Over the past year, digital marketers have put a ton of energy into increasing engagement around the remote events and online interactions that have become the norm. Webinars, video conferences, and other virtual events are everywhere; digital communication tools are more accessible and widely used; and engagement potential has exploded. Throughout all of it, we’ve had a lot of success with some core lead generation tactics that combine the best aspects of modern efficiency and traditional audience connections.
5 B2B Lead Generation Tactics That Work
Email Marketing
First up, let’s talk about email marketing. Email is the leading communication channel, with 91% of customers checking their email every day. Coinciding with our digital culture-shift, email automation and marketing platforms such as HubSpot, ExactTarget, Constant Contact, and MailChimp have improved their capabilities in a variety of ways:
- Easily build and refine contact lists
- Effortlessly verify audience members
- Quickly run effective A/B tests
- Leverage better reporting and analytics to enhance optimization
Additionally, emails look more appealing than ever. Check out these examples showing how an email promoting a virtual event, newsletter, or downloadable can have an attractive look and welcoming personality that entices readers and generates leads.
Organic Social Media
Organic social media marketing can take engagement and lead generation to new heights, but its vast, fast-paced nature can overwhelm B2B companies that try to tackle it all by themselves. The biggest challenges are the fundamentals – who are you addressing, how do you talk to them, and what platforms do you use? Here are the primary social media platforms we recommend for B2B companies:
- YouTube
Once you’ve figured out which platforms make the most sense for your business, you can build out monthly calendars with scheduled posts that leverage the strengths of each platform to the fullest.
Dedicate substantial time to developing your post copy and imagery, as the smallest considerations can have a big impact. What often seems like an inviting “attend our webinar!” post can be a total flop, leaving you with no attendees and wasted time and energy. But, with the right planning and execution, you can build more excitement, attract larger crowds, grow your audience, and generate leads.
Video Marketing
YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine, making it an obvious avenue for digital marketers. Everyone knows that you no longer need a Hollywood budget, and you certainly don’t have to be Steven Spielberg to publish video content. However, countless B2B companies still neglect it or simply don’t have compelling ideas for valuable video content.
If at any point over the past year you’ve been involved with a webinar, conference, or another virtual event, did you record it? Event recordings are great for building a library of video content. They generally have more substance than the average product or service advertisement, covering a broad range of industry topics that can retain their value and relevance for a long time. Our clients have been getting especially creative with projects like employee spotlight interviews and monthly industry news podcasts, and even fully-voiced shorts to promote products, services, content pieces, and events, all tied together through social media and email.
Chatbots and Intent Popups
Chatbot and intent popup functionality has advanced to bring website user experiences to new heights.
Chatbots are AI on-site helpers that can answer questions, schedule services and appointments, and provide an immediate response to leads that could mean the difference between gaining a new customer or not. Updates for various chatbots are constantly rolled out to improve accuracy, clarity, and capabilities. They provide consistent experiences, never get frustrated with clients, and are available 24/7.
Intent popups can be considered intrusive in a lot of situations. Still, with careful consideration of your messaging, imagery, and call to action, it’s entirely possible to include popups on your site that aren’t obnoxious. Never lose sight of who’s coming to your website, why, and what they’re expecting from you. Popups offer a great opportunity to reiterate your most valuable benefits or offers as boldly as possible to potential clients who are on the fence about your business.
Networking Events
Despite the inability to hold in-person events for more than a year, traditional networking is as effective as ever for generating leads. In fact, the lack of in-person events has, in many cases, heightened the general appeal of online face-to-face networking opportunities, leading to the incredible rise in webinars and virtual events. Hosting, participating in, and attending these events is always a great source of leads, with the added benefit of generating and inspiring a ton of content themselves. Record your talks to post on your YouTube channel, share reminders and registration links through email and social media, and more.
Putting It All Together
It’s pretty easy to see how the above strategies and tactics can be combined to play off each other and boost leads – so what’s next? If you want to up your lead-generation game as quickly and easily as possible, Sagefrog can help. We work with clients in various industries to develop effective lead generation strategies that span social media to email marketing to video production and everything in between. Want to talk about your lead generation strategy with one of our experts? Get in touch with us today.
