What is B2B lead generation?
It's actually a threefold question. What is B2B, what is a lead, and what does it mean to generate them? B2B is basically business-to-business trade, as opposed to when a company sells to private individuals. You can read more in the article B2B sales.
A lead is a person (or in this case, a company) who has shown interest in your product or service. In other words, it's a potential customer or client. But for a lead to become a customer, a sale must be closed first. Therefore, you should differentiate between acquiring new leads and getting more customers. They are two different things, or at least two different steps in the process. Lead generation comes first.
Examples of leads can be when someone downloads a white paper or an on-demand webinar. A smart tactic here is to offer a free welcome gift at sign-up. You can think of it as a taster. Something that gives the potential future customer free value right now.
The goal of the taster (or lead magnet) is to capture those who are interested in what you have to say in your eBook. Think of a supermarket that gives free samples of red wine. They can reasonably assume that all the people tasting the wine are people who like red wine and are considering buying a bottle to take home. So how does this example translate to B2B lead generation? How do you give digital tastings?
Let's say your company develops security systems for other companies' computer networks. In that case, you could create a quick PDF guide called "5 tips to secure your IT system". This can also be done via a form where you have to enter some information to get the results sent to you by email. In that case, you might call it "How secure is your system? Take the test here". Common to both approaches is that you get an email address.
In this way, digital lead generation works better than what happens in the supermarket. Because unlike them, you now have the opportunity to follow up with your lead afterwards and try to close a sale. So you have generated a lead.
How do you do good B2B lead generation?
It goes without saying that, all else being equal, the more leads you generate, the more of these will be converted into buying customers. But the math isn't that straightforward. If it was just a matter of quantity, you could quickly accumulate tons of leads. You could simply send out feelers to every CVR number in the register. In the old days - and unfortunately, in some cases, still today - we used to talk about cold marketing. That's the scattergun approach. Nowadays, most companies understand that warm leads are the ones to collect.
As with commerce and marketing in general, so it is with lead generation: relevance is key. Along with targeted efforts. In other words, only companies that could have a real interest in your product or service should be targeted. And the fact that your efforts must be targeted means that you need to know which channels are the best way to reach them. There are many to choose from.
So even if your immediate funnel is narrowed by focusing your B2B lead generation on relevance, the subsequent conversion rate will be much higher. And since most B2B lead generation either costs money or time (which is also money), the math will pay off in the long run.
How to generate B2B leads
Here are a few concrete suggestions on how you can generate B2B leads:
- Exclusive content. You can also offer a free treat in exchange for an email, such as a discount code, an exclusive e-book or other content. You can actually avoid using "sign up" or "newsletter" in your text altogether, as these two words can be a bit off-putting. Instead, get creative and try "Enter your email and see your discount code" or "Where should we send your free e-book?" However, be careful not to break the GDPR law. Make sure you have a visible link to your terms when signing up.
- Facebook Lead Ads. Facebook has different types of ads, divided by objective. For example, it can be Conversion, Traffic or Leads. The latter has the exact purpose of generating leads. In short, Facebook Ads work in the sense that they have a huge knowledge bank about their users. Therefore, they know which users often click on links (traffic), make a purchase (conversion) or sign up for something (leads). So it's definitely worth testing whether Facebook Lead Ads work for your B2B company.
We typically work with a combination of different marketing channels when helping B2B companies generate leads. Read more about our framework here.
Next steps after B2B lead generation
Once you have your lead, the next step is to warm them up. Technically, a lead that you've gotten via one of the above methods is only lukewarm. It can get even hotter.
Make sure you have a friendly and inviting welcome sequence of emails that welcomes your leads. The first email and right upfront should be the treat you promised them (if you've used that method). There's nothing worse than being left hanging, so make sure you deliver on your promise right away. This also means that the first email should be triggered immediately after sign-up.
After that, it's up to you how you contact your lead, how often, and with what content. However, make sure the focus is on them and not so much on your company. Yes, of course your leads are interested in hearing more about what you have to offer, but make sure you give them value with every email - that is, don't just talk about yourself, but put yourself in their shoes and offer something they can use.
This way, you'll be well on your way to B2B lead generation and ready to take the next step.
