5 B2B Lead Generation Tactics That Work

The digital marketing space is chock full of strategies that are touted as effective ways to attract and bring in new leads.

Seeing as brands need a steady stream of quality leads to increase market share and grow, it’s only natural that marketers will chase after these tactics. And hope for incredible results.

Do they work?

I’ll let you tell me in the comments but for now, let’s dig into five lead-generation tactics that may prove useful in pulling in leads.

→ 1. Cross-Channel Marketing

Most audiences have become “ad-blind” thanks to the sheer number of online ads we throw at them. They literally scroll past PPC ads without a second thought. Hey, they even jump onto your website and leave empty-handed.

How do you reach these evasive customers?

Through cross-channel marketing.

Say a potential customer reads a blog about payroll software. Later in the day, while on Twitter, they are shown an ad for the payroll software product.

Being something that the researcher is interested in, they are likely to click on the ad and look through it. Now, if the payroll software company sends this researcher a marketing email the next day, they are staying top of mind and are likely to secure the deal.

As you can see, the payroll software company employed cross-channel marketing. They brought together different communication channels (blogs, social channels, and email marketing) to create a unified brand impression for interested audiences.

The cross-channel marketing strategy leverages online activity trackers like cookies and tracking pixels to reach out to target audiences across multiple channels.

It’s a targeted, interconnected approach that goes beyond ensuring you are where your ideal customers are. It facilitates a logical progression for target customers to progress from stage to stage until conversion.

→ 2. Social Media Marketing

If want to increase your market share, maximize sales, boost your reputation, and earn customer’s trust, you’ll want to engage in social media marketing.

Social media marketing leverages social channels to provide educational content revolving around their business solutions to generate leads.

Savvy brands use social channels like LinkedIn and Twitter to showcase industry influence, build engaged audiences who’re interested in your offerings, and nurture prospects.

Some worthwhile benefits include

• Driving traffic to your site. As you deliver consistently valuable information people trust your authority and perspective. They are likely to frequent your site for more information and you can make it easier by adding relevant links to your posts.
• Potential buyers use social channels to connect with brands. Especially LinkedIn. The platform hosts senior-level people who influence business decisions within their organization and these audiences look for credible vendors to connect with. Obviously, an audience you wouldn’t want to overlook.
• It supports personalised interactions and experiences. People connect with your brand, ask questions, raise concerns, and share opinions. The direct human responses they receive from you enhance their experiences and build relationships.

→ 3. Build Case Studies

If you offer successful business solutions that you can’t describe in a single sentence, a case study might help with that.

Case studies are genuine and in-depth user examples that provide detailed explanations of the problems your products/services tackle and measurable outcomes.

They describe your customer, their problem, their journey to finding you, the solution you provided, and the benefits the customer reaped.

Case studies also include customer quotes to provide qualitative perspectives that increase relatability. This practice-centric information helps reinforce potential customers’ trust in your competence and expertise.

Case studies can appeal to prospects at different phases. Those at the initial stages may not be attentive to details but will learn upfront the offerings that have helped those like them.

At the consideration stage, case studies provide real-world examples of the problems you can solve boosting your authority. For those ready to buy, a case study highlights the benefits a prospective customer is likely to enjoy, helping to forge trust in your brand.

When structuring your case study, avoid using too many specialist details concerning concrete applications since few people may understand them.

You’ll want to focus on the strategic use of your business solutions in the achievement of goals to convince the decision-makers that you’re right for them.

→ 4. Cold Calling

Ultimately, digital tactics will lead up to a phone call. But rather than wait passively until prospects are ready for a phone call, why not proactively contact them and introduce your services?

Top practices include

• Using hyper-personalized openers. LinkedIn is a great place to source insights about your prospects e.g., their career progression, mutual connections/friends, and common interests. It helps break the ice as you transition into your reason for calling.
• Offering more than one option. Rather than assume the listener fits perfectly into one option, let them choose their own adventure. Providing options helps elicit micro-yeses from prospects and you can know what to present to get them to invest in the call.
• Working with gatekeepers. Executive assistants, secretaries, and receptionists are trained to keep you out, but playing to their better nature might change the odds. Rather than treat them as obstacles, try building rapport before enlisting their help.
• Leaving voicemail messages. You won’t always get through to your prospects so it’s important to craft voicemail messages. Introduce yourself at the beginning, briefly explain why you called, and tell the prospect what you would like them to do.

→  5. Email Segmentation

Many marketing teams imagine that they can email the same content to all their subscribers and elicit positive responses.

Unfortunately, most of these emails end up unread, worse in the trash.

Email segmentation involves dividing your email subscriber list into smaller sections based off set criteria such as interests, location, industry, job roles, etc. The aim is to deliver relevant content to each of these segments and inspire engagement from them.

To tackle email segmentation effectively consider

• Defining your goals and expected outcomes. It will help you create email segments that align with your goals and you’ll have a basis to measure the results.
• Gathering appropriate data. With your goals in place, you now need to think about the data you’ll require to create effective segments. This data may include email engagement history, demographic data, role at the company data, etc.
• Using segmentation tools. Email marketing platforms typically come with segmentation options that you can use to create email segments in line with a range of criteria. It’s more effective than doing the work manually.
• Testing the segments for effectiveness. Target your segments with different content and offers to ensure they are effective. If the segments elicit no responses, go back and refine them further and test again.

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