Is there a single silver-lead bullet that affects the bottom line when it comes to B2B leads?

In this article, we’re going to talk about:

  • What are B2B leads and what is B2B lead generation?
  • Effective strategies for generating B2B leads
  • How to create an effective plan for B2B lead generation

We’ll be discussing some of the most effective strategies that are used to generate B2B leads.

But before we tackle specific strategies, you need to understand the basics to be able to capture and convert a large percentage of leads from your campaigns.

What Is B2B Lead Generation?

B2B leads are sales-qualified business leads. These leads have shown prompt interest in purchasing your product/service for their business.

On the other hand, B2B lead generation can be defined as (1)the process of getting a business professional (2)within your target market to (3)show interest by (4)taking an action.

Let’s drill this statement down into four points:

1. The Process

‍There are many ways and methods that businesses can do lead generation. The 2 types of these are:

a) Outbound Lead Generation

This is where you come forward and reach out to your defined target audience. For this method, you need to have a well-defined target audience and build a list of quality prospects and present your products or services whether they’ve asked for it or expressed an interest in the content. Once you get affirmative responses, you get leads who are willing to jump on a call and discuss going ahead with your service. These leads are referred to as sales qualified leads or SQL’s after confirming or checking compatibility.

b) Inbound Lead Generation

‍This method involves making your business more discoverable for your prospects. May it be writing articles, blogs, e-books, whitepapers, etc. When you become more visible your prospects will read and download your content in exchange for their contact details. These type of leads is called marketing qualified leads or MQL’s.You don’t have to choose between these 2 types of B2B lead generation. It’s best to integrate both into your B2B lead generation strategy. Outbound needs components of inbound to get the results you need and vice versa.

2. Target Market

‍This can simply be defined as a group of customers within a serviceable market in which a business aims its marketing effort. We can also simply say that these are people who can potentially use and benefit from your product and/or services. For your strategy to work, you need to define your target audience really well as this is the bedrock for all your steps and strategies, whether these are inbound or outbound.

3. Show Interest

‍Just like any other strategy, you need to test and get results. The goal of generating B2B leads is to achieve interest and for your prospects to give your company a second thought. This can include checking out your site, subscribing to your content, and more!

4. Taking Action

‍This is the part where you’ll turn your prospects into B2B leads and close the deal. Taking an action mainly about sharing an appropriate and effective CTA or call-to-action. This is where you make your prospect take a free trial or just jump on a demo call. Once they provide a positive response and give you the go-ahead signal, this is officially a warm lead! You have successfully completed the B2B lead generation process.

Effective Strategies To Generate More B2B Leads

When it comes to generating B2B leads, there are a couple of strategies that have time and time again proven most effective for businesses. We've listed a few of them below. Remember, these are not all the strategies that you can use in your marketing plan. However, including them will surely help you boost the volume of B2B leads that you can generate for your business.

1. Email Marketing

Research shows that email marketing is the most effective strategy for generating B2B leads, with social media and content marketing following closely behind. Fair and balanced integration of both outbound and inbound lead generation is necessary for your strategy.There are many advantages of using email marketing in generating B2B leads. We can easily say that this strategy is easy to implement and cost-effective. However, this strategy is easier said than done. You have to consider the challenges that you’ll face along the way. Not to mention that you have to make it to the prospects’ inbox first and get noticed before you can convert your contact list into leads.

It is also important to note that B2B email marketing is different from B2C email marketing.

Below are ways you can make your email marketing lead generation as effective as possible:

a) Generate High-Quality Contact List

‍There’s no point in sending out emails and offers to businesses that are unrelated to your service. This will just make your emails look spammy and provide no value to these businesses whatsoever.On the other hand, it is best to send out a high-quality, industry-related email that presents how your products or services can benefit your prospect.

b) Personalize

‍Make sure to personalize your emails and mention the customer’s name whenever it makes sense. Your message will more likely get noticed and will not look spammy when it creates a personal one on one message.Your email will most likely catch your prospects’ attention when you create a personal feeling and when you provide a solution that is tailor-fit to them.

c) Focus On Lead Nurturing

‍Not all your leads will turn out warm and purchase from you right away. This is why you need to keep in touch and build up your products until such time that your prospect is ready.

  • Identify your qualitative and quantitative goals to have a clear view of the direction that you’re going for.
  • Identify the target audience you’re trying to nurture.
  • Provide informative content that is relevant to each stage of your B2B lead’s journey.

2. Social Media Marketing

Generating B2B leads on social media should be a key part of your business strategy. But please note that for it to work, your social presence needs to be high-quality and engaging.

Before you jump on implementing your social media strategy, you must first ask yourself these questions:

a) Who is your target audience?

‍For all B2B lead generation strategies, it is important to know first who you’re trying to reach. Otherwise, the succeeding steps would be pointless and you won’t get the results you need.

b) Which platforms complement your brand?

‍Some social media platforms will fit your brand better than others. Choose which platform flatter your business the most and exert more marketing efforts there among the others.

c) What is your content strategy?

‍To know which content strategy to use and focus on, check your social media analytics to know which ones are working and which ones are not. Use a content research tool that would let you input any keywords and see related content that has been shared the most.

d) How are you planning to create high-quality content?

‍Create high-quality content starting from the type of content you share, the caption, down to your social media graphics. Paying attention to the quality of content you share makes a huge difference.  One of the most critical parts is social media graphics design. This is typically what your audience initially sees and what catches their attention. We highly recommend sharing professionally-made graphics that are created by graphic designers who are experts in creating social media content. Professional graphic designers would know how to create impacting social media graphics that would attract your target audience. Make all your posts count!

e) How do you define success?

‍Your answer may be ‘stronger online presence’, ‘better engagement’ or ‘greater brand awareness’. These are typically the objectives of social media strategies. However, you may dive deeper and come up with a macro-level goal.For example, if your main goal is boosting audience engagement, ask yourself what that would look like to you. Is it more traffic to your website? Increased likes and shares? More product or service purchases? More quality sales leads? Or maybe a combination of all?

3. Content Marketing

Why should you create content?Generating B2B leads through content marketing is the art of using content to get leads and sales by appealing to other businesses. Through content marketing, your business’ target audience may expand and your brand affinity can be developed.

What sets B2B content marketing apart from other types of content marketing is that it is used exclusively by businesses, for businesses.

Here are tips on how you can make your content marketing effective:

a) Write engaging articles

Anyone who's ever tried their hand at content marketing knows that it's not as easy as it sounds. Writing articles that are both informative and engaging is a challenge, and it can be difficult to strike the right balance between the two.

First, make sure to choose a topic that is relevant to your audience. Second, keep your articles focused and to the point. Third, use strong keywords throughout your article to help improve your search engine ranking. Follow these tips and you'll be well on your way to success with content marketing!

b) Create high-converting landing pages

‍Landing pages are not just created just to have one. It is important to know the reason why you’re creating a landing page in the first place. You need to understand how a perfect landing page is made. One can easily make a landing page but it takes an experienced landing page designer to create an effective and impactful one. Bonus tip! You can convert more leads and engage in interactive conversations with customers by adding human touch and authenticity to your landing pages.

One powerful way to do this is by using face-to-face conversation builders, such as VideoForm. VideoForm brings the power of interactive video to conversational content to help you personally guide prospects to purchase by recording your video, creating your interaction workflow, and sending it to them. It’s a great way to build trust by letting them know who’s behind your business.

c) Create data-driven content

‍Quality is king when it comes to all these B2B lead generation strategies. Basing your content off data and analytics is important to provide prospects with targeted content that they’ll see valuable.

d) Utilize social media outreach

‍No matter which industry you belong to, social media outreach is a crucial part of your B2B lead generation success. You have to reach out to people or businesses who will help and support you in connecting to more people within your target audience.

Conclusion

Rather than focus on a single silver-lead bullet, understand that generating B2B leads is a composite of unquantifiable activities and behaviors that just work.

You should incorporate multiple methods of lead generation to know which ones work for you and which ones you should focus on. Always remember that in all of these strategies it is important to set goals and have a well-defined target audience. Put your best effort into each step to guarantee desirable results.