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Quality leads are your company’s bread and butter to grow.
Quality leads are what the revenue team wants. High-quality web traffic, high-quality conversions, and high-quality sales.
As you use customer-centric research and build a marketing campaign around that research, you will see a more efficient sales pipeline.
Without B2B leads your sales team will fight for their own.
Unfortunately, they can also be a marketer’s worst nightmare. Qualified prospects who become your customers can become your brand ambassadors if you play your cards right. Sure, a firm may have several important goals, but 66% of organizational goals focus on lead generation.
With the digital revolution in full swing, generating B2B leads has become more difficult than ever.
And contrary to what some websites might tell you, there is no one-size-fits-all solution, no magic equation that will generate leads for your business overnight.
In truth, every business generates B2B leads differently. What works for some, may not work for others.
Still, there are several innovative techniques that are likely to result in higher conversions and lower marketing expenses for every business.
If you are new to the sales process you have to learn about and define:
- leads vs prospects
- leads vs opportunities
- leads and contacts
Let’s dig into how to generate more sales leads.
You need marketing leads (MQLs) to fill your sales pipeline or build a list for your e-commerce site. Do you know how many leads you need? How about how many web visitors?
The SEO landscape changes almost daily and it’s not getting any less complicated. But don’t be fooled by the quick and easy way to be #1 on Google. It’s becoming more about the user and quality content that boosts your rankings.
To put it simply, SEO marketing should be a top priority at all times. Getting your brand in organic search results is arguably the most effective tool for generating B2B leads.
If you want the search engines to find you, everything you create and post online should be optimized for their advanced algorithms.
Want results like that?
Let’s look at the stats. According to HubSpot, B2B companies are getting 14% of their leads from SEO – BUT only allocating 12% of their budget to that source.
So don’t forget your target keywords, meta descriptions, and image alt-text. Make SEO a priority.
Social media “experts” state that SEO doesn’t matter because search traffic just “happens.”
And they are right–yes, search traffic “happens” if you produce unique content and don’t make it impossible to find. But the “right” search traffic doesn’t just happen, not unless you’re lucky.
2. Take Advantage of Social Media
We all know social media is a critical component of a marketer’s strategic plan. But did you know that LinkedIn is by far the most popular social channel for B2B companies? According to KISSmetrics, LinkedIn is responsible for more than 80% of a B2B business’s social media leads!
This isn’t to say you should ignore the other channels, it just means to spend the majority of your social media efforts on LinkedIn engagement.
3. Boost Your Email Marketing
Email marketing is popular for garnering B2B leads. It allows you to build a sense of community around your business and will open up the paths of communication.
That being said, there is a thin line you must walk when sending out emails. It’s incredibly easy to be written off as spam by both your readers and the email companies themselves, so be careful with your message and your content. Here is a great HubSpot blog on how to set up good sales emails.
4. Offer Cool Stuff – To Get More B2B Quality Leads
You may have heard about how important content marketing is. But if you aren’t posting the right content, you might as well not create it at all. But it goes beyond content as well. Your reach, influence, and your audience.
If you want to educate your prospects, post content that will solve their problems and answer their questions. How do you do this? You have to understand exactly what problems your readers are likely to be experiencing. I use Quora to research questions that people are asking in my space or specific topic.
Once you’re ready to create quality content, you can use the following tools:
- Webinars
- Videos
- Podcasts
- Blog posts
- Infographics
- Research reports
The bottom line is, content marketing generates quality leads. But, you have to know how to use it effectively; that means understanding your prospects better than you understand yourself so you can create the content they have been waiting for.
5. Get Out There and Network
While it sounds so cliché, being out in the community (or wherever your customers meet in person) will garner great leads. It’s a lot of work, but the rewards are great. Not to mention that the contacts you meet may not be ready to buy, but they will remember your face when they are.
In this B2B News Network article called, “Is Networking Really Worth It?” they bring up a really important point. A key element of real-world networking is trust. In many ways, trust is a key business ingredient.
As consumers and business people, we make decisions based on emotions – it is the way we are wired. When we trust someone, it can be easier to make a purchase.
So don’t lose sight of the power of a personal connection. As much as we live in a digital world, no replacement is as tangible for making real-world connections as meeting in-person.
Good luck on your quest to generate quality leads! The 5 suggestions above should give you a great head start. But if you’re having trouble finding bandwidth, consider outsourcing some of these services to a marketing agency.
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Are you not getting the results you had hoped for with your current marketing agency? Let the experts at this Denver marketing agency help you generate more web traffic, converts more leads, and close more sales. Our team knows just what it takes to build and maintain a proven marketing strategy that drives high-quality leads. For more information, check out our marketing services or contact us to schedule a free consultation to discuss your needs and our services.
