9 Simple Tips for Improved B2B Lead Generation & ROI

Challenge: It’s a busy world - do people really know you’re there?

Tactic: Let’s be fair.  Advertising and all marketing activity requires investment and B2Bs often don’t have the luxuriant budgets that B2C businesses do.  So, you need to take action and stick your head above the parapet and do it by delivering value.  SEO works but it’s a jungle out there, everyone is doing it.  So how can you stand out by answering the questions your potential buyers have?

• Answer their questions and create content to meet their needs (see point one and pain points!)

• Share that content on your website and social media and not just on company pages.  Get your sales team and other employees to share your content on their Linked In feed.

• Do the foundation work - make sure your website and blogs are optimised for search engines.

• Analyse - use google analytics and other tools to learn which content your prospective buyers interact with most. 

• Test and hone paid ad campaigns on platforms such as Google and Linked In.

• Call people, engage and develop relationships - sounds brutal but we’ve seen sales teams that prefer just to follow up with email and we all know what happens when we have a full in-box.

Challenge Have you ever tested your sales pitch and target market?

Tactic Create specific campaigns to learn what works and what doesn’t before you set your whole team onto a campaign that doesn’t work, or invest in an expensive lead gen strategy that doesn’t work.  Segment a test group of your ‘ideal’ prospects and set your best person on to it to guage its effectiveness.  They should be looking for 

• The quality of data (if you’ve invested in third party data)

• The right contact (so often you don’t have the right person on your list)

• The right pitch - what is it that they’re actually looking for? Ask questions rather than go in full throttle with a sale. 

• Timing - when are they looking for it.

The data that comes out of this test campaign should inform your wider strategy that covers your inbound lead generation and your sales team outbound.  It is rare that something valuable isn’t learnt.  Find out more about how the Marketing Maven team does it here.

Challenge: How well are you managing your pipeline?

Tactic: It’s not uncommon for companies to be so fixated on what has to land now, that they lose the value of all the leads generated because they end up cast aside when they don’t convert straightaway.  Yes, some leads will be lost but if you’ve done your targeting, segmentation and messaging right, they may come back.  To bin the leads is to waste the investment. Build relationships instead.

• Use email marketing to send personalised emails and content to draw your prospect along the buying funnel.

• Follow and interact with them on LInked In (there are tools to help make this easier).

• Plan strategic and timely phone follow-up to build

• Use a CRM system to score your leads and schedule follow up for a better time in their buying cycle.

Challenge What’s been started and not finished in your sales strategy?

Tactic Sales isn’t always easy but it’s easier if you take action.  Often it’s not the lead but the quality of the follow up. All too often, opportunities are lost because we lost track, we became inconsistent, we missed a call, we got more excited by something that’s shinier.

• Plan a review of leads with evidence of follow-up (CRMs are great for this)

• Use analytics (CRM) to learn how many calls and how many months it typically takes to land a deal and work that into your prospecting so you can forecast more effectively (and not lose hope!).

• Don’t fall into the trap of the ‘leads aren’t good enough’ cry.  Ask ‘why’? If they’re not change the formula to improve the quality of the leads.

• Schedule activity so you don’t miss a thing, this is where a CRM wins out everytime, anyone and everyone can lose valuable sales simply relying on email and spreadsheets.

• Set a consistent schedule for reviewing and activating lead generation campaigns.

Challenge How easy is it for your prospective buyers to get the answers they need?

Tactic B2B buyers can browse more than 8 pieces of content before they decide to get into conversation - and that includes giving away their email details and becoming a lead.  This isn’t their first rodeo, they know you’ll follow and try to sell to them, so many prefer to fly under the radar until they are ready to have a conversation. 

• Create content that answers their questions throughout the buying cycle.

• Create Calls to Action on every piece of content

• Share it widely and use that content for keep warm funnels once you’ve captured the leads.

Challenge How easy do you make it for people to enquire?

This might seem like a no-brainer but leads get lost easily, like sign-up forms that end up in a black hole and not with sales teams (yes, this really happens). Ideas to make it easier

• Book a meeting on your email footer (using tools like Calendly).

• Chatbot on your website

• Calls to Action on content

• Telephone numbers that work :)

• Add other channels they might find easier to use, e.g. What’s App (but make sure they are monitored).

• Calls to Action on adverts and social media.

• Automatically channel leads into a contact funnel, so they get automated responses,  tasks are sent the relevant people to follow up and they get added to the marketing funnel.

Challenge Are you just not getting things done because you don’t have time?  

Tactic There are lots of tools that can help you run your marketing (almost) on autopilot - as long as you’ve done the groundwork!  It’s time to leave the spreadsheet and email filing behind. Make things easier with…

• CRMs - there are lots of low cost ones.

• Email sending tools - if you’re not ready for a CRM, you can still do email automation with form capture and email funnel tools.

• Lead generation tools - key tools for B2B are usually for Linked In audience building and outreach.  These are generally low cost and can be a boon for lead generation.  Here are some great tools we’ve reviewed (and used).

Challenge: How often do you give something away to someone you don’t know and therefore don’t trust?

Tactic Utilise customer testimonials, logos, case studies, industry certifications, and partnerships to build trust. Use client success stories in follow-up emails and throughout your website, social media and lead gen campaigns.  

Provide valuable educational content and transparent communication to showcase expertise and reliability but do it in a way that relates to them.  Tailor follow-up emails and campaigns to their industry or problem so that they feel heard.  

And…when talk about relevance and trust, it starts with the simplest of things, a Dear ‘Sonal’, not Dear Sir/Madam.