Converting visitors into qualified leads is a major challenge for all B2B companies. A primary concern for many managers, effective lead generation requires a well-thought-out strategy be put in place.
During this essential process, you will create new sale contacts, the more qualified the better. This implies that each lead goes far beyond a simple marketing contact and has been identified as having expressed a real interest in the products and/or services you offer.
But lead generation cannot be improvised—you would risk exhausting your human and technological resources. It must be part of a precise approach to implement an effective conversion strategy.
Here are some tips and tricks to establish and develop a clear and relevant lead generation strategy that will optimise your daily work.
3 essential rules for B2B lead generation
Prospects' expectations have changed a lot in recent years. Today, even if you have the right resources and powerful tools to carry out your B2B lead generation strategy, its management can quickly become very time-consuming and the results may end up being quite disappointing.
In such a context, it is best to adopt a few basic rules that are essential to any solid lead generation strategy. If ‘targeting the right prospect at the right time and with the right message’ is the cornerstone of lead generation, it is equally important to know how to master the right strategy in order to increase your efficiency in generating and processing leads.
1. Align marketing and sales functions
Generating leads is now the responsibility of both sales and marketing departments, and the historical separation between these two teams is a thing of the past. Lead generation is a joint responsibility where there is no need for competition.
Ultimately, a lead needs to be nurtured to be converted, which requires the involvement of both departments. Its sourcing must be outstanding throughout the sales cycle so that sales people get the best possible results, which is only truly possible by aligning your sales and marketing teams. This means working hand-in-hand toward common goals to meet the needs and expectations of prospects.
2. Communicate at the right time according to the sales cycle
As you know, ‘the right time’ is closely linked to the sales cycle. And since the sales cycle is made up of several stages (visitor, lead, customer and ambassador), a tailored approach must be adopted for each of them as the sales cycle progresses.
This will enable you to provide your target audience with new and effective information and solutions that will address their issues and pain points.
3. Make sure your content sends the right message
Content is undoubtedly one of the keys to opening the doors of lead generation. But be careful how you convey that information: your content should be personalised to target the right contact via an effective inbound marketing strategy.
For example, there is no point in sending an email with overly technical content to an ‘everyday’ user who is just looking for information about availability or pricing. You need to produce quality content at each stage of your conversion tunnel to capture the attention of and appeal to your target audience.
