In recent years, there have been important new developments in B2B lead generation that offer deeper insight into your target audience. You can create highly personalized content that is tailored to a specific buyer persona so that the effect is similar to a personal communication.
Despite new tools and resources, there are elements of marketing that will never change. In this article, you?ll read about some of the ways that technology is improving digital marketing tools for better B2B lead generation, then you?ll find out how traditional methods retain an important place in any marketing strategy.
Search engine optimization (SEO): In order for your business to be found in an organic search, your website must be built around a set of specific keywords. While SEO is a complex set of rules for making your site searchable, there are a few guidelines that can help you get started:
- Begin by identifying your keywords. What terms does your target audience use when they search for a business like yours? Make a list ranking your most important keywords.
- Design your website with SEO principles in mind. This means that you are considering factors like keywords, load times and links that all help your site rank well in a Google search.
- Include SEO principles in your content creation. Your title and subtitle should include your keyword, and it should be used throughout your piece. You also need to add images or video in your content to make it more appealing to your audience, but make sure your images load quickly, or it may hurt your search ranking.
Analytics inform marketing channel decisions: Digital marketing channels allow you to see what?s working and what?s not, and then make adjustments in your strategy. You may need to engage in some trial-and-error in the beginning, but you’ll quickly be able to see whether your content is getting a better reception on Facebook or LinkedIn and which types of subject lines tend to attract more audience members clicking through to your website after reading an email.
Analytics can also help you determine the best combination of digital and traditional marketing channels. Maybe you have a good following on social media and regularly engage with potential customers through your blog posts, but you’re finding that you’re missing a segment of your target market that doesn’t use social media. Traditional marketing, such as billboards or telemarketing, can give you a way to reach out to potential leads that you otherwise wouldn’t engage.
Tailored marketing content: Today’s marketing tools allow you insight into your customers’ buying patterns and enable you to develop content that is personalized for their job role, where they are in the buy cycle and the specific type of problem they are trying to solve. Rather than producing general content pieces that could apply to anyone, you’re instead able to get the right content to the right person at the right time. This allows you to build your reputation as a trusted source of information. When your contact is ready to purchase, they’ll think of your company first.
Lead quality over lead quantity: Companies like yours are finding that greater success in B2B lead generation occurs when the entire company agrees on what counts as a lead and what makes a lead valuable. For many sales teams, a lead is a contact that has been nurtured to the point of being ready for a face-to-face meeting. Nurturing your lead often requires a series of touchpoints over a combination of digital and traditional marketing channels. Establish a lead scoring system that helps you not only determine when your lead is ready for a meeting, but also allows you to connect your lead with the perfect content for each phase of their nurturing path.
Traditional marketing balances your B2B lead strategy: There are many reasons to include traditional channels in your marketing strategy, and telemarketing, in particular, offers benefits that fill in the gaps in an otherwise digital marketing plan:
- Nothing can replace the human-to-human conversation that builds warmth and trust in a phone call. The relationship you build through telemarketing eases seamlessly into an ongoing vendor-buyer relationship.
- Telemarketing helps you better understand your target audience, including the challenges they face in their jobs.
- While digital methods often force you to post content and then wait to see if anyone engages, telemarketing is much more proactive. It gives you a way to talk with your potential buyers and nurture the lead along.
- Telemarketing allows you to gain valuable information that could take months to collect through digital methods including:
- Identifying all the decision-makers involved
- Finding out what their decision-making process involves and what budget constraints they may have
- Discussing reservations they may have about your product or service, or about your company
- Determining whether they are talking with any of your competitors
Telemarketing offers a balanced approach to your marketing strategy. For instance, automated email allows you to send perfectly-timed content to a set of contacts, using strategically worded subject lines and formatting designed for encouraging your audience to click through to your website. Telemarketing gives you an opportunity to follow up on your email, discussing whether the content was appropriate for your contact’s situation and whether you can offer additional assistance. In short, it provides a more personal, human element to your marketing efforts.
Ronen Ben-Dror, Director of Client Relationship Development at Blue Valley Marketing said, “We understand that many marketing departments do not set aside a telemarketing budget. Furthermore, many have a negative view of cold calling. They perceive telemarketing as “dead” and focus all their attention and resources on digital marketing.”
If you are the person deciding how to invest your marketing dollars or a sales director thinking how to best invest your sales teams time, ask yourself these questions, said Ben-Dror:
- Would you rather define your best client persona and proactively connect with them to demonstrate the business solutions you offer, or would you rather wait and hope they find you instead?
- Would you rather send your sales team a high volume, under qualified lead not knowing if your sales team nurtured and followed-up on them or would you rather send them highly qualified actionable leads they will be happy to connect with?
- Would you rather invest money in digital marketing alone and never be able to truly measure your ROI, or would you rather incorporate traditional methods like telemarketing and be able to accurately calculate your ROI and find out in real time which of your content development efforts are working best for you?
If you are willing to take a hard look at your sales and marketing lead generation, you will likely find that only 20 percent of your sales team is doing an effective job following up on about 80 percent of the leads you give them. Also, you will probably find that it takes them at least five touch points to reach a prospect in an effort to convert them to a client. Most of the leads you spend so much money and effort on to generate probably end up in a “big black hole” and are lost.
However, everything is not lost. Simply look for a more proactive integrated approach, and bring back the human touch. Incorporate real-time human to human connections directly with the companies and people you define as your best clients and show them how your company solved the type of challenges they face. Remember, when you connect with a prospect (digitally or in person) invest 80 percent of your time listening and 20 percent of your time talking and when you talk make sure it is about them, not about you.
Marketing trends will always change, but it’s important to continue to measure what works and capitalize on the benefits of using tried-and-true methods to grow your business. Let your competitors chase the new fads while you gain an edge through reliable methods with a solid return on investment.
If you’d like to learn more about the benefits of including telemarketing in your B2B lead generation efforts, talk with our specialists at Blue Valley Marketing. We can help you identify the best combinations of digital and traditional marketing channels to maximize growth and meet your business objectives.
Last Updated on September 14, 2023 by Ronen Ben-Dror