“How can I create more leads?” is a question that marketers ask themselves all the time.
Unfortunately, there is no easy solution to that question. A short Google search shows a plethora of viewpoints, tools, and resources all claiming to be the finest and most convenient method to accomplish this. It might be difficult to know where to begin with so many resources and everyone claiming to have “the” answer to all issues.
The fact that sheer quantity will not address the lead generation problem further complicates the situation. It is critical to create a big number of leads, but these leads must be of high quality.
So, how do you go about finding, connecting with, and attracting the “ideal” lead? In this post, we outline the different ways you can generate more leads for your business using strategies we have employed over the years as a B2B lead generation services company.
- Develop Buyer Personas
- Create Engaging Content
- Host Webinars
- Attend Online Events
- Marketing Automation
- Change your Email Subject
- Optimize your LinkedIn Profile
- Embrace Telemarketing
- Expand Internationally
- Employ an ABM Approach
- Multi-channel Marketing
- Aim to Set Appointments
Developing Your Buyer Personas
First things first, figure out how to provide a tailored experience for someone you’ve never met.
That being said, you won’t be able to acquire all of the information you need about your target audience until this information is supplied. You do, however, have access to a lot of collected data as well as a high degree of product and industry expertise, which you can use to imagine what the main characteristics of the “perfect” lead would be. This makes creating buyer personas a lot easier.
An entire set of buyer personas is a good place to start when it comes to customization. Personas make it simpler to build content strategies that match the appropriate message to the right prospect at the right moment in the buyer’s journey, resulting in a more customized and targeted experience.
Buyer personas should vary over time to match market developments. To stay up with the change of your target group, you should continue to collect data and update your buyer personas.
Related: How Customer Profiles and Buyer Personas Drive Your Lead Gen Campaign
Create Engaging Content
Content is something that will always stay a staple in marketing, sales, and lead generation. You can’t escape it even if you try.
Creating great and engaging content does more than simply engage your audience and grow your following, more importantly it persuades your audience that you are an expert in your niche and that the product and/service you provide will greatly benefit them in every step of their buying journey.
Automation platforms should be tweaked to allow for even more customization. Because each lead is different, it should have a different experience with your company. Segment them even further and create categories that are tailored to their present position in the marketing funnel.
Related: Keeping Your Content Marketing Fresh: Preparing for 2022
Host Online Events and Webinars
The fact that webinars help expand the amount of material available to interested parties online is one of the primary reasons why organizations should carefully consider using them. Every webinar you offer helps you answer the most frequent questions and concerns that a prospect, customer, supplier, or employee could have. This contributes to the creation of a comprehensive database of knowledge that is relevant not only to your company’s present key human assets, but also to future generations of important human bonds.
One of the cornerstones of a successful business is an identifiable brand that stands out from the competitors. Every time you hold a new online event, webinar marketing will help you get your brand in front of more people, improving your brand recognition.
More importantly, webinars help firms establish authority in their fields. A properly-designed webinar (don’t worry, we’ll show you how to organize a successful webinar later in this post) will allow you to present your brand to a larger audience and improve your reputation. They will be more likely to consider your brand or even buy from you in the future if you do this.
So, in terms of lead generation, hosting webinars lets you build a list of leads that you can engage, nurture and convert into customers.
Related: Sell the Webinar First, Your Product Second
Attending Online Events
Attending in-person events and conferences is not a big possibility right now and it’s going to take a while before we can have big face-to-face conventions again. The good news is that it’s not impossible to still hold conventions thanks to technology.
Online events have been in full gear more than ever, and if you can find good online events in your industry, make it a point to attend and get involved even if it’s just as an attendee. But if you want to generate more leads through these events, then we suggest that you get involved as a speaker or a sponsor as that increases your opportunity to engage with as many possible leads as possible as well as boost your brand awareness.
Discover where to find your leads.
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Marketing Automation… but Personalized!
Marketing automation may take over once a lead has connected with your company and supplied additional personal information, doing a lot of the hard work to keep the lines of communication open and bring the lead closer to a sales call. If procedures aren’t adequately developed, managed, and adjusted, marketing automation cannot offer a lot in terms of customization.
Changing Your Email Subject
Every marketer understands that the subject line is one of the most important aspects of an email. It’s the first thing recipients see when they open their inbox, and it’s the most important factor in determining whether or not they interact.
Keep in mind that your customers are also busy and don’t have all day to read a long email, so the first thing to remember is to keep your emails short and sweet. In order to avoid having to explain everything in length within your email, let your subject line already give them a gist of what your email is going to entail so that when they open it, they won’t be greeted with information overload.
And of course, this is where we circle back to email personalization. You want to tailor your email specifically to the receiver, but don’t make it sound too invasive either where they would get the impression that you know more about them than just their business.
If you want to increase interaction, your subject lines should be customized, concise, and to the point. They should also strike a chord with your audience. Always provide relevant content up front; make it mobile-friendly; and know what keywords will grab your prospects’ attention.
Related: 5 Outreach Email Tips Your Recipients Will Love
Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile
Your LinkedIn profile is like a conference room. It’s the outfit you’ll put on for that important meeting or elevator pitch to a potential investor. As a result, you should dress up and make your finest speech for your profile visitors. It’s a process known as LinkedIn profile optimization.
When someone views your LinkedIn profile, make sure they get the information they need. The key objective here is to demonstrate that you are the best option for your customers. It’s critical to stress how you’ll address their issues. And, of course, to demonstrate your credibility in order to improve your own brand.
First things first, make sure that you have a profile picture. I know, that sounds self-explanatory, but you’d be surprised at how many professionals have a blank profile picture on LinkedIn, and that turns many prospects away as they might think that it could be a spam or fake account. So, make sure that you have a decent profile picture on your LinkedIn profile.
Don’t forget to make compelling headlines as well. Everyone lists their job title and the business for which they work, but that doesn’t mean that it converts right away. Using this area to explain about what you do in fewer words is an easy approach to solve this – again, short and simple.
Related: How to Become a LinkedIn Thought Leader
Embrace Telemarketing
Yes, you read that right. Don’t underestimate the power of telemarketing. Don’t listen to those who say it’s an outdated strategy that no one uses anymore.
In the past, the role of telemarketing revolves primarily on making volume calls on a list of contacts, but the old spray-and-pray tactics no longer work in today’s B2B space. Instead, phone calls are now most effective in outbound activities that require precise touchpoints. In fact, from our experience as a lead generation and appointment setting agency, we’ve seen that B2B decision makers (almost 60%) still prefer the human interaction that they get from a telemarketing call.
Telemarketing, whether in conjunction with other channels or not, can help you directly influence a prospect’s action by allowing you to show them the value they get when they take that specific action.
Like for example – your CRM or email marketing tool alerts you that a prospect opened an email. In normal cases, you’d leave this up to your automated nurturing scheme. But by taking a quick phone call, say, with the premise to ask the prospect if they’ve read or gone through the email, in a subtle way, you steer them towards that direction. Hence, accelerating that particular step.
We’ve discussed various similar tactics that you can start applying now in our recent webinar which is readily available for you to watch – for free.
One thing to consider if you want to be a great at making marketing or sales calls is to make sure you follow a few smart calling strategies:
- Set the stage for the next step or a follow-up
- Schedule your calls based on prospects’ past activities
- Keep your message consistent
- Always provide value
- Measure your performance using specific telemarketing KPIs and metrics
In addition, always be on the lookout for any new telemarketing technology available to make your cold calling activities easier. Take advantage of these tools and be sure to learn them as this is going to be a key factor in having a successful telemarketing campaign.
Related: Telemarketing: The Secret Sauce to Racking Up Qualified B2B Sales Leads
Take your Brand to Foreign Markets
The pandemic pushed a lot of businesses toward online-centric strategies but this shift has been ongoing for several years now. As business operations become more and more internet-driven, the case for going global grows even stronger.
Cross-border expansion gives your company many benefits. By tapping into foreign territories, you:
- Increase you customer base and unlock a new source of revenue
- Get a bigger slice of the international markets or capture foreign markets before your competitors do
- Gain access to greater talent
- Improve how your company is perceived by your customers
- Capture foreign investment opportunities
- And more…
It makes sense for a company that has been successful domestically to expand internationally especially when you have saturated your domestic markets. From a lead generation standpoint, as long as you have the resources to go global and you’re getting adequate support with cross-border marketing, you can’t really go wrong.
Related: A B2B Guide to Successful Cross-border Expansion
Invest in Market Research
Market research is a vital part of generating more leads, so it should not be put on the back burner. Getting into a new market, establishing pricing arrangements, and keeping your workers happy all require significant financial expenditures and many stakeholders. Making correct judgments based on research, rather than guessing or intuition, is critical. You can establish that your strategy is economically realistic and exhibit your credibility as a firm by delivering excellent market research to your investors, shareholders, and decision makers.
Sound data gathering and analysis are crucial. Instead of investing in an unproven product, save time and money by performing thorough market research.
Related: Market Research for Color Technology Firm
Employ an ABM Approach
Elements of account-based marketing are very certainly already part of your B2B marketing plan. It has, however, gained fresh significance, and you should think about using it into your marketing strategy. Account-based marketing increases the stakes by focusing on a single firm (or account), as well as the decision-makers inside that account, using a series of coordinated and high-touch sales and marketing strategies. ABM takes mass marketing and tailors it to a one-to-one market for that specific message.
Marketing is always being tugged in a variety of directions. ABM enhances the organization of your marketing efforts and resources on your important accounts in order to maximize revenue. With such a tight focus, it’s easy to see how account-based marketing campaigns may help you get the most out of your most important resources: your employees’ time and money.
ABM will only increase the efficiency of your B2B marketing resources, but it will also aid in the development of a sales-marketing communication channel, resulting in a more unified sales and marketing organization.
Related: More Than a Leads List: How Data Impacts ABM, According to Research
Be Where Your Prospects Are (Multi-Channel Marketing)
It’s a two-way street getting potential consumers to interact with you. You must entice and maintain your prospects’ interest. This is where the multi-channel lead generation approach comes into play. The consequences of speaking to your prospects incorrectly, at the wrong time, or without stressing prospective services and possibilities can be devastating. Similarly, addressing the incorrect audience will result in you wasting valuable time and money.
There are several advantages to using a multi-channel approach in your company’s lead generation strategy. It allows you to interact with your prospects across different internet platforms and across various stages of the sales funnel. Furthermore, your brand name will stay in their minds at all times. This guarantees that they will be prospective customers for your firm when they are ready to make a purchase.
Today, there are a plethora of internet marketing platforms to choose from along with different multi-channel marketing tools to use across these platforms. It is critical to have a presence in the correct ones based on your target demographic. For example, if a person ceases to connect with your organization on LinkedIn, you may track them down on Facebook or Instagram.
Related: Winning High-Value Accounts with Multi-Channel ABM
Aim to Set Appointments
Setting appointments is the most effective way to professionally market your company and win your prospects’ confidence. It’s typically thought of as a way to get closer to your customers on a personal level. This has the consequence of leaving a favorable and lasting impression on your prospects, giving them even more reasons to do business with you.
Setting appointments is crucial to increasing your company’s revenue. It displays that you have a systemized procedure in your firm when done appropriately.
Because experienced appointment setters have all of the information, they can properly advise their customers on the next actions to take. Customers deal with the businesses they have faith in.
Related: How to Set Appointments with Mid to Large Enterprise Firms Contacts
Conclusion
Many organizations consider lead generation a top priority but the fact still remains that generating leads (and even more leads) is a difficult feat. The process requires considerable resources such as content, ability to reach out across multiple marketing channels, tech stack, marketing/sales data, manpower, budget, commitment, and the expertise to come up with a solid lead generation plan that not only takes into account lead quantity but also lead quality. We hope that this post can give you the answers that you need in order to generate more leads and kickstart your customer acquisition initiative – the right way.
