Do you have a service to offer or a product to sell? If so, you should do every single thing possible to attract potential clients to your business and convert them into sales.
And of course, you should aim to benefit from B2B lead generation. This process involves identifying the right target audience for your product or service and encouraging potential clients to make a purchase.
In reality, getting quality leads is not always easy. Businesses face various challenges during the B2B lead generation process. It’s crucial to know how to generate B2B leads and develop B2B lead generation strategies that work.
Table of contents
What is B2B Lead Generation?
B2B lead generation is the process of acquiring prospects for a product or service. It’s worth noting that the prospects who are interested in a product or service are businesses in this particular case.
Let’s assume that you have developed the software for businesses. In this case, you should take advantage of B2B lead generation to sell your product.
Sales and marketing teams actively use B2B lead generation best practices to attract target audiences to businesses and increase sales. If done right, B2B lead generation may turn into a powerful sales channel for a business over time.
The difference between B2B and B2C Lead Generation
B2B and B2C terms have different meanings. B2B means business to business and B2C means business to customer.
B2C and B2B lead generation strategies target different audiences. B2C companies offer their products or services to individual consumers. B2B companies offer their products or services to businesses. It’s also important to note that the B2C target group is larger than the B2B target group.
A construction company that builds houses and offers renovation services to consumers is a good example of a B2C business. A B2B business can be a company that provides customer support services to businesses.
B2B and B2C lead generation are different in their tactics. B2B and B2C marketers attract and convert potential leads differently. For example, B2B marketers prefer to use cold calling and email marketing in their strategies.
They use the power of white papers, webinars and other types of content to attract leads. On the other hand, B2C marketers give a preference to search engine optimization and social media marketing.
B2B Lead Generation process
The B2B lead generation process consists of several stages. These include:
- Finding B2B sales leads
- Reaching out leads
- Qualifying leads
- Closing leads
Developing B2B lead generation strategies always begins with the research.
Initially, it’s necessary to find B2B sales leads. In other words, the contact information about potential buyers is collected.
After that, it’s necessary to contact leads by phone, email, or other means. By doing so, you’ll start preparing prospects for the buying process.
Now, it’s time to interact with potential clients and raise their interest in a product or service.
Finally, a prospect makes a purchase and generates a sale to a business.
You should aim to improve your results and generate more B2B leads to your business. That’s why B2B lead generation strategies need to be updated regularly.
It’s important to note that B2B lead generation is an ever changing field where changes often happen. You should constantly make experiments and try something new to find out B2B lead generation best practices. It makes sense to use different B2B generation techniques.
Track your success and analyze the results carefully. This will help you make conclusions, focus on the most effective techniques, and get the most out of your B2B lead generation efforts.
B2B Lead Generation best practices
There are many ways to generate B2B sales leads, each with its own pros and cons. Effective B2B lead generation tactics result in quality leads.
Now, we’ll discuss B2B lead generation best practices. Using these practices will help you boost your B2B sales, maximize your profits, and achieve business growth.
#1 Search engine optimization (SEO)
SEO is known as an online promotion technique that allows businesses to attract organic search traffic to their sites. And of course, it’s possible to use SEO for B2B lead generation purposes.
If your site’s web pages rank well for target keywords in search engines and you convert your website traffic effectively, you may get a lot of B2B leads to your business over time.
When optimizing a website, you need to pay close attention to such important aspects as:
- Keyword research,
- Technical SEO
- On-page SEO
- Off-page SEO
What is great about SEO is that search engines generate quality traffic to a website that converts well into B2B leads. But most importantly, SEO drives free traffic to a website and, of course, nothing can be better than free traffic.
On the other hand, it may take you too long to achieve the results with SEO. The fact is that achieving top search engine rankings for high-competition keywords can be hard because a lot of companies target the same keyword.
So, it may take you too much time to build relevant links and do other online promotional work to leave your competitors behind the scenes. It all depends on the niche in which your B2B company operates.
#2 PPC B2B Lead Generation
Pay-per-click advertising is a paid method of attracting search traffic to a website. When you use this technique, you pay for each click generated for your site.
It’s a great idea to use PPC for B2B lead generation. Unlike SEO, PPC advertising provides quick results. You’ll begin to get search traffic, and B2B leads once your PPC campaign has been launched. It’s possible to modify, suspend or stop PPC ads campaigns anytime.
Good news: PPC campaigns offer ads for those prospects who are ready to buy now and give you quick results. A bit worse news: some people may click on PPC ads but leave a site without a purchase.
However, you can still remind these people about your business and try to convert prospects into paying customers again. It’s possible to use retargeting ads for such prospects. In this case, PPC ads are shown to prospects from time to time.
PPC ads of this type make it possible to re-engage with the target audience and attract the so-called warm leads.
#3 Content marketing
Content marketing is widely used for online promotion purposes these days. It’s possible to promote a business with content in a number of different ways.
- Blog. It would be great to add a blog to a website and update it with unique content. So, blog posts will attract search traffic to a website. Just like this blog post attracted you!
- Social media. You can also share blog posts on social media sites and get additional traffic.
- Backlinks. Interesting blog posts will help you get quality links from relevant online resources. Such backlinks will drive targeted traffic to a website and improve its search engine rankings.
- YouTube and TikTok. Videos can be a part of a content marketing strategy. Creating useful videos that will engage your target audience can greatly help attract potential customers to your business site.
- Case studies. Case studies are a good option for those individuals, who want to use the power of content to get B2B leads. Case studies are some kind of story-telling. It’s the educational content that increases the value of a product or a service. People like stories and tend to analyze case studies before making a purchase. Case studies influence buyer’s decisions, attract B2B leads and help convert traffic into clients and sales.
Content campaigns contribute greatly to SEO success and help generate ideal B2B leads to a business.
However, it’s crucial to share the right type of content with the target audience. Make sure that the content that you use meets your lead generation goals.
#4 Email marketing B2B Lead Generation
Email marketing works very well for B2B lead generation. Sending cold emails helps attract B2B leads. However, it’s very important to make emails personalized.
That’s why you should adapt your message to the prospects. It’s crucial to do email marketing with GDPR policies in mind. Make sure that emails are GDPR compliant and don’t abuse user privacy.
#5 Cold calling
Cold calling allows you to contact prospects directly, discuss their needs and interests, give them recommendations, etc. Oftentimes, personal connection helps get additional B2B leads.
The main goal of cold calling is, of course, to attract businesses. The problem is that people don’t really like it when they are called, but things will get easier if you manage to find the right person in a business who won’t just hang up the phone.
Chat with a person who is responsible for discussing the company’s offers. But most importantly, you shouldn’t forget about GDPR guidelines when doing cold calling.
#6 Podcasts
Podcasts are a tactic that business owners choose to use to position themselves as industry experts. Podcasting attracts listeners, who can become your real customers in the future. Business owners often listen to podcasts as well. That means that you can get a lot of high-quality B2B leads using this practice.
It’s a good idea to do interview based podcasting for B2B lead generation. Invite business owners to your podcast and try to build good relationships with your guests during interviews.
#7 Social media marketing
You can use the power of social media to get high-quality B2B leads. Social media promotion allows businesses to build good relationships and establish trust with customers.
LinkedIn is the best social media platform for B2B lead generation. It makes a difference as a social media platform that brings together so many business owners and entrepreneurs from all over the world. It’s pretty easy to attract B2B leads on LinkedIn.
#8 Forum promotion
It makes a lot of sense to participate in the relevant forums and online communities. By doing so, you’ll manage to get a lot of attention to your business and receive additional B2B leads.
For example, such companies as Dell and EMC have B2B forum communities. These forums are the perfect place for vendors, representatives, and B2B consumers to connect with each other.
#9 Industry-relevant events
It would be great to sponsor conferences and events that are relevant to your industry. Such events attract businesses who are looking for partners and want to make new connections.
So, you’ll manage to share the experience with them. Using such a tactic will help you establish yourself as an expert in the field and, most importantly, generate a lot of B2B leads.
#10 Affiliate marketing
Launching an affiliate program is an effective way to generate quality B2B leads for any business. An affiliate program helps businesses attract partners, who are interested in earning commissions from selling their products or services.
Partners get affiliate links or promo codes. If someone uses a link or a promo code to purchase a product or service from a business, a partner gets a commission.
The main benefit of affiliate marketing is that you have to pay for real results only. Partners get compensation only when they generate a sale to a business.
As a result, a so-called win-win situation is created that’s beneficial for both sides i.e. for business and its partners.
B2B Lead Generation tools / software
There are many tools that can help you a lot with B2B lead generation. These tools are designed to maximize your B2B lead generation efforts.
Generally speaking, the help of the B2B lead generation software is immeasurable in automating the cold emailing process. With these tools, you can:
- Personalize your emails
- Automate the process of sending emails
- Engage with prospects
- Track cold email metrics with the tool
Among the best B2B lead generation tools available today are: Saleshandy, Leadfeeder, HubSpot Sales Hub, SalesLoft, and Salesforce.
- Saleshandy helps a lot with cold emailing. Using the tool’s key features allows you to increase the chance of getting a response from prospects.
- Leadfeeder is a tool that you can integrate into a website. The main task of a tool is to provide statistics on what companies have visited a site.
- HubSpot Sales Hub comes with great features for identifying and nurturing leads.
- SalesLoft is the ideal B2B lead generation software for building and nurturing prospects.
- Salesforce is an AI tool that creates personalized emails, and manages and automates lead generation campaigns.
B2B lead generation tools help do the necessary tasks during the lead generation process easily, quickly, and successfully.
B2B Lead Generation strategies and ideas
Initially, it’s necessary to create an effective B2B strategy and focus on the B2B lead generation best practices. After that, you should measure the results and update your strategy to improve it and get even more B2B leads.
Now, we would like to share some strategies and ideas to help you get the most out of your B2B lead generation generation efforts.
Study your target audience carefully
You will find it easy to get B2B leads if you know your target audience well. That’s why you should perform the research and analyze your target audience carefully in advance. You need to know the answers to the following questions:
- What sites generate a lot of B2B leads for your business?
- What types of products or services do your business partners need?
- What problems do your business partners face in their everyday work?
Once you answer these questions, you’ll easily adjust your lead generation strategies and boost your results.
Focus on high quality leads
The quality of B2B leads matters. You should try to attract B2B leads that convert well and become your business partners over time. Oftentimes, it’s necessary to narrow down the target audience to get high quality leads.
Track your success
It’s crucial to measure the results of a lead generation strategy all the time. When analyzing B2B lead generation strategies, you need to calculate ROI, conversion rates and other metrics.
this type of analysis will allow you to see how different B2B lead generation techniques work, how B2B leads convert into sales, etc.
This will help you make conclusions about the efficiency of your strategies and come up with the best B2B lead generation ideas.
Improve your lead generation strategy
You need to ensure that you make progress and get more B2B leads. If your B2B lead generation strategy doesn’t work well, then you have to take action and make changes to it as soon as possible.
Sometimes, it’s necessary to find more profitable keywords to target with SEO and PPC campaigns, try other types of content, change your emails or use other B2B lead generation strategies for your business. Otherwise, you take a risk to waste your time and money.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are many effective ways to attract B2B leads. Mastering the art of B2B lead generation is a journey that never ends. Follow our tips and use the best practices to develop effective B2B lead generation strategies for your business.
Good luck!
