The Web now offers an amazing array of alternative ways to generate leads for your business - picking the right mix and implementing well is crucial for ROI

There are many ways in which companies can generate leads, but with the advent of the digital era, online methods are likely to prove very effective.

This is according to emarketer, which analysed data from HubSpot and identified that the expertise of search engine optimisation (SEO) firms can be particularly useful.

Results showed that companies need to invest in generating leads in order to improve the efficiency of their marketing strategies.

After all, the study revealed that the amount spent on lead generation is generally 60 per cent less among those who dedicate around half of their budget to incoming marketing.

SEO is not the only strategy companies should look to invest in, the website identified, as two-fifths of the firms questioned said they use social media to acquire customers.

For business-to-business firms, it would seem that LinkedIn is the most profitable source for generating leads, although Facebook is a good all-round tool.

In fact, of those companies questioned, nearly 70 per cent had found a new customer by logging on to the social networking site.

This is hardly surprising, as latest figures show Facebook has more than 400 million active users, with more than 50 per cent of them logging in every day.