The B2B market has irrevocably changed in the last few years. Customers are better informed and expect a different, more personalized type of service. Strategies that worked even a few years ago are becoming outdated, leading CEOs and VPs of Sales to seek new ways to generate leads.

Our 2021 Ultimate Guide to Lead Generation for B2B Service Businesses will teach you how to update your strategy.

How to get more B2B leads in 2021? 

While the question for many businesses is “How can I get more B2B leads?” the real question should be, “How can I get more qualified B2B leads?”. Quality over quantity.

So, we’ll focus on how to get well-qualified leads.

How To Implement the Right Lead Generation Strategy

Choosing the right strategy depends on several factors, including:

#1. What is Your Product or Service?

When customers buy your product or service, they are fundamentally purchasing a solution to a problem. A good product addresses a specific pain point. It could be that you save them time, money or offer them a solution that’s not on the market. Whatever it is, make sure that your marketing materials demonstrate the value of your solution.

#2. Who is Your Target?

Understanding who you are trying to sell to requires deep research. What are the demographics, what don’t they like about competitor’s solutions, how can you make life easy for them? Etc.

#3. What is Your Business Revenue Model?

Different revenue models require different lead generation strategies. One-off purchases, scaled pricing, and subscription prices require their own considerations and knowledge of various consumer personas.

#4. Where Do Your Customers Hang Out?

Specific platforms have distinct demographics. If your B2B consumer persona is serious business people, try LinkedIn. If they are Millennials, Instagram could be the right place.

Tips to Plan Your B2B Strategy:

• Understand your customer persona
• Underline the value of your product or service in your marketing materials
• Understand that different business models need their own approach
• Concentrate your efforts in the places your personas congregate.

Five Channels for B2B Lead Generation

#1. Inbound Marketing

Inbound marketing is all about content and solid SEO (Search Engine Optimization). It is still one of the most effective ways to get site traffic — and leads — to your site. 

Capturing leads can be done with this process:

1) Write helpful content that targets keywords and questions relevant to your product. 

2) Valuable content will help you rank and appear in the SERP when your target market is searching for solutions.

3) Once your leads visit your site, you need to find a way to get their details.

4) Use gated content that requires them to leave their name, phone number, and email address.

Which Gated Content Can Act as a Lead Magnet?

This content will depend on your product, service, and target audience. But some of the types of content that attracts leads are:

• White papers or ebooks
• Webinars
• Research
• Demos
• Email series

In short, offer your prospects valuable content, and they’ll arrive.

The thing to remember when using inbound content as a strategy is that it takes time to bear fruit. So keep at it. It can take as long as 6 to 12 months.

#2. Pay-per-click advertising (PPC)

If you need something quicker than inbound marketing via SEO, PPC advertisement is a solid strategy. 

This process involves paying for site traffic. There are several pros and cons here.

Pros:

-Lots of traffic

-Potential to target your demographic

Cons:

-Expensive

-Can get expensive

-Not all traffic is verified

Additionally, there are lots of options available in the ad space. Banner ads and ads that target demographics via social media (for example, Facebook) are good. Additionally, Google offers a wide range of services to get your product or service in front of the right eyes.

Native ads are another appealing option. These are the ads that appear like native content on a news feed or other digital publication.

#3. Social Marketing

Having a social media presence is crucial for most products or services. Creating brand awareness and establishing expertise and credibility in your field are great ways to get attention.

However, to turn your social media into a lead-generating machine, here are two great tips.

1) Make social media posts that are interesting, helpful, and include your CTA. However, it’s not always time for the hard sell. Most of your interactions will be with people in the awareness stage of the sales funnel, so a gentle approach is the most effective.

2) Use social media to drive traffic to your site or landing page. You can use content like blog posts, videos, or other values to achieve this. Once you’ve got them there, you can try and capture their details.

How to Generate Lead Through LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a fantastic resource for B2B leads. This platform is where most prospects are. 

Here is a proven lead generation strategy for LinkedIn:

1) Make a solid profile.

2) Be active with posts and in relevant groups. Make connections.

3) Engage, make connections, be helpful, demonstrate how your solution can help.

4) Collect relevant details and contacts, which by now should be warm leads

#4. Influencer Marketing

Millennials have become skeptical and untrusting of traditional advertising. For this reason, influencer marketing took off because it offered something similar to trust and word of mouth.

However, while marketers generally used it for B2C products, influencer marketing has become popular for B2B recently. 

Depending on your niche, this can be very effective. And not necessarily by using well-known names. Micro or nano influencers can be very effective, with the bonus of locking down on very tight demographics they serve.

#5. Outsource Lead Generation

While the above tactics are effective, outbound lead generation still gets the best results. However, many businesses struggle to generate enough leads for their sales people.

By outsourcing cold calling and appointment setting, you can let your reps focus on their core competency: closing deals.

With the assistance of a B2B lead generation service, you can make sure each prospect is fully qualified and warmed up already, leading to higher conversions for your sales team.

Conclusion

B2B lead generation costs time and money. Formulating strategies that work for your market and your target audience is vital. Using a combination of inbound and outbound marketing, you can make sure your lead pipeline is full of quality prospects interested in your product.

Author’s bio: John Dubay is the Managing Partner at Leads at Scale, an outsourced sales support company that helps B2B companies generate well-qualified leads at scale, ready to be closed.