The challenge in planning a lead generation strategy arises from the abundance of information out there. It’s hard to know what the best strategy is. It doesn’t help that people seek one killer lead tactic that masks all ills while failing to realize that good B2B business generation is made up of many activities, which must be measured and tested.
Marketing executives are reporting that lead quality is a top priority for lead generation and, curiously, the biggest challenge they face. In Marketo’s study, 61 percent of marketers reported that generating high-quality leads was problematic for their organizations.
Given such clear data, B2B marketing professionals must gear up their marketing campaigns and map out strong lead generation strategies for the coming year. Here are some ideas:
1. Build social media relationships.
Stop using social media mainly as a broadcast tool; provide value to your prospects by reaching out to and engaging various communities.
LinkedIn is the most effective social media platform for B2B businesses today. The key is to find two or three groups where your prospects hang out and start making yourself heard.
Start asking and answering questions in these groups. Build trusted relationships based on your expertise and your network. Start referring others and connecting these people to the tools, answers and resources they need, and you’ll attract the right sort of attention on social media.
2. Conduct seminars and webinars.
For most B2B lead generation environments, one highly effective tactic involves face-to-face education through seminars and webinars. When prospects get to see and hear that you provide valuable advice, affinity follows. If you provide solutions for the particular challenges they are struggling with, you’ll build strong relationships with your audience and position your organization as an industry expert.
Plus, from a content creation standpoint, the ongoing series you create can be turned into a powerful trust-building asset or even a product in itself.
RELATED: Learn to produce newscast-ready video and B-roll that media notice and fans share.
3. Make lead scoring dynamic and behavioral.
Consider what makes a lead qualified, and work on enhancing lead scores with information beyond demographics. As you calculate your scores, focus on how particular individuals reached your website and other actions they’ve taken.
By doing so, you’ll have a much better understanding of where they are in the buyer’s journey and what the most effective activities would be to help convert them to customers.
4. Supplement inbound tactics with outbound.
Look for a point of diminishing returns where your campaign investments provide the greatest value.
Inbound strategies such as content marketing are strong elements that should be maximized. Beyond a certain point, inbound tactics must be supplemented with outbound and other paid channels to create sustainable demand and growth. Diversify your lead generation techniques to maximize your results.
5. Collaborate with sales.
Engage early with your sales teams, and continually seek their qualitative feedback. Combining that with your own quantitative analysis will determine how you should adjust your investments and generate the most dynamic mix to fuel sales.
Aligning sales efforts with marketing activities can drastically improve marketing ROI, sales productivity and, most important, top-line growth.
6. Optimize website conversions for lead generation.
A well-performing website converts 7 percent to 14 percent of visitors and is optimized for that goal. Most people think beautiful websites are better, but studies show that even less attractive yet functional websites can be just as successful—if not more successful—at converting leads.
Still, you should limit the amount of options a person has in exploring your website. The more overwhelming it is, the greater the chance an audience will lose interest and leave.
Additionally, it is important to place calls to action in every section of your website to drive visitors to web forms and gated content. The idea is to find as many opportunities as possible to direct prospects toward a purchase.
7. Guest-blog.
An effective tactic for generating leads—for small businesses, in particular—is guest-blogging on popular industry-related websites.
Though guest-blogging can direct additional sources of traffic to your website, it is mainly a tool for increasing exposure and building authority for your brand. A bonus of guest-blogging is the opportunity to gain relevant backlinks. That should never be your primary goal, however, or you could get profiled as a spammer.
Content quality should never be compromised. The most successful guest blog posts are always well written and relevant to that particular site’s audience.
8. Think mobile.
In 2015, mobile surpassed desktop in terms of global use. People now spend three hours or more per day on their mobile phones, roughly that of time spent watching TV.
Consumers rely on their mobile devices for entertainment, research, e-commerce, social engagement or simply to pass the time.
It is predicted that by 2017, Facebook’s revenue from mobile ads (which it launched just a few years ago) in the U.S. will grow to $7.5 billion. An obvious reason for this growth is the increase in mobile advertising budgets, consistent with the rise in mobile use.
9. Understand buyers’ needs.
In 2016 and beyond, companies that focus on customers’ buyer personas—representations of the ideal client—are likely to win. Building and understanding these personas will ensure that the efforts of marketing and sales are not just focused on the customer, but focused on the “right” customer.
Although buyer personas require a lot of work to identify, putting in the effort will vastly improve your efforts when engaging with customers.
10. Earn an audience with content marketing.
Each day, there are 75 billion pieces of content, 8 billion photos uploaded and shared and 500 million Tweets posted. Our world consumes a vast amount of digital content.
However, 60 to 70 percent of content marketing goes unnoticed as it doesn’t serve audiences’ needs. Unfortunately, this means missed opportunities for brand exposure, leads and conversions. You must create content with a specific objective. Content must serve a distinct purpose or else it’s not content marketing—it’s just content.
Last, ensure that your content is valuable to your audience. The provision of unique value is a key factor in your content marketing success. You either have to be educating or entertaining those in your audience or helping them solve a problem.
Implementing these strategies without the support of a sizable team can be daunting, but with the help of various online tools, marketing activities can be more manageable.
Johanna Rivard is the executive vice president of PureB2B. A version of this article originally appeared on the company’s blog.
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