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Building a B2B Lead Generation Strategy That Converts
Are you a B2B business owner frustrated by the up-and-down rollercoaster of sales leads? Do you find yourself pouring resources into lead generation without seeing any return on investment?
Generating quality B2B leads can be a real challenge; even the best marketers can get tripped up occasionally. But here's the good news...there are proven ways to improve your B2B lead generation strategy and increase your conversions. Having a successful B2B lead generation strategy is key to converting leads into paying customers.
You might be nodding your head in agreement but thinking, "Yeah, I knew that already. How do I create that high-converting B2B lead generation strategy, though?" That's what this guide is for!
This comprehensive guide to the best B2B lead generation strategies will explore why lead generation is so important in B2B marketing, examine some of the obstacles that businesses face, and provide valuable insights on how to implement an effective lead generation strategy that converts.
Step 1: Understanding Your Target Audience
To build a successful B2B lead generation strategy, knowing who you’re trying to attract and sell your products or services is crucial. Identifying and understanding your ideal customers’ needs will help you create content and personalized messaging and content that speaks directly to their needs, increasing engagement and conversions.
Audience segmentation and buyer personas are critical tools that help you understand who your ideal customers are and how to reach them. So, take the time to gather data and create accurate buyer personas that will help you tailor your messaging and content to each group.
Segmenting Your Audience
Start by examining your current customer base and use that data to create buyer personas that represent different segments of your audience. If you’re unsure where to start, start by segmenting them based on their:
- Demographics
- Behavior
- Interests
Use this information to tailor your messaging and targeting to each group’s unique characteristics, from age and location to job title and interests.
Creating Buyer Personas
Buyer personas are fictional representations of your ideal customers based on research and real data, designed to help you better understand their needs, motivations, and pain points.
To create effective buyer personas, gather data through surveys, interviews, and customer feedback. You can also look at your website analytics, social media engagements, and sales data to better understand your audience’s online behavior. The more information you can gather, the more accurate and targeted your buyer personas will be.
Step 2: Researching and Analyzing Your Market
Market research is the foundation of any successful lead generation strategy, as it helps you identify the industry trends, competitors, and customer pain points that affect your lead generation efforts. By understanding these factors, you can create a targeted strategy that focuses on meeting the needs of your ideal customers and differentiating yourself from your competitors.
Understanding Industry Trends
Whether you’re a newcomer or an established player in your industry, staying on top of the latest trends is critical to your success. To do this, start by tracking industry publications and subscribing to relevant newsletters. This will give you a good sense of what’s happening in your industry and put you in contact with other industry experts.
You could also attend industry-specific conferences and trade shows, which can provide valuable insights into emerging technologies and industry shifts. Based on changing trends or industry news, create content marketing materials that speak to those topics and attract potential customers.
Identifying Competitors
To pinpoint your competition, start by identifying companies that sell similar products or services. Then, use tools like Google and LinkedIn to gather information on their sales strategy, pricing, and reputation. This information can help you develop a unique selling proposition (USP) that differentiates your company from the competition and resonates with potential customers.
Understanding Customer Pain Points
Finally, you’ll want to ensure you understand customers’ issues that might lead them to search for your product or services. To do this, start by speaking with current customers and conducting surveys to gather feedback. This can help you identify pain points and areas where your product or service can make a real difference.
Once you understand your market better, you can use tools and techniques like SWOT analysis, Porter’s Five Forces analysis, and a marketing mix analysis to develop a strategy that addresses key market drivers and fits your unique selling proposition.
Step 3: Optimizing Your Website for Lead Generation
Your website is the first place potential customers will go to learn more about your products and services, and it’s where you’ll capture their information and turn them into leads, whether through scheduled demos, newsletter signups, etc. That’s why optimizing your website is essential to help guide your visitors towards converting into leads.
Optimizing your website involves a lot of different factors, but three of the most important are landing pages, call-to-action buttons, and forms.
Landing Pages
Landing pages are standalone web pages designed to capture a visitor’s information. They should have a clear and concise value proposition that tells visitors what they’ll get in exchange for their contact information. Some best practices for optimizing landing pages include:
- Avoiding clutter and focusing only on essential elements
- Using a clear and concise headline should tell visitors what the page is about (and why they should care)
- Incorporating visual elements can help break up the page and make it more engaging
If you’re investing in website SEO, ensure you’re incorporating the right keywords on these landing pages, too. Ranking landing pages organically is a great way to reduce your marketing spend long-term while still encouraging conversions.
CTA Buttons
CTAs are buttons that encourage visitors to take action, such as filling out a form or downloading a whitepaper. Some best practices for optimizing CTAs include:
- Using clear and concise language to tell visitors what they’ll get when they click the button
- Using contrasting colors and making the button big enough to stand out on the page
- Ensuring all buttons are visible and legible on the page
It’s also a great idea to be strategic about where you place your CTA buttons. Test them in multiple places, and don’t assume visitors will scroll down to find your CTA.
Forms
Forms are where visitors provide their contact information in exchange for your offer. Some best practices for optimizing forms include:
- Only asking for the information you absolutely need to follow up with the lead
- Making it obvious what information you’re asking for in each field
- Trying different form layouts, field labels, and button text to see what works best
In addition to these best practices, it’s essential to consider user experience and mobile responsiveness. Visitors should be able to navigate your site easily and quickly, no matter their device. A responsive design will ensure your site looks good and functions well on any screen size.
Step 4: Creating Compelling Content
In B2B lead generation, it’s crucial to have a powerful content marketing strategy that reaches the right people and convinces them to take action.
Whether you’re writing blog posts, e-books, case studies, or whitepapers, you need to create high-quality content that resonates with your target audience and provides them with solutions to their pain points. Here’s how to do it.
Address Customer Pain Points
Your content should address the pain points and challenges your target audience faces. Use real-life examples and case studies to help your audience relate to your content and understand how your solutions can help them overcome their challenges.
Provide Solutions and Actionable Insights
Your content should provide valuable insights, tips, and techniques your audience can use to solve their problems. Provide concrete examples and actionable steps for your readers to implement your solutions. When in doubt, be as specific and direct as possible to avoid confusion.
Use a Conversational Tone
Your audience is more likely to engage with your content if it feels conversational and approachable. Use a friendly, casual tone that speaks directly to your readers and helps them feel like you’re speaking to them one-on-one.
Incorporate Keywords
To ensure your content is easily discoverable by search engines, it’s important to incorporate relevant keywords throughout your text. Use relevant search terms that are conversion-focused in your headlines, subheadings, and body copy to help improve your search engine rankings and attract more leads.
Step 5: Implementing Effective Lead Nurturing Strategies
So, you’ve gathered a list of potential leads, but how do you turn them into loyal customers? That’s what lead nurturing is all about! It’s the process of building relationships with your leads and guiding them through the buying process by providing them with valuable information and content at every stage of their journey.
But how do you effectively nurture your leads? Here are some top techniques that successful B2B companies use.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is one of the most popular and effective strategies for lead nurturing. By sending personalized emails to your leads as part of drip campaigns, you can provide them with useful information, answer their questions, and build trust with them.
According to Constant Contact, more than 90% of respondents said email marketing is important to their company’s overall success. This makes sense, given that their study also revealed the average company has an average ROI of $36 for every $1 spent, making it an extremely cost-effective strategy.
Personalized Content
Personalized content is about delivering relevant content to your leads based on their interests and behaviors. Using data and analytics (which is why it’s so important to track your website visitors), you can understand what kind of content your leads seek and provide it to them. This can range from personalized blog posts, case studies, and even personalized video content.
Lead Scoring
Lead scoring is a way to rank and prioritize your leads based on their level of engagement and interest. By assigning scores based on their actions, such as visiting your website or downloading a whitepaper, you can identify which leads are most likely to convert into customers and focus your efforts on nurturing them.
Maintain Consistent Communication
Consistency is key when it comes to lead nurturing. If possible, it’s best to communicate with your leads regularly but not so often that you annoy or overwhelm them. By keeping in touch regularly, you can build trust and maintain a connection with your leads, making them more likely to do business with you when the time comes.
Tracking Data for a B2B Lead Generation Strategy
When building a successful B2B lead generation strategy, sourcing customer data is just as important as creating a solid pitch. The more you know about your potential clients, the better equipped you are to communicate with them in a way that resonates. One key piece of information you want to uncover is who is visiting your website.
Tracking website visitors can provide valuable insights into potential leads and help you tailor your message to their unique interests. And that’s exactly what a tool like CANNDi is for. Our sales and marketing tool identifies your website visitors and turns them into hot leads for your sales team.
What sets CANNDi apart is our visitor-level tracking.
Our tool monitors the activity of every visitor to your website. By placing a first-party cookie on their device, we can see exactly what they’ve looked at and for how long. This information is invaluable when it comes to crafting a message that’s tailored to their specific needs.
But it gets even better. CANNDi drills down into the individuals visiting your site, giving you a better understanding of who they are and what they want. Armed with this information, you can connect with potential leads on a personal level and close more deals.
Start Your Free Trial
Following these five steps, you can build a strong B2B lead generation strategy to bolster your bottom line. But if you really want to attract more high-quality leads and convert them into long-term, paying customers, it’s time to consider using a powerful lead tracking system.
With CANDDi, you can track your visitors’ actions, see who they are, and turn that data into actionable insights to drive your business forward. Whether you want to increase conversions, boost sales, or deepen your understanding of your target audience, CANDDi can help you achieve your goals.
Ready to see just how powerful it is? Start your free trial now!