Having a constant flow of high-quality leads is the goal of any B2B marketer. The only problem is, getting those high-quality leads is harder than it sounds. According to a B2B lead generation trends report by IDG, 61 percent of marketers report that generating high-quality leads was the hardest problem they faced – even harder than converting leads into customers or demonstrating ROI on their marketing investment.
So what can be done to generate these high-quality B2B leads?
The classic approach, of course, is to offer free seminars or webinars to prospective customers. Find a universal problem that they face, and then explain – for FREE – how you can help them to solve the problem. Offer just enough sizzle and scintillation, maybe even toss in a free digital offer, and wait for people to sign up.
The only problem with that approach, of course, is that it’s not scalable. You need to have enough people to host all those webinars and seminars, then you have to pay money to rent the physical space, and then you have to market the event ceaselessly until you have enough people sign up to make the event worthwhile for your business. Most likely, you’re also limited by geographical proximity – if your business is based in London, you may be able to attract a critical mass of attendees. But what if it isn’t?
The Internet has changed everything, however. Thanks to social media, you can have those same types of person-to-person contacts without having to host a real-world event. The easiest solution is to use LinkedIn as a way to connect with likeminded customers. Sign up for at least 2 groups on LinkedIn and then interact with people asking questions. Create a Facebook group and meet potential customers and clients on Facebook. People want solutions, and if you can offer effective ones, they will reward you.
Another tip is to use data to score your leads, so that you know which ones truly are the “high-quality” leads. With the explosion of data online, both structured and unstructured, it’s easier than ever before to create sophisticated scoring systems for ranking the best leads. If you’re only scoring leads based on geographical location, job title or industry, you’re missing out on a trove of other data based on interests, preferences, and behaviors.
Finally, think about the ways that you can use mobile to generate high-quality B2B leads. In 2015, mobile finally surpassed the desktop in terms of Internet activity, and that means mobile should loom large in any B2B lead generation strategy. In the early days of mobile, it was primarily an entertainment and social networking platform. Now, it’s a way for people to do research and a way to make e-commerce transactions.
Your B2B leads are people just like everyone else. There’s no reason to expect that they aren’t using their mobile phones just as much as everyone else. So think about ways that you can capture different mobile behaviors as part of your B2B lead generation strategy.
Putting all this together, there are three important ways you can generate high-quality B2B leads that go beyond just hosting webinars or seminars. You can leverage social media, big data, and mobile in unique and increasingly sophisticated ways to improve the quality of your B2B leads.
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Dane
Dane Cobain is a published author, freelance writer, book blogger, poet and (occasional) musician from High Wycombe, UK. Before going freelance, he worked as a social media marker, now specialising in writing about publishing, technology and marketing.