challenges. Thanks to this, your outreach is more engaging and relevant.

Example prompt: 

• “Draft an outreach email to a [Job Title] at [Company Name] addressing their potential challenge with [Pain Point] and suggesting our solution as a remedy.”

Step 3. Refine and send. Review the AI-generated emails, making any necessary adjustments for tone and specificity. Once finalized, use your email marketing or CRM platform to schedule and track your outreach efforts.

4. Use AI to quickly create personalized video messages

Personalized video outreach can be a powerful tool for grabbing attention and building rapport with prospects. With AI-driven video tools, you can create custom video messages without having to be on camera yourself every time. You can reuse the same video but adjust the script to make it seem like you are speaking to each person directly.

What you’ll need

• AI video creation tool: Tools like Heygen or Synthesia can generate realistic video avatars and personalize video messages with custom scripts.

How to do it:

Step 1: Create your video avatar. Start by using an AI video creation tool to build a digital avatar that resembles you. Most tools require you to upload a photo or record a short video. The AI then analyzes your appearance to create a realistic, animated avatar that you can use for future video messages.

Step 2: Write a personalized script. Write a custom message for each of the targeted leads, tailoring it to address their specific pain points, goals, or previous interactions with your brand. 

For example, you could say, 

“Hi [Prospect’s Name], I wanted to share a quick overview of how our solution can help [specific pain point].”

Step 3. Generate and send the video. Input the script into your AI video tool. It will create a video where your avatar appears to be delivering the message naturally. Once the video is ready, you can embed it in an email or send it directly through your outreach platform.

Step 4. Track engagement and follow-up
Use your CRM or email tracking software to monitor who views the video. If a prospect watches the video, follow up with a tailored email or call based on their engagement level.

5. Use AI-powered chatbots on your website

A good salesperson knows that every visitor is a potential lead, even if they start with “oh, I’m just looking.” The same goes for websites. The same principle applies to websites. With customers increasingly comfortable with AI-driven interactions, now is the ideal time to leverage chatbots on your site to enhance the lead generation process.

AI-powered chatbots offer a powerful way to convert passive website visitors into engaged leads by providing personalized, real-time interaction. They can proactively engage, qualify, and nurture leads around the clock, making them an essential tool for AI lead generation and a sales process. 

What you’ll need

• AI chatbot platform: Tools like Drift, Intercom, or MobileMonkey can help you design and implement chatbots that engage visitors, qualify leads, and provide personalized experiences.
• CRM integration: Connect your chatbot to your CRM to capture and track lead data for follow-ups and nurturing.

Tactic #1: Engage visitors with custom prompts

Set up your chatbot to greet visitors with friendly, targeted messages. For instance, it could start with a welcoming prompt such as, “Looking for a specific solution?” or “How can I assist you today?” This immediate engagement makes visitors feel acknowledged and ready to interact.

AI-powered chatbots are quite advanced. They can guide visitors through simple questionnaires, prompting them to share details like email addresses or interests. The chatbot can use qualifying questions (e.g., “Are you looking for a solution for your business or personal use?”) to gather information that helps tailor responses to each visitor.

Tactic #2: Qualify and segment leads in real time

An AI assistant can determine a visitor's level of interest and segment them accordingly:

• Qualified Leads: If the visitor meets your ICP criteria, the chatbot might encourage a call-to-action like booking a demo or scheduling a meeting with a sales representative.
• Early-Stage Visitors: For those who are just exploring, the chatbot can direct them to relevant resources such as blog posts, whitepapers, or case studies, building trust and educating them about your solution.
• Unqualified Leads: If a visitor doesn’t match your ICP, the chatbot can provide general information or direct them to a resource page, freeing up your team to focus on high-value leads.

Tactic #3: Guide users through the sales funnel

AI chatbots can also act as virtual sales reps, answering product questions, offering relevant recommendations, and even sharing pricing options. This personalized interaction helps visitors move down the sales funnel at their own pace, increasing the chances of conversion.

Bonus tactic: Use AI-driven analytics to identify high-impact lead-generation patterns

One of AI’s strongest capabilities is its ability to analyze historical data and detect patterns that drive the most successful lead generation: channels, activities, and campaigns. This analysis enables a proactive approach to lead generation, allowing marketers to optimize budgets and strategies based on real insights.

What you’ll need

• Data aggregation and analytics tools: Marketing analytics and intelligence platforms like Improvado. 

How it works

You likely already have marketing analytics in place. However, as channels increase, the amount of data grows exponentially, along with the effort and time needed to extract valuable insights.

Step 1. Consolidate data across channels. Gather data from all lead-generation sources, including paid ads, SEO, social media, and email campaigns. With multiple channels, data often exists in varied formats, making it challenging to derive unified insights.

Tools like Improvado automate this process by centralizing and normalizing data from disparate sources, creating a clean, standardized dataset for comprehensive analysis.

Step 2. Analyze and identify lead-generation patterns. Use AI-powered dashboards to identify patterns and correlations in the data, such as which channels or campaigns yield the highest-quality leads. 

For instance, you might find that organic search delivers a higher conversion rate than paid ads, or that email campaigns lead to longer sales cycles but bring in more valuable leads.

Step 3. Apply insights to your AI lead generation strategy. 

• Increase investment in high-performing channels: If a particular channel consistently brings in valuable leads, consider allocating more budget to maximize ROI.
• Optimize or drop low-performing channels: If certain channels have high costs but low-quality leads, adjust your approach or reallocate the budget elsewhere.
• Replicate success in future campaigns: If specific messaging or campaign strategies perform well, apply these insights to similar campaigns to replicate success.

Step 4. Use AI algorithms for forecasting and scenario planning. The Improvado platform also offers you predictive analytics that allow you to model hypothetical scenarios. For example, with Improvado, you can project how increasing Google Ads spend by $50,000 might impact performance and revenue.

These insights make it easier to justify budget adjustments to leadership by providing data-backed projections, giving confidence in achieving quarterly and annual OKRs.

AI for lead generation is the future

AI technology is transforming lead generation efforts, creating a more efficient sales pipeline, driving higher conversion rates across industries, and closing deals. Today’s AI-driven marketing and sales tools are smarter, enhancing lead generation results organically and optimizing outreach with precision.

If you haven’t implemented AI for lead generation strategies, now is the time to start. And if you need assistance powering your AI lead generation with powerful insights, Improvado is here to help. Let’s talk about how we can elevate your lead generation strategy.

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