One of the most common pain points among businesses and B2B marketers is knowledge of how to generate B2B leads. What’s more frustrating is the fact that you know they’re out there somewhere… you just don’t seem to be able to reach them. Maybe it’s time to experiment with some new lead-gen strategies.
Here are 10 dynamic inbound and outbound strategies that will not only help it start raining leads, but help you move them through your pipeline more successfully…
1. Generate B2B Leads by complimenting organic ranking with PPC
It’s understandable that some businesses may be reluctant to invest in PPC. After all, it can become a rabbit hole and shrewd businesses are wary of throwing good money after bad. We all know that organic is better… but SEO is an ever-changing beast with constant Google search engine algorithm updates so SERP ranking is a longer-term strategy.
Using LinkedIn campaigns, Google Ads and retargeting can help businesses to get a headstart in generating motivated leads at various stages of the marketing and sales process. While you may need to carry out some prudent keyword research and copy testing to ensure best results, capital spent on PPC is rarely wasted. It’s only when you fail to capitalise on the momentum built by PPC that it becomes a money pit.
2. Add some warmth to your cold emails
It’s likely that you’ve never even attempted to send cold emails because conventional wisdom dictates that email marketing simply doesn’t work. Indeed, you may think that you can’t send cold B2B emails due to GDPR law. However, both these assertions are untrue. You can send cold emails, and they can absolutely work in generating motivated leads.
It all depends on the quality of the email and your target audience. If you can produce a witty, concise and persuasive email you might be surprised by how much traction it gets, all it takes is a bit of personality, just like the example below.
credit: theCLIKK
Here are some tips to make sure your cold emails rock their recipients’ inboxes:
- Be clever with your subject line — this is your one-line pitch to get them to open your email.
- Be witty and engaging. It’s a great first impression for your brand.
- Use images, graphics and GIFs to bring your email to life.
- Be concise. Prospects don’t have time for waffle.
- Keep your language simple and avoid jargon or marketing speak.
- Try and find a balance between sincerity and personality — nobody likes a dry email but equally being too clever can come across as arrogant.
It’s also a good idea to send one or two follow up emails just in case your initial efforts get lost in the shuffle — but be sure to switch up your subject line and intro at the very least.
3. Use scarcity marketing tactics to leverage customers’ sense of FOMO
We’re naturally less interested in things when they’re abundant. Scarcity, however, is oddly appealing. Especially if we feel that we might lose out on something to someone else. This is the essence of scarcity marketing campaigns. It capitalises on the human desire to want what we can’t have as well as our Fear of Missing Out (FOMO).
Thus, limited time offers can be a great motivator to encourage prospects to surrender their details and become highly motivated leads. One example would be to promote your eBook as “first 50 downloads FREE (£14.99 thereafter)”.
4. Embrace social media
When exploring how to generate B2B leads, there’s really no getting around the need for social media marketing today. Your social media accounts are a great platform from which to generate potential customers and reach out to your existing customer base.
One of the most fundamental mistakes that brands make on social media is using platforms to facilitate a hard sell. While you may well get some prospects who convert on the strength of your social content, the primary goal of social media is engagement.
Social platforms help people to see the personality of your brand and engage with the people who make your business great. It has a great humanising effect and can help new prospects to make the kind of personal connection with your brand that turns them into high-quality leads.
LinkedIn is a particularly useful resource for those B2B companies who want to generate motivated leads. When used in combination with your other content (blog posts, videos, white papers etc.) it can make a devastating one-two punch that adds real value for businesses.
When you’ve given leads something for nothing (and there’s no better form than education, by the way), they’ll be more responsive to your sales messages and more likely to convert.
5. Add pop-ups and opt-ins to key landing pages
Your cornerstone content is a huge draw when it comes to building trust and value in your brand. But there may be other ways in which it can help you to generate leads. Whatever your personal opinion of pop-ups and opt-ins, the truth is… they work.
And when they’re attached to content to which traffic flows organically, they can deliver optimal click-through rates and increased user engagement. But remember, pop-ups are often regarded as irritating, so consider setting them up at a 50% page scroll rather than immediately bombarding your audience or you risk them swiftly leaving your landing page.
For opt-ins and pop-ups to be successful, you usually need to offer something of value to the user. Yet, exit-intent pop-ups can be effective in gaining contact details in the form of a blog subscription, and shouldn’t be neglected as a quick win to continue delivering your brand’s message.
6. Rethink your CTAs when it comes to emails
Never underestimate the power of a compelling Call To Action. For obvious reasons professionals are often reticent to let anyone they don’t know into their inboxes. But by rethinking your CTA you can deliver a unique value proposition that will increase conversion rates. Try to appeal to their pain points and once again, provide that all-important added value.
credit: Email On Acid
Even simple copy changes such as “Join our 20,000 strong community of great business minds” is an infinitely more appealing prospect than “sign up to our mailing list”. Pitch it as an invitation to an exclusive club and hint at a range of benefits for the recipient, and your email shoots become something to look forward to rather than an inconvenience.
7. Build those backlinks
There’s no greater stamp of approval than a referral from a customer whom you’ve turned into a loyal brand advocate. But a backlink from an authoritative and trusted website may well be the next best thing. As well as being a great way to boost your SEO it can also be a potent lead generation strategy.
There are many ways to get people to backlink to your site. One of the most popular is guest blogging or appearing on someone else’s podcast or YouTube channel. Another way is to generate a piece of content like an infographic that other businesses can use as a resource.
Backlinks are also an inevitable consequence of great…
8. Content marketing: start building trust and value
Content marketing is the bedrock of B2B demand generation strategies for a number of reasons. It makes your website more appealing from an SEO point of view while also building value in your brand.
When you share your advice and insights in ways that address your prospect’s common pain points you’re automatically building a sense of authority and establishing yourself as a trustworthy resource. The more quality content you post, the more likely you are to drive intent-rich users to your website, and ultimately convert them as qualified leads. But remember — educate, don’t sell, leave that to your sales team.
9. Incentivise social sharing
Social sharing is the essence of virality. When leads share your content with their own contacts, they increase your brand’s visibility, generating more valuable leads. After all, there’s no better sales pitch in the world than a recommendation
But when there are so many brands competing for your prospects’ attention, social sharing may require a gentle push. Many businesses incentivise the sharing of their content on social platforms by giving exclusive offers to those who share or entering them into appealing prize draws.
10. If you don’t ask, you don’t get
It’s all-too-easy to see the gathering of prospects’ data as some kind of clandestine covert enterprise. But you’d be amazed how much useful information prospects are willing to give you if you go the right way about asking them.
Build questions into your follow-up calls. Understanding why they chose you and what drove them to fill out a BoF (Bottom of Funnel) lead-gen form will allow you to understand the blog content, web pages, and messaging that really hit the mark — and by process of elimination, those that didn’t.
Surveys and quizzes can also be a fun way to generate leads while also getting to know your audience and their needs a little better. Present your survey as a fun distraction to help them fill a coffee break, maybe give them an incentive for completion and you have a useful resource for both lead generation and market research.
And anything that does two jobs for the price of one is worth seriously considering.