What is the ultimate goal of any business? Right, it’s generating revenue. Throughout the 10 recent years, inbound marketing has been established as a great way to attain this. Although outbound marketing methods still work in certain cases, inbound strategies are gaining more and more traction. However, customers won’t just jump immediately from being unaware of your product to being loyal clients. This is where the concept of a sales funnel comes into play.
Your potential customers need to undertake a journey before they engage in a conversation with your brand. The stages of this journey include the following:
- Awareness;
- Interest;
- Consideration;
- Intent;
- Evaluation;
- Purchase.
Sales leads include both individuals and businesses that are your potential customers. This is a category of clients that have expressed an interest in your product or service.
Therefore, you start getting your sales leads at the second stage. Although B2B sales funnel stages are considered a bit more complicated, the general concept works in both B2B and B2C sectors, since the decisions are always made by people.
As sales leads are the lifeblood of your business, their generation becomes an essential goal. The ways to obtain leads are numerous; however, there are several general approaches that help achieve quick results.
Outsource Lead Generation
What do you think is one of the largest challenges for B2B marketers? It’s the generation of high-quality leads. That’s one of the reasons why purchasing lead lists is a common practice in this sector.
Why is buying B2B leads beneficial for your business?
- You get a team of dedicated experts that can develop an efficient, comprehensive strategy;
- You reduce expenses since outsourcing is more affordable than conducting campaigns internally;
- You get access to specialized technologies since professional vendors apply the latest tech advancements in email marketing, data management, and more;
- You minimize your risks since you get a flexible partnership that can be stopped or resumed at any point.
Benefits of cooperation with a lead generation company
If you want your business to maintain profitability and growth, you should keep your pipeline filled with hot, qualified leads. A lead generation company can offer a comprehensive strategy that employs plenty of tools to reach your audience and attract B2B sales leads. Integrated campaigns developed by professional vendors include a range of instruments, such as:
- Lead generation research. Experts conduct careful manual research that provides prospects’ data that perfectly fits your customer profile.
- List building. Buying B2B leads from a marketing agency gives you access to relevant lead lists.
- Appointment setting. Experts utilize all methods and venues to bring you to your targeted prospects.
- Social media. Your partners can establish your SM profile and provide engaging content.
- Email marketing. Professional partners enhance the flow of your leads with excellent email deliverability.
Choose Inbound Marketing Techniques
The inbound approach is primarily aimed at engaging with customers by providing an added value, thereby pulling the specific audience towards your brand. Inbound marketing is on a surge today, as it helps to generate qualified leads and deliver better ROI.
For a better understanding of this approach, let’s examine the inbound methodology a bit closer.
The picture above demonstrates the stages of the sales funnel at which various instruments of inbound marketing motivate customers to further engage with your brand. The methods that will help you drive buyers through the sales funnel quickly and get B2B sales leads include the following.
- Content marketing.
By creating quality content online, you can inform and engage your audience and establish your expertise. The tool improves the flow of business leads both in the short term and in the long term.
- Pay-per-click (PPC).
This tactic is quick and efficient as it targets the customers already searching for a relevant solution. By obtaining top places in search results, you will show up right in front of your specific audience.
- Social media marketing (SMM).
SMM facilitates the success of your content marketing. The efficiency of your content marketing is made up 20% by creating quality content and 80% by effectively promoting it through social networks.
- Email marketing.
Email marketing is another excellent way to promote your content and do much more for obtaining business leads. However, it’s important to ensure that your emails reach the recipients’ inboxes and offer the right information. Professional vendors can provide superior email management, copywriting, and spam control. By leveraging advanced software for email deliverability, they guarantee that your messages will get through. A spam checker will ensure that your emails don’t fall into the recipient’s spam folder. By enhancing your email deliverability, an efficient email spam checker helps you maximize the effect of your outreach campaigns.
Choose a Hybrid Solution
While inbound methodology brings leads in naturally, outbound marketing goes out to find them. Although many businesses today prefer inbound marketing, outbound tools still work and can be efficiently used. If you need a large spike in traffic quickly, the combination of these strategies may do the job.
Ultimately, both lead generation approaches share the same goal, which is acquiring leads. Here are some of the outbound strategies that can bring you leads promptly.
- Personalized cold emails. If you make those relevant enough, you can get up to a 45% open rate.
- Cold calling. Although often disliked, such calls can be effective when well conducted. After all, 69% of buyers are eager to answer calls from their vendors.
- LinkedIn automation. The network is a popular hang-out spot for B2B marketers. 59% of them get their leads through LinkedIn.
The use of LinkedIn vs other social platforms by B2B marketers
Conclusion
Modern tech advancements provide your business with plenty of opportunities to grow. Digital marketing is on the surge and can help you develop an efficient sales pipeline with online lead sourcing. You should choose your lead generation approaches according to your goals and tasks. Consider professional vendors that can share the burden of your marketing efforts and boost their efficiency. However, whatever path you select, you shouldn’t fear trying new things, since ‘if you always do what you’ve always done, you will always get what you’ve always got’ – Henry Ford.
