If you ask B2B sales reps what they want most in their professional life, it’s typically not a new device, an innovative software program, or even a bump in salary or an extra week of vacation. What they want are leads, leads and more leads, so that meeting -- or exceeding -- quota is the predictable norm; not the exception.
With this in mind, here are 5 strategies to significantly boost B2B leads, and inspire sales reps worldwide to weep with joy:
1. Regularly Publish Quality Blog Posts
Arguably the most effective long-term strategy for increasing B2B leads is by regularly publishing quality blog posts. This means your blog posts should be:
- Relevant, timely, topical and address your prospects’ questions and/or issues.
- Published at least 3 times a week, although 5 times a week is optimal.
- At least 400 words long – though it’s certainly fine to go longer. Some of the most popular blog and indexed blog posts on the web are over 1000 words; and posts that contain more than 1,500 words generate nearly 69% more Tweets and 23% more Facebook likes.
- Written properly and crafted professionally. If you don’t have a real writing specialist creating your blog posts (i.e. someone who is paid to write, not paid to do 17 things of which 1 is writing), then don’t bother doing them. They will damage your brand instead of enhance it, and the massive volume of crap content on the interwebs bears this out.
- Be properly optimized for 1 (or at most 2) keywords, and contain strategic backlinks to both internal and external pages.
- Be supplemented by meta information, including descriptions that appear in search engines.
- Pushed out through all relevant social media channels, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.
2. Build and Distribute Inbound Marketing Content
In addition to blogs, all businesses in search of B2B leads – and even that who don’t urgently need to onboard new customers, but nevertheless want to maintain their coveted thought leadership status – should be building and distributing high quality inbound marketing content.
This includes (but is not limited to) ebooks, white papers, checklists, reports, infographics, videos, and more. The idea is always to deliver something of value that resonates with target audiences, and pulls them into the website (either directly or through a landing page).
3. Build Authentic Relationships
When it comes to generating visibility, it’s fine to focus on building fans and followers. But when the goal is to boost B2B leads, it’s necessary these days to dig deeper and make direct connections with prospects and influencers (i.e. people who do not want to make a purchase, but may influence a business that might or will).
LinkedIn can good B2B lead generation source, provided that businesses are willing to invest the time and effort to engage in discussion groups by asking questions, responding to issues, and so on (read: absolute zero spamming or copy/paste stuff).
4. Delivers Workshops & Webinars
In-person workshops and online webinars are both excellent tools for generating B2B leads. At Leap Clixx, we’ve hosted inbound marketing workshops at our headquarters for several years. We always take the view that our goal is educate our audience and NOT to sell, which frankly speaking is the only viable approach to take. We’re talking about workshops and webinars here after all, not infomercials. It’s about teaching and engaging; not selling Ginsu Knives (“but wait, there’s more!”).
5. PPC
PPC advertising is an excellent way to generate B2B leads provided -- and this is important! -- there is quality content on the website, such as blog posts, ebooks, and so on. Otherwise, the quality of incoming traffic is often low as leads aren’t educated or developed; which makes sense since they’re just clicking an ad.
Remember: PPC is not a “customer vending machine.” It’s an invitation to build a relationship, and quality content is a big (if not the biggest) part of this effort; at least at the beginning, since prospects typically travel more than 50% along the buyer’s journey before they consider seriously engaging a sales rep.
Learn More
To learn more about how to boost B2B leads so that your sales reps are spending less time and money searching for quality customers – and more time building relationships and closing deals -- contact the Leap Clixx team today. Your consultation with us is free.
For more information on increasing leads and how to turn your website into a lead generation machine, download our FREE eBook:
Topics: Lead Generation
