Effective Lead Generation Strategies for Today’s Business

As the first step in a potential customer’s journey towards conversion, B2B lead generation involves identifying ideal customers and motivating them to buy. Marketers launch campaigns and tactics to attract preferable audiences, then nurture them along the journey, hoping to convert them into revenue-generating customers.

It sounds easy enough, only it’s not. 

Why?

Because today’s savvy buyers hardly fall for marketing copy, choosing instead to self-research vendors.

Let’s go through five lead generation strategies that may help paint you in a good light while targeting the right audiences.

1. Build and Share a Free Tool

Think about this:

HubSpot, a renowned software products company, offers users a free CRM. Ubersuggest provides free SEO analytics reports while Crazy Egg grants site owners a free Heatmap tool.

Why do they give out free stuff when they can put a price tag and earn top dollar?

Because in giving free tools, they give their users the chance to “try out” before buying. 

This hands-on experience allows would-be customers to see your products/service at work and check whether it meets their needs. 

Free tools are useful opt-in offers designed to pull in high-quality leads to your business. 

So it helps to research your target audience to ensure you create a tool that tackles their pain points or helps them achieve their goals.

The free tool entices audiences to the possibility of enjoying superior features when they take on the paid version

1. Provide Social Proof 

Often people will look for guarantees before signing the dotted line.

Your team can go out of their way to wow the prospect (as they should), but this goes beyond marketing rhetoric.

Potential customers want proof that your solutions deliver and social proof, in this case, works as an excellent validator.

Here are several ways to incorporate this strategy: 

• Include user reviews. Statistics show that 81 percent of online shoppers have a lower sense of trust in brands that don’t have any customer reviews. By including reviews, you’ll be boosting your credibility.
• Share customer testimonial videos. Customers put into words experiences that marketing copy can’t explain convincingly. As prospects see real-life people highlighting their experiences with your brand, they can see how your solutions can help them.
• Create shareable content. People share content they deem valuable and that makes for great social proof too. Create useful content and keep share buttons within close reach to encourage quick sharing.
• Leverage brand recognition, awards, and certifications. Embed tweets from happy customers, showcase awards and certifications, and share positive mentions by reputable or authoritative sites in your industry.

1. Link Building

Link building remains critical to any brand that wants to build its credibility, visibility, and site performance.

Putting together relevant and informative content is a must for any brand leveraging digital marketing. 

Since you’ll be spending time curating these pieces, why not identify authoritative, industry-relevant sites to share these pieces with wider audiences?

Here are link building strategies worth considering:

• Identify websites that accept guest blogs. Go for websites that target the same market as you and receive high traffic and engagement on existing content. Pitch to your value upfront. Share the topics you want to cover and let them choose some as well.
• Broken Link Building. Found websites you would really like to contribute to? Use the SEMrush or Ahref’s tool to scan for broken links then reach out to the website owners and let them know as much. Offer high-quality replacement content for their consideration. 
• Conduct useful in-depth research. Carry out surveys, polls, and other research that provide useful insights for your target market. As other marketers read through your research and link it to their content, you’ll receive high-quality traffic to your own site.
• Create linkable assets. Alongside research, think of interactive content like calculators, videos, games, and quizzes that users can enjoy, download, and share with others. There are free or low-cost tools you can use to create this content such as LeadQuizzes or SurveyMonkey, etc.

1. Make Cold Calls

Underrated as it is, cold calling remains effective at initiating conversations with future customers.

Up to 62 percent of B2B buyers actually want to hear from vendors when they are in the market for solutions to particular problems.

The key point here is “when they are in the market”

Your best bet will be reaching these prospects at the precise time when they are looking for solutions. You present yourself as a knowledgeable partner with just the solutions that can solve their problems.

Best practices include

• Make data your friend. Combine internal and third-party data to uncover search intent in your target market. You can then package your solutions in a way that answers their questions and meets their needs.
• Understand your offerings. What can your solutions do for customers? Improve operational efficiency? Slash costs? Let this come out expressly in your pitch.
• Keep tabs on metrics. From monthly conversion rates, to call to conversion rate, and closed won rate, a cold calling calculator can help you assess ROI from the calls made. You can then make changes as needed.
• Outsource to a professional SDR service company. These teams have the expertise to build your pipeline, research leads quicker but thoroughly, and call up prospects on your behalf.

1. Use Landing Pages

Landing pages combine a solid design, great copy, and clever marketing to drive site visitors towards a single goal. 

This goal may include email subscription, content download, event registration, and free trials.

Building a landing page isn’t as complicated as it may seem. 

You can actually do it in-house with the help of a landing page builder tool like Unbounce, LeadPages, Launchrock, Instapage, and Hello Bar.

Here are some considerations as you build your landing page:

• Match the landing page with the ad. Your visitor will come from an ad, social media post, or email campaign, so this should feel like turning the page of a book. Keep the theme, tone, and message consistent for a seamless transition 
• Stick to one conversion goal. Links that take the visitor away from the landing page or additional CTAs can easily distract the visitor. Worse, keep them from taking the action that brought them to the landing page in the first place.
• Embed videos and still photos of your product/service. It helps capture the audience’s attention as they visualize your solutions and how they work. 
• Optimize loading times. Keep your loading speed under four minutes to discourage visitors from leaving. Check Google’s speed recommendations and ensure your images and videos are optimized to meet these standards.