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Business isn’t business without customers. But where do these customers come from? Typically, they emerge from a process known as lead generation. Lead generation involves identifying potential customers who may be interested in your offerings.
In this blog post, we’ll explore what business leads are, the various types of leads, the lead generation process itself, and present 9 optimal strategies for acquiring leads for your business.
Business leads are potential customers or clients who have expressed interest in a product or service offered by a company. They are individuals or entities that a business can potentially convert into paying customers through targeted marketing efforts or sales activities.
Many perceive business leads as simply a list of names. However, according to Salesforce, it’s more than that. Today, lead generation is about attracting potential customers, giving them useful information, building relationships, and figuring out who is ready to buy, not just collecting a bunch of names.
There are many different types of leads in marketing and sales. However, you’ll mostly likely encounter the following types:
Warm leads: These are leads that have shown significant interest and are more likely to convert into customers.
In the B2B setting, sales lead generation is about finding and growing a list of businesses that might want to buy your products or services. The entire process is made of multiple steps as shown in the flowchart below:
The process begins with conducting detailed research to identify your target audience. This research enables you to pinpoint a more specific group of potential leads, which you can then target more efficiently and cost-effectively with your messages.
After identifying your target audience, the next step is to select the most effective marketing channels and content types to engage them. For instance, LinkedIn is the top platform for generating B2B leads. Therefore, if your company operates in the B2B space, it'd be a good idea to have an active presence on LinkedIn. This involves posting content that resonates with your audience and encourages them to visit your company's website, thereby increasing inbound traffic.
Alongside your marketing efforts, you should also implement lead capture. This is essentially your landing page, forms, and calls-to-action (CTAs) on your website to capture interested visitors. In the B2B setup, it’s common to offer something of value (like a free ebook or webinar registration) in exchange for leads’ contact information.
Next, you should focus on assessing captured leads to determine how likely they are to buy. Do that by developing your own lead qualification criteria, taking into account things like the company’s budget, size, industry, and other aspects.
Once you've narrowed down your list of leads, it's time to start building a closer relationship with them. This means reaching out, providing more information about your product or service, answering their questions, and keeping them engaged until they're ready to buy.
Once a lead is considered qualified and ready, try to convert them into a customer. This could involve a sales call, demo, or meeting to go over the specifics of what you're offering. And there you have it, a sale. As a final step, you should also analyze your lead generation process to refine your future strategies for generating leads.
The first lead generation step is to implement lead generation software that automates the process of identifying and capturing leads from various channels. These tools can help you scrape web data, track user behavior on your site, manage and nurture leads, and analyze the effectiveness of your campaigns.
Next, double down on LinkedIn. As we mentioned earlier, LinkedIn is where your leads are hanging out. Therefore, it’s super important to be active on the platform if you’re not already.
Consider utilizing LinkedIn automation tools for personalized outreach to potential leads. These tools can automatically send connection requests and follow-up messages to your targeted audience, significantly increasing your lead-generation efforts.
Hosting virtual roundtables takes online engagement to a deeper, more interactive level. These events gather industry leaders, potential clients, and influencers in a discussion format, allowing for the exchange of ideas, challenges, and solutions relevant to your sector.
Not only do they position your company as a thought leader, but they also provide a platform for direct interaction with potential leads. Following up with participants after the event can turn these warm leads into customers.
Account-based marketing (ABM) is a focused approach where marketing and sales teams collaborate to tailor their efforts toward engaging specific, high-value accounts rather than targeting a broad audience.
So, focus on engaging a few high-value prospects with more personalized campaigns as that way you won’t stretch yourself too thin. And, you have better chances of converting these potential leads into customers.
Driving inbound traffic through SEO content is one of the most lucrative ways to fill your sales pipeline with leads. Create valuable content that targets SEO keywords that reflect buying intent specific to your B2B audience. These high-intent keywords have the potential to drive targeted traffic, leading to higher conversion rates.
Webinars are a popular way to generate B2B leads, so make sure you leverage them to your advantage. For example, offer free educational webinars that address common pain points or hot topics within your industry.
Furthermore, consider implementing a referral program that incentivizes current customers to refer new business leads. Typically, referred customers have a higher retention rate and can significantly lower acquisition costs.
Another lead gen tactic is implementing AI chatbots on your website to engage visitors 24/7. Chatbots can qualify leads by asking pre-programmed questions and directing high-potential leads to your sales team. On average, businesses using AI chatbots have seen a 20% increase in lead conversion rates.
Finally, lean into customer reviews as a way to convince your leads that you’re the right business for them. Showcase customer reviews and testimonials prominently on your website and in your marketing materials. Prospects trust peer recommendations, meaning they are more likely to purchase after reading a trusted review.
Lead generation is easier with technology. Use tools to automate it. Here are some popular options:
HubSpot is an all-in-one inbound marketing, sales, and service platform that helps companies attract visitors, convert leads, and close customers. It offers a comprehensive CRM at its core, surrounded by various tools for email marketing, social media marketing, content management, and analytics. HubSpot is particularly known for its user-friendly interface and its ability to create a seamless workflow between marketing and sales teams.
Adobe Marketo Engage is a powerful marketing automation tool designed for medium to large businesses. It excels in providing solutions for email marketing, lead management, and analytics.
The tool is highly customizable, allowing businesses to tailor their marketing efforts to their specific needs. It also integrates well with other business systems, providing a robust platform for nurturing leads through the sales funnel.
Leadfeeder identifies companies visiting your website, how they found you, and their interests, by tracking website visitors. It enriches lead data and automates lead scoring by integrating with your CRM and email marketing tools.
Particularly useful for B2B companies, Leadfeeder transforms anonymous website visitors into actionable sales leads, enabling a better understanding of prospect behavior and lead prioritization.
An effective B2B lead generation is essential for the growth and sustainability of any business. The 9 methods discussed, ranging from using lead generation tools to showcasing user reviews, are tried and tested strategies that can significantly increase your lead pool and the quality of your leads.
Once your leads convert, don’t forget to look after them properly. This involves providing timely customer support and ensuring their success with your product or service.
If you’re utilizing Slack for customer support, you might be interested in learning more about Thena. Thena is an intelligent B2B customer engagement platform that integrates seamlessly with Slack. It is built to offer omnichannel support through Slack, email, and the web.
The platform employs AI to identify customer requests in Slack Connect channels, by automatically converting them into support tickets and directing them to the appropriate team members for resolution.
What distinguishes Thena is its robust workflow capabilities and comprehensive customer service analytics, which allow you to monitor your support team's performance and understand customer sentiment. Additionally, Thena integrates with popular CRM and email ticketing systems, simplifying your processes and eliminating the need for context-switching.
Book a free demo today to see all of Thena’s capabilities.
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