When it comes to B2B lead generation, it is crucial for marketers to adopt a multi-channel strategy to get your content where your target audience will find it.
But we’re not talking about a “one size fits all” kind of strategy. A strategy that is successful for one business does not mean it will be successful for yours. Each business will have its own goals and each channel has its own strengths and weaknesses.
The trick is to align the two, (through some trial and error, most likely) so you are utilising the best channels for your goals, reaching the right customers, and therefore generating quality leads – saving your team time down the pipeline.
We’re here to help you sort out which channels are best for your business to capture leads. We have compiled the following breakdown of the most efficient channels to better help you understand where you should be distributing your content.
Free PDF Marketing Guide
We have also put together a helpful FREE PDF guide to inform your Marketing Strategies moving forwards.
Social Media Strategies
It should be pretty obvious why social media is the first channel we want to address. Businesses are using social media to make connections, grow relationships, build a positive brand image, and of course – generate quality leads! In fact, approximately 87% (PureB2B) of B2B marketers today use social media to generate leads.
The conversion rate for social media: **No single answer, however, Marketo has provided a calculated assumption: SM at 1.95% from 4,000 user accounts data (v inbound at 3.82%!)
Top strategy tip: Quality over quantity. This is the general rule of thumb, although the correct number of postings can vary from business to business! As long as each piece of content you post is of relevant, good quality, you will be set.
When it comes to B2B lead generation, LinkedIn and Facebook are the most successful in getting conversions.
1.1 LinkedIn
Being THE social platform for professionals, it’s no surprise that LinkedIn is the leading social platform for business to business lead conversions! This is a great opportunity to showcase your work, displaying your company as experts in your industry.
Pros: World’s largest professional network, ideal for quick and easy networking, can transform your company page into a lead generation page.
Cons: Less interaction on this site compared to other networks.
Top strategy tips: Target your audience based on your buyer persona, keep ads newsworthy and topical, and continuously test CTAs, images, and copy.
1.2 Facebook
Facebook has ingeniously created Lead Ad’s that allow for lead capture without the consumer leaving the Facebook platform. Now customers can sign up for whatever it is you’re offering in just two taps, then resume surfing their feed. This user-friendly system makes it easier for consumers to sign up, meaning higher conversions for you.
Pros: Largest networking platform, highly customisable and targeted, high engagement, access to analytics.
Cons: Must have a budget and commit to a scheduling strategy.
Top Strategy Tips: Create audiences inside your ad manager to target specific groups of your target audience, refurbish posts that perform well, research best times to post to receive the highest engagement.
Email Marketing Strategies
Not to be confused with spam! Proper inbound email marketing is still one of the best ways to generate, and manage, your leads.
Through email marketing, you can automate lead scoring to rank the most valuable leads, and then algorithms and predictive analytics allow you to send out targeted, personalised messages in real time.
Conversion Rate: 91.43% open rate, 26.90% CTR (GetResponse)
Pros: High ROI, little financial cost, easily automated – once set up it can virtually be left alone, keeps only quality leads in your system.
Cons: Needs a comprehensive strategy, takes time to set up workflows and automation systems.
Top Strategy Tips: Invest in learning about email automation! Segment your lists, always have something of value in the email, compelling CTA’s that lead to a nice landing page, and make sure your subject lines are short, catchy, and compelling.
PPC Strategies
The most popular pay-per-click platform is Google AdWords. Marketers love PPC because we can easily control the budget and it’s an easy way to improve your SEO ranking. This means you can pay to appear for a specific search word your target audience is likely to be searching, and are more likely to convert quality traffic back to your page.
AdWords conversion rate: 2.70%, and display conversion 0.89% (HubSpot)
Pros: Targeted ads, immediate and consistent traffic, quick results, higher ROI, geo-tracking and ad scheduling, niche market strategy.
Cons: Once your budget runs out, your ad disappears, fewer clicks than organic listings.
Top Strategy Tips: Use your analytics tool, adjust each campaign, and implement in your SEO strategies as well.
Content Marketing Strategies
Blogging is the corner of content marketing, although in the B2B world it can be a little different than in the B2C world. However, the core objectives stay the same: drive traffic to your website to convert traffic into leads who will turn into repeat business.
Conversion stats: Content marketing generates 3x more leads vs. traditional marketing, businesses using content marketing experience 6x higher conversion rates vs. non-adopters and custom content influences 61% of consumers. (Hubspot)
Pros: Improves search presence, allows you to join your leads conversations, establishes niche authority, allows you to talk your leads through the conversion funnel.
Cons: You have to actually write all of it, must dedicate time and effort.
Top Strategy Tips: Develop topics that are lead magnets, post a lot of quality blogs – each post is an additional indexed page that will add to your search presence, strategically place CTA’s to direct traffic to your landing page, and continue to delight customers with fresh content and refurbish posts that have seen high engagement.
Lead generation is such an important part of your business, it’s crucial to get it right.
Still not sure which channels you should be using to generate quality leads? Let’s have a chat, get in touch with us today and one of our team will be happy to help!
