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But getting the right leads in the first place isn’t easy. It’s no surprise to learn that 61% of B2B marketers feel that generating high quality leads is the most challenging part of their job.
it’s also much harder to do it at pace. Around 63% of customers that do purchase from your company, won’t do so until three months after initially requesting information.
In this guide we’ll run you through the essential lead generation tactics and tweaks you can make to your existing strategy to ensure rapid business growth.
SEO and content marketing are widely used as lead generation tactics. It makes sense, if you’re creating content in line with what your users are searching for, you’ll drive traffic to your relevant onsite content. By continuing to add value to your website through your content, website visitors will keep coming back to consume it.
But this tactic alone is all about the long-game, as you’re relying on them coming back to you when they have a specific need or query.
Supplementing your content marketing efforts with retargeting is a fantastic way to speed up this process. If a user has read one blog or interacted with a piece of content, don’t simply rely on them to come back off their own accord. Retarget them with digital display ads providing them with additional content tailored to their original need and ensure that they keep coming back for more.
If you’re driving traffic to your site, it makes sense that your homepage will be getting a lot of traction.
In fact, for the majority of marketers, it’s the homepage that receives the most visitors. If you’ve been actively promoting your website across your social media channels, and through your SEO and PR efforts it’s likely your homepage will be getting much in the way of referral traffic.
That means that your messaging should be well thought-out and must blend with the objective of your business. It’s also vital to experiment with your call to action and ensure that any offer or e-book you might be promoting on your homepage is completely in sync with your messaging. Your copy therefore needs to be right.
A/B testing is non-negotiable. You need to find what works and keep testing it.
Email is a crucial tactic for B2B lead generation. And while marketing automation has seen companies greatly increased their revenue (in some instances by nearly 200%), by ensuring their prospects receive tailored emails, it shouldn’t be your only tactic to engage with those on your email list. B2C use has also become much more limited following the introduction of GDPR and the changes in the law around consent.
All B2B marketers will have seen it happen at some point. You generate potential leads through a lead magnet such as an e-book or a whitepaper. Email addresses are gathered, lists generated and your leads start to receive emails. And then their engagement levels drop off.
Continuing to fill their inboxes with more emails isn’t the way forward.
Display Ad Retargeting is a valuable tool to re-ignite their interest and remind them why you’re a great fit for the needs of their business. Again, it’s crucial to get your messaging right.
This is where you should consider enticing them with an irresistible offer, whether a free trial of your product, reduced payment terms or the first couple of months free for example.
A fundamental way that many businesses drive qualified leads is through events. You’ll gather email addresses when attendees sign up and you’ll offer them additional value during the event. They’re also a valuable tool to generate a bit of buzz around your company on your social media channels.
But what’s the next step for attendees? Email? Additional content? Sales calls?
Rather than waiting post event to re-engage with attendees, consider supercharging your lead generation with geo fencing and retarget your users in the real world.
Geo fencing works like this. You define a physical location and draw a digital “fence” around it. In this case it will be the conference or event space. Once users pass through this area in real-time, they’ll have a digital marker placed on them and will be served with ads on whatever device they’re using such as a smartphone or tablet.
You’re greatly reducing the timeline for communication post event and ensuring you engage with leads when your business and product is fresh in their minds.
Likely you’re promoting your webinars or e-books through social media advertising. You’re probably also using contextual targeting to get your key messaging out there or retargeting users based on their keyword searches.
If you’re doing this, it sounds like the right approach for your lead generation strategy, but your messaging could be letting you down,particularly your headlines. How are you grabbing the attention?
It can’t all be about you. Yes you need to get your USP across, but it’s crucial to tap into the mindset of how your potential customers are feeling and what they need.
Your headline needs to promote, but it also needs to persuade. In fact, eight out of ten people will click if your headline catches their attention. To grab the attention it’s key to use strong verbs that appeal to the need from your audience.
Let them know how your service can “improve”, “increase”, “enhance”, or “boost” their business. How will you help them “engage” with their customers, “focus” their employees, or “drive” efficiencies.
A strong verb can make all the difference and really “boost” and “increase” the speed of your lead generation.
It’s important to make things as easy as possible for your users, meaning simple changes can have a dramatic effect.
Your sign up forms are a fundamental aspect of your lead generation process. Big, clunky forms that ask for too much information can be off putting. A user might want all the data contained in your e-book, but they may look elsewhere simply because your form appears too time consuming.
Even if you require all the information detailed in your form, there are hacks you can follow. For instance, simply condensing the size of the form and the fields will make it appear smaller and less onerous to fill out. Again, A/B testing is crucial.
Ramping up your lead generation efforts requires specialisation from your teams. Marketing and sales are too very different areas of expertise, so it makes sense to split out your teams.
Marketo defines lead generation as the marketing process of stimulating and capturing interest in a product or service for the purpose of developing a sales pipeline.
Lead generation is therefore about providing value for your audience and not necessarily about selling your product. This happens once leads are stimulated and ready to begin the sales process.
Split the two out now, it will do wonders for the growth of your business.
Book a demo to learn how the Platform will revolutionise your digital advertising and enhance your approach to lead generation.