B2B companies today face a variety of challenges when it comes to succeeding at lead generation. Fortunately, the majority of these challenges can be overcome by simply putting the right strategies in place, and tweaking them as you go, based on what’s working and what’s not.

B2B Lead Generation Goals

Before you can begin developing a strategy, you’ll need to define your b2b lead generation goals. What b2b lead generation success looks like for your business may be vastly different than what it looks like for another. Generally speaking, we’re all trying to attract the right visitors, and to convert a large percentage of these visitors into paying customers. However, defining the right visitors for your business, and what qualifies as a large enough percentage of conversions is where businesses of different types and sizes will differ.

1. Analytics

Without data, it becomes pretty much impossible to measure your baseline vs. your target goals. Therefore, setting up a system for tracking and analyzing data is one of the most important steps in creating a successful b2b lead generation strategy. Whether it be through Google Analytics or another CRM tool that you prefer, the sooner you get your tracking system up and running, the better.

Tracking where your visitors are coming from, and what they’re doing when they get to your website can help you identify the behaviors of mere visitors vs. those that convert to leads. Once you’ve identified the behaviors more commonly associated with leads, you can make necessary changes to your website and marketing campaigns to encourage more of those behaviors.

2. Buyer Personas

Now that you’ve set up a system for tracking your visitors and analyzing their behavior patterns, it should be much easier to develop a deeper understanding of your target audience. As you learn more about your target audience, you can start to build buyer personas to more closely target specific user challenges and goals to which your products and/or services are the solution.

Each buyer persona should be targeted in a personal way, with offers that reflect their preferences and needs. The type and format of content, its presentation, frequency and tone should all be tailored to each specific buyer persona. By delivering a more personalized and targeted message to specific buyer personas, your marketing campaigns can have a more powerful impact on potential customers.

3. Forms and Calls-to-Action

Having calls-to-action placed strategically and frequently throughout your b2b website is crucial to your lead generation success. If you don’t tell your potential customers what they want them to do, then they may leave without doing anything. Don’t forget to ask for the conversion, and to be clear about what happens when they do. Merely telling the customer to “submit” their information may not be compelling enough.

On that same note, when it comes to form optimization, it’s important to make sure your lead forms are effective at collecting lead information. Per Unbounce, “An average 5% dip in conversion rate by including a phone number field.” Try to avoid this whenever possible. There are a variety of tools out there, some of which are free, to help you create the best forms based on your lead generation goals.

4. Search Engine Optimization

SEO is one of the best methods for increasing the visibility and trustworthiness of your website. And, let’s be honest, if no one can find your website, or it shows up on page 11 of a Google search, any other lead generation strategies aren’t going to have much of an effect, anyway. Proper meta data, keyword usage, and other SEO best practices are crucial to generating quality b2b leads.

5. Email Marketing

Though email marketing has been around for quite a while, when done right, it remains a powerful lead generation tool that should not be overlooked or underestimated. To be done right, your email marketing campaigns must be strategic and mobile friendly. Marketing automation with email marketing is also a strategy that many b2b businesses are adopting and having success with, due to the ability to send targeted emails to specific buyer personas, resulting in better engagement.

6. Content Marketing

From blogs and longer articles, to infographics, videos, slides and more, content marketing is an undeniable requirement for b2b lead generation success. However, with so much content being generated today, it becomes even more crucial that you’ve developed specific buyer personas, and that you’re keeping their needs and preferences in mind at all times when creating content. In addition, you’ve got to invest in the resources and expertise to allow for the generation of consistently fresh and innovative content. Otherwise, you risk creating content that looks, sounds and reads just like everyone else’s.

7. Social Media

Social media is, in fact, a great b2b lead generation strategy – again – when it is done right. Plus, according to Ambassador, “71% of consumers who have had a good social media service experience with a brand are likely to recommend it to others,” which means you’re setting yourself up for additional chances to attract new leads. When using social media for b2b lead generation, it’s important to engage regularly with your audience, and in a timely manner. By showing your audience that you care about them, and that you’re a real person, you can significantly increase your b2b lead generation.

Mix it Up

According to Blue Nile Research, “76% of B2B buyers use three or more channels when researching a potential purchase.” At the end of the day, no one strategy is best, but rather incorporating a variety of strategies all at once is the best way to consistently improve b2b lead generation results. Additionally, by using targeted campaigns, and experimenting with different formats, topics and frequencies, you can test what campaigns are working, vs. those that aren’t.

Need help driving your lead generation strategy? Contact Elevation Marketing for your next project!