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Are you finding it harder and harder to generate high quality leads for your company? Lead generation is the single most important objective of any business-to-business (B-to-B) marketing department. Other objectives, such as brand building, community building, public relations, are important, but none of them have the direct effect on the bottom line as lead generation do. However, the effects of an uncertain global economy and evolving buyer behavior has made this more and more challenging. This article will reveal the top 5 proven ways to generate high quality leads for your company.
In the 2012 B2B Marketing Benchmark Report, Marketing Sherpa asked chief marketing offices (CMOs) about the challenges they face. The top answer for the 3rd year in a row was “generating high quality leads”. While it is clear that generating a large volume of leads is important, quality is a bigger challenge. The greatest challenge may be how you achieve both.
In order to generate these higher quality leads, Marketing Sherpa looked at the top tactics to generate these leads. The results are as follows:
As marketers shift from quantity to quality,the following are the top 5 proven ways to generate high quality leads for your company.
- Website Design, Management and Optimization
You may not have realized it, but the greatest source for attaining the cheapest and most qualified leads is right at your fingertips: your company website. Many companies tend to see their company’s website as just a virtual brochure. However, you can -and should - do a lot more with it. You can add functionality to your site to motivate visitors to leave behind contact information. Use welcoming, benefit-oriented copy supported by a compelling offer, such as a downloadable case study or white paper. Make the registration form as simple as needed, keeping in mind that asking for more information will likely lower the response but yield better qualified prospects.
Your website is also an ideal fulfillment tool for lead-generation campaigns. Instead of sending out printed collateral material or white papers, invite responders to download the material from your website. This enables you to update the material regularly and keep costs down. - Search Engine Optimization
Business buyers today use the Internet as their primary research tool to solve business problems, so search engine optimization (SEO) has become the hottest of the hot. Search engine optimization is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via the "organic" or un-paid search results. In general, the earlier (or higher ranked on the search results page), and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine's users. Due to aggressive competition, this kind of marketing requires constant attention. Also, if people do not search your category, you’re up a creek. - Email Marketing
Email marketing is cheap and can be very cost effective. However, the scourge of spam has made it harder and harder to generate leads from cold prospecting lists. On the other hand, email is very important part of a generation, tracking and management process as a whole. After you have persuaded someone to show interest, email is the perfect medium for staying in touch and moving the prospect along the sales cycle, using tools such as marketing automation. - Tradeshows
Exhibiting at trade shows with a high quality audience can be a great source of new leads. Attendees have their minds on business while at the show, and they seek solutions to business problems. According to a study by Business Marketer Association, business marketers spend on average 18.6 percent of their budgets on trade shows. However, trade show marketing is expensive, costing on average $215 per contact, according to Exhibit Surveys Inc. That’s why it’s important to select trade shows carefully and based on the likelihood of a strong concentration of potential buyers on the show floor. It’s also important to have a lead nurturing strategy in place using email and marketing automation in order to continue the conversation with these prospects after the show. - Virtual Events / Webinars
Web-based seminars, also known as “webinars” or “webcasts”, have come into wide use in B-to-B, usually later in the sales cycle when buyers determine their specifications and which vendors to use. But they can also work early in the sales cycle, when the prospect is not even aware of the problem. Webinars work best when you have a lot of information to communicate, especially when your product or service can solve a pressing business problem faced your prospects. It also helps when you have a hot topic, a strong offer, and a highly targeted group of prospects.
The truth is that each medium has its strength, weaknesses, and best applications. Your lead generation program must carefully harness the right medium for each job, factoring in such variables as:
- The cost of each medium
- The medium’s availability
- The campaign’s time horizon
- Your business objective
Because of long complex sales cycles in B-to-B marketing, the best medium is often not just one, but a mix of multiple media, mapped to your customers buying process, used simultaneously or deployed sequentially for multiple touches.
From Andrew Hunt:
Want to learn more about how to build a lead generation engine that leverages these great tools? Check out this free guide: The Executives' Guide to Building a Lead Generation Engine.
