Lead Generation for B2B Businesses

Lead Generation for B2B Businesses:from Business 2 Community by Lea Chastine
Online lead generation can help your B2B business make more sales. According to Hubspot, the cost of a lead generated through inbound marketing is 62% lower than the cost of a traditional lead garnered from events like trade shows, direct mail, cold calling, TV, and print. Obviously we are living in a highly digital world, so how can you optimize your lead generation techniques on the web? Check out these steps below to get started.

Content Creation

In order to reach potential leads and capture their attention, you need content. Furthermore, you need good content. The point of content marketing is to attract leads that are qualified in order to convert them to loyal customers. You must create interesting, unique content in order to get these leads to fill out landing pages. For B2B marketers, blogging is still the main source of content (81% of B2B businesses have a blog), but you can also publish case studies, whitepapers, and ebooks, host webinars, and create videos. The possibilities truly are endless. You must also remember to post and promote content frequently to ensure maximum exposure. If you’re stumped, check out our free Content Creation Kit for ideas and tips!

Optimizing Your Lead Generation Pages

Landing pages can be tricky, but there is always room for improvement. A/B testing and conversion rate optimization are crucial to your landing page success. It’s also important to remember that every business is different. For example, sometimes directing leads straight to a signup form isn’t the answer. Vendio, an online eCommerce business, actually saw a 60% increase in signups after removing a signup form from their landing page. Rather, they had a landing page filled with information and a link to a second page where interested leads could fill out a form. Another factor to consider is mobile landing page forms. If your B2B business has a strong mobile presence, you may want to optimize your signup forms for people on-the-go. The key is to find what works for you.

Entering the Mobile Market

As we’ve suggested above, optimizing your website and landing pages for mobile devices could increase the chance that a lead fills out your forms. 72% of the US workforces uses a mobile device and 64% of decision-makers check their email via mobile devices (according to Unbounce), so if you’re marketing through email (which you should be) this is definitely something to consider.

Nurturing Your Leads

Without lead nurturing, the chance that a lead converts to a sale is significantly lower. According to Unbounce, 79% of leads never convert to sales. A lack of lead nurturing definitely contributes to this poor performance. In order to re-market and nurture your leads, you can do some of the following: actively post and promote content, use social media, and market through email. The more frequent and informative your blog posts are, the more RSS subscribers you’ll gain. Companies with active blogs report 67% more leads than those without. Social media can help your B2B business, too. Companies that use Twitter get 2X the number of leads per month, and 41% of business report getting leads from Facebook. Email marketing ins’t dead, either. Although conversion rates for email marketing are lower, it is a great way to keep leads interested and informed.

These tips and tricks will help your business generate as many leads as it can. But, we must not forget about SEO. Without optimizing your site, your potential leads won’t be able to find you.

Check out our free SEO Checklist to get started today!