Lead generation is a primary goal in the B2B digital marketing strategy. It provides a pipeline for marketing teams to connect with, nurture, and convert prospective B2B buyers.
Marketing teams need to come up with digital marketing strategies that combine lead generation with conversion and retention strategies.
It’s not enough to just generate leads, you need a plan to keep them interested, buying and coming back for more.
We’ll show you how to optimize SEO to generate high-quality leads along with other effective ways to keep those leads coming.
Search Engine Optimization
Lead generation involves cultivating interest among prospective buyers in your offerings. SEO involves creating or refining web pages and content with relevant keywords to increase visibility and cater to the search intent of website visitors.
When your site is properly optimized for SEO, you’ll show up on search engine results whenever a searcher looks up something relating to your business.
Marrying lead generation with SEO helps you rank highly on results pages since you’ll be using the keywords prospects type in during searches.
How do you discern user intent and keywords?
When a person types in the search bar, they either want to know more about a topic or are shopping for something. This is referred to as user intent.
They may start with generic terms then refine the words they use as they gain more information.
Knowing the keywords people use at every stage of the buyer’s journey helps you understand user intent.
You can then refine or modify your content to contain the keywords they typically use. This search engine optimized content will steer self-educating buyers to your business.
To identify relevant keywords, start with a depersonalized search for key terms, phrases, and questions used in your industry.
These keywords should address every step of the buyer’s journey (awareness, consideration, and purchase). Note of their influence over “educating the reader” and purchasing intent.
Check the position your brand holds on the search results compared to competitor brands. Is any company answering common questions online and are their answers authoritative, detailed, and useful.
You can then use the information you’ve garnered to create or optimize existing content to reflect these keywords.
Ideally, educational keywords should feature in content targeting searchers at the top and midway through the funnel.
Those that reflect buying intent should be included in the content for prospects near the bottom.
Optimize Your Social Platforms
Social media is ready-made for lead generation.
It allows you to engage with audiences to understand their needs and problems.
The data you gather from these interactions can be a rich source of content ideas
Compared to other forms of marketing, social media is more personal and immediate. You have a two-way communication channel that helps build relationships and trust.
Here’s how you can optimize your social platforms for better lead generation:
- Use Facebook Live or Instagram Stories to explain the features of your latest offerings or answer questions. Turn the viewers to leads by directing them to webinar landing pages or free trial/download sign-up forms.
- Use your social platforms’ targeting capabilities to create social media ads intended for your ideal customers. Ensure your landing pages drive your visitors to take the actions you want them to.
- Use case studies to communicate challenges that were overcome by using your solutions. This helps establish credibility and awareness of your solutions. Include lead generation forms to encourage readers to get in touch with you.
- Create community groups to give your followers a channel to voice their needs and to help personalize your relationship with them
- Use chatbots and instant messaging features to communicate with visitors. AI bots can provide predefined responses to queries raised by visitors besides deciphering user intent.
Video Marketing
Video marketing is an effective tool for driving traffic to your site, nurturing leads, and sharing detailed knowledge.
It’s perfect for research-oriented B2Bs and those that require buy-in from multiple decision-makers.
Video may be a key differentiator between you and your competitors.
Here’s how you can optimize video marketing for lead generation and growth.
- Use short videos to introduce your solutions—preferably those under two minutes long. Save longer videos such as how-to videos or case studies for prospects who are further down your marketing funnel.
- Drive conversions by creating videos for the different stages of the sales cycle. It can help convince buyers who are still weighing their options.
- Repurpose existing content by creating shorter versions in live-action videos or slideshow format.
- Incorporate video in your email marketing strategy. Industry experts suggest that emails containing video and including the term “video” in the subject line have up to 6% higher open rates.
- Use tutorials or tips and tricks videos to re-target prospects. While these videos may seem generic, they are subtle reminders that encourage prospects to revisit your site and engage with you.
- Use video testimonials from past buyers to drive conversions. Most prospects look for recommendations from other users before buying. What better way to convince them than a positive video testimonial?
Cold Calling
Cold calling places you in direct contact with prospects, making it an effective tool for generating leads. For the B2B buyer, the question that lingers at the back of their minds is whether your solutions make sense for them.
This means you should research prospects who can benefit from your offerings before calling them.
Analyze similarities between existing buyers and targeted prospects and identify buying patterns. Then, critically assess your solutions’ ability to cover the prospect’s needs.
While this will shorten your list of leads, you’ll save yourself a ton of embarrassment, rejection, and resources.
Here are other tips that may help you as you plan your calls:
- Know a couple of things about the contact person apart from their name and JD. Look up their interests, convictions, and mutual connections. Find an achievement they’ve enjoyed recently and bring it up in the conversation.
- Don’t ask the prospect if they can spare a couple of minutes to talk. You’ll be giving them the perfect escape route—they will say no and hang up.
- Practice cold calling beforehand. Get your colleagues to act as prospects and play out different scenarios, from pleasant conversations to downright rude ones. It will help you hone your calling skills and come up with appropriate responses.
- Ditch the script for a call guide, unless your company requires you to use calling scripts verbatim. A call guide contains key topics you should cover but allows you to use your own words. It’s less robotic and allows conversations to flow naturally.
Mobile Marketing
Today’s decision-makers are on the go. They conduct online searches on mobile devices rather than on their desktop computers.
Since people keep their mobile devices on them, it increases the chances of your campaigns being seen by your target audiences.
You can also zero in on buyers in a particular industry and deliver messages that speak directly to their needs.
If you’re not taking advantage of mobile technology to reach prospective buyers, you’re missing out on lead generation and revenue growth opportunities.
Let’s look at steps you can take to generate more leads with this strategy:
- Optimize your website for mobile viewing and use. This includes creating mobile-friendly, easy-to-use lead generation forms.
- Use mobile-friendly email marketing templates for your email campaigns.
- Use SMS marketing plans with compelling messages to amplify your promotions.
- Develop a local search mobile paid campaign if your business depends on local traffic. This will improve visibility in local searches and connect you with B2Bs near you.
- Conduct mobile polls to engage with prospects.
- Create a mobile app for enhanced engagement with your prospects and to increase brand loyalty.