7 Fundamentals for Improving Lead Generation

There are so many more opportunities today for B2B marketers to increase the number of leads they pass to their sales teams. But the proliferation of marketing channels and touchpoints also creates one of the biggest challenges: how to optimize engagement with — and nurture interest from — the right buyers at the right time. 

Because there are so many ways to connect with prospective and existing customers, marketers must navigate complex logistics when running successful campaigns. That could mean a lot of trial and error, including sorting through volumes of undeliverable email addresses and the lengthy process of finding the appropriate decision-makers. It also means attempting to capture and engage contacts who are probably bombarded with hundreds, if not thousands, of messages each day.

Providing sales teams with quality net-new and cross-sell/upsell leads increases the potential for higher conversion rates while reducing the time and resources spent chasing contacts and inquiries that may never convert. How can marketers finetune their process to help improve the quality of inquiries and leads? Start with the seven basics below.

1. Don’t Try to Do It All Yourself

The more time- and resource-intensive a marketing tactic is, the more likely a business is to need outside assistance to execute it. One example is content marketing, which can be an effective online tactic for lead-generation that can also be challenging to launch and maintain. 

If content marketing is a priority, consider leveraging the services of creative agencies, third-party writers, or social media consultants so you can optimize the internal creative and digital resources you have. You’ll avoid stretching your teams too thin or obligating them to own critical tasks they may not have the time or experience to sustain.

2. Buckle Up for a Complex Sales Cycle

The modern B2B sales cycle is increasingly complex, and that means converting a lead into a sale may require the involvement of multiple stakeholders within the business. This winding road to becoming a client can be full of off-ramps where a qualified lead may fizzle. But if your marketing team plans ahead, there is an opportunity to nurture and cultivate a stronger relationship before passing the prospect along to sales. 

Take the time to understand the world of your customers: Understand their needs, how they buy, and why they buy. With the sales team, agree on a buyer’s journey and develop supporting content that makes sense for each stage of that journey and each group of prospects you want to influence. Creating content and messaging that speaks directly to your target audience while also providing valuable information can be a powerful way to build trust. 

By aligning your resources and overall sales and marketing strategy across content, email, digital, and sales, you are more likely to create a streamlined buying experience for your customers.

3. Leverage Predictive Targeting to Model Your Ideal Customer

As artificial intelligence and other relevant technologies evolve, marketers can improve the effectiveness of their campaigns. Data and analytics play a key role, especially since they are more prevalent and easier to leverage than ever before. Using data and analytical insights to ascertain common traits shared by the leads you’ve converted in the past can help you cultivate a better way to target and score new leads in the future. 

Predictive and look-a-like targeting can help ensure that your efforts are focused on your key personas, reducing the resources spent tracking and soliciting parties with a lower likelihood of purchasing from you. These targeting tactics can also pull from broader datasets to help you locate leads that, though they may not be ready to act now, may develop into lucrative deals down the road.

4. Stop Wasting Time on Inefficient Email

Email remains a staple of marketing campaigns because it is one of the easier, and more familiar, lead-generation strategies to implement. It also can reap significant rewards. But asking your team to manage email marketing manually is like asking them to find a needle in a haystack — a lot of effort for little reward. 

Many email addresses remain active long after they’ve stopped being used. In addition, the email that you send may reach the wrong individual — or reach the right individual but at the wrong stage of their journey.

An email marketing automation platform (such as D&B Rev.Up^® ABX) can help make life easier — and can help increase your ROI — by handling everything from list management to scheduling and targeting. Not only can a platform help free up your team’s time, but it can help tailor your efforts to connect with the right audience, track campaign progress, and help improve future initiatives.

5. Rise Through the SEO Ranks

If your company’s website ranks highly on popular search engines, you may have no problem increasing the quantity of your leads. But if you don’t rank, you may be at a disadvantage that can limit your ability to capitalize on buyers’ interest or stand up to the competition. The key is to populate your website regularly with authentic, industry-related content that pertains to your target audience. 

Think about the needs of your prospects and customers as you create content that will live on your site. Develop a keyword strategy by researching the words that your prospects are using to find your site and be sure to include those words or phrases in your content. But be prudent: Your search rankings may slip if you begin inserting keywords without purpose. Dedicate resources who understand this process, and don’t be afraid of trial and error. 

Creating cross-traffic through link-building can also help. This includes adding links between pages on your site, which helps keep traffic out of the hands of your competitors. Linking to outside sources of information may also be beneficial. But just like keywords, adding links just for the sake of bolstering your SEO can dilute your message and lead to penalization by search engine bots. Cross-traffic takes time, so be patient and thoughtful with your strategy and execution.

6. Don’t Be a Social Media Wallflower

To help increase the quality of your B2B leads from social media, you need to determine what type of content resonates with your target audience. While pictures of dogs wearing sunglasses may get views, they’re unlikely to get the B2B engagement you need to meet your sales and revenue goals.

To determine the kind of content you should be creating and promoting, consider social listening exercises. In addition, find out what questions your sales team is fielding from customers. And try to get your sales team involved from a social-sharing perspective. Provide them with your latest content and insight into current campaigns so they can share info across their social media networks.

7. Improve Digital Marketing Experiences

In today’s digital age, one of the easiest ways for someone to interact with your company is through your website. But what do you truly know about your visitors? Marketers continue to struggle with optimizing their websites and understanding their traffic. Fortunately, there are tools that can help.

Identifying visitors contributes to create a better experience for them through personalized messaging and helpful content. You can also more easily measure the success of your marketing campaigns, see which tactics and channels are driving the most targeted traffic to your site, and convert visitors into qualified leads for your sales team.

Give Your Campaigns More Muscle

Marketers are being asked to go beyond generating traffic and engagement. Scoring leads and delivering detailed, high-quality insights to your sales team early in the selling process can be crucial. The more a seller can personalize a conversation, the faster and easier it will be to help the prospect and gain their business. 

By starting with a strong data foundation and applying trusted techniques, you can help your marketing and sales colleagues improve the quality of leads and build a stronger pipeline.