B2B Lead generation can be tricky and in an ever changing landscape it can often feel like your business is nowhere to be seen. What can you do to increase B2B sales? Don’t just sit back and wait! Here are our top tips.
Make your website a joy
The first thing to consider when you are trying to increase leads is whether or not your website is easily accessible, easy to navigate and easy to convert. Your aim should be to make the conversion process as quick and efficient as possible for the user. Try making clear ‘Calls to Action’ (CTA) which usually take the shape of a form. Don’t distract the user with other messages or adverts.
Try and put yourself in the shoes of your customers. They should be able to understand what your website provides, your brand message and your CTA within the first few seconds. If not your site needs tweaking.
The websites technical performance is of importance too. A big conversion killer is a slow site and even a few seconds delay is long enough to increase your Bounce Rate. Avoid large images, unnecessary flash graphics or auto loading videos and optimise for mobile devices.
Of course, inbound links are vital for driving more traffic and pushing up your search rankings but you should also evaluate your onsite SEO strategy. You are not giving your website the best chance to be properly indexed by Google unless you are producing unique and keyword consistent page titles, offering an optimised site navigation, making use of the ‘description’ Meta tag or using image alt tags.
I’ve sorted my website…now what!?
There are a lot of options available out there to generate leads with varying costs and success rates. What should your business be targeting to generate B2B sales? As a rule, we at Midas Media suggest initially focusing on nailing outbound lead generation methods and then supplementing them with other approaches such as social media, events etc. No method should be entirely excluded, and we recommend testing them all.
If sales are slow, try redefining your leads. Overly strict definitions can sometimes end up shunning potentially profitable leads. Slacken the line and test it out. Also, always ask for referrals. It is one of the simplest lead generation techniques and, when questioned, 89% of B2B marketers agreed that customer testimonials were effective.
Content is King
The Content Marketing Institute Survey found that 9 out of 10 B2B marketers are using content marketing to grow their businesses.
Creating unique, relevant and regular content is vital in boosting the authority of your website. This usually, and most easily, takes the form of a company blog. An informative blog that engages your audience and ties back to a CTA on your site can increase traffic, conversions and backlinks to your site.
To increase views and improve your blogs share-ability you can:
- Use flirtatious headlines – Just like we did in this post! ‘Questions’ and ‘Top Lists’ are affective.
- Use unique imagery – No cheesy or stock photos
- Highlight educational content – Become a thought leader
- Connect with authority blogs – They’re doing it right. Introduce yourself.
- Display certificates, badges and other social proof – This is a great way to increase customer trust
- Engage in current news stories and cultural topics – Although it may seem irrelevant to your business, it can give your company that human touch and further engage your audience.
Content is King v2.0
Asserting yourself through your blog and engaging with other influential people in the field can create a buzz and boost your businesses brand identity. However, blogging is not the only content you can produce to increase your potential customers.
Utilise Webinars to present your business solution in a personalised and human manner. Make sure to understand your audiences pain points and address them. The biggest challenge when hosting a webinar is getting people to watch. Use email and registration to make sure your prospects don’t forget when it is.
You can also organise online surveys that require email registration, start a LinkedIn group that becomes a forum of potential leads or create quality whitepapers and slideshare presentations to give your audience valuable content and direct them towards a strong CTA.
Don’t neglect social
Although not first port of call for lead generation, social media can be powerful and it’s gaining ever more traction. You should be encouraging all staff members to be active online and share the content you produce. LinkedIn is especially useful for this as your target audience is an incredibly targeted niche.
Visitors to your site should be able to easily share your content on their social profiles too. Only embed widgets that are relevant and be careful not to overload your audience. Facebook, Twitter, G+ and LinkedIn will do. Bebo, MySpace, no.
To encourage social shares you can offer an incentive. Perhaps some of your unique, informative and interesting content can be exchanged for a Tweet including a link back to it. Consider e-books, free trials and webinar invites.
Do you have any other lead generation ideas not stated above? Drop me a message on
