Top B2B Lead Generation Tactics 2018

 

The business to business marketplace in the US and across the globe is one that is ripe with competition. B2B marketers are constantly trying to improve their game and learn some new tactics that can help them increase their revenue and grow market share to out perform their competition. So what are some these top lead generation strategies that are helping the winners win in 2018? Which ones are more effective aka cost-friendly? This post will highlight the most effective ones for you and your business.

 

1.EMAIL MARKETING – One of the most popular of such strategies is email marketing. Emailing, as a form of communication, can no longer be called something new, being around 23 years old at this point. Surprisingly enough, despite the entrance of trendier and flashier lead generation tools, email marketing still remains a top source choice for B2B marketing. In fact, 59% of B2B marketers claim that email is their most effective channel in terms of lead generation. The goal is straightforward: send emails to specific targets using a Customer Relation Management (CRM) that offers you processed information on customer data that ensures that the emails are heavily personalized. Email marketing is only as effective as the message being drafted, the quality of your email list (lead), and landing page. Since this is an immensely popular lead generation tool, you may be sure to bet that your potential leads receive such messages every day from numerous firms. In order for your message to stand out, here is what you need to do to get your lead’s attention. A great piece of advice on piquing the interest of a client is by putting some thought into the subject headline since that is the first thing he/she is likely to glance upon. The headline is what determines whether or not your email is going to be read or just passed over as spam. Another great idea is to use an emoji in these subject headlines in order to attract the attention of these clients. According to a report by Experian, 56% of companies using an emoji in subject headlines had a higher open rate. According to yet another report, a statistic of 1 billion emails show that video emails were 96% more successful in raising CTRs. The lesson: make your emails more visual!

 

2.SOCIAL MEDIA – First came email, and then came social media. Our virtual life is increasingly taking over our real life, and platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are now considered as being the ultimate advertisement arenas, dubbed the Big Four. Lines of algorithms are now responsible for connecting billions of people with shared lives, interests and careers. What better way to find leads for sales? Take LinkedIn as an example, which has become the #1 choice for B2B marketers by the way. While LinkedIn may not boast billions and billions of users like its social peers, its professional/job seeker user base does come in handy should you be looking for solid quality business leads. Putting that in numbers, currently, this professional platform is responsible for more than 80% of a business’s social media leads and is the second most used B2B platform, after email marketing. All you have to do is follow a few tactics.

In order to be able to take advantage of LinkedIn, in the first place, your company should have its own page. LinkedIn offers more creative scope for a company; instead of filling up the page with mere basic facts and information, this is an opportunity for the business to covert potential clients. The page needs to be structured in such a way that the clients are persuaded to visit the actual company page; the LinkedIn page is just the pipeline. The best way to do that is by providing clients with great content. LinkedIn pages offer on average 46% of social media traffic, traffic that may most likely convert to leads, if the page is influencing enough, that is.

LinkedIn also comes with numerous add-ons such as the Showcase Page option. These pages are custom made for companies looking for sales generation via B2B marketing. A company may wish to create a showcase page, which would represent a particular brand, business unit or mission statement. This way, a more targeted lead audience may be reached. Another way to reach groups is the Advanced Search option, which is more outbound in nature. Now that you have settled in and created a web to attract a network of clients, it is also imperative to make sure that you have an equally effective way of searching these clients. The Advanced Search option helps you filter your clients by location, occupation, industry, education, language and personal interests, enabling you to find direct targets in a short span of time! Companies may often worry about being able to find a wide range of interested clients, especially if they belong to a niche market. Fear not! Connecting around 450 million members on over 200 countries, LinkedIn may always be sure to find you a community of people keen on your skills and expertise. In fact, many brands opt to being part of groups where they can connect with people with common interests. The sole aim here is not always to look for potential leads directly; you may be able to develop an authority by sharing helpful content with those in need and therefore, expand a horizon of influence.

 

3.CONTENT MARKETING – Another example of effective marketing is through the art of content, which uses aesthetic appeal to attract consumers, thus ultimately driving leads and therefore, sales to a boost. Keeping in mind the forces of the Big Four social media sites, it should not come as a surprise that more and more B2B marketers each year are planning on increasing their expenditure on this particular strategy. And yet, in reality, content marketing cost 62% less than traditional marketing while offering three times more as leads. All you need to do is get the reader to click on the ad. Again, the first step of business is to identify the target audience. Modern businesses have many methods of collecting data about the people who regularly visit their sites. These data could be basic demographic information such as age, gender and occupation to more complex assessments that predict their tastes and interests. Now that you have pinpointed the target audience you want to attract, the next step in order is to, well, keep them interested. No good content, no good CTRs. Similar to the data on email marketing, even in the case of content marketing, videos are 70% more effective than any other content when it comes to converting interested people into strong leads. The bigger challenge, here, is to consistently come up with newer and more attractive content ideas. Your users’ demographics play a major part in this area as well since firms often use their predictions on customer behaviors to prepare for future designs.

The number of mediums for use is endless (blogging, webinars, podcasts) and so is the number of tools (Trello, Canva). All you have to do now is pick! It is to be noted however, that each of these platforms has it’s own set of rules and hints on attracting leads. For example, in case of blogging and articles, it has been advised to keep the title within 6-13 words in order to not seem lengthy and exhausting. Online publishing must also be consistent in nature, such as posting at least once a day to keep clients intrigued. Another tactic of raising intrigue: in order to increase CTRs, you may also include ‘see also’ links occasionally after the end of a paragraph in order to increase a visitor’s time on site.

 

4.WEBINARS – In the case of webinars, data reports are now showing that more than 60% of B2B marketers are now using these online sessions as part of their content marketing programs. Why? Because webinars are beneficial. It is cost effective in nature, while at the same time, ensures that the engaging sense of the interactions is not lost. The average cost of organizing a webinar is around $100 to $3000 depending on the additional costs of promoting the event while close to 40% of the viewers are prone to being turned into qualified leads. Webinars have a global reach; all you need to do is find a target audience. The people can be from anywhere around the world and they do not need to show at an event in order to get to know more about your company. Neither do they have to go through bland descriptions about you and your employees. Through a webinar, you have the opportunity to show your leads what it is like to work with you! For companies highly interested in conducting webinars, know this: make sure to promote your webinars and promote them for three weeks prior to the commencement. It is also important to ensure that the viewers are having a good time, such as by inviting popular guests to talk on the webinars. 48% of people state that poor presenters and dry conversations were the top reasons for not going through the entire session. Be sure to avoid that!

 

5.EVENT MARKETING – Amidst all that buzz about social media and digital content, there is a marketing force even older and greater than even good old emailing – event marketing. The world may have changed and will keep on changing but the one thing that shall always remain constant is the power of a face-to-face event. Interacting non-virtually with existing and potential clients in a positive and vibrant environment could never go wrong! Business events have changed (no doubt about that) but despite the advances in technology and fast-tracked paces of people, it remains more about the things that matter the most: networking and converting.

Now, the events themselves can be of two types; you could either go for a big exhibition in order to generate a better quantity of leads or you could opt for small personally hosted events to improve the leads you may already have. This is a decision that you have to take, in response to the current status of your business. Ironically enough, although the main aim behind the event is to promote the company, the promotional event itself needs to be promoted for people to actually show up at the event. As aforementioned, we have two more effective tools of marketing, which themselves have the capability to convert interested consumers into loyal clients. Needless to say, these tools are social media and email marketing. There are other more feasible options such as handwritten notes or invitations by post or even by person. After that, comes the event itself. Generally, people having a good time are more susceptible to signing up for agreements or at least, willing to show to interest in the business. The final act is the follow up during the after-event period of time. It is common to be made promises of networking to during these events. However, the only way to make sure that the event was not a waste of time is by making sure that these promises are being kept.

Event Marketing does work. Yes, they are more costly than upgrading your LinkedIn Advanced Search option. They are also difficult to plan and execute. However, events occurring in the real world will always have a far more potent effect on the human mind than the ones from the virtual world. However, every day the world comes up with a new way to surprise us. Webinars are a good example of that. A portmanteau of the two words, web and seminar, a webinar is essentially that; it is a presentation delivered online. Similar to events, webinars are interactive in nature. In addition to getting an insight into the workings of the host company, whose aim is to present itself in a platform from which it can provide an informative session to prospective leads, participants can also take part in the session by asking questions which get answered in real time.

 

6.SEO (Search Engine Optimization) – With the exception of event marketing, almost all the options we have discussed till now here are digitally operational. So are our last two options: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Landing Pages. SEO, true to its name, helps us optimize our companies to be found by our target audience under various keywords and queries. You have the power to decide how and when your target audience can look you up, granted they use a particular set of keywords. It is a form of advertisement, as are landing pages. Landing pages are single web pages that have been designed to appear should you choose to click on a particular page from a search engine. The appearances are not at all random. The pages have been arranged in such an order so as to make sure that the landing page that comes across your window is a one that has the most possibility of attracting your attention. And this is exactly what is in common with all the options that have been aforementioned. What matters more than how far-reaching the network is, how eye-catching the content and how interactive the session is, is the ability to know your audience. Know what kind of target population would be interested in being affiliated with your business. Know how to reach them. That is all there is to it to reaching your goals of CTRs.

 

What’s your favorite B2B lead gen tactic?