At 27 years of age, Vaibhav Sisinty has already cemented his position as one of the top growth hackers in the start-up ecosystem of India. Vaibhav realised his passion for marketing at a young age of 8 years when he started selling Beyblades to school kids at a 200% margin. This passion for growth marketing grew multifold and that led Vaibhav to launch his first ever digital marketing setup in 2013 – CrazyHeads, at the age of 19, while he was in his second year of engineering.
As a new B2B enterprise, you have it tough on a lot of fronts, and based on what sort of leads you want, lead generation can be very challenging. The people you identify as ideal customers have to fit your business goals. It can be easy to source a bunch of contacts, but as a young enterprise, you also have to show them why they should pick you. A new B2B enterprise can ill afford to spend resources chasing leads that won’t convert.
First Identify Your Lead Generators
As a new enterprise, you can make your lead generation system comprehensive right from the beginning. You’ll have to align the entire strategy. For starters, make sure that your sales team and marketing team are well coordinated to process and generate the leads. This helps them identify cross-selling and upselling opportunities.
The first thing you’ll have to do is identify your target audience. Who are your leads and what do they want? What are their pain points and the way your product can help them? Build profiles and use information from tools like surveys, competition research, social listening, A/B tests, etc. Market research is your best friend.
Next, where do these leads hang out, so to speak? Where can you reach out to them, so they won’t find you spammy? Thinking of Linkedin?
Once you have identified the avenues, you can check out scraping tools. It is risky to buy email lists since there is high scope for coming across as spammy.
Linkedin for B2B leads
Linkedin recognizes its potential and has launched marketing products. But, the basics are still the differentiator between a winning enterprise and one that’s coasting. So here’s a basic checklist:
- Put information on your LinkedIn page, but don’t make it conventional. Structure it as a call-to-action-based page. The copy should show your value to leads right away.
- Leverage sections like the header and showcase to make prospects click and check you out.
- Put up click-worthy blogs and infographics with great copy. It speaks for itself and gets leads to come to you. You can address common concerns and position your brand as an authority in the domain.
Directory sites
If your product is SaaS-based, it would be worthwhile getting it listed on sites like G2 and Capterra. If it is a physical object, you can explore online wholesale markets like Indiamart, Alibaba, etc. You should be available wherever your leads are likely to look for you.
To spend or not to spend: Ads
We get that as a new B2B enterprise, you may be hesitant about ad spends. The US Small Business Administration advises that businesses making low revenues in sales should earmark 7-8% of gross revenues towards sales and marketing expenses, including advertising.
Organic outreach efforts like search engine optimization, link building, etc. take time to show results. Advertising is the quickest way to show potential customers that you exist. You may also want to invest in public relations efforts to get mentioned in reputed publications.
You must be careful with your ad-targeting strategy. Pay-per-click campaigns can be very expensive for certain keywords, so choose wisely. Gmail Ads are a very promising avenue for B2B leads. You can also consider native ads on niche sites that your leads visit often.
User-Generated Content
Even in B2B, the best way to get new leads is word-of-mouth promotion. Impress your existing clients and get them to refer you to new ones. You should gather testimonials and place them wherever new leads are likely to see them. Check out referral programs that give incentives to existing customers to bring in new ones.
Basics To Put in Place
A common challenge faced by new B2B enterprises is a cash crunch. Many companies make the unfortunate mistake of ignoring basic elements like copy, content, and design, despite these things being the face of the business. Even if your core selling strategy is to get clients on phone calls, you have to use stunning visuals to get them to click. Nowadays, leads don’t trust businesses without a quality website.
Be Present Everywhere
We already looked at some off-page sources but you should have a comprehensive website that gives potential leads all the possible information they could want. Use videos, infographics and show results if you have them. A common problem is that there aren’t enough opt-in forms nor is contact information easily visible. Don’t miss out on any web pages. Have simple copy and clear CTAs.
Check Out Old Leads Now and Then
Sometimes you may get leads who aren’t keen to buy right then. This is why a cold email strategy to keep in touch with potential leads is helpful. You should strike a balance between spam and genuine value-addition. Always add social sharing links to your emails, as it encourages recipients to forward to others.
Offers, Free Trials, and Deals
As a new business, the top reason for conversion is beating your competitors in terms of cost. Therefore, place discounts and offers, clearly visible in all your social media, ads, and throughout your website.
If it applies to your business, a free trial helps demonstrate your product value. Reports show that free trials can spike up conversion rates by 15%. You can also consider a freemium- where some features are free, and others have to be purchased.
Some Tools to get Leads
Tools that track how visitors navigate your website, Google Analytics reports, and web performance audits help you improve your web experience for curious leads. Use the data to make tweaks wherever you spot areas for improvement. You can check out Leadfeeder, a tool that identifies visitors and distinguishes them from bots. A lead-collection chatbot may also improve conversion rates.
The most successful B2B lead generation strategies are based on being unique and doing things no one else is. You should always be on the lookout for new opportunities. Maybe you can collaborate with non-competitors or create a presence on forums relevant to your product. Even influencer marketing and webinars can work out for new B2B enterprises. If you have it in you, let the world see it!