What’s the biggest challenge in B2B marketing? Do you know that it has nothing to do with the way you tie your shoe lace and put your best looking tie around? It’s very simple – leads. Generating leads is proven to be a challenge to most businesses hardly making ends meet. A lead is all where it begins. Without it, your company will stumble and fall.
In marketing, lead generation is the initiation of consumer interest or inquiry into products or services of a business. Leads can be created for purposes such as list building, e-newsletter list acquisition or for sales leads. The methods for generating leads typically fall under the umbrella of advertising, but may also include non-paid sources such as organic search engine results or referrals from existing customers.
But how to generate B2B leads? Knowing that the internet has transformed the marketing landscape by storm.
How to improve your lead generation? Knowing that to effectively maintain an entire operation, one has to dwell on expenses.
How to Generate B2B Leads
Starting a lead generation program to convert your B2B leads to sales may sound easy but in reality it’s not! Calling random people and turn it into qualified sales leads and appointments isn’t as easy as learning ABC too. It takes skills and expertise to create and develop your own program to successfully land a sale. Otherwise, you’re better off by outsourcing lead generation services to BPO organizations.
Leads may come from various sources or activities, for example, digitally via the Internet, through personal referrals, through telephone calls either by the company or telemarketers, through advertisements, and events. A 2015 study found that 89% of respondents cited email as the most-used channel for generating leads, followed by content marketing, search engine, and finally events. A study from 2014 found that direct traffic, search engines, and web referrals were the three most popular online channels for lead generation, accounting for 93% of leads.
How to Improve Your Lead Generation
The buying process has changed, and marketers need to find new ways to reach buyers and get heard through the noise. Instead of finding customers with mass advertising and email blasts, marketers must now focus on being found and learn to build continuous relationships with buyers. Acquiring sales and marketing leads is a competitive business. Outsourcing to a lower-cost country with a skilled workforce could improve ROI. In outsourcing lead generation, requirements vary. From increasing acquisition of leads, improving quality of leads or to simple lead qualification or lead nurturing thru marketing campaigns, varied skill sets and varying organizational setups may be required.
To effectively improve your lead generation technique, you have to consider the following:
-
- Email marketing
-
- Search marketing
-
- Social media marketing
-
- Content marketing
-
- Affiliate marketing
Email Marketing
Email marketing has been one of the few effective online strategies that stayed for more than a decade. In fact, the use of marketing automation has helped B2B business widen its audience reach.
Search Marketing
Without a doubt, this is by far the most effective way of generating leads. By ranking up the site to first page of search engines, you’ll surely get more leads than the usual.
Social Media Marketing
Never underestimate the power of social media. The wide audience it brings can create powerful referrals thus more leads and more sales.
Content Marketing
By providing interesting and catchy articles, you will be able to create relationships with prospects. This by far can leverage your brand through business development partnerships
Affiliate Marketing
By offering viewers to become affiliates, you have the entire control in generating new leads by the power of referrals.