Ready to attract your first clients? Let’s start by addressing the gaps in understanding B2B lead generation. Our guide will walk you through the basics and show you where to begin with your lead generation efforts.
Let’s start with the definition.
What Is Lead Generation?
Lead generation is the process of attracting potential clients and collecting their contacts. The collaboration between the marketing team and sales team moves interested individuals through the lead generation funnel, from initial interest to final purchase.
A lead generation funnel is a way to visualize the lead generation process. Each stage of the funnel requires a specific approach and content. If you engage with potential clients in the wrong manner, you risk losing them altogether.
Imagine someone aggressively selling you software for a problem you didn’t know you had, let alone knowing the brand. That’s an example of skipping the funnel stages.
An example of a lead generation funnel can look as follows:
- You create gated content and publish it on your website ー a type of content that requires a user to provide personal information, typically through a form, to access it.
- A potential client finds a link to the gated content in LinkedIn comments or Reddit.
- The user leaves their email to get the content, e.g. a template or checklist.
- You send them a set of emails that are useful for them and gradually educate them about the problem they have and why your solution is a fit.
Types of Lead Generation
There are two primary lead generation types classified based on the channel and tactic used.
Inbound lead generation involves creating and promoting content that is helpful, interesting, and engaging, tailored to both your audience and solutions. This approach encourages potential clients to reach out to you on their own if and when they are interested in your product or service. Examples are SEO content and social media marketing.
Outbound lead generation involves identifying potential clients and their contact information, then reaching out to them with your offer and call to action. Examples are direct messaging and running Google ads campaigns.
How To Generate Leads Who’ll Buy
Step 1. Make Sure You Know Your Buyer Personas And Positioning
An ideal client profile is a description of a company that is in real need of your solution and delivers the maximum value for your company. A buyer persona is a profile that describes the type of decision-maker who is likely to buy your solution within a company.
Positioning, in turn, encapsulates how you are different from competitors and how you want to be perceived on the market.
The success of any lead generation method highly depends on how well you have figured out your ICP, buyer personas, and positioning. For instance, running ads for a high-priced product with too general targeting might be a complete budget waste.
Step 2. Create A Lead Generation Strategy
Decide which direction you will take in your lead generation efforts:
- Define your specific lead generation goal for a quarter;
- Set a budget and time you can spend on lead generation activities;
- Research and talk to your audience to learn how they buy and what their professional (and not only) go-to places online;
- List all lead gen tactics based on audience research and then prioritize activities based on your goal and budget.
Step 3. Prepare A Lead Scoring System
Lead scoring is the process of prioritizing and classifying leads information based on their attributes and behaviors. And then assigning a certain number of points for each characteristic and activity. You might want to add potential leads, marketing qualified leads and sales qualified leads.
Companies need a lead scoring system for two important reasons. First, to cut more deals and increase the ROI of lead gen efforts, you need to pick and prioritize working with leads who match your ICP and have a strong intent to buy.
Second, some leads may fit your ICP but aren’t ready to buy yet. To appear finally in the group of those who are ready to buy, they need a separate approach.
You can create your initial system in Google Sheets, if you have quite a small pipeline.
You can also use a lead scoring system. For example, HubSpot CRM has a lead-scoring feature.
Step 4. Launch A Lead Gen Campaign
Start establishing one lead generation channel at a time. Prioritize content quality regardless of the channel you choose. While big brands sometimes deliberately create content of mediocre quality, it would likely be a waste of resources for a young brand.
Before you build a strong reputation, stand out with your creativity and insights.
Step 5. Measure Campaign Performance And Experiment
There are multiple metrics to measure your lead generation campaign. To simplify things in the beginning, you can start with Lead quality, Conversion rate, and Cost per lead.
Pivot every month or quarter measuring leads based on channel performance, and consistently test new strategies. Make sure you only test one aspect at a time, lest you miss which change caused a shift.
Lead generation Strategies for different scenarios
In this section, we’ve picked a few budget-friendly lead-gen options that offer a strong potential for a good ROI.
Direct Messaging
Best for: high-ticket B2B services and SaaS products.
Direct messaging implies contacting unknown or slightly known folks who fit your buyer persona and explaining why they might be interested in trying your product or service.
Tip: It’s easier to engage in direct messaging when you already have quality content that addresses the challenges faced by your target audience.
A popular and effective channel for direct messaging is LinkedIn. With the platform filters you find relevant users, connect with them, and then message your pitch.
The only downside is LinkedIn has daily engagement limits: 80 profile visits per day, 100 connection requests per week, 150 messages per day, etc.
To safely bypass these limitations and speed up lead generation, people create multiple accounts and run them via special tools (to avoid being banned). GoLogin multi-accounting browser is one of them.
Watch this short video guide on how to run multiple LinkedIn accounts without blocks:
Download GoLogin for free and manage multiple accounts without bans!
Authority Building
Best for: сonsultants, service providers.
This tactic closely overlaps with personal brand building and content marketing in general. In essence, it involves engaging in relevant social media communities and forums and providing valuable answers to questions that matter to your audience and service.
Depending on your audience research, you can hang out in Slack communities, Discord chats, subreddits, Quora, Twitter, Facebook groups, Shopify communities, etc.
Here is an example of Jason Lemkin, an entrepreneur who grew his Quora presence up to 45 million views.
Here is one more example of a sales consultant answering a question about lead generation on Reddit.
SEO Content
Best for: niche markets, local businesses, specialized B2B services.
Using SEO to generate leads might seem like a long-term marketing strategy, or even futile due to intense competition in search results. However, it can still be effective for certain niches and topics.
You can start with tracking down trending low-difficulty (low competition) keywords directly related to problems your product solves. For example, landing page, “how-to” article, templates, and checklists.
As a starting point, try Google Trends and check “Related queries, Rising” for the last 30 days. And then use the free Ahrefs Keyword Difficulty Checker.
Paid Media
Unlike previous options that require time or expertise, this tactic also requires an ad budget. It covers all channels where you can pay to display your ads to a wider audience.
One of the effective paid tactics is sponsoring newsletters or communities with high engagement. Unlike traditional advertising that may seem intrusive, newsletter sponsorships are often seamlessly integrated into content, enhancing the reader’s experience and positively impacting brand perception.
Furthermore, regular sponsorships can build lasting relationships with the audience, as sponsors consistently support content that readers trust and enjoy.
Influencer Collaboration
The pool of B2B influencers is increasingly growing. Among the benefits is that the tactic isn’t overused yet and when influencers talk about your product, it often comes across as a genuine recommendation from the creator. What’s more, some creators agree to promote your product in exchange for freebies, discounts, or commission from sales.
There aren’t many tools for finding B2B influencers, so start by searching LinkedIn, YouTube, and Twitter using relevant keywords and hashtags.
Summary on What Is Lead Generation
- You need a lead generation strategy to get contacts of potential clients regularly.
- ICP and positioning are the basement for your lead generation program.
- Prepare a lead scoring system to ensure you sell only to the most qualified leads.
- Direct messaging, authority building, sponsoring content creators, and cresting content for low-difficulty keywords are cost-effective options to start your lead gen program.
GoLogin is a multiple account browser that can help you overcome your daily lead-generation limits. It enables businesses to create and run multiple social media accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook and other platforms.
Download GoLogin for free and manage multiple accounts without bans!
Frequently Asked Questions About What Is Lead Generation
What is B2B lead generation?
B2B lead generation is identifying and attracting potential business customers for products or services, often involving activities like LinkedIn outreach, authority building, and collaborating with B2B creators.
What is lead generation in digital marketing?
Lead generation in digital marketing involves using inbound lead generation tactics, such as creating SEO content, and social media brand building. Typically, digital marketers attract the interest of your target audience, capture their contact information, and then nurture these leads into making a purchase.
