The steps are the easy part. It's the execution. You can put together a great lead gen machine using content, cookies, and email marketing.

I would say that while some of the 500 Inc. Companies are actually developing there own tools and automation. Now the rest are either utilizing some of the Name-Brand tools and platforms out there (MOZ, ahref.com, raventools, etc.) or they are hiring other 500 Inc. companies that specialize in Online Marketing to do their SEO, Online Lead Generation, Internet marketing.

I think that it really depends upon where your funding level is at. I will say that as far as Conversion Rate Optimization goes, any of the tools and companies of Tim Ash are an excellent investment . One of his companies SiteTuners.com is actually very affordable as far as pricing goes and I can drastically increase your website's Conversion Rate.

I you have any question questions or concerns you can feel free to call me.

The top ones would probably be marketo for marketing automation, hubspot for content management and salesforce for CRM.

Generating leads itself doesn't have to be complicated though. The message is more important than the medium. Whether you are using a tool within something like hubspot to collect leads, or have a private URL and are collecting emails on a clipboard (seriously), you are accomplishing the same thing.

Having the tools is less important than having something that resonates with your customer.

An analogy - when I was 11 years old I wanted to be a rockstar and became obsessed with guitars. I ended up dropping my life savings on a real Gibson SG which my idol, Tony Iommi from Black Sabbath had. To no one's surprise I didn't end up becoming the next Tony Iommi.

With lead gen, you can run circles around the best equipped marketer with a better understanding of who your ideal customer is and what he/she wants.

With something like marketing automation, the differences in tools start to make themselves known but it's really a matter of man hours vs. subscription fees at that point and the same ends can be reached, albeit with more work.

Shoot me a message if you want to talk about it (I'm doing all my calls free for the next bit)