The explosion of content addressing consumer concerns at every step of the buyer\u2019s journey has developed increasingly educated consumers. Additionally, advancing technology has heightened consumer expectations for customer experience.<\/p>\n
In fact, a study by Walker Information<\/a>, projected that customer experience has surpassed price and product as the key brand differentiator.<\/p>\n Some B2B brands are getting better at converting their prospects while others are stuck in their old ways, perhaps unsure how to spice things up.<\/p>\n But 61% percent of businesses say that lead generation is their biggest marketing challenge.<\/p>\n There are many free lead capturing tactics out there, but few will help you maximize your ROI. Here are effective B2B lead generation strategies<\/strong> that will play up your game.<\/p>\n \ud83e\udd2b<\/strong> PS – I put together these 10 tips for optimizing your content marketing. Watch Now!<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Content is the currency of the web nowadays, so you should regularly publish content<\/a>. This not only helps your credibility as an expert, but it also increases your reach and exposure. But don\u2019t create content for content\u2019s sake. You want your content to provide value to your audience, not just sit there and make your brand look pretty.<\/p>\n When you publish valuable content that informs, educates, and entertains your target audience, you earn their loyalty. It\u2019s easier to convert leads once you\u2019ve gained their trust.<\/p>\n Also important is the frequency of your publishing. Publishing quality blog posts more often<\/a> shows your target audience your commitment to go to great lengths to provide them with valuable content that addresses their concerns.<\/p>\n According to a study by Hubspot, companies that publish 16 or more blog posts per month generate 4.5 times more leads than those who publish only 0-4 posts per month. The study further revealed that 47% of B2B buyers rely on content for research and making purchasing decisions.<\/p>\n More significantly, B2B buyers consume at least three to five pieces of related content before contacting a sales person. Leverage this information by producing more content more frequently so you can cater to your audience\u2019s information demands.<\/p>\n Lastly, while moment marketing is a great way to stay relevant or go viral for a certain duration, coming up with evergreen topics in your niche is a sure way to get noticed no matter what stage your potential clients are in the sales funnel.<\/p>\n Evergreen content<\/a> works hand in hand with your SEO strategy, allowing you to stay fresh on search engines. Evergreen content is helpful, informative, and shareable\u2014all the things people love about high-quality content. Plus, it never goes out of style.<\/p>\n \ud83d\ude1c PS – Check out our weekly blog content service<\/a> to grow your website traffic and leads!<\/strong><\/p>\n Not every marketer is confident whether or not they should gate their content. However, this is still one of the most effective ways to attract and identify leads who care about your business.<\/p>\n When done right, gated content<\/a> can increase leads and conversions. Case in point: Finance and trade website Trading Strategy Guides added almost 11,000 targeted subscribers to their email list in just one month by using a content locking script. Unbounce\u2019s gated content stats reveal more campaigns with conversion rates that fall between 19-45%<\/a>.<\/p>\n Putting out gated content is wise if you\u2019ve already built a library of content that you are sure your audience is enjoying. This way, loyal readers won\u2019t be apprehensive in giving you their names and email addresses to read what you wrote.<\/p>\n Make use of content offers that require contact details for users to access them. This will help you to quickly grow your contact list and kick-off the lead generation process. Provide various resources such as eBooks, guides, whitepapers, checklists, tutorials, tools and anything else you can produce that gives value to your audience members.<\/span><\/p>\n Other opt-in offers like newsletters and webinars should also be utilized if possible. Whatever you choose to produce, make sure that it\u2019s actually useful in the form of education, problem solving or entertainment.<\/span><\/p>\n You\u2019re going to need to use forms if you want to capture your visitors\u2019 contact information. The best practice is to minimize the number of required fields and only ask for the information that your sales team really needs. <\/span><\/p>\n If your form is too demanding, you\u2019ll be scaring off potential leads on a regular basis.<\/span><\/p>\n \ud83d\udd25 PS – Check out our latest case study<\/a> that shows how we helped one company double their leads!<\/strong><\/p>\n One-size-fits-all marketing is dead. Users are now craving for that human touch that allows them to cultivate deeper connection and more meaningful relationships with brands.<\/p>\n In a SalesForce survey of 7,000 consumers, 57% of the respondents said they are willing to share their data in exchange for personalized offers, 53% for personalized product recommendations, and 52% for customized shopping experiences.<\/p>\n So personalize your content marketing<\/a> efforts. No need to use first names or stalk people across the web. But use your audience’s content consumption behavior to present personalized content.<\/p>\n Social media is no longer just an extra channel of publishing or promoting your content. Social media is good for business<\/a>.<\/p>\n This is your chance to engage with your audience. The average person has 7.6 active social media accounts and spends more than 2 hours a day on them. Take advantage of this.<\/p>\n Be active and consistent across the platforms you choose to operate on. It\u2019s recommended that you choose at least 3 or 4 different social media channels to promote your brand. The ones you choose should depend on who your target market is and where they tend to hang out.<\/span><\/p>\n You can start a Facebook group where you can have regular discussions on pressing issues relevant in your industry. Use hashtags on Twitter and Instagram to connect with like-minded individuals or specific causes or topics.<\/p>\n LinkedIn Marketing<\/a> is so important as this social network is clearly the leading platform to communicate with B2B prospects and tell them more about your brand. It has impressive traction as a B2B lead generation network. In fact, more than 80% of B2B leads come from LinkedIn\u2014a tell-tale sign that CXOs need to expand their social media.<\/p>\n With every other marketer reaching out on social media channels, merely connecting to prospective customers is not enough. To reinforce the \u201chumans\u201d behind your brand, be sure to send personalized connection requests and messages to cut through the noise of spam and irrelevant marketing. Best results come from being an active member of your community.<\/p>\n Did you know that a lot of landing pages contain more than one offer? If yours falls into this category, it\u2019s time to rethink your lead conversion strategy<\/a>. Marketing Experiments found that multiple offers in one page can decrease conversion rates by up to 266%.<\/p>\n Optimizing your landing pages for lead generation means addressing SEO best practices, focusing your content on the value of your offering, optimizing your signup form for engagement and implementing a customer testimonial campaign. <\/span><\/p>\n These strategies will make your offer more compelling to your visitors and increase the likelihood of conversions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Focus on a single goal for each landing page and be clear with your messaging in your Call-To-Action (CTA) <\/span> to reduce distractions. Your primary goal is to convert your visitors into leads, so make sure your landing pages and CTAs are convincing. Make it an engaging, straightforward, and natural experience for them to type in their information on your forms.<\/p>\n Your CTA buttons can make a big difference as to whether or not someone clicks through to your landing page. Make sure you have the right colors, shapes, sizes, positioning and any other attribute that affects how users see your buttons. A\/B test your CTA buttons to determine which combinations work best to improve your conversion rates.<\/span><\/p>\n An excellent way to diagnose why your website visitors aren\u2019t converting is through analyzing their actions on your website. Tools like Hotjar or Mouseflow can allow you to record user sessions and plot heatmaps on most-clicked buttons on your site.<\/p>\n Many Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) experts swear by this step and maintain that it\u2019s one of the fastest ways you can uncover the \u201cwhys\u201d in your process:<\/p>\n From here, you can rectify a situation or apply more of the same strategy to your other pages. This is helpful for A\/B testing as well.<\/p>\n A study by RevLocal found that 92% of consumers read online reviews when considering a product or service.<\/p>\n If your website doesn\u2019t have a testimonials page or a reviews feature, it could be hurting your chances to get contacted. Create opportunities for your clients and customers to add a review and post it on your website.<\/p>\n Reviews build consumer trust, improve your local search ranking, and ultimately improve conversions. The RevLocal study also found that consumers are likely to spend 31% more on businesses with stellar reviews.<\/p>\n The persona of your brand is not limited to your website and social channels only.<\/p>\n Branch out and appear on other sites to grow your credibility, such as guest blogging, getting interviewed, or answering questions on Quora.com or other industry-specific Q&A sites or forums.<\/p>\n This is a great way to build authority for your personal brand<\/a> and put your business name in front of those seeking relevant solutions to their problems.<\/span><\/p>\n Quora alone can help you gain thousands of leads if you answer the relevant questions in your industry. Developing your brand as a thought leader can increase brand awareness and also help first-time learners about your brand build trust faster.<\/p>\n Email is still the most popular lead generation channel\u201477% of B2B marketers use email marketing to drive leads, according to SuperOffice\u2019s State of B2B Email Marketing report.<\/p>\n In B2B, there is a lot of value at drawing the attention of your competition\u2019s customers. Gmail ads allow you to target your Google Ads campaign to people who have received emails from your competitor. Sounds sneaky? It is, but it\u2019s effective. It gives you direct access to people who are already familiar with the nature of your service.<\/p>\n Video marketing<\/a> presents a promising opportunity to reach your target audience. More than 75% of Fortune 500 executives view video content regularly and around two-thirds of that number visit the vendor\u2019s website, as per a Forbes study titled Video In The C-Suite<\/em>. So, it\u2019s safe to say that video is a highly-effective way to attract leads.<\/p>\n Indeed, video content has been known to be a major driver in purchasing behavior. Animoto’s State of Social Video<\/em> study found that 64% of consumers make a purchase after watching branded social video content. What\u2019s more, a video on a landing page can increase conversions by 80% or more, according to data from Adelie Studios.<\/p>\n HubSpot’s State of Inbound Report also found that 48% of marketers are already planning to include YouTube in their content strategy in the coming years. Don\u2019t lag behind the competition. Get your camera rolling!<\/p>\n Give your digital footprint a boost by promoting your content on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and any other social platform used by your target market.<\/p>\n However, most marketers have too much on their plates to prioritize social networking. Thankfully, there are numerous tools and apps for automating social media or scheduling posts, shares, likes, tweets, and any other social engagement you can think of.<\/p>\n I use Hootsuite, but Sprout Social and Buffer are also highly recommended by marketers, as they not only automate sharing but also provide analytics to make sure that you\u2019re sharing content optimally.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not enough to just be visible online. Your clients see you on the web, but do they physically see your brand anywhere else?<\/p>\n Attending offline events such as digital marketing conferences<\/a> and trade shows can help you generate leads from other areas of interest.<\/p>\n Some businesses, especially the older and larger companies, do not rely on the web for networking with partners and customers. They like putting a face on the name, and they want someone they can trust.<\/p>\n B2B online queries are noticeably shifting from personal computers to smartphones. Indeed, Google’s research confirms<\/a> that 50% of B2B queries are made on mobile phones.<\/p>\n This number is expected to reach 70% by 2020 as we take into account the entry of more B2B employees from the \u201cdigital generation\u201d (Millennials and Gen Z), and the increasing use of smartphones by older generations.<\/p>\n Additionally, a recent BGC report<\/a> on B2B buyers\u2019 usage reveals that 60% B2B buyers admit that mobile played a significant role in a recent purchase. Specifically, mobile can accelerate time to purchase by 20% by increasing efficiency in decision making and enhancing team collaboration. BGC further reports that 42% of the average share of total revenues are contributed and influenced by mobile.<\/p>\n The questions you need to be asking yourself are:<\/p>\n Optimizing your website for smartphones is not only beneficial to your B2B marketing goals but also help your buyers make business decisions efficiently. You need to factor mobile into an omnichannel customer journey and finding new and improved ways to reach and engage your audience.<\/p>\n Prospects usually browse several websites and comb through dozens of articles to guide their purchase decisions. Only 2% of buyers make a purchase on the first visit. Retargeting<\/a> aims to reel back the 98% and give them a nudge towards your brand.<\/p>\n Retargeting is still underutilized by B2B marketers, but it is catching on. About 70% of marketers allocate 10% or more of their budgets to retargeting. So, if you haven\u2019t already, start retargeting your website visitors now and increase the chances that they choose your brand over your competitors by 70%.<\/p>\n You might consider putting up ads that show varieties of content (soft sell vs. hard sell). Prospects who aren\u2019t ready to make a purchase might be convinced to buy if your brand is continually visible to them.<\/span><\/p>\n Marketing automation tools<\/a> are the marriage of email marketing tools and CRM. Marketing automation software connects with your CRM to automatically send highly targeted and personalized marketing emails to leads. This tactic ensures that you put relevant and timely content in front of the right prospects.<\/p>\n Thomson Reuters testifies that their revenue increased by 172%<\/a> when they adopted a marketing automation solution. Nearly a third of marketers attest that email is their most effective lead generation tactic. In itself, email marketing is already acing it, and it has been for quite some time.<\/p>\n Integrate the functionalities of CRM, and you\u2019ll see why B2B marketers rank marketing automation as one of the best ways to generate better and more qualified leads.<\/p>\n Chatbots are artificially intelligent messaging-based bots that can autonomously engage your website visitors and automate business transactions. AI processes text or speech input by your prospect or customer and sends an appropriate response.<\/p>\n Adopting chatbots sends a strong message to your prospects such that you want them to have a seamless interaction. Additionally, integrating AI into your lead generation strategy creates new avenues for process efficiency and optimization. Minimizing your dependency on human customer support and lead generation will also inherently reduce operational costs.<\/p>\n A\/B testing<\/a> with paid campaigns makes sure that you\u2019re employing strategies and channeling money into what works. The beauty of A\/B testing is its ability to quantify the value of each strategic tweak to your lead generation campaign, so you know exactly how well each experiment performs.<\/p>\n You don\u2019t want to cast your net blindly, so keep testing new strategies and ideas to figure out which you need to stop, and more importantly, which you need to scale.<\/p>\n Influencer marketing<\/a> is as strong as ever, but in 2018, we\u2019re seeing a shift towards brands making use of lesser-known influencers (people with authority in smaller niches). These guys might have fewer followers, but their relative level of influence remains the same.<\/p>\n The industry is getting saturated, and major influencers are getting bombarded with requests. Not only does this make popular influencers very expensive, it also makes them extremely picky about who they work with.<\/p>\n The best solution to this is for brands to leverage micro-influencers<\/a>. These micro-influencers are relatively untapped despite their huge potential for reaching new audiences effectively. What\u2019s more, they tend to cost less and aren\u2019t sick and tired of unsolicited approaches from other brands.<\/p>\n Improve your market research, data gathering methods, and analytics to determine who your ideal audience is, where your prospects are coming from, which channel is generating the most leads, and which leads are more likely to convert into sales.<\/p>\n Data analytics can also help you determine behavioral changes in your buyer personas so you can adjust your drip strategies accordingly. Analyze constantly! Metrics and numbers don\u2019t lie. Identify significant trends and learn from them.<\/p>\n At a minimum, you should be collecting data using Google Analytics, but if you\u2019ve got the resources, it\u2019s worth investing in a CRM tool<\/a> that fits your specific needs.<\/p>\n User behavior evolves just as quickly as innovations in technology. It\u2019s important to study your target audience and create effective buyer personas to better understand users\u2019 pain points, challenges, goals, and buying behavior.<\/p>\n If last year, you were able to provide their needs and wants, then maybe this year you can focus on another challenge they may be facing.<\/p>\n Think about something you can address with an innovative product or content offer. Remember that your buyer persona will shape your content marketing strategy<\/a> and that this is where it all begins.<\/p>\n Your sales personnel are the ones who interact with your clients, so it\u2019s important to get their qualitative feedback so you can combine it with your quantitative data.<\/p>\n You can also get a clearer picture of who your buyer persona is from your sales team.<\/p>\n1. Create High-Quality, Evergreen Content<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/marketinginsidergroup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/evergreen-content.jpg\")
<\/p>\n2. Gate Your Content Strategically<\/h2>\n
3. Offer Content in Exchange for Email or Personal Information<\/h2>\n
4. Personalize More Touch Points<\/h2>\n
5. Personalize Social Media Interactions & Build Communities<\/h2>\n
6. Optimize Your Landing Pages and CTA<\/b><\/h2>\n
7. Record the Actions of Your Website Visitors<\/b><\/h2>\n
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8. Encourage Online Reviews<\/b><\/h2>\n
9. Expand Your Online Presence<\/b><\/h2>\n
10. Use Gmail Ads to Target Your Competitors\u2019 Audience<\/b><\/h2>\n
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Use this opportunity to show what sets you apart from the competitor. Use familiar language, optimize your email marketing layout, and give them an offer they can\u2019t refuse.<\/p>\n11. Ramp Up Your Video Marketing<\/b><\/h2>\n
12. Automate Social Media Sharing<\/b><\/h2>\n
13. Attend Offline Events<\/b><\/h2>\n
14. Optimize Your Website for Mobile<\/b><\/h2>\n
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15. Turn Up Your Retargeting<\/b><\/h2>\n
16. Maximize Marketing Automation
\n<\/b><\/h2>\n17. Engage Prospects with AI Chat Bots<\/b><\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/marketinginsidergroup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/growthbot.png\")
<\/p>\n18. A\/B Test Your Paid Campaigns<\/b><\/h2>\n
19. Harness the Power of Micro-Influencers<\/b><\/h2>\n
20. Analyze Your Data<\/b><\/h2>\n
21. Profile Your Target Audience<\/b><\/h2>\n
22. Work<\/b> Closely<\/strong> with Your Sales Team<\/b><\/h2>\n