B2B lead generation is never an easy process. A successful B2B strategy will mean having more than a handful lead generation tactics aimed to increase ROI. Studies have shown that 28% of B2B marketers generally use five to nine content marketing tactics to drive more leads, while 64% report using more than nine.
B2B lead generation campaigns take a lot of time and consistent effort. And if you’re concentrating all of your resources on generating leads and not converting them, then the uphill battle becomes steeper.
Here’s a look at eight lead generation ideas to take the guesswork out of finding new customers.
1. Drive newsletter subscription opt-ins
Capture more leads by giving site visitors an opportunity to sign up and subscribe to your blog. Exchanging an email address for fresh content is worth it for someone who is actively looking for expertise, information and insights. Featuring a subscription form with Name and/or Email Address fields, is an important step if you wish to generate leads through your content.
Offering a blog with well-managed content will also help increase site traffic and SEO rankings with ease. The more people you can engage the easier it will be to craft an effective marketing plan.
2. Differentiate with content marketing
Content marketing reigns supreme as one of the best B2B lead generation strategies today, but only when you differentiate it. The tone of voice, niche that you choose, visual appearance of your content, the way you organize your webinars, etc. are some of the best examples of ways you can differentiate your brand from your competitors.
3. Create webinars and webcasts
Online learning is one of the most important tactics involved in B2B lead generation. Webinars are designed like an online meetings with Q&A, polls, whiteboard and markup abilities. In contrast, webcasts are primarily video and slides, or video-only.
When a prospect gets to see and hear you provide valuable advice, it enhances credibility and shows you have an answer for the challenges they are facing. Creating a webinar landing page to drive lead capture is a smart move, used by many marketers.
In fact, according to ON24, “Webcasts are being integrated with marketing automation platforms such as Salesforce, Marketo and HubSpot, allowing virtual event producers to learn crucial details about viewer demographics and fine-tune event strategies and content for best effect. And, as webinar content flows into marketing automation solutions, you can identify who your best leads are.”
Start by creating a landing page where online visitors can register to join your upcoming live webinars, or listen to on-demand webinars at any time.
4. Play with quizzes and surveys
One of the biggest challenges faced by B2B marketers is generating high quality leads. This is where lead scoring and progressive profiling come into play, helping marketers refine their lead generation machine.
It takes time to craft the right marketing strategy and choose the best marketing automation software. Surveys can achieve three important tasks: Gain insights for A/B testing, diagnose and treat prospect objections in real-time, and gather more information to close more deals.
Non-intrusive popup surveys that do not block site content are a quick way to gain website visitors insights.
5. Gather customer testimonials
Testimonials are important because they tell your customers what others think about you and your products and services. Featuring testimonials helps your lead generation efforts by reinforcing credibility and gaining the trust of new clients and customers.
Someone who is new to your business likely has limited (or no) knowledge of your offering and zero brand trust. By highlighting unbiased endorsements you can garner a great deal of credibility.
6. Offer free trials
Offering a no-obligation free trial or demo is one of the best ways to capture leads and nurture them into paying customers. “The conventional rationale for offering a free trial is that it allows potential customers the chance to evaluate the service or content offering before making a financial commitment.” And internal case studies have shown that it works.
For example, a health-related service website implemented a 30-day free trial offer and measured it alongside their cost per click (CPC) campaign. The result: “The service provider was able to reduce its overall cost per acquisition by nearly 40% without changing bids in the pay-per-click search engines.”
7. Focus on search engine optimization
SEO is one of the best ways to make your business website search engine friendly. Note, that you need to optimize your entire website for the best results (and not just a particular page). If you do not pay attention to SEO, then search engines cannot help you rank well or categorize your website with relevant keywords. This will require both on page and off page SEO. In short, the more you leverage SEO, the more customers will be able to find your company.
8. Create FAQ’s
FAQ’s, or “Frequently Asked Questions”, are one of the best ways to engage website visitors. People click through to your website with many questions on their minds such as:
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Can this company help me solve my problem?
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Will this product or service be of value to me?
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Who else have they done businesses with?
It’s your responsibility to quickly answer these questions before they bounce off your page onto a competitive website that will. Granted you cannot anticipate all customer-related questions. However, this is where lead generation and your customer support system come into play.
Creating a form that allows people to send their query to you takes the guesswork out of wondering what your ideal customers need. Meanwhile, tracking customer support requests and issues can act as the framework for frequently asked questions and concerns.
To conclude, by making use of these eight lead generation strategies, especially using them together with an overall strategy, you can create a powerful marketing plan and attract quality leads. When you have the right leads, you can effectively market your products and services and transform those leads into repeat customers.
This article has been edited and condensed.
Robert Smith is the Marketing Manager at Ampliz, specializing in email and marketing database management software, editing blogs, case studies, and guides. He tries to make the world just a bit more pleasant enough by working on strategies that would help them prevent and eliminate spam in terms of email marketing. A version of this article originally appeared here. Connect with @AmplizSuite on Twitter.
