The B2B buyer behavior is constantly evolving thanks to the boom in the tech sector. With this rise, B2B businesses like yours require new lead generation strategies to stay in line with the competition.
Though your brand needs to meet high consumer expectations, implementing cost-effective strategies for a higher ROI should be your priority. According to a Marketing Profs report, 85% of B2B content marketers believe lead generation to be the most important organizational goal.
So, how to boost it? Let’s dive straight into the 7 B2B lead generation strategies that deliver marketing ROI.
Related: 16 Tried and Tested B2B Marketing Strategies
7 Effective B2B Lead Generation Strategies
1. Prioritize High-Quality Content Marketing
Consider content as the web currency. It can give you access to exciting opportunities, tap potential clients, and enhance your exposure. However, make sure your content is of the highest quality.
What features make for quality content?
Content that provides information and answers questions can help you earn customer loyalty. Additionally, post content frequently and make sure it is optimized for the search engines.
According to a report by Demand Metric, content marketing generates thrice the leads than outbound marketing. All of this, at a 62% lower price.
2. Gated Content Gives Customer Insights
Gated content refers to guides and other informative material accessible to users only once they fill out a form.
Though a lot of marketers hesitate from following this strategy, it is still one of the most effective ones. Consider this, you are gaining prospect information to leverage further lead generation methods in return for providing value to visitors. Prospective clients and building trust, that’s two birds with one stone. There’s no better example than the marketing pro, HubSpot. It has an entire section dedicated to gated content!
While you’re at it, bear the following pointers in mind:
- Draft content for every stage of the buyer’s journey
- Analyze what your competitors are doing
- Your content must provide an incentive
- A robust landing page is essential
- Prioritize audience segmentation
- Measure analytics and improvise
3. Personalized Marketing is the New Cool
One fact that you must always remember is there’s no one-size-fits-all marketing anymore. Users are rooting for personalized emails, newsletters, and all kinds of products and services.
Content that is laser-focused, problem-solving, and provides direct value will instantly seize user interest.
Besides catering to their needs, personalized content helps build a deep connection with the user. Here are some ways you can add a personal touch to your marketing content.
- Send out monthly newsletters packed with value
- Create personalized videos talking about your product or service
- Personalized offers and deals in emails
Shopify offers a free template for its consumers to create their privacy policy. Here, you need not copy-paste a sample but fill a form with your company information. What’s next? You will get a personalized privacy policy page all ready for the website!
4. Backlinks Add Value
When users see their favorite brands raving about you, they will automatically want to explore more.
That is what backlinks are. They add direct value to your brand, making prospects build a sense of trust even before using your product or service.
Pro Tip: Make sure to gain backlinks from trusted websites only. The opposite also stands true and can harm your brand reputation.
The good news is, there are multiple ways to gain backlinks.
- Writing blogs for other brands
- Let other websites share your content
- Get backlinks on your images
- Create an infographic for other businesses to share
Well, the last option mentioned here is one of the best ones. Have a look at this infographic by Ivan Cash.
That’s some highly useful, value-providing content even you can’t ignore!
5. Even the Pros Rely on Guest Posts
Did you realize even the B2B market gurus like HubSpot and Neil Patel use guest posts for lead generation? Well, the reason behind this is simple, this strategy works, even though it is underrated.
“I’ve tried many different inbound marketing strategies, but guest blogging has remained my most treasured tool.” — Neil Patel, the Founder of QuickSprout.
Guest blogging has a long-lasting impact, boosting your ROI for the next 3-5 years, at least. Besides, the pages that you link in the blog will automatically receive a rank boost.
Case Study: Bamidele Onibalusi wrote an article on HubSpot where he mentioned his guest blogging experiment of writing 31 blog posts. Within 10 days, his website witnessed a rise of 100% visitors daily and a total of 60,000 visitors after 6 months.
6. Hosting Collaborative Events
An excellent way to boost leads is by hosting events, and the fun doubles when you collaborate with another brand.
Interacting with customers in real-time to answer questions, provide information about yourself and your brand is a great connecting opportunity. Plus, you can gather more insights about your audience and guide them through the sales funnel.
You can either conduct live collaborative events like webinars, podcasts, or online campaigns like banner ads and content features.
7. Free Products Can Do Wonders
While offering free stuff might not seem attractive for higher ROI, it is actually an excellent lead generation source.
You need not offer something very expensive for free, but make sure it is packed with value.
Offering something as simple as a free trial or demo can lead to major lead conversions. Once the users get a taste of your product or service, they will get hooked. A better way is to offer a free version with lesser features.
Trello is an excellent example for offering a free version. It is a project management software that offers a free version with fewer features.
It makes users fall in love with its existing features, making them want to subscribe for more.
Related: 13 Powerful B2B Growth Hacking Strategies
Wrapping Up
Don’t these techniques seem simple? These are 7 of the most effective lead generation strategies that deliver marketing ROI. Well, the industry leaders themselves validate their effectiveness.
You can easily implement these strategies in your daily operations. And what’s next? Witness a significant growth in the number of leads per day and watch your brand thrive!
Pro tip: Never stick to just one lead generation method. When you have access to multiple magic potions, why not use a little of all.
