Looking for a full-funnel strategy to generate more B2B leads?
You’ll need to target your ideal customer with precision, maintaining a consistent multi-channel messaging strategy from the top of the funnel to the bottom (including post-funnel).
After reading this guide, you’ll know:
- Where your customers are.
- How to determine the cost for each online traffic acquisition channel.
- How to maximize performance.
- And actionable ways to scale your marketing and revenue growth.
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1. Define Your Target Audience
The first step to B2B lead generation is identifying a clear target audience. But how do you know who to target? Well, the good news is that you likely have all of the data already.
By using Google Analytics (or another analytics solution), you can find all the characteristics of your highest converters.
This means looking at demographic data, which includes:
- Age.
- Gender.
- Interests.
- Location.
- Language.
- Browser.
- Device.
- Channel.
- Source.
- Referral.
Are you wondering what your competitors are up to? Don’t worry – Google Analytics and other similar tools pull prime conversion data from those in similar market positions.
When it comes to B2B lead generation strategies, however, keep an open mind. Just because you see a tactic from a competitor, don’t assume they’re always implementing it appropriately or have the exact target market you do.
Once you review your analytical data, you’ll confidently know:
- Who your highest converting customer is.
- Where they convert from (which channel).
- Where your current competitors are investing.
2. Test Your B2B Lead Generation Strategy Against Competition
Step two comes next, which requires you to dive into competitor research to uncover where your competitors are investing.
The good news is, you can find out everything your competitors are doing using tools like Google Analytics Benchmark Reports, SimilarWeb, Semrush, SpyFu, and Pathmatics.
These tools will show you which networks they’re advertising on and how much they’re spending to do it.
Then, you need to figure out what is in-between where you are and where your competitors are.
Now is the time to ask critical questions, including:
- What is your spend, and what is theirs?
- What is your cost per acquisition for each channel?
- How much can you really scale each channel?
- What is the saturation point for each channel?
- What is the plan to improve each channel so that it converts for less?
Remember, to make your strategy work, you must be open to testing. Consider running tests on ads, landing pages, audience segments, and more.
What Each Digital Marketing Channel Means
With your audience and competitor research well underway, you’ll need to start evaluating all the digital channels available to you and how they fit into a B2B lead generation strategy.
Here’s a simplified way to think about each platform.
- SEO – Where you provide answers to questions.
- Paid media – How you create awareness, nurture, and convert.
- Media buys – Useful for generating awareness and consideration.
- Outbound marketing – Reserved for highly targeted efforts.
- Social media – Drive awareness, nurture and convert audience members.
- Public Relations (PR) – How you can drive broad awareness.
- Reporting and Analytics – Necessary for tracking actual results, KPIs.
- Events and Offers – The central core of all other campaigns.
With an understanding of how to optimize each channel, you can then move on to implementing the specific and actionable steps below.
3. Make An Enticing Offer
Let’s talk about offers for a moment. In B2B marketing, it’s important to have a hook that incentivizes your ideal prospect. It’s important to always remember that B2B sales and marketing go hand-in-hand.
In order to get customers to share their information, you have to make the exchange worthwhile. Although trends in “lead magnets” have evolved over time, use the below list as inspiration for your B2B marketing campaigns.
Quizzes and Calculators
First, find the biggest pain point and create a quiz around it. You can use quiz interest as a micro-conversion.
Some examples might include interactive tests like:
- How Much Could You Save on Taxes By Using Us?
- Or, What’s Holding You Back From Being the Top Real Estate Agency in Your Market?
Use a title that draws attention to a specific problem, and develop strong content around that topic.
Events
Events are critical to a B2B lead gen strategy.
Host a webinar, for example. Invite partners to speak and, most importantly, advertise it with a registration form to kick as many qualified prospects into your funnel as possible.
Industry Case Studies
For this idea, you’ll need to create your own industry case study and then gate the content behind a download form or landing page.
You can then advertise the study, pay for a press pitch, use it for a linkbait opportunity, or create social media graphics using the data.
Awards
It’s always beneficial to create a list of the top awards in your industry and go after them. Win them, and display your badges and accolades. You may also choose to create your own award system for partners and clients.
4. Advertise Your Irresistible B2B Offers
Once you’ve decided on your irresistible offer (or offers), you must advertise each one of your and track them from micro to macro conversions.
You may also consider advertising customer testimonials, pain points, and answers to common questions.
Additionally, there are three types of video formats that you can leverage to create and publish high-performing advertising campaigns.
- The Explainer: A strong problem statement sets up the product as the solution.
- The Product Demo: Make the product shine by setting it up as the hero from the very first impression.
- The Straight Offer: This approach is “all offer” and makes people click with a compelling deal or message.
[Discover:] Expert insights & actionable tips for B2B content marketing
5. Analyze User Response to Advertisements
When using video, always dissect them by the users’ response. Examine what frames lead to the highest engagement and what sequence drives the highest conversion impact.
This process is crucial because it’s precisely how you run top of funnel to bottom-funnel segmented remarketing ads and use that data to target new customers.
Ultimately, this is very important for B2B lead generation.
Test for Creative and Audiences
Consistent creative testing is crucial.
Why? Because you must always be prepared to develop new content against a champion variant.
Testing is also vital for audience segmentation so that you can understand which audience or segment is most impactful.
Are you using landing pages? If so, apply rigorous monthly testing there as well.
When you test, make sure to pinpoint the exact conversion rate of different variants so that you can accurately understand the results.
For each and every channel you use, calculate the ROAS (return on ad spend). Based on the Forecaster Method, determining the cost per acquisition framework for all sources includes having a working knowledge of:
- Diversified allocation per source (generally 30% less per channel).
- At least four to five marketing channels (SEO, Google Search, Facebook, Email, YouTube).
- Well-defined business goals.
- How to scale based on CPA framework for the most cost-effective returns.
6. Leverage Data to Your Advantage
Many companies want to know how to do B2B lead generation, but they might not be ready to consider how instrumental reliable data is to the process. Make no mistake – you can’t accomplish the big picture results without good data.
In fact, companies that adopt data-driven marketing are six times more likely to be profitable.
Combine that with the truth that 69% of marketers want to improve ROI measurability, and you’ve got the perfect recipe for data-driven B2B marketing campaigns.
Beyond that, reliable data can help you distinguish between a quality lead and an unqualified one.
But how do you connect all the dots once your advertising channels and other marketing systems are set up?
Start visualizing your data with tools like:
- Conversion tracking.
- Data platforms and smart integrations.
- User behavior analytics.
- Cross-channel attribution.
- Prescriptive and predictive analysis.
- Multi-domain tracking.
Centralize Your Data Sources
Once you start tracking, you’ll notice that you have activity happening everywhere! This is a good thing, as it highlights the action taking place on each channel.
What can you do to make sure your cross-channel attribution is effective? Leverage sources like Google Data Studio and Microsoft Power Bi to bring it all together.
When you know what each channel represents, you can better analyze and understand incoming CRM data, revenue numbers, customer engagement, and relevant KPIs.
7. Nurture Your B2B Leads
What do you do once you have a solid lead? You nurture it!
With a clear sales funnel aimed at retention and re-engagement campaigns specifically targeted to your existing or fringe leads, you can nurture a potential lead and maintain a competitive advantage.
Think about it this way. The whole point of B2B lead generation is to create a consistent pipeline of potential leads. If there’s a break in the pipe, you risk losing as many leads as you catch.
The lead nurturing strategies below can help you successfully nurture your leads or customers and keep them coming back for more compelling offers.
Lead nurturing strategies include:
- Social Media: For B2B lead generation, use your social media accounts to establish thought leadership and encourage users to click through to gated content where they’ll be asked to submit contact information.
- Paid Ads: features like Lead Ads and remarketing campaigns are designed specifically to aid in your lead generation campaign and allow you to target and nurture B2B buyers.
- Referral Programs: help build a pipeline of social and professional networks, all of which are attached to your brand.
But of all the lead generation strategies available to you, email marketing remains the most important.
8. Harness the Power of Email Marketing
In the B2B space, email marketing is one of the most important channels. It all starts with capturing the email address of the lead.
You can do this off the website or directly on the website with tools like:
- Email capture pop-ups.
- Nano bars.
- Footer captures.
- Gated content.
It is critical that you map every page on your website to a micro-conversion for improved tracking.
Exit Pop-Ups
Exit pop-ups can be implemented to encourage visitors to stay on site. You can incorporate exit intent overlays and cart abandon overlays to minimize turnover and entice visitors to complete an intended action.
By using a powerful call to action or a pop-up that requests an email address in exchange for a discount, you can encourage more buyers to purchase.
On-Site Email Acquisition
Generally speaking, there are a few noteworthy rules about gated content that you must keep in mind in the B2B space.
- Your content should always provide help and value in exchange for contact info.
- Use a mix of content offers including whitepapers, ebooks, webinars, videos, guides, tip sheets, etc.
- Always connect your contact or lead form to your email service provider (ESP) to guarantee immediate delivery of the requested material.
Welcome Automations
Welcome automations are specialized email sequences that have the potential to be one of your top revenue-generating sources.
Prioritize welcome automations when you want to:
- Welcome new subscribers to your service.
- Establish a strong brand message.
- Engage during the highest interest period.
- Encourage a first purchase or conversion.
Because welcome emails have an 86% higher open rate than other email communications, it’s crucial to implement this process as soon as possible.
Remember to space out your welcome messages and to build urgency with each new point of contact.
Abandonment Automations
If visitors are leaving your site or failing to convert, abandonment automation can bridge the gap between visit and closed sale.
Use an abandonment sequence to empathize with your ideal customer’s schedule and needs, and offer an incentive to shorten the sales cycle.
The goal in abandonment messaging is to clearly communicate that this purchase is a top priority and that the offer is one they shouldn’t ignore.
[Recommended Read] → B2B Lead Generation: Create Content That Converts
Wrapping Up
B2B campaigns are complicated.
By starting with a clear strategy, you’ll be able to narrow down your target audience, conduct proper keyword research, create amazing content, and nurture your leads through to the end of the customer journey.
More Resources:
- 5 Ways to Improve Your Lead Gen Campaigns Throughout the Funnel
- 5 of the Best Social Media Lead Gen Techniques
- PPC 101: A Complete Guide to PPC Marketing Basics
Featured image: Sammby/Shutterstock
