When running a B2B business generating leads for your sales team is one of the most important things you need to do as part of your everyday activities. But sales teams want high quality leads, leads that are qualified in some way. Generating B2B leads is tough, there are often multiple decision makers, lots of competition and it requires an approach that is tailored to your industry. Lead generation should always be a multi-channel approach and having a lead generation strategy that is properly thought through will help you to make sales and grow your business. Here are 10 ways to generate leads for your B2B business.
1. Asking for referrals from your existing customers
There is no better lead than a happy customer telling their network about your business. It boosts the credibility of your company - so let your customer do the talking for you and ask them for referrals to your business. Happy customers are often more than willing to refer you to the people they know. Remember when you close a sale, ask the customer if they know anyone else who might need your product or service. You may even be able to incentivise your customers with recommend-a-friend schemes.
2. Stay in touch with existing customers regularly
A happy customer is likely to buy from you again if you have continued the relationship with them after the initial sale. Staying in contact with customers by calling, emailing and via social media are all excellent ways to nurture a long term relationship with them. And as it costs more money to acquire new leads than it does to sell to an existing customer, this is an important strategy to implement to grow your business.
3. Keeping in contact with past leads
It’s not just important to build relationships with customers to generate new sales. Staying in contact with past leads is another important strategy to implement to grow your business. Why? Because not every lead is ready to convert to a sale at that point in time, but it doesn’t mean they won’t want your product or service in the future. Send them helpful information and automate the lead nurturing process. It’s important to contact them regularly so your business stays at the top of mind, so when they are ready to buy, your company is the one they think of.
4. Be a trusted source of information
Becoming a known expert in your field that provides helpful information and how to solve problems that your target audience has, is a great way to generate leads.
You can do this through content on your website, hosting live Q&A events on social media, speaking at conferences and networking events to become a trusted source of information.
5. Use your website, social media channels and third party websites to highlight your experience
You can share your expertise far and wide today on your own website, but also on your social media channels and other third party websites. SEO is one way to increase visitors to your website by creating content that is relevant to the key questions your target audience have. Have an FAQ section and a blog to showcase your expertise. Keep adding content regularly to your site. And to turn site visitors into leads, add Call To Actions to your website and use forms to capture contact details of interested visitors. Think about the journey a customer goes on before they buy your product or service. For each step of this journey, think of the questions a prospect may have. Create relevant, engaging, and interactive content for each stage of the journey. Push out this content on your social channels. And proactively answer questions that are raised. Focusing on the customer journey can significantly help increase the volume of leads generated online.
6. Offer valuable content in exchange for a customers contact details Gated content means providing valuable information in exchange for the customer’s contact details. Of course you need to provide enough valuable information before the “gate” to entice the prospect to give you their details. And the information they receive after the gate needs to ensure they are satisfied with the exchange of their details.
You might provide a product or service guide, which features everything you need to know to buy. Or you might provide a how-to manual to help prospects learn a new skill. A newsletter, webinar or a whitepaper. This is a tried and tested method for capturing a prospects contact details that you can then use to nurture the relationship and move them towards a sale.
7. Cold emailing and follow ups
Buying lists allow you to easily get in front of a large number of prospects fast by using cold emails. Make sure you personalise the emails to include the name and the company name of the recipient as personalisation helps to get a better response.
Use automation to set up multiple emails that go out over a number of weeks to keep dripping your message into your prospects inbox, nurturing these marketing leads into SQL's (sales qualified leads).
Follow up emails with a call and DM's on their social channels. The aim is to build relationships and to have as many real conversations as you can.
8. Customer reviews
People use online reviews to make decisions about their purchases and B2B purchases are no different. Create automated emails to ask customers to leave you a review. These reviews will help you generate new leads.
9. Paid advertising
Using paid advertising on facebook and linked-in allows you to target your ideal customers more precisely. You can even use lead generation ads on facebook where you can collect email addresses. Its important to send this traffic to a specific landing page on your website that is created for the purpose of converting traffic into leads. You can also use Google PPC to place ads for keywords that your target audience would search for to find businesses like yours.
10. Networking - online and in real life
Having an active presence online on platforms that are relevant to your target audience is vital these days. Whether that’s facebook, instagram, linked in, twitter or tiktok. Being a useful source of information is a great way to generate a group of interested people that drive leads.
And it’s important to network in real life too. Attend events and join organisations that are relevant to your target audience. Listen carefully to others as they speak about their challenges in business. More often than not, you will find opportunities to offer solutions, whether that’s your own product or service or a referral of one of your contacts.
Generating leads for B2B requires a collaboration between marketing and sales. Marketing focuses more on volume whereas sales is about building relationships and spending time to speaking to prospective clients. The most important thing to remember about getting B2B sales leads is to be resourceful. Successful companies know that leads come from a variety of sources and perseverance is key. Very few sales are made on the first contact. Successful B2B lead generation is nurturing them over time until the customer is ready to make a decision.
By expanding your lead generation strategies you’ll improve accuracy, hit your sales targets and grow your business.
To request a FREE 30 minute 1-2-1 marketing consultation to improve your lead generation strategy, click here.
Avens Marketing- experts in generating high-quality leads to achieve short-term sales targets and growing brands for long-term growth success.
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