Do you struggle to get enough leads into your pipeline? There are so many options when it comes to lead generation ideas, which makes it overwhelming. That being said, there are numerous strategies that work very well. For example, 84% of B2B marketing specialists use email to reach their clients. Keep reading for some more lead generation ideas from leading experts in the industry.
Joseph Saunders
Content Strategist at INFUSEmedia
LinkedIn: Joseph Saunders
Maximize Your Content Potential to Empower Your Growth
With the right strategy, content marketing is a fantastic tool for fueling your lead generation and, ultimately, your growth.
Driving lead generation with content starts with determining the preferences of key buyer personas through segmentation. This will help you match content to specific needs and interests.
Once you have identified the content types and topics that resonate with your target audiences, build these out into long-term campaigns with multiple stages and content formats.
For example, leads who interact with an infographic (detailing your solution) can then be driven to supporting content, including free tools.
If reusable and valuable, these will generate leads and shares to other members of the buying committee in the same target account or to other potential leads in their network.
Content aligned with buyer personas has the potential to generate, qualify, and nurture leads while also setting the foundation for a stronger relationship with your brand.
Skirmantas Venckus
Growth Hacker at Sender.net
LinkedIn: Skirmantas Venckus
Offer Your Leads a Free Trial Version
Offering a free trial is like taking a car for a test drive. It allows leads to check out your product, test its features, and see how it can benefit their business.
But here’s the thing: Don’t ask for a credit card when leads sign up. Ask for their name and valid email address, then allow them to create a password.
Requiring a credit card is a big turnoff for many people. Couple that with the fact that people are distracted and busier now more than ever. So, asking for a credit card upfront becomes another distraction instead of helping leads move closer to becoming your customers.
You’re better off having no strings attached and not asking for a credit card when leads try out your product.
As long as your offer is legit, many trial users will convert into paying customers.
Sam Szuchan
Founder of SamSzu
Twitter: @SamuelSzuchan
LinkedIn: Sam Szuchan
Post Daily on LinkedIn
LinkedIn’s reach makes it an incredibly powerful tool for lead generation. By posting high-quality content daily, you’ll begin to build a following of people who love your work.
I started posting daily on LinkedIn in early July 2022. By August, I had earned massive engagement from people who loved my content. This allowed me to build connections with awesome people and find new leads organically.
All you need to do is start. Find your niche, post high-quality content every day, and engage with your audience. At the same time, send connection requests to people in your industry. Before too long, you’ll be bringing in tons of organic leads just from one channel.
Tom Siani
Founder of Social Tradia
Offer Free Webinars
Running a free webinar is a win-win because B2B leads can get practical, helpful information to benefit their company. It also gives you an effective way to pull in tons of qualified leads while at the same time showing your knowledge. Everything a lead should do is enter basic information to access your webinar.
Creating educational webinars is seen as high-value content that works well for generating leads and showcasing your industry expertise. You can also turn your live presentation into an automated evergreen webinar that can continuously keep growing your subscriber list and increasing leads.
Turning participants into leads is vital to interact with them before, during, and after your webinar. You can better understand how far each individual is in their buyer’s journey. Once your leads are established, try to nurture them using follow emails or phone calls to boost conversions. Track the progress of your webinars to improve your B2B lead generation strategy.
Tijana Radivojevic
Head of Content at DuoQ.Digital
Twitter: @tijana_duoq
LinkedIn: Tijana Radivojevic
Thought Leadership Content
Based on our experience working with B2B SaaS companies, publishing a high volume of content and optimizing for SEO doesn’t cut it anymore, especially in the B2B industry.
You write for experts who already know the ins and outs of their industry—generic keyword-oriented content can’t provide them with insightful and valuable information.
Thought leadership differentiates you from that noise and makes you memorable.
It’s designed for strong brand positioning in a saturated market by sharing personal insights and experiences that people can relate to, understand, and remember.
Plus, it unlocks new distribution channels allowing you to generate a significant amount of traffic from communities and social media and use it during sales. None of which is possible with simple SEO content.
Good content marketing doesn’t look and feel like marketing.
Vanhishikha Bhargava
Founder and B2B SaaS Content Marketer at Contensify
Twitter: @VanhishikhaB
LinkedIn: Vanhishikha Bhargava
Create Consumer Journeys Through Content Marketing
One of the things most content marketing strategies lack is the ability to see through the use of content across the buyer journey – no piece of content is enough to fuel conversion or, as they say, generate a lead unless you take into account each stage the consumer goes through.
When you start to plan content for lead generation, make sure you create a funnel first which includes TOFU, MOFU, and BOFU – each of these represents different stages for the consumer and is also indicative of how close a prospect is to conversion. For example, at TOFU, a consumer is most likely a cold lead, and by MOFU, they are a warm lead, and BOFU means they’re a hot lead actively looking for a specific solution.
So don’t stick to using only case studies or whitepapers for lead generation; take into account what stage of the funnel are you generating leads for and create content accordingly. Your TOFU leads could work beautifully by offering in-depth articles, while your MOFU leads might love a framework they could put to work for getting warmer leads, and your case studies or success stories could actually become BOFU – inspiration by using what you have to offer.
Nat Caesar
Head of Growth at Myndset
Twitter: natcaesar85
Offer a Clear & Actionable Value Proposition
When it comes to B2B lead generation, the most important element is the value proposition. The value proposition can be communicated in one simple sentence or throughout your entire website and marketing campaign.
The challenge is to create a value proposition that is clear, actionable, and relevant. Your business’s value proposition is the core message that reveals your unique selling proposition (USP) and will present what really makes your company, product, or service worth using.
Your value proposition needs to explain what you do for your customers, not how great you are. This tells the potential customer how they can solve a problem by using your product or service and why they should do business with you and not someone else.
Ekta Swarnkar
Founder and Author at EktaSw.Com
Twitter: @ekta_says
LinkedIn: Ekta Swarnkar
Leave Insightful Comments on LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a great place to find high-quality, targeted B2B leads. The best way to get them to notice you is by showing up in front of them. And the easiest way to show up in front of them is by leaving insightful comments on their posts.
By insightful comments, I don’t mean “Great post!” or “Nice tips!” I mean comments that add value to the post. Insightful comments contribute to the discussion and make the author respond to it.
If you can get the author, which is also your B2B lead, to respond to your comment – you’ve got his attention. Not only that, you’ll make other prospects curious about you. If you keep doing this consistently, you’ll soon have leads coming your way organically.
Some ways to add value to your comments are by sharing opinions, adding your perspective, recalling expert tips, asking smart questions, etc. There are many ways – just try to put your point politely.
Anurag Surya
Founder and author at DigiGrow.co
Twitter: @Anurag58153324
LinkedIn: Anurag Surya
Match the Current Featured Snippet Type
Google featured snippets are crucial for B2B lead generation. They don’t just put you at the top of search results but also drive a higher click-through rate than a regular listing. A snippet helps you pull highly relevant organic traffic into your marketing funnel.
The best way to score snippets is by aligning your content with the current snippet type served by Google. For example, for the keyword – how to automate reports – you will probably see a list snippet. To beat the competitor who is ranking at the top, you need to create a more holistic listicle.
Similarly, for the keyword – report automation – you might see a paragraph snippet. This means Google wants to answer the search query with a paragraph. In this case, you need to write a paragraph answer that is better than your top-ranking competitor’s answer.
Sebastian Igla
Co-Founder at QikChat
LinkedIn: Sebastian Igla
Essential Tech Set Up for Lead Generation
Having the right tech stack will be the difference between a lead being generated, that is filling in a form, or the lead not filling in the form, leading to a missed opportunity. There is no one size fits all approach but there are specific categories of technologies that will enhance your lead generation success.
After producing content that matches the stage of your buyer’s journey, strategically place a lead magnet tool at two different areas within the content. This gives the reader two separate opportunities to fill in their information, alongside providing a frictionless conversion experience as there is a minimal movement to find the lead form.
Make sure your lead magnet is connected to an integration app or an email tool to be able to trigger off an email instantly, letting the lead know you have received their inquiry. To maximize engagement in this email, you could include a product or company overview by embedding a video, attaching a PDF, or adding a link to a hidden page providing this information, taking the lead on an educational journey.
Dana Mezdreija
Marketing Manager at Setupad
Twitter: @Setupad_Team
LinkedIn: Dana Mezdreija
Collaborate with Industry Influencers
Word-of-mouth marketing has always been one of the main ways to get recognition and a loyal client base for your brand. A way to transfer this to the digital environment is to work with influencers in your specific industry. Although influencer marketing is mainly looked at in the concept of B2C, it also has great potential in B2B marketing.
Chances are that your loyal customers or brand advocates could already be considered as influencers. So, the first step is carefully evaluating your existing client base and looking for the best possible collaborations.
This collaboration could look like a review of your services published on the client’s blog, a video review of your product or services, or even a social media post would do.
When creating your strategy, remember to define clear KPIs and goals. Are you looking for new leads? Brand recognition? Product or service purchases?
With the right approach, B2B influencer marketing can be a great addition to your marketing strategy, so why not test it?
Matt Buchanan
Co-Founder & Chief Growth Officer at ServiceDirect.com
Linkedin: Matt Buchanan
Provide Something of Value for Prospects That Aren’t Ready to Buy
Most people that come across your brand/content aren’t ready to buy from you. That’s a natural part of the buyer’s journey and is what most marketers refer to as being in the awareness (or top of the funnel) phase of their journey. They’re becoming aware that your brand exists, which is the first step in building a relationship with them in the hopes it eventually leads to them becoming a customer.
What most novice marketers don’t realize is this isn’t the time to try and sell them something. Instead, try to provide them with something of value that they will appreciate and see value in. By doing this, you’ll engender appreciation and trust in them, which will allow you to continue your journey with them down the funnel.
Ana Maria Oliveira
Demand Generation at Spacelift
LinkedIn: Ana Maria Oliveira
Generate Leads Using Tech Tracking
Many companies track the technology stack other companies use in their products. For example, BuiltWith, Techtracker, Wapplyzer, SimilarTech, and Webspotter. These software segment the products based on the technology they are built on and use. You can download the list of websites using the tech in which you provide services.
Once the list is available, you can run it through email finder software like Apollo and Snovio. You can get the email addresses of key decision-makers in the company, which you can use to engage through emails, run ads, and Account-based marketing.
An email marketing agency can receive the name of e-commerce companies using Klaviyo. They can then reach out to them, asking if they need help with their campaigns. Similarly, a WordPress development company can find companies using WordPress CMS and outreach them for web designing and hosting.
Sanket Shah
Founder and CEO at InVideo.io
Twitter: @sanket_invideo
LinkedIn: Sanket Shah
Use Testimonials for Generating New Leads
For your B2B business, you can utilize testimonials to feature your items and administrations, your expert mastery, and your capacity to follow through on your commitments.
Client testimonials give validity, exhibit your B2B’s image character, and address explicit trouble spots that are your street numbers.
Make a testimonial video that features an issue your ideal client faces and show them how your item or administration tackles those issues. Join a proof of results too.
Putting testimonials on your site and social media pages can doubtlessly construct trust and produce more leads.
Remembering testimonials for brand advancements is a typical and compelling showcasing instrument that boosts the ROI.
B2B testimonials fortify your relationship with your current clients as well as give believability and certainty to new clients.
Conclusion
You’ll be more successful at growing your business if you find the right lead generation strategy. There are more B2B lead generation ideas than ever before, but hopefully, one of the above will have gotten your creative juices flowing.
