Leads are the starting point of many a sales or marketing effort. It isn’t surprising then that studies have found that 85% of B2B marketers consider lead generation to be a top priority. Surprisingly, only 44% rate their efforts as being moderately effective. Part of this comes down to the approach—the actual work done to generate those leads. Now most people think of content when it comes to lead generation and it certainly is one of the most effective means. But it isn’t the only one.
Today we look at three other B2B lead generation strategies that many experts will agree are perfect complements to a content marketing strategy that you already have in place.
1 – Leverage LinkedIn
Although social media in general—given its ubiquity today—is effective, 97% of B2B marketers find that LinkedIn is best for their needs specifically. Much of that has to do with the platform’s specific positioning as a platform for professionals. Is it any wonder why many business establish a strong presence on LinkedIn? This, in turn, makes it very effective for B2B companies looking for prospects to sell their products and services to.
LinkedIn has long embraced its own potential in this regard—providing in-platform tools that aid B2B companies in their lead generation efforts. In fact, it provides its own lead capture forms that you can customize with whatever information fields you wish to thrown in from names, email addresses, contact numbers and more. Of course, the primary means by which you draw in leads towards the form is through sponsored content.
You can, for instance, sponsor your own content shared on the site. Whether it’s a blog post on your website, a video, infographic, or anything else, these can be easily set up to draw people towards your leads form—pretty much like any other socials platform. Where LinkedIn stands out is in its native content creation option where you have robust tools to create content on the platform itself—taking full advantage of integrations with LinkedIn’s own marketing and analytic suites.
2 – Create Compelling Google Ads
Many marketers—whether B2B or even B2C—have long used Google Ads to pull people into their respective businesses’ sales pages. But equally effective would be to use the platform to draw people into your own lead capture landing pages. The key to making this work is offering your prospective leads something worthwhile that would be worth trading their contact details for. These should be content of a higher caliber than what you already share for free on your site and socials.
Many B2B companies turn to ebooks, longer videos, whitepapers, case studies, and other high-quality content that adds value to its readers or viewers. You can’t shortchange potential leads here. You might manage to get a few leads with poorly made content but you aren’t going to prime them for follow-ups. Now. Just having great content to trade for contact details isn’t enough, however, as you need to utilize Google Ads to place the content in front of your target audience and make it appealing enough to get a click.
Apart from the design of the Google Ad itself which includes the visuals and content, you need to be attentive to the keywords you use. Ideally, you source this by talking to your sales reps to figure out the topics, pain points, and materials that you customer want content on. You can also utilize Google’s own tools to search relevant keywords. All these you should integrate into your Google Ad in order for them to pop up higher in rankings when searched for—effective leading people to your content and lead capture form.
3 – Build Up Live Chat
The earliest form of lead generation was telemarketing. It was a direct, expedient, and somewhat intrusive means that proved effective at the time. Nowadays, while telemarketing is still viable, a lot of people are wary when it comes to being contacted in that manner—particularly when they’re busy. The advent of chat somewhat made it easier. Chat had the same potential for more in-depth contact with a lead while not being as intrusive.
Eventually, companies started implementing chatbots on their website with pre-chosen responses to what they found to be common questions. This made it so much easier for companies to be responsive to inquiries. The only problem with chatbots was they were limited to only the most basic of inquiries. Any deeper questions that went “off-script” tended to confound the bots. That’s why companies are increasingly starting to turn to live chat on their websites and socials platforms—and you should too.
For one thing, chats are usually initiated by parties that are clearly interested in what you have to offer already. For another thing, many chat platforms allow you to share richer content like images, videos, and—in some cases—documents and other written material. It all ties into the customer experience. Provided you field experienced reps well-versed in what you have to offer, you make it easy for potential leads to get the answers they need to make a purchase from you—or, at the very least, prime them for further nurturing.
Bonus: Try Out Content Syndication
Finally, and as a bonus, you might want to consider content syndication as a means of B2B lead generation. Of course, only those with a lot of quality content really need apply. The benefits of content syndication mirror that of the other strategies listed here in one crucial way: that you’re ideally placing key content in front of people who need and want to have what they contain. The best content for syndication are, again, those that address common pain points and answer key questions.
These details can, again also, be uncovered by researching common complaints and queries fielded by your sales reps—or those you uncover through keyword research. Where content syndication takes it a step further is that it can also give you key data about the disposition of those reading it. It differs from platform to platform, but ours at Internal Results can tell you how much time was spent on your content, which parts were focused on, and whether your content was shared to others.
These datapoints can paint a picture of the levels of interest in your products or services and can serve as a basis for focused, personalized nurturing down the line. Coupled with other B2B intent data drawn from other sources—like your website and socials platforms—this can give you an edge when it comes to the conversion of leads to buying customers. Of course, the key here is to have worthwhile content to begin with.
Edge Out Your Competition
Of course, one of the best ways to boost your sales and marketing efforts is to give your teams quality leads from the get-go. Internal Results has our own database of over 60 million verified, qualified contacts in all industries across 108 countries, and have been selected one of the best lead generation companies. We can help you build up your contact lists with matching your key demographic, firmographic, and technographic requirements. This makes it easier for you to fill out your sales funnels and round out your nurturing programs.
