How to create an effective Lead?

Begin by defining your higher-level business objectives (such as revenue goals, ROI expectations, etc.), followed by your campaign objectives (expected number of leads generated, quality of leads obtained, etc.), and lastly outline your tactical objectives (schedule, budget, etc.). By defining these goals from the outset, you are more likely to create a campaign that meets your expectations. Too often companies embark upon campaigns that have no quantifiable goals in mind and then later wonder why the campaign was not "successful."

In my opinion, there should be a clean database maintained. While it sounds simple and very obvious, many companies do not diligently process requests to be removed from their mailing lists, undeliverable e-mails, update forwarded addresses, and worse still, many do not check for duplicate records. By NOT performing routine database maintenance, you run the risk of having your database populated with “cold,” or “unqualified” leads, which unfortunately will add to the cost and possible failure of future campaigns. These costs can be added in a variety of ways including, but by no means limited to, distribution costs, print costs, or costs per lead. You want to maximize your marketing dollars and your database by targeting only the most valid, accurate, and qualified leads.

I beleive, Few companies succeed in turning prospects into customers without the help of a structured lead-management system, which should include telemarketing. The general principles of lead management create an ordered structure for managing volumes of business inquiries, frequently termed leads. The process creates an architecture for organization of data, distributed across the various stages of a sales process, and across a distributed sales force. With the advent of the Internet and other information systems technologies, this process has rapidly become technology-centric, as businesses practicing lead management techniques have shifted much of the prior manual workload to automation systems, though personal interaction with lead inquiries is still vital to success.

We should apply 2 separate teams for effective & live lead generation. 1. Internal team should explore by various means - new & existing  customers,  markets,  product demands, competition. 2. Marketing team should catch nerve of market and report to internal team, as well as make personal contacts and tap leads.

Business Development Manager is responsible for aligning the working of both teams and get results.

There is another angle... proper marketing communications and perfect media planning eases the hardwork.

And we know, relationship with  long term customers is better than short term customers giving temporary boost.