Lead generation forms the bedrock of a highly successful B2B sales strategy. With the constant evolution in the digitized landscape & Internet of Things (IoT), the B2B sales process has changed. The conventional funnel structure of a B2B buyer has transcended to a loop-like structure, wherein, the customers prefer to do multiple pieces of research before they make a final buying decision.
To develop an impregnable B2B sales strategy, marketers need to get more qualified leads, which helps maintain a healthy sales pipeline. Also, filling the pipeline with high-quality leads helps in efficient pipeline management as marketers have surplus resources to last whilst long sales cycles.
Read more on B2B Marketing in Martech Age
According to Miller Heiman Group, “Strategic Selling” with some perspective is critical for marketers.
Before the marketers can opt for a data-driven approach to scale-up sales, they need to get quality leads. The process of getting quality leads starts with the right prospecting & targeting.
With the evolution in the methods of targeting the process of lead generation has become more efficient & less complex than ever before. Nonetheless, as simple as it may sound, it remains a challenge for a lot of marketers.
According to a report by Forbes, lead generation is still the #1 challenge for 85% of B2B marketers.
So, before you think of designing an invincible B2B sales strategy, you need to understand lead generation & ways to get more sales leads.
What is Lead generation?
Lead generation is a core marketing activity aimed at acquiring prospective customers who have demonstrated some sort of interest in seller’s goods & services. The potential client discovered as a result of lead generation is called a “lead”.
- Lead generation is an amalgamation of arts & science & is based on statistics & testing
- Lead generation endeavors aim at achieving both qualitative & quantitative goals & seeks to gain maximum Return on Investment (ROI)
The importance of lead generation was described by author Zig Zagler in the following words:
“You are out of business if you don’t have a prospect!”
To get a competitive edge over your competitors in your B2B sales strategy, you need to accelerate your lead generation process. This starts with finding your niche market & the ideal prospects. Once, you figure out our ideal persona, you can head for the right targeting approaches to attract, engage with & convert your prospects.
The following are some marketing hacks to help you acquire an optimum number of leads
Ways to Get More Leads
1. Engage with Your Prospects
Sales are about building relationships. Have as many real conversations with prospects as possible.
Prospecting is one of the most important aspects of B2B sales strategy. Marketers put so much time to discover where their ideal personas reside on the web.
All the effort would go in vain if you don’t engage with your prospects by providing them relevant, timely & personalized solutions as per their pain-points.
The following are some of the ways to keep your leads engaged & tactfully slither them to sales conversions:
a. Write blog posts:
Blogging is a powerful marketing tool in the arsenal of B2B marketers.
According to the Content Marketing Institute, 76% of marketers accede that blogs are a vital part of their content marketing strategy.
You can post high-quality content on your company website frequently to keep your audiences engaged:
Read more on How Many Blog Posts Should a B2B Company Publish Per Week?
b. Have an Engaging Website:
Your website design is one of the most critical parameters for audience engagement. On average, it takes an average unique user only a couple of seconds to decide whether to stay on a website or drift away.
According to Nielsen Norman Group: “Website quality is equated to company quality in many customer’s minds.
Also, marketers need to be mindful to have optimized their website loading time & landing pages.
According to SEMrush, if your website loading time is 0.8 s you are faster than 94% of the web & faster than 75% of the web with a loading time of 1.7 s.
Read more on SEOBest Practices for Landing Page Optimization
c. Employ Videos:
B2B Video marketing is one of the foremost sales strategies & continues to take the digital marketing world by storm in 2020. Videos are an effective way of visual storytelling and serve as an excellent medium to engage with the audiences.
According to a study by Wyzowl, almost all the marketers using videos as a part of their B2B sales strategy, plan to stick to the strategy in 2020 & 85% of them are looking forward to increasing their video marketing budgets.
Furthermore, owing to the increase in the closed captioning videos will become more popular & SEO-friendly in 2020, to give the much-needed boost to your marketing strategy.
Read more on 7 Best Practices for B2B Video marketing
d. Interact with your prospects on the Social Media channels:
Social Media Channels are not only effective to promote your brand vision but also serve as an effective medium to engage with your prospects in real-time. The ideal prospects are present on diverse social channels across the web & often constantly researching on their preferred platforms. Social media channels serve as quick, cost-effective & hassle-free channels for lead generation.
2. Embrace Account-Based Marketing
Account-Based Marketing allows organizations to create a firm & dynamic pipeline by targeting specific accounts & is a zero-waste marketing strategy that guarantees higher conversions.
Marketers can use account-based marketing to acquire high-value customers by opting for the following tactics:
- Targeting selected accounts instead of undifferentiated lists
- Keeping the Conversations Personalized
- Opting for a well-researched & data-driven approach
- Adopting a multi-channel strategy
- Keeping the sales & marketing endeavors integrated & persistent
- Employing Better Segmentation using Intent Data
3. Optimize the Email Marketing
Email Marketing plays a central role in customer acquisition, engagement, conversion as well as retention.
According to Emailmonday.com, email marketing harvests an ROI of 3800%.
Marketers can deploy the following email marketing approaches to boost their lead generation & build a comprehensive B2B sales strategy
- Sending Welcome Emails
- Improving on the Email Sender Reputation
- Optimizing the Email Lists & Content Displayed
- Defining, Measuring & Optimizing the Email Marketing KPIs
- Driving Engagement from Email Campaigns
- Using Data-Driven Insights to Improve Personalization
- Making your Email Marketing GDPR Complaint
- Embedding Videos in Email Marketing Campaigns
- Automating Email Marketing Campaigns & Optimizing them for Mobile Devices
- Using Content-Based Email Marketing to Engage Customers
4. Opt for an Agile Content Strategy
Content Marketing always has been steering wheel of B2B Marketing. Opt for agile ways of content creation for faster delivery & optimization of content strategy.
Creating proper documentation & work-flow for content creation & publication can help marketers boost their lead generation endeavors. Adopt the following agile content strategies to boost lead generation:
- Diversify your content strategy by assimilating Blogs, Vlogs, Visual Storytelling (Images & Videos), Podcasts, Webinars, SlideShares, etc. & repurpose your content as & when required
- Keep Your Content SEO Complaint & Relevant
- Publish your content at the right frequency
- Collaborate with Content Creators & Businesspeople
- Make things Simple
- Test-run, Evolve & Optimize Your Content Strategy in Real-Time
5. Use Intent Data
Intent data reflects on the purchase intent of potential customers at different stages of their respective buying cycles. Intent data helps identify & engage potential clients long before your competitors can figure them out.
Marketers can use data from website analytics as well as third parties to boost their lead generation endeavors by:
- Tracking Website Data
- Tracking the Journey of Buyer Persona
- Tracking the website conversion rates
- Assimilating & analyzing data from various third-party sources
Wrapping Things Up
The process of lead generation bears a direct-correlation with shaping a successful B2B sales strategy. Boosting quality leads means driving higher conversions & ultimately higher sales ROI. The trick lies in communicating your offers effectively. The more effectively marketers will be able to communicate the value propositions of their products or services, the more effectively they will be able to attract their leads & convince them to buy from them.
The trick to excel at lead generation was elucidated by digital marketing expert Chris Cunningham as:
“Lead generation excels when a campaign is looking to capture a piece of factual intelligence that could never be modeled or predicted through profiling & sophisticated propensity algorithms.”
Valasys Media is a well-renowned name among B2B lead generation service providers. We leverage apt technological resources & scientific approaches along with data-driven insights to help marketers accomplish their ROI goals. Backed by a team of creative & self-motivated professionals our services include lead generation, account-based marketing, lead nurturing, event promotion services, list building services & content syndication services.
Our services include lead-generation, account-based marketing, lead nurturing, event promotion services, list building services & content syndication services, all of which are focused to help B2B marketers apprehend their core bottom-lines.
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