There’s a ton of advice about B2B lead generation out there. You’ve might have found other articles telling you all about the secret to successful B2B lead generation.However, if someone’s trying to sell you one way to get more leads, we have bad news.They’re wrong.Whatever you do, the first thing you need to figure out is your strategy.So, how can you tell what works and what will just waste your time and money?The truth is, you’ll need to create a strategy that works for your business.But creating a strategy is hard. Harder than watching any episode of the last season of Game of Thrones in bright daylight.
Before you start, you need to know a few things:
- What are your goals for your business?
- Where do you see your company a month? In 6 months? In a year?
- What resources do you have? Who are you selling to?
- What have you done before that worked? What didn’t work?
The B2B lead generation strategies will depend on that, and more. This means that chasing trendy lead generation techniques or tools won’t work for your business.
What is B2B lead generation?
B2B (or business-to-business) is all about identifying high-intent potential customers. Also, it helps you nurture those connections to get your prospects ready to buy.With B2B lead generation, you will:
- Capture potential customer’s details such as name, email, job title and company.
- Use that information to personalize your communications with them.
- Use that personalization to nurture your connection.
- Get them to a stage where they are ready to convert.
The goal is to create a pipeline to find, qualify, and nurture prospects to convert at a steady rate.
Which B2B lead generation strategies will work for you?
Short answer: it depends.A few studies offer different results about the best lead generation strategies. But, they do agree that your efforts need to focus on the following categories:
- Conversion rate optimisation
- Email marketing
- Social media marketing
- Content marketing
- Search marketing
Ideally, you’d want to leverage all of them. In practice, you’ll need to prioritise one or two channels that yield the best results.With each strategy, there are plenty of techniques you can use to fine-tune your lead generation efforts. Let’s have a look.
Conversion Rate Optimisation
So, your customer has landed on your website. How do you turn that visitor into a lead? Let’s see what you can do:
Write strong copy
There are plenty of reasons your bounce rates may be high. If your website looks fine design-wise and loads fast, chances are what’s not working is the copy.Here are a few tips to improve your copy:-Above all, make sure it’s crystal clear what your company does and what it offers. You wouldn’t believe how many websites out there don’t do this.-Check your CTAs for weak words or confusing directions.-Be specific. Vague promises or an unclear unique value proposition will kill your copy.Don’t forget to test your copy and design elements using A/B testing. Optimizing your website is crucial to improve your lead generation strategy.
Chatbots
Once upon a time, chatbots were difficult and expensive to make. A lot has changed in the last few years, though. Nowadays you can make a simple chatbot for a fraction of the cost with online tools.No programming required.Now, nobody likes to talk to robots, right?
Yes, and no.Unlike a human support or sales team, a chatbot will be online nights and weekends. It can answer elementary questions. Lead the customer to self-help tools and resources. And it can ask questions to evaluate their intent and turn them into a lead.The key is to design conversations that ask little or nothing from the customer. Avoid asking your visitor to commit. Don’t ask tough questions. You want it to be a gentle nudge instead of a push.Make closing the tab more difficult than answering your chatbot’s message.You can program certain events to trigger the chatbot. For example, when a visitor scrolls past a certain point in the page, after a certain amount of time, or after navigating away from one page on your site.
Email marketing
Segment your email list
Most businesses grow their email list in a few ways. Some prospects sign up for your newsletter.Others write in asking for quotes. Others did make a purchase. And others give you their email just to download a freebie.Now, you want to keep those contacts in different lists, because they’re at different stages in their buying journey. The person asking for a quote has more intent to buy than someone who signed up to your newsletter six months ago and barely even opens your emails.And why is it important to make this distinction? Because you want to tailor your communication to each segment specifically.There are many other ways to further segment your list. For example, you can break it down based on demographics, their purchase value, or the type of content they engage with.
Freebies and downloads
Now, who doesn’t like free stuff, right?It’s a simple exchange. You offer something small but valuable to your prospect and in return, you ask for their name and email.For this to work, your freebie has to be relevant to your prospective customer.What’s a small pain point you can help them solve quickly? Then, create a worksheet, an e-book, or set up a quick online course or webinar to share your expertise with them.By showing them how to solve this problem, you show them how much value you can bring to their business.
Send cold emails
Yes, they still work.Cold emails have a bad rap because so many people do it wrong. But when they’re done right, they can be a powerful tool in your lead generation arsenal.One thing will make the difference between ‘reply’ and ‘delete’. That thing is relevance.Your email needs to show the recipient you’ve done your homework. Show you know their business. Prove you understand what’s important to them. And then make it all. About. Them.Then, make small, tangible, no strings attached offers that contribute actual value upfront. And don’t forget to follow up.
Optimize your subject lines
When your email arrived in your prospect’s inbox, you have only one chance to convince them to open it. That chance is your subject line.Writing subject lines is an art. You can follow a few guidelines to make them the best they can be.Start by keeping them short. While you can get away with long (70+ characters) subject lines, it might not be displayed correctly in your prospect’s inbox depending on where they’re reading your email.Then, make sure they arouse curiosity, but don’t resort to clickbait. Find an engaging way to make your prospect curious about your offer.Finally, personalize the subject lines. The most common way is to use the recipient’s first name.Other ways to personalize them are tailoring them to your prospect’s location, purchase history, or interests.
Social media marketing
Social media today is an indispensable part of any business's marketing efforts. And it can be a crucial tool to gain more qualified leads. Let’s see how:
Explore alternative social media platforms
Your business is likely on some, if not all, of the most popular social media platforms.Since socials take so much time and effort, focus your efforts only on those that yield better results.Are you just not getting traffic from IG, no matter what you do? Maybe Pinterest is a better platform to get more leads.Also, there are several niche social platforms out there where you can network. For example, The Dots is a community for creatives where you can find collaborators for your projects and connect with others, extending your network and getting more leads.
Start social listening
Social listening is keeping a close eye on the conversation around your brand and niche on social media platforms. This helps to:-Provide better customer service-Improve your social media presence-Direct customers toward products or services-Addressing your customer’s pain pointsIt’s a good idea to follow conversations about your competitors.For example, if you find out about a particular issue your prospects have with another company, you can use that to create content that addresses how you can solve that.
Search marketing
Email is not the only way to generate quality leads for your business. Let’s see how to make search marketing work for your lead generation efforts.
Use your competitor’s keywords
Noticing what your competition is doing can save you time. If they are running successful campaigns, they have likely found keywords that work for your niche or industry.Of course, you don’t want to copy them to the T. Use their keywords and strategies as reference.And how do you know what keywords your competitors are using? Use the Organic Research tool on SEMRush or the ‘Keywords by Traffic’ option on Ubersuggest. Their free accounts have limited access, but it’s enough to get you started.
Focus on long-tail keywords
Now that you know which keywords to test, pay special attention to long-tail keywords. These are keywords of three or more words.There’s a couple of advantages to optimizing these keywords. First, they are more specific. This makes it easy for qualified leads to find you.For example, someone looking up for ‘brown shoes’ has lower purchase intent than someone searching for ‘brown leather booties for women’.Also, long-tail keywords get lower search volumes. Consequently, it’s easier to rank higher for those keywords. Yes, you do get a lower search volume, but the traffic is more qualified.
Exclude negative keywords
Finding qualified leads also means filtering out those who are not your ideal customers. No one likes to use that precious ad budget on users who will never convert, right?Have a look at your own analytics. Are there search terms or keywords that have nothing to do with your business? To continue with the accounting agency example, exclude searches for PR or social media management agencies.You can filter out leads by demographics, too. If you’re looking for B2B leads, you’ll want to exclude high school students, for instance.Then, notice if any search terms are not bringing you results. If they’re too expensive and aren’t bringing too many clicks, cut them off.
Content Marketing
Content is still king. You can leverage both existing and new content to get more qualified leads.
Use guest posts
What’s not to like about guest posts?They showcase your value. They position your business as a leader in your niche. They put your name in front of prospects. And they improve your website’s authority and SEO.Of course, you also need a strategy to make guest posts work for your lead generation efforts.If you can, mention one aspect of your experience you want readers to learn from. Turn your guest post into a mini case study. Tell how you came up with, developed and implemented a successful idea. Or be relatable. Talk about failure and what it taught you.Whatever you decide to write about, ask yourself what do you want the reader to learn from your post. Then, include a link or two to your website. Don’t overdo it, though.
Build a free tool
Free tools are a more interactive way to engage with customers and get leads.It doesn’t have to be complicated. Something as easy as a quiz can boost your lead generation. For example, Passion Planner created a simple quiz for prospects to find the best options in digital and paper planners.Tools are great because they offer value to your users. They can guide them in the purchase process or help them solve minor problems quickly. Also, they work as opt-ins you can leverage to nurture that new connection.B2B lead generation is crucial to expand your business. It can be a ton of work, but you don’t have to do every single thing. Instead, focus on the techniques and strategies that work best for you. By testing, you can find the ones best suited for your niche and goals.
