13 Best Lead Generation Strategies for Agencies In 2025 

Unless your company is as big as Apple or Google, generating leads will always be a challenge.

(Yeah, that’s the hard truth! 🥲)

That’s why having the right lead generation strategies in place is key to keeping your agency’s sales pipeline full.

In this guide, I’ll share proven lead generation techniques that have helped me generate millions of dollars’ worth of leads.

So trust me—they work! 😉

Bonus: Along the way, you’ll also find FREE lead generation tips and tool recommendations to help you build an effective strategy for your agency.

Let’s get started! 

13 Lead Generation Strategies for Agencies That Work

I’ve rounded up 13 tried-and-tested lead generation techniques to help you attract high-quality leads.

Because let’s be real, leads alone won’t grow your business. You need the right leads—the ones that are more likely to convert to prospects. 

• Send Personalized Cold Emails
• Directly Cold Call Prospects
• Use LinkedIn for Social Selling & Outreach
• Try Intent-based ABM
• Run Hyper-Targeted Ads
• Automate Whatever You Can
• Partner with Influencers
• Scale Content Marketing
• Optimize SEO Strategies
• Get Listed in High-Traffic Directories
• Optimize Lead Gen Sign-Up Forms
• Engage in Networking
• Ask Clients to Give Reviews

Tip: Check out our dedicated guide to learn about lead generation in detail.

1. Send Personalized Cold Emails

Cold Emailing Isn’t Dead!

In fact, it’s one of the best lead generation strategies for agencies, mainly because it has the lowest lead acquisition cost and delivers great returns.

I’ve been using cold email as my primary lead generation method for years, and it’s helped me land countless clients and close deals. 

Why?

Because of two simple reasons:

• You’re in control of who you reach out to instead of waiting for leads to come to you.
• You can directly connect with decision-makers without spending a fortune on ads or relying on referrals.

But cold emailing doesn’t mean blasting out 100s of emails a day. 

Cold emailing is highly cost-effective, but its success depends on execution.

If you want real results, you need to follow a few key rules:

• Only reach out to targeted leads who would actually benefit from your offer.
• Personalize every email—no copy-pasting generic templates.
• Keep your message short, relevant, and straight to the point.
• Always include a clear, actionable CTA.
• Don’t send more than 50 emails per day from one email account.

💡 Tip: Check out our detailed guide on cold emailing best practices to learn how to launch campaigns that actually get responses.

That said, here’s one more cool fact about cold emailing! 

So, there’s no harm in implementing this lead generation method in your agency’s growth plan!

Suggested Tool for Sending Cold Emails

For sending cold emails, Saleshandy is my go-to tool. It’s an AI-assisted cold email tool that allows you to send personalized emails at scale while maintaining optimal deliverability rates.

There are other cold email software options in the market, but the value Saleshandy provides at its price point is unmatched by competitors.

2. Directly Cold Call Prospects

One of the oldest and most time-tested lead generation methods is cold calling. 

However, calling people who have never heard of you or your business before sounds a bit intimidating, right?

But if done right, cold calling can be highly effective. Just take a page from The Wolf of Wall Street—Jordan Belfort and his team followed a simple process:

• Build a cold calling list
• Call them with a proper script
• Follow up until they were convinced to buy

That’s it! With the right cold call script, they built a million-dollar company.

So why is cold calling in second place on my list if it’s that EFFECTIVE?

Because times have changed. 

With more communication channels available, people are busier and more protective of their professional boundaries. 

Many professionals prefer email over unexpected calls. In fact, some sales reps have reported that prospects making cold calls are unprofessional.

Suggested Cold Calling Strategy

Instead of directly reaching out to your prospects through calls, first send them a cold email. Once you’ve introduced yourself, take up and ask for a good time to connect via a call. 

This way, your call won’t come as a surprise to them, as they’ll already know who you are and why you’re reaching out.

Suggested Tool for Cold Calling

If you’re choosing cold calling as a lead generation tactic for your agency, then DialPad is the best tool for you. It’s an AI-powered solution that has a built-in dialer and has tools to make your calling strategy more effective.

3. Use LinkedIn for Social Selling & Outreach

Unlike cold outreach, this lead generation strategy for agencies focuses on building a connection first before making a sales pitch.

To generate leads from LinkedIn, you should do the following:

• Connect with the right people
• Engage on posts and leave helpful comments
• Post relevant and high-quality content on LinkedIn to build credibility

Once you’ve formed a connection with your prospect, you can directly pitch your services.

Here is how I post the insightful posts on LinkedIn.

💡Tip: Take your prospects’ LinkedIn profile URL and then use Saleshandy’s B2B Lead Finder to get accurate contact information like email addresses and phone numbers.

By doing this, you maximize your chances of converting your prospects as you’ll be reaching out to them through multiple channels.

Suggested Tool for LinkedIn Outreach

You can automate your LinkedIn prospecting with AI using Waalaxy. It will allow you to create personalized messages and connection requests. 

4. Try Intent-based ABM

What if you could convert qualified leads before your competitors do?

Tempting, right?

Using intent data for account-based marketing is another lead generation technique that agencies can try!

It allows you to discover prospects who are either actively searching for services like yours (showing buying signals) or have already visited your website (identified through visitor tracking).

By getting attention or reaching out to these contacts right when their buyer journey begins, you can guide their decision-making process.

Intent-driven account-based marketing is all about targeting the right leads at the right time.

That said, you can also use it to hyper-personalize your lead generation rather than wasting your efforts on generic prospects.

Suggested Tool for Finding Intent Data

6Sense is one of the best Intent Data Providers you can use to find the accounts that will be more likely to buy your services. 

5. Run Hyper-Targeted Ads

Targeted ads are a basic but powerful lead generation strategy online for agencies.

With ads, you can grab the attention of your prospects on search engines, social media platforms, and websites.

The thing that amazes me about advertising is that it gives you complete control over your budget and lets you tailor campaigns to target specific keywords.

Here are some tips you should follow to make sure you get maximum results from running ads:

• Do accurate keyword research
• Write short & compelling copy
• Make sure you optimize your landing page
• Try different variations of ads and see which one works best
• Monitor the results and optimize over time

Also, it’s important to note that ads aren’t only run for conversion purposes but can also be run for awareness.

This is how my team and I run digital ads:

• Google – for conversion

• Facebook – for brand awareness

And to be honest, we’ve been getting great results from ads. The conversion ratio is decent (like 30-40%). 

Although it’s not as good as outreach, it boils down to the fact that —every lead generation channel is great as long as it’s driving in leads!

6. Automate Whatever You Can

Do you want to know a Lead generation best practice to get more leads faster?

Use automation or AI to save your time and effort that would go into doing mundane or time-consuming tasks.

As an agency, you already have limited resources, time & money to focus on and grow your own business. Therefore, this can be the best way to generate leads from the assets you already have.

Here is how you can do it! 

For instance, you are using cold emails as a lead generation tactic. 

Rather than you writing each email, personalizing it and sending it manually, use an email outreach tool to automate this process! 

Suggested Tool for Automating Lead Generation Workflow

There are plenty of tools in the market that can help you automate your end-to-end lead generation efforts, but my team has found the best from the rest; hence take a look at these AI Lead Generation Tools

7. Partner with Influencers

40% of B2B marketers are seeing an increase in sales and lead generation after partnering with influencers.

Crazy, right?!

These influencers have thousands and millions of followers on social media platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook and are considered gurus in their niche, therefore, people trust their suggestions!

But how do you find these influencers?

Well, you can consider my tips – with them, I’ve successfully partnered with influencers:

• Search LinkedIn & Twitter to find industry experts with high engagement
• Check if the content they’re posting is authentic
• Verify they have real followers
• Make sure the content they post aligns with your services
• Ask for their past collaborations and the results they’ve achieved

Suggested Tool for Finding the Best-fit Influencers

Upfluence is a great influencer marketing platform that allows you to search and recruit influencers for free!

8. Scale Content Marketing

Content is king!

Creating valuable and unique content can be a game-changing lead generation strategy for your agency as it helps you build authority and credibility in your industry.

For me, the beauty of content is that you can use it in so many ways – there’s total liberty when it comes to content!

You can create content through various forms like:

• Blog posts
• Social media posts
• Videos
• Podcasts

And repurpose the same content through all these channels.

Moreover, you can also build a content marketing funnel that will help you get recurring streams of inbound leads.

Here’s a basic content marketing funnel that my team follows, and I won’t be lying – it has helped us (and is still helping us) get a consistent stream of MQLs!

• ToFU – “What is a Cold Email?” (This blog creates awareness among people considering cold emailing)
• MoFU – “How to Write a Cold Email?” (This further educates potential customers interested in sending cold emails)
• BoFU – “Best Cold Email Software” (This helps in the decision-making process for prospects who now want to send cold emails and are looking for tools to assist them in this process)

We’ve also repurposed this blog content to create LinkedIn posts and YouTube videos!

Suggested Tool for Content Marketing

You can try Semrush, an all-in-one tool that can help you set the foundation for content marketing.

9. Optimize SEO Strategies

Another best lead generation strategy in digital marketing I’ll introduce you to is search engine optimization.

You might think that SEO is all about on-page, off-page, technical, and local optimization.

Well, these are important and non-negotiable aspects of SEO, but they’re just the basics to rank on search engines and bring traffic!

To generate targeted leads with SEO, you need to adopt advanced strategies like creating comparison pages or service pages that rank organically.

For example, see our Saleshandy vs. Lemlist comparison page.

We’ve highlighted how we stand out from one of our competitors. Similarly, you can create a service page for your agency, demonstrating what services you provide and how you stand out from the competition.

That said, by doing this, you’ll be able to measure the success of your lead generation tactics more effectively since you’ll be chasing more important metrics.

Suggested Tool for SEO

Ahrefs is the tool you can use to get more leads with SEO.

10. Get Listed in High-Traffic Directories

The next lead generation technique to improve your agency’s visibility is by being listed in a directory.

These directories already have a built-in audience base, which means they’ll put you in front of potential clients who are actively searching for services like yours.

Suggested Agency Directories

You can register your agency in Saleshandy’s directory and optimize your profile with the latest reviews and services. 

11. Optimize Lead Gen Sign-Up Forms

You can collect your customer’s contact information through various techniques.

But here’s the easiest lead generation strategy that you can use to get your prospect’s information: Create a lead generation form. 

However, you need to keep it simple! 

Don’t ask for too much information from your customers! Just think from their perspective, they will not be interested in filling up long forms!

Just get the important details like name, company name, or email address.

And later fill in the data gaps to create a complete sales lead list.

Suggested Tool For Creating CTAs, Landing Pages And Pop-Up Forms:

OptinMonster allows you to create popups, floating bars, countdown timers, and exit intent detection with 700+ templates.

12. Engage in Networking

This lead generation trick requires you to go out of your shell and build a business network of potential clients or partners. 

You can either connect with them through an event, webinar, or through platforms like LinkedIn & Twitter. 

The tip here is not to waste time with random people and instead focus on building relationships that can have monetary benefits. 

In my opinion, it can become one of your most successful lead generation strategies for your agency as you will be either connecting with people who can either give you work or with whom you can partner to grow your business. 

So it’s a win-win! 

Suggested Tool to Do Business Networking

LinkedIn is widely considered the best tool for networking and building relationships in the professional sphere. 

13. Ask Clients to Give Reviews

Asking reviews from your happy customers will be the most effective and free B2B lead generation strategies for agencies.

People trust people! More than any landing page, social media post, or anything else! That’s why authentic reviews from real people can be super useful in building your online reputation.

Some clients will give you reviews without prompting, but to get reviews from existing clients or those still working with you, you can run an email campaign and send a gift voucher if they leave a review.

This will increase your chances of getting more reviews. But here’s the catch: don’t overdo it!

68% of consumers won’t believe your reviews are legitimate if you don’t have any negative ones!

If you’re not sure which review sites to focus on, simply search for your competitors and be present where they are! That’s where potential customers will come to find and compare your agency with others.

This can be especially beneficial if you’re a startup since you can compete with the big players in your industry.

These are the customer reviews of Saleshandy on G2:

Wrapping Up!

Implementing all these lead generation strategies for your agency can be overwhelming! 

Therefore, here’s the safest lead generation idea from me. 

Suppose none of the ideas seem appealing to you. Then I can suggest only one thing.

Opt for the safest strategy that brings you the highest ROI — Cold Emailing!

Here’s what you need to do –

• Find potential leads from Saleshandy’s lead database of 700M+ professionals.
• Add them to your cold email sequence (in Saleshandy itself)
• Set the sending schedule & take care of replies 🙂

That’s all. Low investment – High return

FAQs on Lead Generation for Agencies

1. What Is the Best Way to Find Leads?

Ideally, relying on one source for getting leads is not a good idea. You should have a multi-dimensional approach toward finding leads.

You can start by combining new digital strategies with old-fashioned relationship-building methods. For example, you can run digital ads, send cold emails, and attend networking events. It will cover major outreach methods.

2. What Is Lead Generation for Digital Agencies?

Lead generation for agencies has two major parts – identifying ICPs & targeting them. To do this, you have to find potential clients who need to outsource certain parts of their business processes. Next comes the targeting. For this, you can choose an inbound or outbound or even both approaches.

3. What Are the Most Effective Lead Generation Tactics?

If you want to know lead generation for agencies follow these strategies:

• Content Marketing: This works really well if you create valuable blogs, videos, or webinars that answer your audience’s questions.
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO): You need to ensure that your website ranks well on search engines like Google. (It’s a good alternative for Paid ads)
• Social Media Engagement: Depending on your target audience, you can stay active on platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, or even Reddit to connect with potential leads.
• Email Marketing / Cold Emailing: It’s one of the highest ROI lead generation methods. Must try.
• Paid Advertising: You can run targeted ads on Google or social media to attract a specific audience.
• Networking and Referrals: No investment, works well. Gets you unexpected leads that can go a long way without churning.