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Business to business (B2B) lead generation strategies are becoming increasingly challenging day by day, yet the landscape of lead generation, including b2b lead generation, is crucial for solving almost any issue in a business (if your product/service doesn't suck!).When you have more sales qualified leads, and a full sales funnel, you're better equipped to withstand market conditions and rising competition. The current outlook for b2b lead generation is not very promising:
- The cost of marketing qualified leads (MQLs) is on the rise
- Sales team conversion rates are on a decline
- Advertising marketing campaigns are becoming more costly
- Search engine optimization is evolving with AI copy
- Content marketing is facing increased competition
Despite these challenges, there is a silver lining - there are some remarkable b2b lead generation tools available on the market that aid marketing and sales teams in generating leads cost-effectively and systematically. The utilization of landing pages, b2b lead, and free tools can enhance your approach to lead generation and your visibility on search engines.
10 Types of Tools to Generate Leads
While the extensive list of types of b2b lead generation tools for sales and marketing teams is vast...
- Website visitor intelligence
- Sales engagement platforms
- Marketing automation software
- Social listening tools
- Content marketing AI
- Paid advertising channels
- Marketing funnel builders
- A/B testing tools
- Account based marketing software
- Email marketing platforms
... the reality is that a lengthy list of lead generation strategies doesn't help anyone. It's the ability to delve into b2b lead generation with a specific, defined lead generation process that your team can sustainably follow.
This is why we will solely concentrate on the initial three points: website visitor intelligence, sales engagement, and marketing automation. If your lead generation efforts can master these three channels, you will be excelling with new qualified leads and paying customers.
Website Visitor Intelligence: Turn Every Visitor Into Sales Qualified Leads
Think of visitor intelligence as your b2b lead generation insurance to start, which is why we begin here. Think about it... you have qualified leads on your website every day. They're potential customers that visit your landing pages but go away without leaving a trace.
Lead magnets can bring in some prospective leads, but the reality is that even the best landing page won't convert 95% of the time.
That's why we want to"cheat" and see who is on your website.
Account Based Marketing
In b2b lead generation, the focus is on calling everyone in a single company that might be potential customers.Knowing that the Revenue Institute, for example, was on your website, is helpful. It's a small business and you can figure out who you're contacting.
However, for companies with 50+employees, generating leads with this model isn't helpful. Yet, that's what most lead capture tools and website visitor intelligence platforms provide.
Who cares if Microsoft was on your site? There are 100k new leads to sort through in that case.
B2B Lead Generation on Steroids
However, imagine if your b2b lead generation was fueled by knowing who was on your site, not just which company.
You would be able to fuel your lead generation with qualified leads from the exact target audience in any organization you want. Sales leads would pop out of the woodwork, right? That's where a tool like Identity Matrix comes into play.
While there are other b2b lead generation tools on the market, Identity Matrix is the only one that tells you who is on your website with fully verified contact info. Your lead generation strategy just got easier.
What Do You Do with These Sales Leads?
So now you're generating leads on auto-pilot, right? Your digital advertising, content marketing, and overall inbound lead generation is bringing your site visitors. Identity Matrix captures more leads than ever.
But... now what?
Inject these leads into your sales process for your marketing and sales teams.
Marketing Qualified Leads
With the volume of new leads your b2blead generation is bringing in, it's crucial to initiate the process with lead scoring. By utilizing tools like Identity Matrix, ZoomInfo, or Clearbit for enrichment, you can effectively distinguish high-quality leads from the rest.
B2B lead generation is instrumental in generating sales leads, but not all leads are of the same caliber. Sales representatives shouldn't be contacting every lead. It falls on the marketing team to disqualify leads while nurturing each qualified lead through marketing automation (more details coming up).
Lead generation, especially in b2b contexts, necessitates marketing strategies that prioritize value-driven nurturing. Demand generation aims for more qualified leads, yet it's a step-by-step process to transform new leads into sales-qualified leads.
Marketing teams are advised to implement a combination of the following methods to nurture every b2b lead and convert MQLs into sales leads:
- Engage in targeted email marketing campaigns
- Utilize social media retargeting techniques
- Develop compelling content to share with the audience
Once the sales leads are qualified, b2b lead generation evolves into a more streamlined process focused on optimizing the sales funnel for increased efficiency and conversion rates.
The Sales Team Takes Over Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs)
B2b lead generation campaigns aren't easy to execute and every lead capture needs to turn into a potential paying customer. It's a joint effort between sales and marketing teams, but ultimately, it's sales' job to turn "more leads" into "more customers". This is where the sales pipeline comes into play.
Sales should be taking the qualified leads from the b2b lead generation and focus on high-touch engagement. This means calling, emailing, and using social media to engage the target audience.
While these are old school efforts to lead generation, in b2b lead generation, it's all about relationships and who you know. Every sales team should be willing to nurture, engaged, target audience prospects with as much hand-holding as needed to land a large deal.
Cool... More Leads. Now what?
Once you get your business-to-business (B2B) lead generation strategies running smoothly, all starting from knowing who is on your site, marketing teams and sales teams alike can begin focusing on the next layer in the funnel: Sales engagement platforms that drive sales qualified leads.
Sales Engagement Platforms
We've already discussed the importance of a sales team's role in b2b lead generation, emphasizing the need to engage with high-scored and qualified prospects. While sales and marketing teams collaborate to generate leads, it is the sales team that ultimately drives revenue. Therefore, the critical aspect in b2b lead generation lies in implementing a dedicated sales engagement platform to streamline and optimize the sales process for better results.
What is Sales Engagement?
High quality leads often necessitate high-touch engagement strategies. As we've previously discussed and agreed upon, the effectiveness of such an approach is paramount. But what exactly does this entail?
A sales engagement tool serves as a comprehensive platform that amalgamates various marketing lead generation tactics into a unified software solution for b2b lead generation. This versatile tool allows for:
- Direct outreach to target audience prospects through calls
- Personalized email communication with qualified leads
- Management of LinkedIn and social media tasks for enhanced visibility
Consider this tool as a catalyst for driving overall business growth. Notably, in the realm of B2B lead generation, statistics from a Salesforce study indicate that on average, it takes 5-12 touchpoints to secure a single meeting. This underscores the importance of diligent follow-up with high-scoring prospects to maximize the efforts invested by your marketing team in B2B lead generation initiatives.
Top Sales Engagement Tools
The industry leaders in sales engagement are
- SalesOS by ZoomInfo
- Sales Loft
- Outreach.io
However, these are extremely cost prohibitive lead generation tools for small businesses. Masters in lead generation, they bring together the sales channels you need so you can sequence events together across the sales process.
However, less cost-prohibitive tools include:
- Apollo.io
- Lemlist
- HubSpot sequences
All of these tools, whether expensive or not, fuel the sales process by automating simple tasks like emails and set up call and social media tasks for easy execution by sales reps.
They can also conduct outbound b2b lead generation to compound the results of the lead generation process your marketing team is already working on.
Marketing Automation Software
Ok, now your b2b lead generation strategy includes inbound marketing, outbound outreach, and is diversified across multiple marketing channels. What's next?
Lead Scoring
This was already mentioned, but only briefly. Lead scoring starts with enriching new leads with things like...
- Job title
- Company size
- Industry
- Location
- Contact info
... and so much more.
In b2b lead generation, you then "score" these leads based on who looks to be the most likely to become paying customers. For example, if you focus on the cybersecurity industry, you'd score that higher than a lead that's from hospitality.
B2B lead generation requires a vast amount of qualification when you have as many leads as you will from website visitor tracking mentioned above, plus outbound efforts.
From here, you then put these folks on marketing campaigns that fuel lead generation with a great deal of more firepower.
What Does This Software Do?
Think about a tool that can...
- Create a landing page
- Capture leads
- Store a lead database
- Manage social media marketing
- Email and SMS prospects
That's what marketing automation software does and why it's critical in b2b lead generation.
You can drip valuable content to potential leads your sales team can engage with. Your sales team will love you, without a doubt when they open their laptop to leads responding to content marketing delivered to them in their inbox on a silver platform.
Industry-Leading Platforms
While there are a million platforms you can run your marketing campaigns on, demand generation teams are primarily using a few select platforms that have proven themselves in the market. Some of the best softwares for b2b lead generation include:
- Marketo
- Salesforce Pardot
- ActiveCampaign
The former two are very expensive. They're what enterprise organizations use for b2b lead generation. However, that doesn't diminish the power of ActiveCampaign. Rather, it's one of the most powerful marketing automation tools for small and mid-marketing businesses alike.
Any of these three platforms will scale your b2b lead generation and bring on new customers if used properly.
Fuel Your B2B Lead Generation
B2B lead generation doesn't have to be expensive, nor impossible. Lead generation can be quite inexpensive if you're using the right marketing channels and nurturing each lead appropriately. Your lead generation process needs to be value-driven more than anything.
No matter your lead generation strategy, focus on the low-hanging fruit that is already on your site.
Think about it...
Why spend money on more leads when you already have traffic on your site every day. The more niche your website is, the higher intent your traffic is showing. At Identity Matrix, we know our prospects are looking for exactly what we do.
No one is every looking for visitor de-anonymization software unless they have intent. It makes b2b lead generation easier for us. That, and we drink our own kool-aid with:
- Website visitor tracking
- Sales engagement
- Marketing automation
These create our cost-effective b2b lead generation strategies, as we're a lean but mighty company. We'd rather have our budget go to customer success and overall sales strategy than just spending on expensive advertising, having dozens of SDRs, and competing with other businesses on the SEO front.
Instead, the best way to conduct b2b lead generation is and always has been on filling the sales pipeline with potential leads via valuable content delivered on a silver platter to every prospect.
Build relationships via lead nurturing, not just pounding on doors until your sales team is exhausted and churns.
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