Top 5 B2B Lead Generation Strategies

Marketing is an evolving skill but certain principles remain regardless of whether we are knocking on doors or picking up the phone or creating digital content for distribution on our social media channels.

In a moment we are going to take a look at the top 5 lead generation strategies that actually work but before we do, we must consider lead generation within the context of the entire marketing funnel. Generating leads is a must for anybody wanting to grow their business however, in big picture terms, it is not what we do to generate leads that counts, it’s the way that we deal with those leads when we win them.

How we put our approach into practice can mean the difference between an effective marketing strategy and completely flopping. Take for example, the leaky bucket effect.

What are our top 5 B2B lead generation strategies that actually work?

A carefully crafted email that is well targeted and delivering the right content is a superb way of reaching your potential audience and engaging with them. There are caveats:

There are loads of ways we can use email marketing as an effective lead generator. We may offer prospects a free white paper initially or perhaps an informative video to watch. Video is a rich and stimulating medium that allows us to inform, present visuals and win trust.

A remarketing strategy can pave the way for an effective follow up, perhaps offering something else for free for people who liked the first piece of content. We now have the ability to be smarter than ever in who we target and how we target them. Whether we send out a newsletter or a promotion, we have the ability to see who opened an email and who took actions such as clicking a link and we can use this information to evolve our future tactics.

What is most important is that you effectively win the attention and interest of your audience from the get go.

The best relationships are those that involve give and take. Who wants to engage with a person or organisation that just wants to take, take, take or sell, sell, sell?

Content marketing is based on the principle of giving something to prospective (and existing clients) for nothing in return (mostly).

Content can take on many shapes and sizes from blogs, vlogs, white papers, infographics or reports for example. There are many ways we can deliver content to our prospects – emails, social media posts or on other people’s sites with links to our own, for example.

What we want to achieve with our content varies from demonstrating expertise or building trust in our brand to provoking an interest in the products or services we sell or proving our thought leadership. In the end, it all boils down to lead generation.

As part of an email campaign, content can be the free gift that offers instant value and gets a potential client to engage with us.

Content marketing via social media is an effective means for gaining contact details that can be used for remarketing later.

Logicalis used content such as emails, a microsite and ebook to strengthen their position as thought leaders. The campaign supported the company’s sales force by enabling custom messaging based on the how prospects had interacted with the campaign. Focusing on a target audience of around 2000 people, the campaign helped the firm close nearly $8 million in new business.

As a long-term strategy to help with lead generation, the search marketing tactic is a no-brainer. Why reach out to people and go through all the trouble of trying to grab their attention when you can be found by the people who most want to use your service, when they are searching on Google?

The beauty of search marketing is that many of the things that we need to do as part of a strong search strategy represent excellent marketing hygiene – well written content that is easy to read and relevant to its audience, a clear and transparent website written in plain English that says what you do and who for, and content that draws people to your site. A well implemented search marketing strategy will therefore benefit you whether or not to reach the top slot in a Google search.

Search marketing works best when you bring the right prospects to the parts of your site that are most likely to grip them and move them to the next phase of the marketing funnel – remember what we said about user experience at the start of this article.

It is easy to get it wrong on social media channels; an inconsistent message, lack of planning or strategy, posts that damage the brand or are seen as spam.

Get it right and social media marketing is a fantastic tool for lead generation. That means understanding your customers and your prospects. It means defining what your brand sounds like in social – its look, feel, voice – and ensuring that every post, every piece of content, every communication through social media channels is consistent with the brand.

Effective social media marketing could mean targeting the appropriate audience with boosted posts, or using the Facebook pixel to remarket to people who had visited your site before. Social media marketing and content marketing can work hand in hand with your social media channels being used to distribute high quality content to a target audience.

As a tool for connecting with potential collaborators, suppliers and clients LinkedIn is an excellent B2B social media platform. There are plenty of opportunities to interact with others through referrals, comments, recommendations or answering call outs. Within the right context, a private message to somebody you have engaged with can easily lead to a new client and even mailshotting your network can be constructive when done properly.

Like content marketing when you put thought into your social media presence in terms of consistency, persona, content etc it can only do good for your brand whether leads are generated in the short term or not. Whatever social channel we look at, when it is done correctly, it enables us to build a community of potential prospects who relate to us and appreciate what we do. Over time we increase the likelihood of converting these prospects into clients or advocates.

We couldn’t talk about lead generation without talking about app development.

Apps are uniquely versatile. When designed in a smart way they will engage prospects and deliver a marketing message, a memorable and informative experience, capture data or win instant bookings.

Apps work well within a content marketing strategy – “Download our free app now….” or as part of a social media marketing strategy. But they can also just lubricate the interaction between your brand and your clients and prospects.
Engagement ! My form gives users instant value when they complete the form ! My form is personalised to each user ! My form uses visual question types

In a post-”content shock” world, it is quality that matters much more than quantity. The world has also gone mobile and Google’s mobile first policy to be rolled out this year shows how vital it is that we are talking to our customers and delivering an excellent UX through mobile. Apps play into this post-content shock, mobile world perfectly.

The bottom line is that there is no one killer B2B lead generation strategy. The best strategies involve a collaboration of different tactics. The main focus is the marketing objective and there is significant overlap between the different disciplines. When we stay true to the timeless principles of effective marketing – brand consistency, knowing the target audience, effective engagement, givers’ gain etc – we get much more from our strategy to generate leads.