Basic strategies for lead generation require commitment–but there’s good news, too. The best B2B lead generation strategies are simple to start as long as you’re organized and ready to commit to a plan of action. Most strategies for lead generation require regular content creation, auditing, and check-ins, but the rewards for investing in your own content are mighty.
In a 2021 survey, 97 percent of companies surveyed indicated that content marketing was part of their digital marketing strategies for lead generation. Let’s take a look at some B2B lead generation strategies that might work for your business.
Search Engine Optimization
More commonly known as SEO, search engine optimization is a B2B lead generation strategy that rewards you for publishing valuable content. Search engines like Google rank friendly, informative, human-made content. Do you know what questions your ideal customer asks? Answer them in a detailed way and produce the content with the proper Google-friendly formatting and you’re on your way to success.
Update Your Website
Is your website overdue for an update? Speaking of SEO, Google is NOT going to rank your site if it isn’t mobile-friendly. If it’s time for a refresh, your website is an ideal investment. Feature three main services on your main page for B2B lead generation. Provide content of interest to your prospective customer to keep them engaged. Give them something to do by providing a clear call to action towards the end of your page or content. Keep the customer thinking about the next step in their journey, whether that’s something you can help them with, or something they feel empowered to do on their own.
Email Marketing
Do you already have an email list? Many companies do, but do not use them as effectively as you could. All that useful content you’re generating is great — if people search for it. But what about your email list? Your prospective and current customers are interested in what you have to say. Take your email list beyond the bland seasonal sales emails and send your list content they want to read.
Lead Magnets
Another way to build your email list is to provide lead magnets. Lead magnets are free resources. They’re generally downloadable pieces of transformative content, helping the customer feel enabled to move forward in their business or solve problems.
This outcome-focused content could include a checklist or cheatsheet; this type of content is helpful, actionable, and easy for the customer to understand. You could also provide a step-by-step guide to help them complete a specific goal. You want the customer to think of you as a partner able to help them achieve success, especially if that success is measurable.
To get lead magnets, customers and prospects provide their email address. Once you have their address, you can add them to your email list and even segment the list, identifying them as someone interested in the topic of the lead magnet.
Social Media Marketing
If you know about sales, you understand that B2B lead generation doesn’t happen without conversations and multiple touches. To stay top-of-mind, consider taking your marketing to social media. On sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, and even TikTok and YouTube, you can promote your content and have engaging conversations with customers. You may even find people with business problems that you can solve.
Community Management
Think about your social media community — on Facebook, for example — as a space for your prospective customers to gather. They might come in to chat and engage, but not buy for a while — and that’s okay. Your job is to keep them engaged, grow the community, and provide resources for them to learn and understand. And once they do, they’ll hopefully become devoted customers.
Pay Per Click Advertising
Organic strategies like SEO can take a long time, and they require constant monitoring. Would you rather have something that can start generating leads immediately? If you have a decent website to send prospects to, consider Pay Per Click (PPC) ads. These ads display on Google or on social media, and people click on them to navigate to your site. PPC ads let you pay for clicks (when they click on the ad) and impressions (when people see the ad, whether they click or not).
Referral Marketing
Have you considered incentivizing your most enthusiastic fans for providing referrals? Doing this is as simple as sending out an email to your superusers to let them know that you’re ready to provide a kickback if they refer a friend, family member, colleague, or another service professional to your business.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing works similarly. With this type of marketing, your “evangelists” do the selling for you. In exchange, you provide them with a kickback. Affiliate marketing is a bit less personal than referral marketing, and some affiliate marketers make their entire living solely off of affiliate marketing for products and services they truly believe in. It’s a real win-win. Globally, this industry is worth over $17 billion.
Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing has cooled a bit in practice, but it’s still one of the top strategies for lead generation in 2023. If you’re in a niche industry, the right influencer could be your shortcut to success. While many influencers are known for makeup and beauty tutorials, companies enlist gamers, grill reviewers, cigar aficionados, popular car mechanics, policy wonks into politics, and just about every type of influencer you can imagine. If you look at someone and wish you could share their audience, they might be an ideal influencer to work with your brand.
Getting started with these strategies for lead generation is typically easy, but if you can stay the course, you’ll notice some increase in revenue over time. If you’re ready to charge forward with B2B lead generation in 2023, contact me for a FREE assessment of your website today!
