B2B lead generation: 7 steps to more leads

In the e-commerce industry, developments in online marketing are advancing rapidly. Strong positions in Google, effective online ad campaigns, and visibility on social media directly lead to increased online sales. The correlation between online marketing efforts and online transactions is visible and measurable for everyone. Therefore, webshops are almost daily engaged in conversion optimization and refining their online marketing approach. 

  

Businesses without webshops may seem to lag behind in this fast-paced environment, but this is certainly not necessary. Even without a webshop, leads gathered through the website can generate new customers and additional revenue. Effective and personalized follow-up of online leads can lead to an influx of new customers. While a customer may start with a Google search, they may have a concrete buying intent. The same approach, tools, and measurability from the e-commerce world can thus apply to B2B lead generation. Here's a concrete plan to work towards more leads in 7 steps through the use of online marketing. 

Lead Generatie 7 Stappen

1. Strategy, positioning, target audiences, and personas

To identify which leads are valuable, we start with the strategy and positioning of the enterprise. In which markets do we want to be active, and for which target audiences? How does this translate into an online strategy? Since online efforts can be specifically targeted at certain segments within a target audience, it's important to create personas. These are standardized descriptions of the characteristics of a particular prospect, including age, gender, role, income, preferences, purchasing behavior, and online channels they frequent. 

2. Proposition

What message will we convey to different target audiences? A good method is to build the message using the components: need, promise, and proof. What does the target audience need, how can we play a role in this, and what evidence can we provide? Are we focusing more on activation or awareness? 

3. Channel selection

Now that we know which target audiences we are targeting and what message we are communicating, we can select the right channels. This often includes a combination of SEO (higher Google rankings), SEA (search engine advertising), social media, content marketing, and online advertising. The business target audience can be reached through Google, LinkedIn, and specific online platforms (news or theme-based). Many platforms allow us to generate organic traffic by posting interesting articles and also paid traffic through ads or advertorials. 

4. Campaigns

On various channels, we can now post articles, advertise, and engage with target audiences. By using specific techniques, we can ensure that Google Analytics recognizes the different channels, allowing us to evaluate the results per channel and per campaign. Throughout the campaigns, online marketing can make daily adjustments based on results and adjust budgets per channel and campaign. 

5. Data analysis

By setting specific conversion goals in Google Analytics, we can assess the effectiveness of our campaigns. A conversion goal could be filling out an online contact form, sending an email to the sales department, downloading a whitepaper, or viewing a video. It's also possible to set indirect goals, such as a visitor staying on the website for more than 3 minutes or viewing more than 4 web pages. By comparing achieved conversion goals with various online campaigns, we get a good overview of the most successful campaigns. Based on this, we can again adjust settings and budgets per channel and campaign. Additional tools are useful in this phase, such as reading Google rankings, testing website loading speeds, and registering user sessions. 

6. Optimization

A data-driven approach provides many insights into the performance of our website, campaigns, and the needs of our target audience. With these insights, we can adjust existing campaigns and create new ones. We can also focus on conversion optimization on the website. The rapid adjustments possible in online marketing create a continuous process of analyzing, implementing, measuring, and adjusting. 

7. Lead follow-up

Ultimately, the goal of generating more leads is achieved. But now comes the most important part: leads must be structured and followed up promptly, otherwise, all online marketing efforts will be in vain. This final crucial step is often underestimated in B2B companies. Effective and personalized follow-up by sales is crucial. Not only can sales qualify leads, but they can also provide valuable feedback to the online marketing team. With this feedback, campaigns can improve further, establishing a successful collaboration between online marketing and sales.Â