General
Effective Lead Generation Strategies You Should Try
“We need more leads”
If you’re in sales and marketing, you’ve probably heard these words or said them to your team.
Rightly so, since growing the business depends on your ability to attract high-quality leads and gradually turn them into paying customers.
For this to happen, you’ll need lead generation strategies that increase brand awareness, generate interest in your products/services, and encourage potential customers to engage.
Strategies that create new opportunities for you to capitalize on and close.
To that end, we have laid out five tactics that may help boost your lead generation efforts.
1. Invest in Lead Generation Software
Sales and marketing teams spend a lot of time collecting and analyzing contact information manually. The process is tedious, time-consuming, and may yield inaccurate results.
Lead generation software makes work easier by automating the process, allowing your team to focus on other aspects of selling.
The software captures a visitor’s information at points of contact, whether that is a visit to your landing page or a document download, etc. You’ll learn how potential customers are interacting with your business and customize their journey accordingly.
Here are some features to look out for:
- Ease of use: look for software that’s designed for marketing teams not web developers or programmers. The team should be able to use the software without referring to or dabbling in code.
- Integrations: your preferred software should sync seamlessly with your existing Martech stack. This will make for effective inter-tool communication and reporting.
- Scalability: software that can grow with you is software worth investing in. The system should have the capacity to handle expanding operations and related needs.
- Analytics: the ability to analyze collected data and generate reports will help you streamline marketing efforts, improve operational efficiency, and improve customer interactions. Go for software that can help you do this.
2. Host Joint Venture Webinars
At some point, you realize that you’ve pitched your products/services to existing audiences and now need to find new audiences to generate sales.
Joint venture webinars are an excellent way to reach new audiences with your message. You partner with brands in complementary niches to pitch to a fresh audience.
Here are ways to make joint venture webinars more impactful:
- Choose the right partner. The best partnerships are those that involve companies that offer complementary products/services, have complementary customers, and audiences that are interested in the partnered event.
- Promote the webinar. Work with your partner to create a promotional kit that ensures your narrative and takeaways are the same – think email copy, images, videos, etc. Choose distribution channels that work for both companies.
- Prepare, prepare, prepare. Conduct dry runs to help the presenters get comfortable with each other, the webinar software, and equipment. The dry runs will help you pick up any technical difficulties that can be dealt with before the big day.
- Follow up. Capitalize on the interest you’ve generated to follow up right after the event and convert those audiences to qualified leads.
3. Create Gated Content
It takes tremendous time and effort to research, compile and package valuable information for audiences.
Putting it behind a gate means those who are genuinely interested in what you’re saying won’t mind trading their contact info for it.
Not only does gating content increase your likelihood of capturing good leads, but also gives you better insights into what prospects are looking for.
Best practices include:
- Create an optimized landing page for the specific gated content. Let the message focus solely on the material you’re sharing to ensure your visitor doesn’t get distracted and leave without completing the action.
- There is more to gated content other than PDFs. Many marketers associate gated content with PDF documents, but these aren’t the only options or formats available. You can create video series, webinars, exclusive access, exclusive communities, templates, and checklists.
- Quality over quantity. A short,information-packed e-book does more for your business and reputation than a hundred-page one full of fluff. Observe proper editing principles and deliver high-quality work.
- Make navigation easy. Use the clickable table of contents, ensure any links embedded on the document work, and use images to make the information more palatable.
4. Make Cold Calls
Research by RAIN GROUP shows that many senior levels buyers prefer to be contacted on the phone. By senior level, we’re talking c-suite and VP buyers—just the group you want to target.
Cold calling provides a platform for tapping into new markets and gaining key information concerning your target market’s needs, challenges, and expectations.
So how about brainstorming your value proposition then getting on the phone to lock in that deal?
Here are some considerations:
- Know what prospects want. Tough? Not really. Buyers are looking for ways to solve their current problems. By sharing detailed information about the features and services your solutions provide, you can influence their decisions.
- Pre-qualify prospects. Now that you know what prospects want, it’s time to pre-qualify them. Develop strong buyer personas to help you understand your target market and identify brands with the potential to turn into customers.
- Prepare for the call. Come up with a script that comprises a strong opener, a middle, and a conclusion. Test different opening statements to find the one that draws in prospects. Your middle should contain key features of your products/services, questions for the prospect, FAQs, and objections. In the conclusion is where you ask for your goal.
- Follow up. Cold calling experts say it takes on average five follow-up calls to get leads to convert. While it’s easy to give up after one or two follow-ups, don’t do it. Persistence is key in this business.
5. Leverage Email Marketing
With over 300 billion emails exchanged daily, email marketing is an effective communication channel between brands and their customers.
B2B sellers use this channel to build relationships, send out promotions, and stay in touch with customers—past, current, and potential.
Having said that, the email marketing technique will only be successful if you have the right contacts and adopt the right approach. This approach includes:
- Updating your email list. An updated and clean list ensures you reach your target audiences with messages that interest them in your offerings.
- Keeping email content concise. Life is fast-paced, readers are busy, and hardly have the time to read through lengthy emails. Shorter emails with visuals or images that can be read on the go are preferable.
- Scrap the “no-reply” email address. It makes your company look dubious, and your email just might end up in the trash. It also limits the subscriber’s ability to reach you, which may cost you countless leads.
- Link emails to specific landing pages. When a reader clicks through to your site, send them to a landing page that correlates with the email and shares more information. It saves them from navigating your site looking for information and possibly losing interest and leaving.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged President Bola Tinubu to order a probe into the alleged diversion, disappearance and misapplication of more than N6.79 billion in public funds within the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) and the Federal Ministry of Police Affairs.
The grave allegations are documented in the latest Annual Report of the Auditor-General of the Federation published on September 9, 2025.
SERAP said, “Anyone suspected to be responsible—including contractors, companies and public officials implicated in the report—should be promptly prosecuted, while all missing public funds, firearms and ammunition should be fully recovered, secured and properly accounted for.”
In the letter dated August 1, 2026, and signed by SERAP deputy director, Mr Kolawole Oluwadare, the organisation said: “The Auditor-General’s findings suggest a grave betrayal of the public trust and raise serious concerns about corruption and the management of public funds, police exhibits, firearms and ammunition.”
SERAP said: “The report also raises serious concerns over missing firearms and ammunition, the unauthorised use and release of police exhibits, failures to properly account for exhibits, and the insecure storage of firearms, creating significant risks to public safety and national security.”
According to the group, “The diversion of funds meant for policing, abandoned security projects, missing firearms and ammunition, and the misuse of police exhibits undermine the operational effectiveness of the Nigeria Police Force, weaken public confidence and may contribute to Nigeria’s worsening insecurity.”
The letter, read in part: “The report documented numerous alleged financial irregularities within the Nigeria Police Force and the Federal Ministry of Police Affairs, including payments for projects that were never executed, abandoned contracts, inflated contract costs, and irregular procurement.”
“The report also documented unretired cash advances, unsettled insurance claims, payments for services allegedly not rendered, and other suspected diversion and misapplication of public funds amounting to over ₦6.79 billion.”
“The allegations also include missing firearms and ammunition, the unauthorised use and release of police exhibits, failures to properly account for recovered firearms and other exhibits, and the insecure storage of firearms, posing serious risks to public safety and national security.”
“We would be grateful if the recommended measures are taken within seven days of the receipt and/or publication of this letter. If we have not heard from you by then, SERAP shall consider appropriate legal action to compel your government to comply with our request in the public interest.”
Some of the others include: N499,875,500.00 for the construction of Police College Phase II, Bashar, Plateau State; N12,931,000.00 for the rehabilitation of Block B, Department of Logistics and Supply (Works) building, Garki; N111,635,864.64 for the construction of 12 one-bedroom transit camp units and rehabilitation of the administration block at the NPF Pre-retirement Skills Acquisition Centre, Kudana, Kaduna State; N4,011,627.89 inserted as taxes to inflate a contract; N1,938,299,452.00 for 14 ongoing projects that were abandoned; N5,050,000.00 in monetary exhibits released without proper authorisation; N112,026,424.00 for outstanding allowances paid to officers to cover 2020 liabilities; and N6,000,000.00 as annual payment to the Inspector General of Police’s Senior Special Assistant on Revenue and Tax Matters.
Others include N10,080,000.00 as cash advances for the provision of office equipment and accessories for the NPF Database Management Centre; N438,066,845.73 for the supply of bulletproof vests, ballistic helmets and procurement of a Styr Punch Vistar troop carrier; N18,000,000.00 for the training of women in cosmetology and provision of empowerment kits in Ondo Central Senatorial District, Ondo State; N258,989,999.75 for the procurement of 10 JAC patrol vehicles for NPF outpost stations in Kano State; N30,853,250.00 as security allowances for personnel attached to the Ministry of Police Affairs; N681,406,593.18 for the settlement of insurance claims through insurance brokers; N1,628,108,434.18 for outstanding insurance policy liabilities for 2020/2021; N57,484,515.30 for the procurement of video cameras, customised umbrellas, gift bags and customised towels for the Nigeria Police Force Public Relations Office; N7,760,409.56 in withholding tax and value added tax that was not deducted from contracts awarded.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
A former member of the House of Representatives, Mr Onamusi Onadeko, has been sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment with an option of a fine of N50,000.
The former lawmaker, who represented Ogun East Federal Constituency in the National Assembly from 1999 to 2003, was sentenced by Justice Chizoba Oji of the Federal Capital Territory High Court in Abuja on Thursday, July 30, 2026.
He was found guilty on count 11 and convicted for making inconsistent statements but discharged and acquitted on counts 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10.
Mr Onadeko’s journey to the court started in 2017, when he was charged by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) for his alleged involvement in the award and execution of a N68.7 million contract.
The politician, according to a statement from the ICPC, was accused of using his private companies, Stanton Engineering Limited and Haines and Baines Limited, to execute several constituency projects while working as a Senior Legislative Aide to late Senator Buruji Kashamu, who represented Ogun East Senatorial District between 2015 and 2019.
The commission, had in the course of the eight years trial told the court that several contracts like buying of ambulance vehicles, supply of hospital equipment and drugs for Primary Health Centres, as well as construction of classrooms for some selected schools in six communities of Ogun East Senatorial District, were awarded to both Stanton Engineering Limited and Haines and Baines, where the convict doubles as a Managing Director and nominal Director, respectively, an action that violates Sections 12 and 19 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000.
ICPC also accused Mr Onadeko of making an inconsistent statement that contradicted the one previously made to the Commissioner for Oaths, where he stated that he is a Director of Haines and Baines Limited in an affidavit dated June 30, 20216, but subsequently wrote another statement while under investigation on May 5, 2017, that he is not a shareholder or Director of Haines and Baines Limited.
This action violates Section 25(1)(b) of the ICPC Act and, upon conviction, is liable to a fine not exceeding N100,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or to both such fine and imprisonment.
However, Mr Onadeko, through his counsel, Mr Wahab Olatoyebi, argued in the course of the trial that his client was not a public officer as his appointment at that material time was on a short-term basis and non-pensionable, hence he, (Onadeko) did not fall within the category of those that could be tried under Sections 12 and 19 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000 which criminalize and punish abuse of office by public officers.
But this argument was rejected by Justice Oji, who stressed that based on the defendant’s letter of appointment as well as the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Federal Government of Nigeria v. Farouk Lawan, legislative aides are public officers and therefore could be prosecuted under the relevant provisions of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Governor of Oyo State, Mr Seyi Makinde, has inaugurated a Judicial Commission of Inquiry to investigate the abduction of students and teachers from Esinele and Yawota communities in Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State.
The governor formally inaugurated the commission at the Executive Council Chamber of the Governor’s Office, Secretariat, Agodi, Ibadan.
Speaking at the event, Governor Makinde said that although the successful rescue of the victims brought relief to the state, it did not provide complete closure.
He explained that the decision to set up an independent commission was not intended to undermine the efforts of security agencies but to ensure that every question surrounding the incident is thoroughly addressed and lessons are learnt to prevent a recurrence.
He charged members of the commission to conduct a thorough, impartial, and evidence-based investigation, assuring them of the state government’s full support. He also called on individuals and relevant institutions to cooperate fully with the panel.
Speaking on behalf of the commission, its chairman, Professor Mojeed Owoade, pledged that members would carry out the assignment with integrity, professionalism, and fairness. He added that the panel would seek an extension if necessary to complete its work.
Governor Makinde gave the commission four weeks to submit its report.
Earlier this month, the pupils and teachers abducted in Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State regained their freedom after 56 days in captivity.
According to the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Mr Bayo Onanuga, eight of the kidnappers had been arrested, but the Federal High Court in Abuja on July 23 sentenced three suspects in the abduction to life imprisonment.
According to the court, the sentencing of Mr Abdulrazak Umar, known under the alias Abu Khalifa/Abu Khalid; Mr Yunusa Musa, alias Yunusa Bin Musa; and Mr Shamsu Adamu Sani, alias Abu Itisar, will start from the date of their arrest.
Before their sentencing by Justice Salim Ibrahim, counsel for the defendants pleaded with the court to sentence them on liberal terms, adding that they were first-time offenders and had pleaded guilty.
