Some say lead generation is the fuel that ignites a sales engine.
I agree.
Without leads, you’ll be riding on fumes and soon enough grind to a halt.
Since none of us want to be in this position, we go out on digital ‘streets’ and gather just about every lead we can find for nurturing. Well, did you know that only 12 percent of marketers are content with their lead conversion abilities?
Establishing contact with leads, qualifying, and following them up is no mean feat.
And without proper digital marketing strategies—the kind that brings in quality leads, you’ll have a spent budget and no revenue growth to show for it.
To this end, we’ll explore several digital tactics you can employ to attract quality leads.
1. Email Marketing
How effective is email marketing, really? According to a RAIN Group study, 31 percent of B2B sellers found that researching prospects and manually crafting customized emails was very effective.
What about responses from recipients?
Well, the study showed 77 percent of buyers responded favorably to emails from new providers.
This strategy is a quick and effective communication channel for initiating conversations, sharing data, and building relationships.
Consider the following:
- Understand that customers have different needs and motivations. Research individual prospects, learn their drivers, and create content that addresses their specific situation.
- Think through your email headers. How many emails do you receive daily? How many do you open? Headers are the first thing a person sees. If it doesn’t communicate value, they probably won’t open it.
- Avoid addressing emails to the CEO. Companies have different procurement systems, with some appointing specific staff to handle purchases. Establish the decision-makers first and address your emails to them.
- Authenticate your domain. Authenticating your domain helps block phishing scams and other harmful content. Not only does it ensure deliverability, but also reduces the chances of your emails finding themselves in the spam folder.
2. Video Marketing
A report by Forbes shows that 75 percent of the senior executives they surveyed watched work-related videos, get this, weekly. Further, these work-related videos drove them to visit the vendor’s site.
What’s my point?
Videos are an acceptable form of communication that works in all fields, including healthcare, manufacturing, and industrial.
Here are video formats that help drive lead generation:
- Explainer videos. The nature of these videos is to clarify your products/services and answer the questions that revolve around them. Before creating one, identify the pain points and questions potential customers have, then script your video to address these issues.
- Whiteboard animation videos. These videos are ideal for communicating complicated products/services or for marketers who need to cover plenty of ground at one go. Since the videos are visually detailed and fast-moving means they hold interest, allowing the narrator to describe ideas as they unfold.
- Thought leadership videos. Here, you have a video format that allows your brand to shine as you share knowledge and expertise. They help build trust and increase influence encouraging audiences to both learn and engage with you.
3. Use Social Media to Warm Up Leads
Boasting close to 4 billion members the world over, social platforms present a wealth of cold leads for B2Bs.
Cold leads that you can warm up by initiating or participating in conversations and sharing valuable information.
You won’t just be showcasing your expertise to grow your following, but also building a strong base that can convert into long-term collaborations.
Here are ways to generate valuable leads:
- Create enticing lead magnets. What are your customers interested in? What questions would they like to be answered? From templates, tools, and research, create free shareable assets to attract prospects to your site and business.
- Provide social proof through testimonials. People want assurances that your solutions work. The best way to verify this is through the words of those who used your products/services. Great testimonials demonstrate brand value.
- Invest in targeted ads running special offers. Many platforms offer specific targeting options you can leverage to show specially tailored offers to relevant audiences.
- Be active. Far too many B2B pages gather online dust. They offer no value to their owners or potential customers. Being present and active shows your followers you’re committed to serving them.
4. Cold Calling
The RAIN Group research we talked about in email marketing also has something for teams engaging in cold calling.
Researching prospects to identify specific problems and tailoring messages to showcase your expertise at solving these problems will earn you a listening ear from buyers.
According to the research, up to 62 percent of B2B buyers would appreciate this.
Best practices include:
- Research your leads to ensure your message is relevant to their needs. Use marketing intelligence to determine search intent so you can know how to approach them.
- Keep an eye out for trends in both your industries. The prospect may test your knowledge to know if you’re as good as you claim to be. So, stay on top of shifting trends, developments, and new legislation affecting both your industries. There’s no telling what opportunities it can open.
- Contact the right person. You’ll need to identify decision-makers in the company. It ensures you’re not pitching to someone with no buying influence or is too busy to pass the message to the right person.
- Keep your conversations personable. Even though B2B purchases are all about cold facts and expertise, don’t be the salesperson who can’t engage in friendly conversations. Find something relatable to invite the prospect in.
5. Create Gated Content
Gating content is a fantastic strategy for acquiring leads, but one that requires a delicate balance.
Producing great content pieces like industry reports or useful templates takes plenty of time. So it’s natural to want to get something in return (like contact information) when you share it.
However, gating every piece you produce may cause dwindling interest since people don’t just want to out their personal content. Unless they see true value.
Start by sharing ungated but high-quality material.
It will enhance awareness and give audiences a feel of your authority, expertise, and capability. As they interact with your ungated content, their trust in you will start building up.
When the time comes that you present gated content, the audience won’t mind sharing their details since they already know your quality.
Better yet, you’ll attract high-quality and motivated audiences keen on harnessing even more insights from you.
Consider the following:
- Create content that fits all three stages of the purchase cycle, aka awareness, consideration, and decision. An ebook is perfect for awareness, but webinars or product demos may work better for those at the decision-making stage.
- Provide value. Industry insights are great but if they don’t help your target market achieve their goals, they are probably not that valuable.
- Measure the results. Measure the number of downloads each piece generates and how many leads have converted through it. The data will reveal audience behavior, interactions, and preferences.
