As a professional B2B lead generation agency, we’ve come across and gathered dozens of valuable lessons on B2Bsales lead generation over the years of our experience. Much of what we’ve learned holds tips for our readers, so it’s only fair now to share them with you. First, remember – B2B sales lead generation is all about the following principles:
- Value both your existing and future clients;
- Be creative;
- Don’t oversell it.
Keep reading this tutorial for lead generation for B2B – Belkins’ if you want to know more.
How to Find Sales Leads
In order to find relevant sales leads, take a look at your products, your overall strategy, and your company’s goals. Self-awareness should be a primary objective, and without some business introspection, you won’t know what exactly you are looking for in potential leads or why those leads would be interested in purchasing your product in the first place.
Nowadays, you can get leads from pretty much anywhere – emails, calls, public events, educational gatherings, influencers, etc. The top five sources still remain:
- Customer testimonials and referrals;
- Direct marketing;
- Social media advertisement and guest blogging;
- The use of third-party services, i.e., you can buy B2B leads from professionals;
- Sales and promotions.
Finding B2B leads has a slightly different undertone than finding B2C leads due to the focus being on whole companies, their people, teams, and stakeholders. What may have worked with individual customers who are making decisions for themselves will not work for people deciding on behalf of an organization.
How to Generate B2B Leads
Business to business lead generation should prioritize quality over quantity. It’s not a matter of how many individuals you can get excited about your product, but which businesses will eventually become your loyal clients.
In-person Promotion
Even in the digitalization era, personal communication is considered a sign of good taste and vision. It shows you willing to go the extra mile and not just leave your email or a link to your product in hopes of the deal closing itself off. Build a special relationship with your potential client.
Buy B2B Leads
That’s correct, just like with every other business situation – if you want it, buy it. It’s not an ideal scenario for everyone, and, sure, actively participating in generating your own leads results in a better and more meaningful outcome. Though, sometimes, you have to do it. Make sure the company you’re buying them from is competent and trustworthy.
Use B2B Marketing to Get Sales Leads
The proper use of B2B marketing (or any marketing, really) can be a bit tricky. The main question is – how to reach a potential client without coming across as pushy? Try to see the situation from their perspective, or even better – try to put yourself in their shoes. How would you feel with all this excess attention just to persuade you to buy something? Be mindful and moderate in your attempts to win a customer over.
Email Marketing
Emails are still on the top of their game when it comes to B2B marketing. However, due to its excessive use in nearly every business, tons of emails are going straight to spam, which lowers your chances of getting quality leads. What you need is an email spam checker. It boosts the deliverability of your emails through filters, settings, and content analysis. Folderly is a proven spam checker we use in our work.
How Content Can Generate B2B Leads
Content can generate loads of excellent inbound leads, but only the correct and more personalized type of B2B content. Study the market and the specific attributes of your industry. Make B2B marketing personas to study your future customers. Next, build your business reputation and turn yourself into a trustworthy source before producing any kind of content.
Quality content should also be about education, wisdom-sharing, and entertainment, not intrusive selling. Great examples of B2B content can be:
- Social media campaigns;
- Expert blog posts;
- LinkedIn advertising articles;
- Webinars for your target audience;
- Educational platforms and courses;
- Youtube videos;
- E-books or tutorials;
- Answers on various Q&A websites or forums.
Also, as we’ve mentioned at the beginning – focus on creativity. Banal, irrelative, or repetitive content will not differentiate you from thousands of other companies in the market. Even the smallest quirks or unconventional ways of presenting information are a clear giveaway of your business individuality.
Guest Blogging for Generating Leads
Returning to our tip on building a business reputation – one of the most popular and effective ways to do that is guest blogging. Smart utilization of backlinks on another company’s expert website or blog can significantly extend your reach in a hunt for business leads. The substantial benefits of guest posts for lead generation are numerous ways of inserting different links to your services, authority establishment, and a much wider audience.
Speaking of links, it may be a good idea to make them as miscellaneous and diversified as possible. That means not only backlinks to your homepage or contacts but also your case studies, customer testimonials, popular items, your own articles, or social media posts. You don’t know which ones the potential customer might click. However, don’t overdo it, plus don’t insert spam links either – it’s too easy to lose the person’s trust and never get it back.
Don’t Ignore Your Customers
Despite the best B2B lead generation, you should still take care of your existing clients. Their loyalty and referrals are some of your most valuable assets. Customer retention requires a splendid post-purchase customer experience and occasional tokens of appreciation.
Reach out to them every time you have an important announcement or simply to make them feel appreciated with personalized emails, content, perhaps even calls. Keep up with each and every decision a customer makes regarding your product or services. Listen to every bit of feedback from any of their team members.
It’s also essential to provide comprehensive and accomodating onboarding for new customers. Demonstrate your willingness to help – show them you’re not going to abandon them right after the purchase is made. Additionally, if the feedback is scarce, monitor the usage of your product by looking at internal statistics, the amount of logging off, long periods of inactivity, etc.
Conclusion
Whether it’s acquiring premade B2B lead lists or searching for them yourself, quality B2B lead generation still requires utmost dedication. Make sure your existing marketing campaign can deal with what comes after you acquired and approached a lead – a subsequent purchase, service, or handling the unexpected. And one more tip – during lead generation, try to recognize a lead as an actual person rather than a name and a contact.