I’m almost certain you’ve come across this advice, right?
You go into overdrive employing every lead generation strategy you’ve heard of but in the end; the results don’t match the effort you expended.
Why?
Because that piece of advice up there is incomplete.
You don’t just need leads—you need to attract high-quality leads with both intention and purchasing power. For this, you’ll need specific tactics like the ones we’ll tackle below.
1. Omnichannel Marketing
A study on the effectiveness of omnichannel marketing over single channel campaigns found that those who invested in the former enjoyed 250% higher engagement and conversion. They also achieved up to 90% higher customer retention.
Omnichannel marketing involves blending all your interaction channels (digital and offline) into one cohesive experience for the consumer.
At its center is the customer, the path they are on, and how one touchpoint can transition them to the next one until their purchase is completed.
The vendor puts out a consistent tone and personalized messages based off the prospect’s specific interests as informed by previous interactions. The approach feels personalized, smoother, and engaging.
To maximize this tactic, consider the following:
Obtain a robust Martech stack. You’ll need it to organize and manage campaigns and analyze data. Ideally, your stack should support seamless integration of diverse tools to provide a singular solution. Cover everything from your website’s backbone to social media scheduling, email marketing providers, and analytics tools.
Collect accurate data. It will help you understand your prospect’s interaction preferences, the messages that inspire engagements, and the features they seek. This information will inform the touchpoints you need to pay attention to and strengthen to customize their experiences.
Map your customer’s journey. Outline the steps the prospects take right from discovering your solutions and making purchases. By outlining these maps, you’ll be better placed to consider individual interests and other factors that may impact their path to purchase.
2. Leverage Search Intent Data
As B2B buyers rely less on salespeople and more on independent online research, the challenge lies in finding them before they settle for the competition.
People leave intent signal trails as they browse the net—think page clicks, questions on community forums, time spent on certain pages, etc.
The role of intent data is in helping you identify these potential buyers as they actively research solutions.
How do you operationalize search intent data?
In personalizing your content strategy. What topics do your target audience widely consume? What content inspires them to initiate a checkout process? Here, implementing real-time personalization ensures site visitors are served the type of content that suits their industry and needs.
In creating targeted ad experiences. Analyzing intent data facilitates the creation of relevant messages for your ads so they hit the right notes to get prospects moving.
In expanding your marketing outreach. Search intent may uncover entirely new audiences that may not be aware of your brand or offers. You can fashion content for these audiences and serve ads to them.
3. Cold Calling
The modern-day cold calling strategy is more than dialing several numbers and just getting on with it.
It takes strategic planning—the kind that involves researching and custom-building a list of prospects that could use what you're selling.
Further, if you’re going to pitch convincingly, you’ll need to educate yourself about your products/services so you can speak confidently and with authority. It will help build trust with prospective customers.
Other best practices involve:
Defining your objectives. Keep in mind that cold calling is one of the many touchpoints in the sales process. Is your mission to invite the prospect to a virtual event, demo, or 1:1 meeting? Avoid straying from this objective.
Qualifying your prospect. With multiple prospects to follow up on and targets to beat, qualifying your prospect ensures you focus on good-fit customers. Does the prospect have a problem and are they willing to solve it? Do they have a budget for it?
Get your timing right. Research the times of day when it’s not convenient to call—people are unavailable or the gatekeepers keep you out. In the case of the latter, you may want to try early mornings or after hours.
Learn to handle objections. For the most part, objections are questions the prospect hasn’t received convincing answers for. Look at them as questions and address them immediately because the longer you leave them, the stronger your prospect’s concerns will grow.
4. Content Marketing
Blogs, whitepapers, case studies, industry reports, ebooks, and webinars. These are what typically come to mind whenever someone mentions content marketing.
And you’re right in thinking as much since they are part of the larger end result of the strategy.
Brands rely on content marketing to educate audiences at large, build trust, encourage engagement, and drive prospective customers to action.
Before engaging the strategy, here are questions worth considering and answering:
How are prospective customers vetting you? Prospective customers look for clues that support your credibility. How cohesive is your web content? How informative is your About Us section? What information have you published recently?
How will people who aren’t aware you exist get to know and find you? Optimizing industry-specific keywords in your web pages and content may help improve rankings, but don’t stop there. Find industry-relevant publications and sites where you can publish your content for greater coverage.
What will convert subscribers to paying customers? How valuable is your content? Do your audiences find your content relatable? Perhaps you can consider sending out sales eBlasts, ePublication, and drip campaigns to nurture leads.
How can you maximize purchases? Are there upsells and cross-sells you can leverage? How can your customers know about everything you sell? Product/service videos, ebooks, and case studies are great for introducing them to your broader capabilities.
5. Video Marketing
With 86 percent of marketers expressing that video has facilitated lead generation, this is hardly a strategy to ignore.
Through video marketing, you can reach prospective customers in the different stages they are in, create effective remarketing campaigns, and support other marketing efforts.
How can it work for you?
Use it to overcome buy-in barriers. You’ll probably come across buying committees with two to six members (or more), each with their own opinions and barriers. Video allows you to share your solution’s unique features and address concerns one at a time.
Use it to make lengthy content easier to consume. Many decision-makers may not have the time or attention span to read through a 2,000–5,000-word article. Why not turn those content pieces into entertaining live-action or slideshows?
Use it to generate leads of course. Research popular industry-relevant search queries and creates videos that answer these queries while portraying your brand as an industry leader and solutions provider. Be sure to select keywords that will help you rank.