5 B2B Lead Generation Strategies You Can't Afford to Ignore

When it comes to building a fruitful pipeline for your B2B business, simply going through the motions won’t net you many positive results. 

There are certain actions that are essential. B2B lead generation takes planning, goal setting, execution and metric analysis. If you’re concentrating on building a lead generation powerhouse, here are five strategies you can’t afford to ignore.

1. Generate Relevant Content

Your lead generation tactics will fail to thrive if you don’t earmark significant time and attention to creating engaging, informative content that your potential customers care about. You need to offer high quality content for your qualified leads throughout the buyer’s journey to read and digest.

Before you write the first word, make sure your content topics are what your potential clients want to hear, not what you THINK they want. Survey current customers. What keeps them up at night? Why do they do business with you? Talk to customer support and find out the most common questions they hear. These answers can turn into powerful content.

Writing a consistent blog and making sure it can be found is the foundation of any inbound marketing strategy. A blog post is the unassuming gateway to let potential leads get to know your brand and start to see how you can solve one or more of their pain points.

Other pieces of content are valuable, too. eBooks, for example, engage prospective buyers who are further into the journey by giving them more in-depth information on a potential topic. Videos are also powerful and most engaging forms of content.

Remember, high-quality content helps potential customers find you. High-value, keyword rich content that is relevant to your potential clients attracts them to your message. Content like this helps your SEO so you can rank higher on search engines. Relevant content performs well in email marketing campaigns so you can warm up leads. And finally, sharing this content on social media amplifies your message and your audience so more people can see your brand and what you offer.

2. Incorporate SEO Best Practices

Ignore SEO at your peril, since it’s one of the most effective ways to generate B2B leads.

What is SEO? Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a lead generation technique that helps you optimize your website to attract the most organic traffic possible. There are many ways to increase your SEO so more people can discover your business.

When your website offers helpful relevant information that contains high-ranking keywords, as well as being intuitively laid out and fast to load, search engine crawlers rank it higher. This means that when potential leads type those keywords into the search engine, your website may show up close to the top of the page. SEO can increase your inbound marketing success and help your company’s conversion rate.

If you want to slay the SEO beast, make sure you’re using keywords relevant to your web pages, use a meta description that accurately represents your page, get your page link shared on external websites, and stay updated on SEO best practices because they change often. Don’t keyword stuff, use unnatural language just to fit your keywords in, post haphazardly, and don’t copy your competitors.

3. Embrace Social Media

Social media offers an unparalleled reach to potential leads. But you must use it correctly to get the most out of it.

Picking a social media channel(s) that is right for your business is important. B2B marketing uses social media differently than B2C. If your company is showcased on a channel where your buyers don’t hang out, it won’t be effective. Conduct a survey of your customers and see which channels they use. Focusing on a few rather than trying to have a presence on all of them will help you reap greater return for your time.

Don’t forget to use social media as a vehicle to share your great content. If you utilize social media, it’s likely to become a strong lead generation tool for your business. Blog posts, press releases, eBooks and white papers, along with the well-placed video, attract your buyers and give them a no-pressure way to interact with your brand.

Social media ads can help generate leads as well since they take advantage of the specifically designed demographics on social media channels and reach more viewers with your content. Boost a great post or informative video, or create and post an eye-catching ad to lead buyers to your website.

Finally, join groups to network with other industry leaders and become an authority. Networking isn’t just face to face anymore. Connect with industry influencers and other high-level industry professionals. These relationships can grow your brand’s visibility and may even (if they share your content) get you some free advertising by sharing your posts to their followers!

4. Go Live

Video is powerful, but using it live adds more dimension and engagement to your message. B2B marketing can benefit greatly from going live.

Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram all allow you to talk directly to your followers at any time. Showcase a new product, the sales team, or a promotional event in real-time.

When should you go live? B2B lead generation strategies that include live streaming should be done during business hours. Avoid the weekend, simply because people aren’t working. Going live during a conference is smart, but being live can be beneficial at other times, too.

5. Get The Resources You Need

Accessing the most helpful resources assists B2B marketing with making the most of their lead generation efforts.

The list of what is involved in a strong inbound marketing initiative is long. Staff writers, graphic artists, SEO specialists, programmers, marketing strategists, creative suites, SEO tools, and most importantly, time are on the list. Small companies especially may struggle with this, which is why it’s smart to find a B2B marketing company to fill the gaps in human capital.

Working with an inbound marketing agency for lead generation can offer additional benefits as well. Ramp up time is quicker, because they know what works. This lets you enjoy results faster. Their experience is invaluable during the goal setting through analysis processes. Finally they are the lead generation marketing professionals, freeing your other staff to pursue other goals.

Tackling B2B lead generation is challenging and there are several pitfalls that can throw you off course. Knowing up front the strategies you can't afford to ignore gives you a jumpstart on making sure your efforts lead to more qualified leads, a shorter sales cycle and a greater number of new customers.