Acquiring customers for your brand by getting more people to know about your business isn’t as easy as it sounds. No matter how interesting your products are, if people are unaware of it, your sales ratio will quietly diminish, making lead generation a crucial affair for the B2B industry.
“People shop and learn in a whole new way compared to just a few years ago, so marketers need to adapt or risk extinction,” says Brian Halligan, CEO, and co-founder of HubSpot.
This post lists all the latest B2B strategies that help you get your business in front of the audience and thereby generate new leads.
How to Generate B2B Leads in 2020?
1. Take a Hard Look at Your Data
It’s necessary to understand that every single business and customer base is different. What works for an e-commerce business may not work for a B2B SaaS company. Hence, before you market for B2B, it’s essential to take a hard look at your existing data and go where your ideal clients or customers are.
Answering the below-given questions will simplify your analysis process:
- Where are your leads genuinely coming from?
- Which lead generation strategy produced the best result so far?
- Is there any lead generation tactic that needs a makeover?
By investing time to understand your audience and the strategies that are working for your brand, you will have enough information to figure out how to generate quality leads.
2. Treat Your Email List like Gold
Email marketing has always been on top when it comes to the lead generation process for business. And, that’s the reason why you should treat your targeted b2b contact list like gold.
Image Source: SmartInsights.com
However, using your email list to send the same generic newsletters and announcements does no good for your brand. You need to send highly targeted emails to your customers based on their specific actions. Email automation is helpful in this area as it lets you speak to different leads at different points in your sales funnel.
“Marketing Automation replaces separate systems for email, web visitor tracking, lead scoring, nurture campaigns, campaign management and reporting with one solution that streamlines marketing processes and shares data with sales,” says David Raab, Raab Guide.
3. Build Relationship with Content
Content is considered as the ultimate lead generator in 2020. The findings by the Content Marketing Institute (CMI) reveals some impressive numbers. It proves how content marketing is useful for B2B industries.
Image Source: CMI
So, without a miss, consider the following content marketing approaches for your business:
- Creating blogs
- Publishing videos
- Starting a podcast
- Guest posting
- Giving away resources, such as eBooks and whitepapers
- Hosting free webinars
- Experimenting with different content format
Although producing content involves a time investment, it’s an incredibly cost-effective way to generate more leads in your pipeline.
4. SEO Deserves Some Attention
SEO plays a vital role if you’re aiming to step up your lead generation efforts. It gives your brand some more legitimacy by making your content appear on the first page when users are searching for relevant terms.
“SEO is like a resume, you polish it so you have your best foot forward,” says Matt Cutts, who was the former head of the web spam team at Google.
If you’re eager to optimize your website and win the SEO game, here are some great tips to get started:
- Publish high-quality copy
- Post content regularly
- Develop a linking strategy
- Utilize alt tags
The tactics mentioned above barely scratch the surface of the different things you can do with SEO. We recommend you to work with an SEO expert if you’re particularly serious about occupying the top spot in the search results.
5. Don’t Overlook Social Media
Social media is popular, cheap, and effective. You can generate lots of B2B leads through this channel with a well thought out strategy. It gives your business a platform to engage with potential customers using Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, or Instagram account.
According to Digital Marketing Community, Facebook is ranked as the most used social media channel by USA marketers that generates B2B leads with a rate of 68.54%.
Image Source: Digital Marketing Community
No matter which channel you use for lead generation, the primary focus should be on “being social.” That is, your focus should be on building and fostering relationships with the people rather than announcing sales messages throughout the day. You need to show your customers and potential clients who you really are, be it in the form of a photo or behind-the-scene clips of manufacturing process.
Other tips include:
- Send personalized messages to prospective customers.
- Join groups and participate in relevant discussions.
- Use advanced search and analytics to study the prospects.
The more you can leverage social media to create and maintain relationships; the more efficient your lead generation efforts will be.
Closing Note
We understand that lead generation is something that annoys B2B marketers to the core. Fortunately, there are plenty of strategies online that you can put into play in 2020 to step up your efforts. The tips outlined above will bring in tons of qualified leads to your B2B industry and fills up the pipeline.
