For B2B companies, lead generation is a top priority when building inbound marketing campaigns. With the market so over saturated with information, it can be challenging to figure out exactly which activities will generate leads for your company, so here's a look at six b2b lead generation activities that work:
1. Use social media to build relationships
Social media is an incredibly effective way to establish your brand identity and to gain some exposure to potential leads. Of course, saying "use social media" is a bit of a broad strategy, so here are a few tips to effectively build relationships using social media:
- Use the right platforms - Make sure your target audience is on the platform you are using. As a B2B company, LinkedIn should be one of the social channels you use.
- Find the influencers - Determine who in your industry has authority and follow them. Begin sharing their content and engaging with their comments in a valuable way. These influencers can help expose your brand to a larger audience.
- Join groups - Most social channels have groups that you can join that are based on specific topics of discussion. Find groups that are relevant to your brand and join the discussion to begin developing relationships with potential leads.
2. Create content
Good quality, relevant content is a must in order to attract leads. Your content is what helps establish your value to your leads. It's how you grow your authority, which helps build trust. Companies are going to be more open to fostering a relationship with you if they see you as an authority.
3. Optimize everything
First, be sure to do proper keyword research in order to identify what businesses search for when they are trying to find the types of services or products you offer. Then, optimize your website titles, headers, body content, alt image text, anchor text and more. Also, consider looking at the keyword usage of your competitors and how they are faring.
4. Give away free stuff
In this case the "stuff" is content. Give leads an incentive to sign up to your email list by offering free items in digital form. Free downloads like eBooks and whitepapers are particularly effective for B2B lead generation. Just remember, the free content you provide has to be relevant and have value to the businesses you are trying to attract.
5. Host educational webinars
Webinars are not just an excellent way to inform leads about your brand and product in an in-depth way, but also to show off your personality and expertise, which is what many businesses want to see before they're willing to begin building a relationship with you.
6. Use marketing automation
Marketing automation helps you deliver more relevant content to your most receptive target audience members, thereby increasing your chances of converting them. Automation can also help you gather intelligence on user behavior to help gain leads.
While these B2B lead generation strategies can be very effective, simply doing them won't translate into results. It's how you implement these strategies and the effort you put into carrying them out that will determine how effective they are.
