B2B Lead Generation Strategies

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This uber-comprehensive B2B lead generation guide was inspired by Jon Cooper's brilliant link building strategies list…

Inspired by Jon Cooper’s brilliant link building strategies list (if you haven’t stumbled across it yet, go check it out…right after you’ve had a browse through this list!), we’ve spent a good 6 months to bring you the most in-depth, thorough, comprehensive list of online lead generation ideas that you’ll find anywhere on the web. 

We’ve also tried to group them into somewhat logical categories, but lots of them could easily fall into multiple categories. Also, we’d love to hear any additional ideas that you think should be included – we plan to keep this updated and current, so list anything we’ve missed or any new or novel ideas in the comments section. Enjoy, and happy lead generating!

Make it Automatic

Marketing automation isn’t just a buzzword or ‘only’ a lead generation system. It should be a tool that implements a comprehensive digital marketing strategy that happens to include lead generation. Sadly, many marketers don’t appreciate this nuance, and simply stuff it with untargeted reams of email addresses, resulting in poor performance and ineffective campaigns.

We suggest marketing automation with caution, and primarily it works best for B2B marketers.

So, what is marketing automation?
Marketing automation uses software to deliver the most relevant content to the most receptive people and better enables them to convert. The software’s main purpose is to help streamline and reduce the labour-intensive aspects of marketing tasks. The marketer’s role is to design the strategy and tell the software what type of outcomes they desire.

Marketing automation can gather user behaviour metrics on social media or the company website, and then gain leads through opt-ins and similar methods. Leads are then nurtured through targeted messages and responses. They are then guided down the marketing funnel using email marketing tactics to guide the buyer journey. Advanced automated marketing efforts, when used properly, can cover everything in the marketing process from research to lead gen, to lead management, lead scoring, nurturing, and then on to campaign analysis, lead qualification, and measuring the effectiveness of sales teams as well.

How much does it cost?
It can be expensive. If it’s not set up or used properly it can be very expensive. The headline price often shocks small businesses to steer away from automation. It used to be the big boys with fat marketing budgets that could implement marketing automation, however this is changing with newer platforms that can be bought off the shelf and lighter alternatives more suited to the SME market.

How easy is it?
Generally, it’s not. It can be quite complicated. The word “automation” makes some people assume that it’s going to be easy. Just buy the software, turn it on, and let it go, right? Wrong. Marketing automation requires complex set-up processes before it can be truly successful.

At the end of the day I recommend marketing automation as a lead generating technique because it can be effective for many B2B companies. Here are a few things to consider before taking the plunge with marketing automation:

1. Your marketing activities can accommodate a decent investment with a period of little to no ROI.
2. Your website is gaining some leads already.
3. Your website traffic is 5k+ or more unique visitors per month.
4. You have a full range of active social media accounts.
5. You have a fully functioning content marketing strategy currently in place.

Marketing automation is a very fast growing field, and one that you’re likely going to be opening to in the next year or two.

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