How To Generate Leads For B2B Sales (36 Best Strategies)

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Imagine you’re at a party, and it’s time to play some games. You’re feeling good until you realize you have no idea how to play any of them. That’s the duplicate feeling lots of B2B salespeople get when generating leads. Sales acceleration software is supposed to make things easier, but there’s a catch. First, you need to learn how to use it to your advantage. Figuring out how to generate leads for B2B sales can be daunting at first, but this article will help you understand it.

Aomni's sales intelligence software can help you speed up the process by providing valuable insights on B2B leads so you can find out more about them and personalize your sales approach.

What are B2B Leads?

B2B leads are potential customers for a business that sells products or services to other businesses. They are a crucial part of the sales process for B2B companies, as they help to build relationships and identify sales opportunities. B2B leads are typically identified through marketing efforts such as:

Social media

Email marketing

Content marketing

Types of B2B Leads: Marketing Qualified vs. Sales Qualified

Marketing Qualified Leads

Marketing-qualified leads, or MQLs, are high-quality leads deemed very likely to become paying customers. The qualification is based on the MQL’s engagement with your business’s marketing efforts.

For example: Repeatedly visiting a page on your company website. Fill out a form or multiple forms on your company’s website. You are downloading a piece of gated content that your company has produced. You are signing up to attend one of your company’s events or webinars.

Sales Qualified Leads

Sales-qualified leads, or SQLs, are MQLs who have progressed along the sales funnel. These B2B leads are deemed ready to talk with your sales team. The lead must have intended to buy your company’s product or service, which is to be designated as an SQL.

This intent can be expressed in several ways:

During a telephone conversation with a member of your sales team.

By indicating their interest in an email or LinkedIn message.

By requesting more information about your company and offering.

By asking to be shown a demo of your product or service.

How to Measure Sales Productivity

Sales Enablement Leader

What Makes a Good Sales Leader

How to Create a B2B Sales Funnel

How to Accelerate Sales Cycle

Sales Trend Analysis

How to Increase B2B Sales

Strategies to Increase Market Share

How To Generate Leads for B2B Sales: 36 Best Strategies

Social media isn’t just for B2C. If you’re not using it for B2B lead generation, you’re making things easy for competitors. While each social platform has advantages, LinkedIn is top-rated for B2B lead generation. LinkedIn has been shown to drive the highest visitor-to-lead conversion rate of 2.74 percent. (Twitter and Facebook stand at .69 percent and .77 percent, respectively.)

It’s also been shown to generate 80 percent of B2B leads online. Facebook also benefits lead generation, mainly due to its excellent targeting capabilities and Lead Ads. Even though Twitter user numbers have declined recently, it can still be helpful for practical lead-generation efforts.

Marketing and sales teams constantly discover new lead-generation best practices on social media, so do your homework and find what works best for your organization.

2. Follow Emails with Direct Mail

After sending a cold email, it’s commonplace to send follow-up emails, and for good reason. Email campaigns with four to seven emails in a sequence received a 27 percent response rate, while campaigns with fewer follow-up emails only received a nine percent response rate.

It’s also essential to stand out from your competition by disrupting the predictable cycle of emails and sending your prospects direct, physical mail after email outreach, which provides a memorable experience.

The Power of Direct Mail in Lead Generation

Consider that direct mail has been found to earn higher response rates (4.4 percent vs. 0.12 percent for email). Delight your corporate audience by sending them gift cards, treats, or personalized office items. Such surprises, when coupled with introduction notes or invites for a video chat, become powerful impressions that help you gain leads.

3. PPC

PPC has been a lead-generation staple for well over a decade. Today, this tactic has grown beyond Google Ads and has expanded into:

LinkedIn Ads

Facebook Ads

Facebook ThruPlay

Others

Why should you keep using PPC to generate B2B leads? Because it’s highly targeted, you can reach a particular B2B audience. PPC is also refreshingly fast. Teams can implement it almost instantly and realize results quickly, too.

The Power of A/B Testing and Best Practices

A/B testing is also a prime benefit, letting you quickly determine what’s working and what isn’t. There are right ways of doing PPC—like automating specific PPC processes and creating responsive search ads —and some not-so-right ways. Be careful not to make mistakes that drain more money than your campaigns are worth.

4. Cold Emails

Cold emailing is different from the email marketing you’re already doing. This tactic enables you to generate high-quality leads by contacting people who haven’t opted into your email marketing. Considering that eight prospects out of 10 prefer using email to communicate with sales reps, this is a method you shouldn’t ignore.

Since cold emailing involves prospecting to audiences you’ve never contacted, it’s a harder skill to master than typical opt-in email marketing.

You want to motivate your cold-email recipients to do more than just click something. You want them actually to reply. Cold emails, therefore, need to be:

Persuasive

Short

Relevant

While many cold-email templates are available, cold emailing is best perfected with practice and testing. Shortcuts rarely work.

Your social teams share your content on your brand’s official accounts. Asking readers to share your content is much easier than getting them to share. On the other hand, empowering employees to promote your company online can skyrocket your B2B lead generation.

Encouraging your employees to share your social content, also known as employee advocacy, helps you reach far more leads than your company’s social media accounts could achieve.

The Power of Employee Advocacy

Consider that employee social media sharing can increase online engagement with your leads by 30 percent. Employee advocacy is a win-win. Your business reaches a larger number of leads, and your employees earn thought-leadership credibility within their industry. Employee advocacy also humanizes your brand, a welcome distinction in B2B industries.

6. Live Chat

Decision-makers want answers now, especially in complex industries. Live chat fulfills this need for instant gratification. And for companies that execute it well, lead increases of 25 percent aren’t unheard of. If you are done well, live chat provides you with a competitive edge. It allows a potential lead to ask questions and get replies without digging deeper or visiting your competitors’ websites for further research.

Leveraging Live Chat for Enhanced Customer Understanding and Lead Generation

Further, live chat enables you to better understand your audience’s needs by observing their questions and interest in your products and services. The better you know your target, the faster you can convert them into leads who eventually buy from you.

7. Live Video Streaming

While the era of social distancing has dealt incalculable damage to the seminar and trade show industry, many are switching to virtual events, which enable them to keep their seminar plans rolling without a hitch. Some even predict a rise in hybrid events to accommodate those who wish to attend in person or from their homes' comfort (and distance).

The bottom line is that even if employees work remotely, they’re still able to attract new B2B leads through:

Video-based webinars

Q&A sessions

New product demos

And more

The key is to get creative and devise new and unique ways to grab the attention of potential leads.

8. Personalized Videos

Grabbing your audience’s interest is almost 100 percent of the lead-generation battle. Attention spans are declining, and competition is increasing. As B2B prospects float in a sea of irrelevant white noise, you must speak to them by name. This ultra-customization is what personalized videos achieve.

Personalizing Video Messages for Maximum Impact

Tools like Vidyard and Idomoo can connect to your CRM to populate several personalized fields within your video messages. Even if you send thousands of emails in a campaign, they can contain videos tailored to each prospect, all in an automated way. With 80 percent of respondents saying they’re more likely to purchase from a personalized company offering a personalized experience, you should seriously try to customize videos.

9. Free Incentives

Sometimes, it’s more important to solve than to sell. To earn more leads, solve a problem for them before they become clients. This can be done with a compelling lead magnet, a free incentive that a prospect receives in exchange for their contact information.

Make sure your incentives provide genuine value by offering resources that stand out and meet your prospects’ needs:

In-Depth Ebook: This helps prospects reduce industry pain points.

Proprietary Tool: Offer a tool that solves a pressing business problem and exceeds expectations.

Exclusive Information: Share unique content through formats like webinars or videos, which are unavailable from other sources.

10. CTA Copy That Highlights Your Value

Incentives like lead magnets, email newsletters, and free trials are often presented on landing pages. Common types include:

Lead magnets

Email newsletters

Free trials

Leveraging FOMO in B2B Landing Page CTAs

Too many B2B landing pages use the weak call-to-action copy. Compelling CTA copy taps into people’s tendency to experience FOMO (fear of missing out). Make your potential leads feel FOMO unless they receive your offer. Establish your company as the authority on the tools or information you’re offering, and show your audience why I’m the only organization that can offer this incentive.

Also, providing my incentive “for a limited time” boosts the FOMO factor by adding a sense of urgency. Finally, follow CTA best practices like keeping copy short and direct.

11. A/B Testing Your CTAs

Even if your team has created CTA copy that’s getting results, it’s always possible to perfect it further for even better results. A/B testing is the best way to fine-tune a CTA. Sixty percent of businesses run A/B testing on their landing pages, and 77 percent A/B-test their websites. Once I’ve found a CTA copy that works, A/B test it using a tool like:

HubSpot’s A/B Testing Kit

Crazy Egg

AB Tasty

Then, when your testing has revealed a better option, A/B also tests that CTA version! In short, always continue testing.

12. Optimizing Your Lead Generation Forms

Your website’s forms are one of your most important secret weapons. Case in point: Almost 50 percent of marketers report that their web forms are their most effective lead-generation tool.

Balancing Form Length and Lead Quality

The key to effective forms is to hit a “sweet spot” of providing ease for your prospects while gathering enough information for sufficient lead qualifying. It’s all about keeping the most necessary fields for data collection while shaving away the fields that merely add weight and discourage prospects from filling out your form.

As with everything else in lead generation, testing is essential for creating forms that work. Well-established tools like Typeform and JotForm can help you create effective lead-generation forms.

13. Good UX

How many conversion barriers exist on your website? How many broken links and 404 pages are left unattended? What about load time? Any of these UX (user experience) factors can cause potential leads to abandon your site and turn to a competitor’s. If you’re unsure about your website’s UX, it’s time to evaluate it.

On the design side, there are many best practices to consider, like making sure your website isn’t plagued with:

Excessive buttons

Disorganized links

Complex jargon

From the technical side, in addition to the load above time, link functionality, etc., you also need to ensure your site works across all devices. Seventy-one percent of website users have stated that they’re more likely to return to a website when it’s mobile-friendly.

14. Strategically Advertise Exclusivity and Limited Offers

Nothing piques the interest of potential B2B leads, such as offering content or tools that can’t be found anywhere else. (Netflix’s success, for example, is due to its exclusive content.) Armed with truly exclusive offerings, you can attract significant interest from prospects. You could build hype with a waiting list that your prospects must sign up for via a landing page. Or, establish deadlines to register for your exclusive webinar.

The Power of Scarcity and Honesty in Marketing

Limiting the quantities of my ebooks or attending my online events can also be effective. But honesty is key here. Resist the temptation to offer extensions on quantities or time limits once you’ve advertised the rules. Ignoring your rules will damage my potential leads' trust in you.

B2B companies that sell products online should do more than display an “out of stock” notification next to sold-out items. When an item is temporarily unavailable, it’s smart to let B2B buyers submit their email addresses to receive a notification when it becomes available again.

Capturing Leads Through Email Opt-ins

This added email field kills two birds with one stone. On one hand, it makes existing customers happier than if they saw a not available message. But, more importantly, it lets you capture email addresses of those who haven’t done business with you before. This clear purchase intent is a strong indicator of a lead.

16. Automating Lead Generation Tasks

As critical as lead generation is to a business, it can be rife with tedious yet necessary tasks. Freeing up your team’s time by automating these tasks is the gift that keeps on giving: 80 percent of marketers who use automation software see an increase in leads, and 77 percent can turn more of those leads into customers.

Tools like Pardot and Pipedrive take time-consuming steps like follow-up emails and lead segmentation off the hands of your team, giving them more time to:

Think creatively

Find prospective customers

Convert those leads

But look at what’s on the market to determine what automation platform best suits your team.

17. Researching Customer Needs on Forums

Did you know that 86 percent of Fortune 500 companies have reported that online communities provide insight into customer needs? Again, the better you understand the needs of your target, the faster you can convert them into leads and buyers.

You can observe relevant conversations in your field by joining industry groups and forums. Popular platforms include:

Facebook

Quora

Industry publications

Leveraging Online Forums for Lead Generation and Thought Leadership

Those observations can help you tailor content to potential customers' needs and pain points. Further, actively engaging in forums lets you gain leads by answering questions and providing insight that establishes your business as an indispensable authority within your industry. Be careful not to be spammy or overly promotional when engaging in forums. Remember, focus on solving, not selling.

18. Content Marketing

Content has become the gold standard for lead generation and marketing. Unsurprisingly, 70 percent of marketers report actively investing in content marketing. An effective content strategy drives B2B lead generation by magnifying awareness of your brand and boosting credibility.

Adapting to the Evolving Content Landscape

Content marketing is changing dramatically in the 2020s. Pay close attention to content trends like ultra-targeted content. Natural language and voice search are also becoming content-marketing necessities. Further, consider adding infographics and Instagram carousel posts to your content strategy. Yes, Instagram is an excellent platform for B2B companies in the 2020s!

19. Don’t Make All of Your Content Long-form

It’s tempting to imagine that long-form content is what will win you leads. After all, who doesn’t love a deep dive on a topic bubbling up in their industry? But think about most decision-makers and C-suites who hold the purse strings. They’re not grappling with those issues in their day-to-day; they have their fingers in all sorts of pies across the business.

As such, they generally don’t have time to spend with long-form content. Instead, shorter content and listicles are the way to capture their attention.

20. Increase Link Building via Guest Posts

Historically, link-building has always been a favored method of garnering organic traffic and, thus, of building brand awareness. And marketers seem to agree that that won’t change any time soon: 92 percent of marketers believe link building will still be a top search ranking factor shortly.

Leveraging Guest Posts to Boost Backlinks and Authority

A great way to help boost the number of links that point back to your content is to commission guest posts on your blog. 51 percent of marketers use this tactic to help increase backlinks. Invite industry experts with a unique perspective to write a post on a trending or hotly debated topic. That sort of thought leadership is just the sort of content your leads crave.

21. Put Together SEO-based Content

Backlinking can boost your organic traffic, but it’s nothing compared to what a proper SEO strategy can do. Incorporated into your content marketing efforts correctly, SEO-based content can be some of your most compelling content. Indeed, 70 percent of marketers see SEO as a more effective marketing tactic than PPC.

Laying the Groundwork: Keyword Research for Effective SEO

Good SEO involves a lot of work, but to start, conduct smart keyword research to determine your users' needs and pain points. Tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush are robust and can give you all sorts of insights into the search terms your target audience and competitors are using.

Then, create content that addresses those needs, and be sure to address both on- and off-page optimization for those pieces.

22. Use Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to Find Competitors’ Keywords

You might have perked up when you read above that some tools can help you determine what keywords competitors are going after. That knowledge can be helpful for a couple of reasons. First, if your competitors are spending money targeting specific keywords, those keywords likely bring in some decent leads. So it makes sense to go after them, too, if I aren’t already.

Identifying Keyword Gaps in Your Competitor's Strategy

But knowing which keywords your competition is targeting also reveals the ones they aren’t. Sometimes, there’s a good reason, like if the keyword isn’t relevant. But sometimes, there are golden opportunities in those gaps. It takes a little legwork to determine if it’s worth creating content or spending money on PPC ads to fill those gaps, but the payoff can be significant.

23. Develop Negative Keyword Lists

Knowing which keywords to target is as important as knowing which to avoid. If you’re spending money on PPC ads, you want to ensure you’re paying only on search terms that will get you the highest-quality clicks.

Crafting Effective Negative Keyword Lists to Optimize PPC Campaigns

Creating negative keyword lists is the best way to ensure you don’t waste your ad dollars. Use the Search Terms report in Google Ads to get a good sense of what people are typing to trigger one of your ads. Keep an eye out for terms you know aren’t relevant to your product or services, don’t have a high buy intent, or have a high cost-per-click that could easily burn through your budget.

24. Create Remarketing Campaigns

New visitors to your website rarely make purchases upon their initial visit. They come and leave almost instantly as they scan websites for information—both yours and your competitors. Creating effective remarketing campaigns enables you to turn these visitors into leads by tagging them and re-engaging them with your content, bringing many of them back to your website.

With Google’s vast reach, setting up a Google remarketing campaign is an excellent start. Engage your first-time visitors across multiple platforms, including:

YouTube

Gmail

Apps they use

Google Display Network (reaches over two million websites)

25. Publish Original Research

Publishing original research that gets your industry buzzing is a powerhouse B2B lead-generation tactic that only some companies can achieve. Since B2B decision-makers need insightful information to make good buying decisions, they constantly seek new and relevant research.

Identify gaps in your industry’s knowledge base and take action to fill them. Steps include:

Identify the Need: Pinpoint areas lacking information or clarity.

Conduct Research: Gather relevant data and insights.

Analyze the Data: Interpret findings to uncover meaningful insights.

Create a Thorough Report: Share a comprehensive, data-backed report to address the gap.

26. Personalize All Touchpoints

You’ve personalized your email campaigns with segmented lists and offers. But what about prospects' interactions with your brand on social media, your website, and blog?

Every touchpoint prospects have with your business should be personalized based on the segments I’m targeting. One option is to create posts for each buyer persona I’m targeting so my blog acts as a resource for everyone. For example, top-of-the-funnel content should be tailored to each audience, as their pain points differ:

Marketers

Salespeople

Founders

Each group will benefit from content that speaks directly to their unique challenges and needs.

Social media is more than a channel to promote your latest content. It’s also an excellent tool for building thought leadership and a community around your values and mission. People today have around seven social media profiles they frequent daily. Being active on your chosen networks is critical to building visibility and followers. To achieve this goal, focus on starting discussions and contributing to conversations.

Brands popularly use platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn to create groups. On LinkedIn, you can create a group, send invites to those in your network, and moderate it. You’ll find all sorts of groups here, including those designed specifically for:

Networking

Sharing insights and tips

Discussing industry trends and news

It’s the ideal platform for B2B companies looking to grow visibility. It even allows you to send weekly digest emails to members to keep them engaged. Make sure your website is visible for potential leads.

28. Track and Analyze Website Visitors' Actions

Recording and analyzing website visitors' behaviors can help you learn much about your target audience. You can understand why they’re not converting, filling out forms, or visiting certain web pages. For example, if you notice people bouncing away after clicking on a specific link, the link may be broken or irrelevant to the audience landing on that page. I could fix the link and/or content so it resonates with your target audience. Use the data I gather to create A/B tests to see what works.

29. Encourage Customers to Leave Reviews

People today trust the word of their peers and use their stories and referrals to determine their own buying decisions. So, ask customers to leave reviews rather than relying on PPC search and social ads. These can be collected on your Google My Business page, which will be visible to others who search for your brand or product.

30. Use Video Marketing to Build Visibility

Building thought leadership for your brand is critical when you’re a B2B marketer. One way I can do this is to use video marketing. Today’s internet users consume many hours of online video content weekly. And who can blame them? It’s a convenient way to learn.

By creating videos, you can increase visibility by sharing it on your website and social media channels. Consider turning each blog post into a video so people can choose how to consume your content.

31. Use Interactive Content

Engaging your audience is a challenge for B2B marketers. But it’s critical to driving qualified leads to your business. The longer you can make prospects stay on your site, the higher the chances of getting them to convert.

The Power of Interactive Content for Lead Generation

Interactive content helps with this by giving visitors something to do when they arrive. For example, you can have a calculator, quiz, or survey for them to engage with. Then if I can require their emails to use it, I’ll also have a solid way of growing your email list.

32. Use AI Chatbots to Engage Visitors

When prospects land on your website, they have two options: Explore your website or leave. To improve the odds of them sticking around, you can use AI chatbots to engage them. Chatbots are an ingenious B2B marketing lead generation strategy because they automate business transactions.

For instance, visitors can use it to:

Ask questions

Schedule calls

Make purchases

33. Partner with Micro-Influencers

Influencer marketing isn’t only beneficial to B2C businesses. Influencers across various platforms cater to B2B audiences, including:

YouTube

Twitter

Leveraging Micro-Influencers for B2B Lead Generation

These influencers offer valuable insights and engage directly with professionals in the B2B space. The key is partnering with micro-influencers who speak on topics relevant to your industry. Or experts who work or own businesses in your industry (but aren’t direct competitors).

Micro-influencers are ideal because their audiences are more authentic. Celebrity influencers don’t yield the same results because many view them as living paid ads instead of people with genuine recommendations.

34. Analyze All of Your Data

If you’re committed to making your B2B marketing campaigns work, you must monitor and track all data collected from and about your prospects. With this information, you can learn more about:

Who are your ideal customers are

Where they’re coming from

What converts them

You’ll need a tool to gather and analyze it so you don’t waste precious time and money doing it manually. Just be sure you’re looking at metrics that matter, not vanity numbers that don’t directly relate to macro conversions.

35. Launch a Referral Program

In B2B industries, it’s all about networking. So, it’s common for businesses to refer others to service and product providers they’ve had success with. Why not incentivize this behavior to get more referrals coming in?

Creating a referral program formalizes this by offering a “commission” to customers who refer prospects to paying customers. You can offer incentives, such as a 50% discount on their next purchase or a free month on their subscription.

36. Promote Sales Enablement Across Departments

Does your organization have siloed departments? If your sales, marketing, and customer support teams aren’t working together, you’re missing out on opportunities to enhance the sales process and customer experience. This is why you’ll find more B2B marketers using customer data platforms to unite everyone. It makes customer data accessible to all who need it. This includes:

Customer information

Interactions with the company

Behavioral data

Synergizing Teams for Enhanced Lead Generation and Sales

All teams can work together to drive more qualified leads and improve sales by sharing intel. For example, marketing can use sales data to improve CTAs and ad campaigns. And then use information from customer support to target questions customers have that aren’t touched on in content campaigns.

Why is B2B Lead Generation Important for Businesses

Implementing a B2B lead generation strategy is crucial today because many prospects want to control their buying journey. Ads and traditional marketing no longer work. Today’s consumers are conducting their own research to find solutions to their problems.

If you want to drive more high-quality leads to your business, finding ways to attract your target audience is key. This is where lead generation strategies come into play. Here’s a look at some of the benefits of B2B lead generation.

Get Your Brand on the Map

People like to shop with brands they know and trust. But to get to this level, you must build visibility and a good reputation for your brand. Lead generation efforts often consist of tactics to help with this. For example, you can use your blog to establish thought leadership. When visitors view you as an expert in your industry, it makes you more trustworthy.

The Power of Content Marketing in B2B Lead Generation

You can do the same with social media. You can generate a following by sharing insights and tips on these platforms (vs. selling and promoting products). According to Content Marketing Institute, 80% of B2B marketers use content marketing for lead gen. According to a HubSpot report, 13% of blogs are 13x as likely to have positive ROIs.

More Leads Mean More Sales Opportunities

B2B lead generation strategies are all about building relationships with your target audience. You start by demonstrating your business as a go-to source for information. Then, once you trust prospects, they’re more likely to consider your products or services when purchasing. This leads to more sales opportunities and revenue for your organization.

B2B Lead Generation Benefits Both Buyers and Sellers

B2B lead gen is a win-win for both parties involved. On one end, you’re driving awareness and prospects to your business. On the other hand, prospects are getting much-needed information about their problems and possible solutions to resolve them. This is why all of your lead gen campaigns should consider prospects' needs.

Targeted Leads Are High-Quality Leads

What sets digital marketing apart from traditional advertising is that you have more control over who sees your content. By using SEO, you can target people based on their interests and needs. By incorporating topics and keywords into your content, you can garner interest from prospects more likely to buy your product or service.

You can do the same with pay-per-click (PPC) ads. You can use retargeting and audience targeting to display ads to specific groups of people. In B2B marketing, the focus should be on firmographics rather than demographics. Key firmographic factors include:

Company size

Industry

Technology used

In this context, firmographics should be emphasized rather than demographics. Key demographics that are less relevant include:

Marital status

Income

When done right, lead generation can drive more high-quality leads. This is especially true when you adopt marketing automation tactics to drive leads.

One report shows 80% of marketers think marketing automation drives better leads. And 77% convert more leads than those who don’t use marketing automation.

Get to Know Your Target Audience

During lead generation campaigns, you gather much information about your target customers. This intel helps you better understand their needs and improve your marketing message and content.

For instance, you can learn about your audience’s questions and then focus on answering them on your:

Blog

eBooks

Social media

Other lead gen content

Less Expensive Than Other Forms of Advertising

Advertising can quickly turn into an expensive endeavor. You’d typically have to spend hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars to get your ads in front of large audiences. This is why you’ll only find multi-billion dollar companies advertising during the Super Bowl and NBA Playoffs. And it’s the same with billboards.

The High Cost of Digital Marketing

Even digital advertising can grow expensive. Partnering with big-time influencers can cost a pretty shiny penny and ad campaigns can be costly when competing for high-competition keywords.

The Cost-Effective Nature of Content Marketing

Lead generation makes your marketing efforts cost-efficient. You pay once for content creation (either with your time or money), and it works for as long as it’s published. Numbers show that content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing.

Appeal to Your Target Audience

People don’t like being advertised to, which is what makes lead generation efforts impactful. Rather than selling, you’re delivering value to prospective customers. So, all of your promotion is done indirectly, making it feel like the user is deciding to look at or purchase your product/service.

Aomni: Your AI-Powered Sales Copilot

Aomni is an AI agent platform designed specifically for B2B sales intelligence software. Our solution empowers enterprise and strategic account executives to execute account-based sales and marketing strategies with unprecedented efficiency and effectiveness. Our key features include:

AI-powered prospect and account research

Comprehensive account mapping and planning

Data-driven sales strategy development

Automated call preparation

Personalized AI agents for sales optimization

AI chat interface for streamlined sales processes

AI-assisted Account Based Sales/Marketing campaign execution tool

AI-Powered Sales Enablement for Better Results

Aomni addresses critical pain points for sales managers whose Account Executives, Account Managers, and Customer Success Managers must perform better and include quotas. By leveraging our advanced AI technology, sales professionals can significantly enhance their preparation for customer conversations, leading to the following:

Larger deal closures

Increased promotion opportunities

For individual sales professionals, Aomni provides the tools and insights needed to:

Elevate their performance

Close more substantial deals

Accelerate career progression

Try Aomni Today

Our platform transforms the way B2B sales teams operate, ensuring they enter every customer interaction:

Fully prepared

Strategically positioned for success

Try our sales intelligence software for free today!

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Understanding the B2B Lead Generation Process

The first step in lead generation is identifying the channels through which potential leads will enter the sales funnel. These channels are classified as either inbound or outbound:

Inbound Marketing

Inbound marketing attracts leads organically through channels like:

Content marketing

Social media

Search engine optimization (SEO)

Leads generated from inbound marketing often have a shorter sales cycle and higher conversion rates since they actively seek solutions that align with your offerings.

Outbound Marketing

Outbound marketing relies on proactive outreach, including strategies like:

Cold calling

Email campaigns

Direct social media prospecting

While outbound leads may require more nurturing, this approach is valuable for reaching potential customers who are not actively seeking solutions.

Each approach has unique advantages, and combining them can create a balanced and effective lead-generation strategy.

Define Your Ideal Buyer: Crafting the Buyer Persona

Defining your ideal customer or buyer persona is essential to attracting quality leads. A buyer persona is a semi-fictional representation of your target customer based on research and data about your ideal client.

Key attributes of a buyer persona include:

Company Characteristics: Industry, company size, and structure.

Job Title & Authority Level: This determines whether the individual has decision-making power or influences the buying process.

Goals & Pain Points: Understanding the client’s objectives and specific problems your product or service can solve.

Barriers & Criteria: Identifying any obstacles to purchasing and the criteria they prioritize when choosing a solution.

These personas enable targeted messaging, helping to attract and engage the right leads. B2B companies often create multiple personas to address different buyer types, allowing customized content that speaks directly to each segment’s unique needs.

Develop a Targeted Strategy

Now that you have a crystal clear picture of your ideal customer, it’s time to figure out how to find the real-life version. There’s no single one-size-fits-all solution for B2B sales leads. Instead, you’ll choose from a buffet of tools and strategies for catching the interest of that perfect customer. You may drive interest through:

SEO and content marketing

Paid advertising

Cold calls and emails

Community building

Social media

Consider utilizing landing page builders to easily publish new website pages, which can capture leads and transport their data directly into your CRM. Many sales enablement and lead generation software tools are available on the market. These provide tools for:

Finding emails

Cold calling

Email marketing

Sales engagement

Keep your strategies focused on the persona(s) you’ve created, and always be prepared to refine and tweak as you go.

Capture and Qualify Leads

Once leads are entering your funnel, the next step is qualifying them. This involves determining where each lead is in their buying journey to personalize interactions accordingly:

Awareness Stage: At this stage, potential buyers realize they have a need but may not yet know about specific solutions. Content like educational blog posts or informational webinars can engage these early-stage leads.

Consideration Stage: Here, the buyer understands their need and evaluates options. Case studies or solution comparisons help provide value and guide them through the decision-making process.

Decision Stage: Buyers at this stage are ready to purchase. Offering product demos, free trials, or tailored consultations can encourage conversion.

Understanding each lead’s stage allows you to deliver targeted content and messaging aligning with their needs and buying readiness.

Implement Lead Scoring to Prioritize Prospects

Lead scoring assigns values to each lead based on engagement level, company fit, and purchasing intent. This scoring system helps sales teams focus on leads with the highest potential for conversion by identifying “hot” leads in real time. Effective lead scoring allows you to:

Prioritize Resources: Focus on high-value leads most likely to convert, optimizing your team’s time and efforts.

Customize Follow-Up: Tailor interactions based on the lead’s score, providing more detailed or urgent outreach for top-tier prospects.

Lead scoring can be automated using CRM software to streamline the process and ensure every valuable lead is noticed.

Nurture and Convert Leads through Strategic Follow-Up

Nurturing leads is a critical aspect of lead generation that guides prospects through the sales funnel, turning initial interest into a buying decision. Strategies for effective lead nurturing include:

Automated Email Campaigns: Send educational content to leads in earlier stages, progressing to case studies, demos, or special offers for leads closer to purchasing.

Personalized Communication: Use insights from your CRM to personalize messages that address the prospect’s specific pain points or industry challenges.

Consistent Engagement: Use social media, webinars, or interactive content like Q&A sessions to keep your brand top-of-mind and encourage deeper engagement.

Nurturing enables you to build trust with leads, provide the necessary information for decision-making, and ultimately guide them toward a purchase.

Who Conducts B2B Lead Generation?

B2B lead generation is a process managed by sales and marketing professionals. They may work alone or, more typically, in teams. Sales and marketing teams should be closely aligned so that your B2B lead generation strategy will work effectively.

The Role of Sales in B2B Lead Generation

A sales team focused on B2B lead generation is often split into two groups. These groups perform separate, clearly defined tasks. The two groups are:

Sales Development Representatives (SDRs): This group is responsible for sourcing and scoring B2B sales leads, engaging with potential customers, and booking meetings.

Account Executives (AEs): This group is responsible for conducting demos, closing deals, and generating revenue for the business.

There are several benefits to this approach:

It creates a solid B2B lead generation pipeline: The SDRs develop opportunities for the AEs to action.

It empowers employees to focus solely on one responsibility: They quickly become experts in their roles.

It builds a roadmap for career development and progression: If an SDR consistently hits their sales targets, they will become eligible for promotion to AE.

The Role of Marketing in B2B Lead Generation

In general, there are two categories of marketers focused on B2B lead generation. While their work may overlap, their marketing approaches are very different.

These two categories are:

Demand Generation Marketers: This group is focused on the entire B2B lead generation revenue cycle. Their mission is to nurture leads, guiding them from simply being aware of your brand to becoming customers and, finally, advocates.

Growth Hackers: This group is focused on generating quick revenue growth while spending as little as possible. They typically work at early-stage startups and tend to be more experimental. Generally, the activities they undertake often need to be more scalable.

Despite their differences, these two groups have one thing in common - they rely on analyzing data and testing to drive their decision-making. They are laser-focused on successful B2B lead generation.

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