Picture this. It’s 2019. Your business development and sales executives spend the majority of their time chasing potential clients, waiting for appointments, and trying to convert the client account into a sale. That used to be our normal. Now with the pandemic bringing about a dramatic change in the business-to-business sales landscape, your new normal is conducting business from remote locations. You no longer chase clients physically. You don’t sit at receptions and lobbies for hours. You don’t attend physical networking events to chat up potentials. But now that you have more time on your hands, the targets have increased. So how do you identify prospective clients and create demand? Here’s an easy guide on B2B lead generation tactics popular among businesses today.
But first, let’s quickly understand what B2B lead generation is. Simply put, lead generation is the first step you will take toward developing a sales pipeline for your business. Essentially, lead generation will help you identify prospects and tap clients that might be looking for what your business has to offer. Now, you must remember that B2B lead generation is very different from B2C lead generation. So the same tactics used in a regular marketplace or run-of-the-mill marketing strategies will not work. So, how do you identify B2B prospects and create demand for your business? Here’s how.
Finding potential clients – be where your client is
Clients no longer want to meet business development executives face to face. They prefer remote connections and online interactions. This means you need to be where your client is. A good place to start will be social platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter.
Obviously, you aren’t the only business development executive who will figure this out. There will be hundreds of people swarming over potential leads trying to catch their attention. So, simply looking up potential clients and connecting with them with a simple “hello” won’t cut it anymore, which brings us to the next step in online B2B lead generation tactics.
To Learn More check our blog: REINVENT YOUR B2B LEAD GENERATION TECHNIQUES WITH THESE THREE EASY STEPS
The customer is king, and the king needs their content customized
Your business needs to develop two degrees or levels of content – compelling and critical.
Compelling content will draw in your potential clients, and critical content will make them believe that this content was written keeping them in mind.
Let’s talk about the broader perspective first. This is where your team develops compelling content that will feature solutions that best suit a potential client. The trick is to offer a “something for everybody” solution. This creates awareness about your offerings.
The next step is to customize your content to make the customer believe the offering is made exclusively for them. This part involves research. Your content team will work in tandem with your sales team for insights and then develop critical content that will almost look like it is tailored to a client’s needs. Here’s a sample.
“I noticed your business’s customer satisfaction index could be at least 14% higher than it currently is. We can guarantee that outcome in six months flat.”
Re-read the above sample. It not only tells your prospect that you have done your homework. (Which you can do, considering you no longer have to waste time at lobbies and receptions anymore.) It also offers an outcome-based opportunity to get better with your offering. Prospects want to know about the outcome before anything else.
Run tests to see what content works and what content works better
Potential leads change their minds every day. What worked yesterday might not have the same impact today. Additionally, what worked on the first round of prospective clients might not work as you go higher up the sales pipeline. Your business needs to know whether or not the content has the same impact on day 28 as it did on day 1.
This is why you need to test your content and understand what works well and what works great. This can be done by A/B Split testing your landing pages. Did you know that according to a HubSpot 2020 report, only 17% of marketers use A/B testing to improve conversion rates? Optimize your content and keep rolling out fresh content initiatives – that way, your client is never bored.
