No business, whether in B2C or B2B niche, can survive without clients. The latter are usually formed from leads, which is exactly why so many companies place a strong emphasis on lead generation. No doubt, polishing up your product or service is also very important. But often, a perfect, unique, high-value product may go unnoticed because business owners underfund marketing and lead generation.
The reverse scenario is as likely: often, a raw product in its early development stages can gain a lot of attention and wrap up plenty of sales. When your marketers know how to generate leads, you can sell practically anything. On the other hand, many businesses understand this by now, so making your message stand out from a noisy marketing crowd could prove a real challenge. So, let’s look at some creative lead generation strategies that should help you attract more prospects.
The Corner Stones of Lead Generation
Before we even get to creative lead generation ideas, let’s take a quick look at the marketing foundations. You’d be surprised to know how many business owners miss out on some of the available marketing channels or fail to make full use of their combination. So, present-day marketing and lead generation relies on:
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- Email marketing
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- SEO
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- Paid traffic
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- Social media marketing
- Content marketing
Email marketing is equally efficient for B2B and B2C spheres. It is an unobtrusive, discreet way of making your offer — even to someone you do not know personally. Plenty of professional tools can help compile cold email lists for a variety of business offers. Besides, most businesses have a signup form on their website where interested prospects can leave their email addresses in exchange for valuable information (ebooks, webinars, manuals, etc.).
Search engine optimization is another effective tool, so do not believe anyone who tells you SEO is dead. People start browsing Google with a specific goal in mind, so if your keywords match their request, you have a high chance of attracting a new lead. And the best part is — this lead will practically be sales-ready.
Paid traffic goes beyond Google Adwords, displaying your ads on top of Google search results. It also includes any paid ads on social media, ads you run on your website, and — most importantly — influencer content. The latter is one of the most effective means of advertising your brand or product because today’s customers love to take advice from someone they trust.
Social media marketing is usually associated with the B2C sphere. Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest — all of these platforms target the end-user and have enormous databases. LinkedIn, on the other hand, has slightly over 100 million users but is great for B2B promotion. Here, the trick is to choose platforms that work for you instead of trying to cover the entire vastness of social media.
Finally, content marketing is a niche that affects all of the above marketing foundations. You need quality content for email outreach, for creating compelling ads, and for social media posts. Also, quality blog content can build trust, engage more customers, and bring more clients to your business.
Creative Lead Generation Strategies for Your Business?
Now that you understand the key aspects of lead generation, let’s take a look at how you can creatively combine these channels to attract more leads. Of course, the details will depend on your business specifics. Still, it all goes down to understanding your customers’ needs and playing along with this insight.
Categorize leads into different groups
One of the most common mistakes in marketing is the generic approach to lead engagement. Usually, leads engaging with your business are on different marketing funnel stages, and it is important to treat every prospect type individually. For example, when you compile an email list to attract cold leads (who know literally nothing of your business), you should keep in mind that you are advertising to strangers. If, on the other hand, a lead has already left you an email address, you should treat this person differently. This means offering information your prospect is most interested in. Leads that ask very specific questions about your product or service are practically sales-ready, so everything depends on how fast you can answer their questions.
So, a one-size-fits-all email (or SMM campaign, or a paid ad) will never work. The trick is to divide and conquer, carefully analyzing lead types that show interest in your business and offering them exactly what they want.
Understand the difference between B2B and B2C marketing
You may be the most logical and rational person, but that does not mean your target consumers are like you. B2C segment relies on emotion, which is why so many ads today use emotional appeal whenever possible. In the B2C segment, advertising targets just one person who makes the purchase decision. This decision can be very fast, which usually means a low cost for each new lead. However, purchases and associated profits are also small.
In the B2B sphere, everything is quite different. Here, you are not targeting one decision-maker; instead, you sell to a group of people, and each of them has a say in the final purchase decision. So, emotional appeal is not the best strategy for B2B companies. It would be better to focus on your products’ rational value, draw attention to the ROI your customer will get after purchasing it, and provide factual evidence in the form of reports.
Treat all pop-ups with caution
Nothing annoys prospects more than a distracting pop-up form on a company website. Sure, you can use those forms — but only if you place them strategically. Do not offer your first-time visitor to subscribe to your newsletter after two minutes on your website. Whenever businesses get so pushy, most leads see them as needy and desperate, so avoid making such an impression at all costs.
A good example of a strategic pop-up is when a visitor tries to download something from your site. If a person is interested in a manual, offer them a chance to get more tech advice about using your product. When people are looking at the prices, give them a chance to subscribe to your newsletter so that they could get info on special offers and promotions. Even when someone is about to leave your site, consider having a simple pop-up form asking if your site was useful.
Offer free trials but make them short
Today, a lot of businesses throw in freebies. Still, research proves that too many discounts and special offers negatively affect your brand reputation and ROI. After all, if everyone knows you’ll reduce the cost sooner or later, why would people bother to pay the full price? Besides, regular discounts imply that your product is not exclusive, which is often a deal-breaker.
So, if you feel you should feature discounts, make this a special occasion and do not run them for weeks. When selling software that runs on subscriptions, choose in favor of free trials. Make those free periods short, too. In most cases, a couple of days is enough to figure out if the client enjoys using your product.
Grab attention with stats and numbers
People are social creatures, so anytime they see a business with a large followers’ base, they immediately decide this business is good. Of course, building a large community on social media takes time and effort. Still, social media is not the only tool at your disposal. For example, when advertising your ebook, manual, online course, you can mention how many people have already subscribed to or downloaded this material. The more, the better (obviously); but, stay reasonable if you are going to tweak these numbers a bit.
All in all, there are plenty of strategies that can help generate leads and boost sales. Essentially, it goes down to building trust with your consumers. This calls for constant dialogue, result monitoring, and regularly responding to your clients’ changing needs.
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