A quick search on the internet and you’ll come across
“40 B2B lead generation ideas,”
“Top lead generation strategies to improve ROI,”
“19 strategies to generate leads,”
As a marketer, it’s exciting to come across these posts, but do they all work?
It’s one thing to have a list of 10 or 50 strategies but a whole other story to find those that will work for your brand. So, we won’t share 20 or 39 ideas you can implement, but rather 5 solid options that have been known to work across the board.
Let’s dive in.
-
Market Segmentation
“Sell different people (target companies) differently.
This is a fundamental rule in marketing otherwise you risk putting out messages that people don’t relate to.
Market segmentation enables you to draw accurate pictures of your target customers, categorize them according to their characteristics then devise personalized messages for each group.
Since the messages you put out are highly relevant to the prospect, they may lead to better conversions. You can categorize your prospects in multiple ways including:
-
Firmographics. Industry, customer type, company size, revenue, location, and growth trends are all characteristics that you can use to segment prospects. Most of this info is publicly available and stays the same for the most part.
-
Behavior-based segmentation. Behavioral data checks the channels prospects use to land on your website and interactions with content or solutions. It offers clear insights into what the prospect is looking for.
-
Profitability segmentation. Here, you look at a lead’s potential value in various ways including lead quality, acquisition channels, and customer lifetime value. The information helps you know what leads to spend more resources on.
2. Optimize Your Landing Pages
Unless you’re gunning for the generic company badge that sells generic solutions to generic companies, and makes unremarkable sales, pay attention to your landing pages.
The end goal of your landing page should be to persuade (quality) prospects to buy. You’ll need to personalize it to their needs and show them that they can trust you and your ability to tackle their problems.
Top practices include:
-
Creating campaign-specific landing pages. Some marketers use landing pages to send audiences to their homepage. They believe that doing so accords audiences the opportunity to look around for what fits. This only complicates the user’s experiences and if they can’t find what they came for quickly, they will leave.
-
Ensure your primary intent is clear. The headline, copy, and visuals should be easy for every visitor to understand what you’re talking about. This goes for the overall design of your page as well.
-
Showcase quantifiable results. Briefly illustrate the tangible results your prospects can expect by working with you. Go further and add awards, badges, reviews, and other social proof to back your claims.
3. Make Cold Calls
A cold call is every bit the research, script, and preparation as it is the delivery.
That’s right. You can have the most awesome of products or a script curated by the most successful salespeople, but without phone etiquette, it will all be for nothing.
If you want a decent chance to make your cold calling efforts work, consider the following:
-
Use a clear and pleasant voice. A shrill voice, a low voice, unnecessary laughter, or incoherent mumbling will certainly not win you any customers. Practice your enunciation and tone to ensure you give off a confident and professional vibe.
-
Avoid calling prospects on their personal phones. In an attempt to bypass gatekeepers and voicemail, some reps reach out to contact persons or decision-makers on their private lines. You may want to check on the legality of doing so because it might land you in trouble.
-
Patience is a virtue. You may have to call a prospect multiple times and when you finally get hold of them, they ask far too many questions. Be polite at all times and where necessary repeat the points or stats you shared to ensure you’re both on the same page. It’s the only way you’ll move forward.
-
Don’t trash the competition. Avoid bad-mouthing the competition because that reflects poorly on your brand. Give honor where it’s due and redirect the conversation to your offerings and their special features.
4. Co-Host Webinars
There are undeniable benefits of co-hosting webinars. In tagging a complementary business you double your exposure, double your webinar’s value, build credibility and reduce the hosting workload.
As the promotions go out from both sides and people attend the webinar, you can interest each other’s audiences in your individual solutions or cross-sells. Everyone wins.
It’s a win-win scenario.
Here are some considerations:
-
Choose an appropriate co-host. Chemistry is important but you also need to find a partner who offers complementary value. If you sell busines to business accounting software, a financial consultant might make a good co-host. The point is to bring on someone who offers expertise in a related area to your audience’s benefit.
-
Plan the presentation. Who will start? Who will introduce the other? Will you equally co-host or will there be a primary host? Map out who will do what and when to make your experience seamless. Similarly, design your registration page, promotional copy, images, and webinar promotion schedule together.
-
Practice. Dry runs are absolutely essential. You get to do more than test the tech. Dry runs help ease tensions to help you feel more at ease with each other. As your chemistry builds up you can have fun together and get even better results.
5. Video Marketing
Up to 86 percent of B2B marketers in a Wyzowl survey stated that videos assisted them in lead generation.
Videos have evolved beyond entertainment to convenient and effective methods of showing prospective customers what your organization has to offer.
So, how can you maximize this video strategy to hit your marketing goals:
-
Base your video content on search queries. Converting visitors to leads requires you to have visitors first. The best way to attract these visitors is by providing the information they are searching for. So, create videos that capture and respond to search intent queries.
-
Align video content with your solutions. All around you are brands with problems that need solutions and they are looking for vendors who can solve them. Ensure you create videos that cover the problems your solutions tackle and position your brand as the ideal solution provider.
-
Make relatable videos. As you align your videos to your solutions remember to make them relatable from your viewer’s perspective. So rather than overly focusing on brand awareness, place emphasis on brand affinity.
Examples of videos that may help your lead generation efforts include influencer-backed videos, demo videos, and testimonials/case study videos.