How do you get quality leads and what is the best platform to use?
Lead generation isn’t about picking the best platform; it’s about strategy. Focus on solving prospects’ needs extraordinarily well, then serve those needs in a unique way—delivering disproportionate, perceived value (e.g., on Upwork you stand out by providing more value than expected). Any platform can work if you apply the right approach; tactics like Craigslist can succeed with the right strategy, so prioritize understanding and delivering value over chasing a specific tool.
I think that question is too broad to answer definitively, but you can find great leads on YouTube, Instagram, and X. X (formerly Twitter) is where most of the thinking happens right now, with ideas transmittable in 280 characters. YouTube, while a longer‑form platform, is still excellent for learning and attracting leads, even though it requires recording a video rather than a quick tweet.
Try selling the service before you build it—validate demand first. It's far higher value to confirm people will pay for what you plan to offer, then build the specifics, rather than creating a service whose value you don't know and hunting for an audience later.
Recruitment agencies are currently the best niche because they operate heavily on LinkedIn and email outreach, so a lead‑gen system feeds both candidate sourcing and employer sourcing. Digital‑marketing agencies, coaches, consultants, and service providers also work, but recruitment agencies give the highest ROI right now.
Well, logically speaking, if you're searching LinkedIn for leads, you're accessing the same leads others scrape with Sales Navigator, so they aren't necessarily less saturated. You might customize outreach more than someone using AI. Beyond that, I'm experimenting with buying a big Bright Data list of about 100,000 contacts, which will be fun. You can also scrape data sources yourself—for example, if you're selling to MBA students, you could pull emails from a university directory like Stanford's, build a system to click through profiles and collect emails, and get details like their field of study. While those emails may not have high deliverability, the list is large and unsaturated. Creating your own list is the way to get truly unsaturated leads. Another approach is to email conference organizers or managers and ask for vendor lists; many smaller conferences will share them for free. You can then pitch to attendees by referencing the conference. The trade‑off is either paying for saturated, competitive lists or investing time to build your own differentiated list.