According to a study by the Codeur.com site, 82% of B2B customers are ready to agree to meet a supplier who has contacted them. It is therefore in your best interest to start prospecting .
In this article, we give you our 7 tips for generating leads in B2B.
What is a lead in B2B?
In B2B as in B2C, a lead “corresponds to a contact of a potential customer, also called a prospect”. This is a potential customer who has shown interest in your business by downloading your free tool or subscribing to your newsletter, for example. The lead may have been generated in different ways:
Application form on your website
Website visit
Response to a prospecting campaign
The lead usually takes the form of a contact card that contains contact details and information to identify the potential customer.
Qualify your leads
By definition, the lead is actually just a sales lead. He does not even meet the conditions to be qualified as a prospect, that is to say, a person really interested in your company and who has already expressed an intention to buy. A lead becomes a prospect when it is considered mature or qualified enough to be passed on to the sales team who can close the sale.
Qualifying leads therefore amounts to carrying out actions with a view to transforming them first into prospects and then into customers. This is an essential step when you know that more than half of prospects are poorly targeted (according to a study conducted by Hubspot ).
Multichannel B2B prospecting
In marketing, multichannel prospecting refers to the simultaneous or alternate use of several communication channels to find customers. Its main asset? The personalization of the commercial approach through the different channels. You multiply the points of contact and you adapt your content according to the channels. Your opportunities to convert your prospects are thus greater.
Indeed, according to some studies , it takes between 7 and 13 touchpoints to convert a prospect. The other benefit of multichannel is that it helps identify the most profitable channel based on your customer segment.
There is no single way to carry out multi-channel prospecting and many combinations are possible. You will choose your own channels according to the specificities of your offer, the characteristics of your target and your budget.
The channels most used during multi-channel prospecting are:
Emailing (the average opening rate of B2B emailing campaigns varies between 14 and 29% according to studies by Mailchimp , IBM and Getresponse )
The phone (according to sales coach Marc Wayshak 41% of salespeople say the phone is their best prospecting tool)
Social networks including LinkedIn for social selling (80% of B2B leads generated on social networks are generated via LinkedIn, according to a study by Neil Patel )
As multichannel prospecting requires even more time and effort than traditional prospecting, it requires, to be effective, to be equipped with effective tools ( autoresponders , CRM , marketing automation tools, etc.).
Click here to explode your results with multi-channel prospecting .
SEO
Referring to all the techniques aimed at allowing your website to be better referenced on search engines, SEO is an excellent lever for generating leads. SEO or natural referencing makes it possible to improve the visibility of your website and thus attract more visitors that you can then transform into leads.
Indeed, according to a study conducted by BrightEdge (SEO tool), 53.3% of B2B website traffic is generated by organic search, and only 10% by paid traffic.
Here are 3 tips for working on the SEO of your website in order to generate leads:
Create relevant content that adds value. This will allow you to attract qualified leads to your site. For this, you start by doing keyword research based on your target prospects. For example, at LeadIn , we sell prospecting software and prospecting services on LinkedIn. We are therefore writing this article on lead generation in B2B. If you are currently reading this content, it means that you are interested in B2B prospecting and that you are a potential customer for us!
Optimize netlinking: the internal and external linking of your website. This is to increase the visibility of your website by integrating external links that come from authority sites and to optimize the internal structure of your site. These actions allow Google to better understand your expertise and put you forward on certain keywords.
Use CTAs (Call-to-action). These are buttons to guide the visitor to a strategic location on your website or to collect their contact information (form, quote request, etc.).
Here is for example the CTA that we have on our homepage . We offer visitors a demo of our tool and try it for 14 days for free.
online advertising
If SEO is effective in attracting qualified leads to your website, it is a long process that takes time to bear fruit. SEO specialists see significant results between 3 and 6 months after starting a service. This is why it is relevant to complement your efforts with online advertising.
Facebook Ads
86% of B2B marketers consider Facebook to be an ideal channel for their marketing actions. This is normal when you know that this social network has 40 million users worldwide and that 50% of VSEs and SMEs are present there.
Here are 6 tips for a successful Facebook Ads campaign:
Set measurable goals. The social network allows you to choose between 4 campaign objectives (conversions, brand awareness, traffic, lead generation) and several advertising formats. It is up to you to choose according to your needs.
Focus only on your target and not on the size of the audience. Keep in mind that it is better to target a specific type of target and not the general public.
Tailor your message to your buyer persona. Personalization is key to the success of your Facebook Ads campaigns. To do this, you must know how to take advantage of the social network’s analytical tool, which allows you to learn more about your audience.
Use storytelling. Instead of focusing on the sales aspect, your advertisement can tell a story intended to capture the attention and interest of your target audience.
Track the performance of your ads and adjust them accordingly. The goal is to achieve the best possible ROI.
Use the Facebook pixel to learn more about your audience and use retargeting.
LinkedIn Ads
As we have seen, LinkedIn is the B2B social network par excellence with more than 810 million users ( according to LinkedIn ). LinkedIn Ads also allows you to use qualified data by opting for one of the forms of sponsored campaigns.
Its biggest advantage? Optimal targeting. You have the ability to precisely target your target customers and the margin of wrong clicks is low. Very meticulous, the filter system provides you with 17 modulated targeting criteria in order to distribute your advertising only to the people you are interested in.
On the other hand, reputed to be quite expensive, advertising on LinkedIn requires more substantial initial investments than other social networks such as Facebook.
Google Ads
A study by Bia Kelsey showed that 97% of Google users rely on Google Ads to refine their search, and 65% of them click on the ads. However, in France, more than 90% of traffic on search engines is made via Google. It is therefore natural that Google Ads campaigns are effective in reaching the maximum number of B2B prospects.
When the objective of SEO, as we have seen, is to appear on the first page of results, Google Ads campaigns make it possible to achieve the same result much more quickly.
Webinars
The webinar is an online conference or seminar accessible live or in replay upon prior registration.
Still little democratized in France, it is a practice already very widespread in the United States to generate leads. However, according to tool comparator Findstack , 54% of B2B professionals watch webinars weekly.
How does it work? The content lasts approximately 40 minutes and is moderated by experts. It allows you to learn more about a subject that interests your target and related to your activity. The content of the webinar must be able to bring added value to users while demonstrating your expertise in the area covered. Like a lead magnet, it is made available to Internet users who can only view it if they complete a registration form. This is how it generates leads because users leave their details to access content. It also allows you to create a relationship with your prospects.
Set up a contact form
Placed on the “contact” page of your site or as a pop-up window, the contact form plays a dual role:
Make it easy for your site visitors to contact you
Collect visitor contact details
It comes in the form of a page made up of fields where the Internet user is invited to enter their text and contact details. A response is then sent to him by email. This is how a lead nurturing strategy begins to nurture the prospect’s supposed interest in your business.
Here is for example the contact form of Atlassian (Jira, Trello…).
In conclusion, lead generation is crucial for any business. Every business needs customers to survive and it all starts with a lead generation strategy and then turns those leads into effective customers.
If you want to accelerate your results today, try the best B2B prospecting tool on the market now free for 14 days.
