25 B2B Lead generation Strategies That Deliver Marketing ROI

The end of the year signals the need to reevaluate old strategies and find newer strategies in order to remain competitive in your industry.

B2B buyer behavior is continuing to change at an incredible pace, thanks to a variety of emerging technologies and new insights. B2B marketers face a difficult task in recalibrating their lead generation strategies within this constantly changing landscape.

Consumers are becoming more educated due to the explosion of content that addresses consumer concerns at all stages of the buying process. A growing technology revolution has raised consumer expectations about customer service.

Walker Information found that customer experience is more important than product and price as a brand differentiation.

While some B2B brands convert more prospects, others remain stuck in old ways and are unsure of how to spice it up.

However, 61% of businesses believe that lead generation is their greatest marketing challenge.

While there are many lead capturing strategies that can be free, few of them will maximize your ROI. These efficient B2B lead generation strategies will help you win.

1. Create High-Quality, Evergreen Content

You should publish content regularly as content is today's currency on the internet. Not only will you build your authority as an expert but you'll also increase your reach and exposure. Don't just create content. Your content should be valuable to your audience and not just a pretty face for your brand.

You earn their trust by publishing valuable content that educates, entertains, and informs your target audience. Once you have their trust, it's much easier to convert leads.

It is also important to publish your content on a regular basis. Your commitment to publishing quality content more often will show your target audience that you are willing to go the extra mile to address their concerns.

Hubspot's study found that companies publishing 16 to 24 blog posts per months generate 4.5 times as many leads than those publishing 0-4 posts per monthly. Further, 47% of B2B buyers depend on content to make purchasing decisions and conduct research.

B2B buyers read at least three to five pieces related content before they contact a sales representative. This information can be leveraged by creating more content frequently to meet the information needs of your audience.

Moment marketing can be a great way for your business to remain relevant and go viral for a short time, but it is important to find evergreen topics within your niche to attract clients at all stages of the sales funnel.

Your SEO strategy should include evergreen content. This will allow you to remain relevant on search engines. High-quality content that is evergreen can be helpful, informative, and shared. It never goes out-of-fashion.

2. Secure Your Content Strategically

Marketers are not all experts on whether to gate their content. This is one of the best ways to identify and attract leads that care about your business.

Gated content can help increase conversions and leads when done correctly. A content locking script was used by Trading Strategy Guides, a finance and trade website. They added nearly 11,000 subscribers to their email lists in just one month. Unbounce's content stats show that Unbounce has more campaigns with conversion rates between 19 and 45 percent.

If you have a large library of content that your audience enjoys, it is a smart idea to release gated content. You can be confident that your loyal readers will give you their email addresses and names to read what you have written.

3. In exchange for email or personal information, you can offer content

Use content offers that require users to provide contact information in order to gain access. This will allow you to rapidly grow your contacts and start the lead generation process. You can provide various resources, such as whitepapers and checklists, eBooks, tutorials, tools, and other useful information to your audience members.

If possible, you should also use other opt-in options like webinars and newsletters. Produce something that is useful, educational, or entertaining.

If you want to collect contact information from your visitors, forms will be necessary. It is best to limit the required fields and ask only for what your sales team needs.

A form that is too difficult will scare off potential leads.

4. Personalize more touch points

Marketing that is one-size-fits all is dead. Customers are looking for a human touch to build deeper connections and meaningful relationships with brands.

A SalesForce survey of 7,000 respondents found that 57% would be willing to share their data for personalized offers. 53% said they want personalized product recommendations and 53% wanted personalized shopping experiences.

Personalize your content marketing efforts. There is no need to use stalkers or first names on the internet. To present personalized content, however, you must take into account the content consumption habits of your audience.

5. Personalize social media interactions & build communities

Social media is more than a way to promote your content or publish it. Social media can be a great tool for your business.

This is your opportunity to connect with your audience. An average person has 7.6 social media accounts, and spends more that 2 hours per day on them. This is your chance to take advantage.

You should be active on all platforms that you use. You should consider using at least three to four social media channels to promote you brand. You should choose the one that best suits your target market and their preferred location.

A Facebook group can be created where you can discuss pressing issues in your industry. You can connect with people who are interested in the same causes or issues by using hashtags on Instagram and Twitter.

LinkedIn Marketing is essential as it is the most popular social network to communicate with prospects in B2B and tell them about your brand. LinkedIn Marketing has impressive popularity as a B2B lead-generation network. LinkedIn is the number one source of B2B leads. This tells us that CXOs must expand their social media presence.

It is impossible to connect with potential customers when every marketer is reaching out via social media channels. Personal connection requests and messages are a great way to reinforce the human side of your brand. Being active in your community will bring you the best results.

6. Optimize your landing pages and CTA

Did you know that many landing pages include more than one offer? This means that your landing page may fall into this category. It's time for you to rethink how you convert leads. Marketing experiments have shown that multiple offers on one page can reduce conversion rates by as much as 266%.

SEO best practices are key to optimizing landing pages for lead generation. This includes focusing your content on your offer, optimizing signup forms for engagement, and implementing customer testimonial campaigns.

These strategies will make your offer much more appealing to visitors and increase conversion rates.

To reduce distractions, you should be focused on one goal for each landingpage and clear in your Call to Action (CTA) messaging. You want to convert visitors into leads. Make sure that your landing pages and CTAs communicate your primary goal. You want them to feel comfortable and confident when filling out your forms.

CTA buttons can have a significant impact on whether someone clicks through or not to your landing page. You should ensure that your CTA buttons are in the correct colors, shapes, sizes and positioning. To improve your conversion rates, you can A/B-test your CTA buttons.

7. Keep track of the actions taken by your website visitors

Analyzing the actions of your visitors on your website is a great way to determine why they aren't buying. Hotjar and Mouseflow allow you to track user sessions and plot heatmaps of the most clicked buttons on your website.

Experts in Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), swear by this step. They believe it is one of the fastest ways to discover the “Whys” of your process.

• Why don't they convert?
• They are not filling out my forms.
• Why is this website so popular?

This is where you can correct a problem or add more of the same strategy on other pages. This is also useful for A/B testing.

8. Encourage Online Reviews

RevLocal's study found that 92% consumers review online reviews before purchasing a product or service.

Your chances of getting contacted could be affected if your website does not have a testimonials or reviews page. Your customers and clients should have the opportunity to leave reviews and post them on your website.

Reviews increase consumer trust, improve local search rankings, and ultimately, improve conversions. RevLocal also found that customers are more likely to spend 31% on businesses with excellent reviews.

9. Increase your online presence

Your brand's persona is more than your website and social media channels.

To increase your credibility, you can appear on other websites, such as guest blogging or being interviewed or answering questions on Quora.com, other industry-specific Q&A forums, and/or Quora.com.

This is an excellent way to establish authority for your personal brand, and to get your business name out there to people who are looking for solutions to their problems.

If you answer relevant questions within your industry, Quora can help you get thousands of leads. Your brand's reputation as a thought leader will increase brand awareness, and help new learners build trust in your brand.

10. Gmail Ads can be used to target your competitors' audience

Email marketing is still the most used lead generation channel. According to SuperOffice's State Of B2B Email Marketing report, 77% of B2B marketers use it to drive leads.

It is important to draw the attention of customers of your competitors in B2B. Google Ads allows you to target Google Ads campaigns to people who have already received emails from your competitor. Does that sound shady? It sounds sleazy, but it is very effective. This gives you direct access and knowledge to those who already know the nature of your service.

Use this opportunity to stand out from your competitor. Make sure to use familiar language and optimize your email marketing layout. Then, make them an offer that they won't resist.

11. Get more video marketing

Video marketing is a great way to reach your target audience. According to a Forbes study Video in The C-Suite, more than 75% Fortune 500 executives watch video content on a regular basis. Around two-thirds of those visitors visit vendor websites. It's clear that video is an effective way to get leads.

Video content is a key driver of purchasing behavior. Animoto's State of Social Video Study found that 64% of consumers purchase after viewing branded social videos. Adelie Studios data shows that landing pages can increase conversions by as much as 80%.

HubSpot's State of Inbound Report found that 48% of marketers already plan to include YouTube within their content strategy over the next few years. Do not fall behind your competitors. Get your camera rolling!

12. Automate social media sharing

Promote your content on Facebook and LinkedIn to increase your digital footprint.

Marketing professionals have too many other things to do than prioritize social networking. There are many apps and tools that can automate social media, schedule posts, tweets and likes, or automate any other type of social engagement.

Hootsuite is my favorite, but Sprout Social, Buffer, and Buffer are highly recommended by marketers. They not only automate sharing, but also provide analytics that will help you make sure you're sharing content the best way possible.

13. Participate in Offline Events

It is not enough to be visible online. While your clients may see you online, do they actually see your brand in person?

You can generate leads by attending offline events like digital marketing conferences or trade shows.

Many businesses, particularly larger and older ones, don't rely on the internet for business networking. They enjoy putting a face to the name and trusting others.

14. Optimize your website for mobile

Online B2B queries are shifting to smartphones and personal computers. Google's research has shown that half of all B2B online queries are made from mobile phones.

This figure is expected to rise to 70% by 2020, if we consider the increased number of B2B employees of the “digital generation” (Millennials, Gen Z) and the growing use of smartphones among older generations.

A recent BGC report on B2B buyers' use reveals that 60% of them admit that mobile played an important role in their recent purchase. Mobile can reduce the time it takes to buy by 20%, by improving team collaboration and efficiency in decision-making. BGC also reports that mobile is responsible for 42% of total revenue.

These are the questions that you should be asking yourself:

• What is AMP?
• Are all my websites responsive? Are they mobile-friendly?
• What is the mobile-first indexing of my website?
• Are I maximising engagement with micro-interactions

Optimizing your website to work on smartphones will not only benefit your B2B marketing goals, but it will also help buyers make better business decisions. Mobile must be considered in an omnichannel customer journey. You should also find new and better ways to engage and reach your audience.

15. Get more retargeting

Prospects often browse multiple websites to find information that will help them make a decision. Only 2% of buyers purchase from their first visit. Retargeting is a way to get the 98% back and encourage them towards your brand.

Although retargeting is not yet widely used by B2B marketers it is becoming more popular. Retargeting accounts for approximately 70% of B2B marketers. If you don't have retargeting, now is the time to start. This will increase your chances of them choosing your brand over those of your competitors by 70%.

Advertisements that display a variety of content might be worth your consideration (soft-sell vs. hard-sell). Prospects who aren’t ready to purchase may be persuaded to do so if your brand is constantly visible to them.

16. Maximize Marketing Automation

Marketing automation tools combine email marketing tools with CRM. Marketing automation software can connect with your CRM to send targeted, personalized emails to leads. This allows you to provide timely and relevant content to the right prospects.

Thomson Reuters has confirmed that their revenue increased 172% after adopting a marketing automation system. Nearly three quarters of marketers agree that email is the most effective method for lead generation. Email marketing is already doing well, and has been for a while.

When you integrate the functions of CRM, you'll be able to see why B2B marketers consider marketing automation one of the most effective ways to generate qualified leads.

17. AI Chat Bots to Engage Prospects

Chatbots, artificially intelligent messaging-based robots that are able to engage website visitors autonomously and automate business transactions, are chatbots. AI interprets text and speech inputs from your customer or prospect and sends the appropriate response.

Chatbots are a powerful way to communicate with your prospects. You want them to feel comfortable and have seamless interactions. Incorporating AI into your lead generation strategy opens up new possibilities for efficiency and optimization. Operational costs will be reduced by reducing your dependence on lead generation and customer support.

18. You can A/B test your paid campaigns

Paid campaigns can be used to test A/B methods. This allows you to make sure you are using strategies and directing money towards what works. The beauty of A/B Testing is that it can quantify the value of each strategy tweak to your lead generation campaigns, so you can see how each experiment performed.

It's important not to cast too wide a net. Keep trying new strategies to find the right balance between scale and stopping.

19. Take advantage of the power of micro-influencers

While influencer marketing remains strong, we are seeing brands using lesser-known influencers in 2018. This is because they have authority in smaller niches. Although they may have fewer followers than their influencers, the relative power of these guys is not diminished.

Major influencers are being bombarded daily with requests. This makes it very costly for popular influencers and also means they are extremely selective about who they work alongside.

Brands can leverage micro-influencers to solve this problem. Despite their enormous potential to reach new audiences effectively, these micro-influencers remain relatively underutilized. They are also more affordable and don't mind receiving unsolicited offers from other brands.

20. Analyze your data

You can improve your market research, data gathering techniques, and analytics to identify who your ideal audience are, where they are coming from, what channel is generating most leads, as well as which leads are more likely convert to sales.

Data analytics can help you identify behavioral changes in buyer personas, so that you can adjust drip strategies accordingly. Always analyze! Numbers and metrics don't lie. Recognize significant trends and take advantage of them.

You should at least be using Google Analytics to collect data. However, if you have the resources it is worth investing in a CRM tool that suits your needs.

21. Profile Your Target Audience

As technology advances, user behavior changes just as fast as the technology itself. To better understand your users' needs, challenges, and buying habits, it is important to research your target audience.

If you were able provide for their needs last year, maybe you can now focus on another problem they might be facing.

Consider a problem you can solve with a product or content offering. Your buyer persona will influence your content marketing strategy. This is where it all starts.

22. Collaborate closely with your sales team

Sales personnel interact with clients. It's crucial to collect their qualitative feedback in order to combine it with your quantitative data.

Your sales team can help you get a better understanding of your buyer persona.

To achieve the best results, sales and marketing must always work together. A good sales and marketing alignment will usually result in better conversion rates, higher performance from both departments and a more functional work environment.

23. Google Search Rankings: Stay at the Top

Is your website listed on Google's first page? Over 90% of Google users never go past the first page. The first page of SERPs is highly sought after. SEO is about relevancy and authority. This is how you should address the online assets of your brand.

Remember that ranking well is not just about traffic. It is also a sign of authority in your niche that your company ranks on the first page.

24. Incentive-Based Referral Programs

Word-of-mouth marketing is still a major factor in almost half of all buying decisions. Statistics show that referrals lead to 70% higher conversion rates for B2B companies and a faster closing time.

Clients who are satisfied with your services will be the best to promote it to others. Incentivize referrals! You can make it more fun for them by giving them customized referral codes that will give them discounts. It is also easier to track the source of your leads and determine which ones are converting.

25. Integrate your marketing campaigns

Try different strategies. Combine your strategies across different lead generation channels.

Your audience will be able to identify your brand personality with a single voice. This is crucial in B2B lead generation because it shows users and businesses that you are reliable and your brand is here for the long-term.

The Essential Questions to Answer Before Starting Lead Generation

You would think most companies know the best way to collect prospect information. You would be wrong. According to the Information Technology Services Marketing Association (Rain Group), 42% of 845 companies said they have difficulty planning a lead generation strategy.

It is easy to plan your lead generation strategy by asking the right questions about the sales and marketing process. Before planning a successful lead-generation strategy, it is important to clearly define and answer these questions. These answers will serve as benchmarks to help you plan your next steps, avoid common mistakes, make better decisions and highlight areas where you can improve.

What are your potential customers looking for?

If you assume that you know your target audience (as you should), then you need to discover their needs. To fully understand their needs and goals, you need to know how to communicate with them. This involves conducting industry research, surveying customers, consolidating information and trying to understand the data.

What can you offer your business?

Create a unique selling proposition about your business. Make sure the whole organization understands and aligns with it. Your USP tells your target market why they should purchase your product or service. It also explains what sets you apart from the competition. What can you promise potential customers? And what is your value proposition. It is important to communicate the message right from the beginning of the buyer's journey. This will help your business stand out.

Who are your leaders?

Without knowing what your company's definition of “lead” is, you cannot generate one. Make sure all teams involved (especially Sales and Marketing) are clear about who they are trying to reach. This step will help you align your Sales and Marketing efforts.

How can you reach your leads easily?

Learn about your prospects' preferences and search patterns to determine the best channels for communication. You can then use strategies such as content marketing, paid advertisement, sponsorship, or affiliate programs that are targeted at your prospects. You can use this information to create surveys, social media monitoring, interviews, A/B testing and many other activities to collect more information about your leads or drive them.

Where in the sales process are you looking to generate leads

Leads can be generated at any stage of the sales process, but not all stages. Each stage should be approached differently. Someone in the beginning stages of a problem will need more support and guidance. If the person is ready to buy, however, this same strategy will not work. To maximize conversion rates, you must know the stages of your sales funnel.

What to do with the lead?

For the closing step, leads should be directed towards the Sales team. However, some leads may need to be directed at Marketing for nurturing as they may not yet be ready to buy. Lead nurturing is the process that guides leads through the sales funnel, informing them why they should purchase from the company. It is essential to create a nurturing process that works and then stick to it.

When prospects become leads?

Your company must first establish a process for lead scoring to determine if a lead can be purchased. A lead can be either a Marketing Qualified Lead or a Sales Qualified Lead (SQL). An SQL is a lead that a Sales person can reach out to. While an MLQ is for Marketing purposes, it is for further nurturing. To determine a lead's score, there are several key indicators. Metrics for these indicators can be set through a Service-Level-Agreement (SLA) between the teams.

Where will you distribute your content?

It is worth creating content that makes you trustworthy and recognizable to customers. You can deliver the content through blog posts, videos and images, infographics or webinars. Whitepapers, ebooks and whitepapers are all options. You can choose which channel to use depending on what content you have created. There are many options: blogs, websites, social media accounts and email. In exchange for granting your prospects access to your content, you can also leverage exclusive content or gated content.

What are you expecting customers to do after purchasing?

After the sale, it's important to continue to interact with customers or leads. Satisfied customers can help you gain more leads and prospects by helping to place lead generation strategies within the context of your customer journey. Good publicity can be a boon for customers, especially in these days of social media.

How can you keep track of your progress?

CRM software is the best way to monitor your lead generation progress. You can't fail if your customer management software isn't up to the task. The right CRM software will allow you to quickly and accurately track the success and status of leads, based on your goals and metrics. These tools can store and manage contact information, which can be helpful in the qualification of leads.

How to generate more leads?

Growing a business is a sign of a successful business. Profitability is only possible if the right customers buy your products and/or services. Although it's not impossible, acquiring clients and prospects must be done with seriousness.

Your lead generation strategy is the foundation for all of your sales moves. Engage and convert your visitors by being creative and smart.