Generating leads can sometimes be difficult when trying to expand a B2B presence. Most B2B leads are already going to have made it through a majority of the sales process without you. They’ve got a good idea of they want, what you have, and what kind of deal they think they can broker. This means your best B2B lead generation is going to come from the information that you have regarding your goods and services in general search formation.
This means the #1 thing you can do right now is to make sure your website is fully optimized to meet the needs of your leads. If it has been more than 36 months since your last optimization efforts, then there is a good chance that your data is out-of-date. Begin here instead of focusing on social media or paid advertising because a poor first impression from a website is virtually impossible to overcome.
1. Improve Your User Experience Above Anything Else.
Your website should be customer-focused from a navigation standpoint. Take the user experience and create a path that makes sense to navigate. Your B2B leads should be able to go from point to point, seeing the value in what you have to offer, and the end of their journey should lead them to a contact page when they’re ready to make a purchase.
2. You Must Push Your Leads Not Forcefully, but Subtly.
A call to action is more than just a conclusion to a paragraph or a transition between different points. It can be used anywhere on the site to inspire some sort of action. Subtle prompts to keep your leads moving through your sales funnel will help to generate more sales-ready opportunities that won’t waste your time.
3. Qualify Your Leads Before You Even Meet Them.
Don’t waste your time pursuing leads that won’t be purchasing what you have. You can qualify your leads through your website by including pricing and technical information about your goods or services to eliminate leads that won’t be profitable. As an added bonus, pricing and technical data are often one of the first things that prospects search for when encountering new products and services, so you win twice.
4. Forget About the Single Word Keywords.
Millions of websites are all trying to optimize themselves so their niche markets can find them. Single word keywords are useless unless you’re a large corporation that is looking to mass market products to the B2B sector. For the average business, long tail keywords of at least 3 or more in a phrase are a better option. This will give you a niche sector where you can show off your expertise, establish influence, and ultimately build consistent leads.
5. Email Marketing Can Help Nurture Some Leads.
Email marketing is not your catch-all solution. There are excellent tools available today that will help you reach your B2B leads at the best time and day possible, placing more emphasis on your value. This only helps to nurture leads that are already on the hook and need some extra convincing, however, so don’t make email marketing be the only point of emphasis used for follow-up.
6. Develop More Than a Theme – Tell Your Story.
The story of your goods or services is what will bring a B2B lead back to you, even if your value is slightly less than that of a competitive product. People place value in the story because it helps them relate to you in a personal way, even if the purpose is to create a B2B relationship. Weave your story throughout the message that is sent through your optimized site and your value will break through the glass ceiling.
7. Know Who the Decision-Makers Happen To Be.
The one issue with modern B2B lead generation is that many decision-makers are delegating the research to subordinates and then only coming around to make the final decision to purchase when necessary. You could very well be working with researchers instead of decision-makers and what could seem like a huge sale could wind up being absolutely nothing. Make sure that you know who makes the decisions so that you can put your data in the right hands.
B2B lead generation is a lot easier today in some ways because the leads are doing much of the work, but it can be more difficult because relationships are based on information instead of interaction. By improving the information and optimizing a site for modern search needs, better relationships can be formed and that will ultimately lead to better B2B lead generation.
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