DigitalLevers
Improve Your Sales Funnel With Better Lead Gen
BUILD YOUR LEAD GENERATION TO ALIGN WITH YOUR SALES FUNNEL
Lead generation is key to a great sales funnel, whether B2B or B2C.
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Both B2B and B2C lead generation need to align with the Buyer’s Journey, which consists of three stages: awareness, consideration, and decision. However, the buyer’s journey may differ in length, complexity, and number of stakeholders involved, depending on the type of product or service being sold.
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Can you provide information on your Buyer Persona and Target Audience?
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First, you must understand your audience. Start by creating detailed buyer personas representing your ideal customers. That means diving deep into their pain points, motivations, and behaviours.
For instance, if you’re a B2B software provider, a buyer persona might be “IT Manager John,” who seeks efficient solutions to streamline operations and prioritize workflow. He might also be responsible for managing a team of tech professionals and prioritizing tools that optimize workflows while assisting with regulatory compliance.
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Some best practices for creating buyer personas are:
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Define the problem statement. Before you create a buyer persona, you need to have a clear understanding of the problem that your product or service solves for your target customers. You should identify the main pain points, goals, challenges, and opportunities that your customers face and how your solution can help them. This will help you create a buyer persona that is relevant and realistic.​
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Conduct research. To create a buyer persona, you need to gather a mix of information about the kind of customer you want to target. You should use a mix of demographic, behavioural, and psychographic information. To collect the data, you can use surveys, interviews, existing paid databases, or even your CRM. The biggest priority, though, is to be specific and use real data from real customers.
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Segment your customers. To create a buyer persona, you need to segment your customers based on their characteristics and behaviours. You should look for patterns and similarities among your customers and group them into distinct segments. You should also look for differences and gaps among your customers and identify the most profitable and loyal segments. We will create a buyer persona for each segment that represents your ideal customer.
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Create your buyer persona. To create a buyer persona, you need to use the data and insights you gathered from your research and segmentation. You should give your buyer persona a name, demographic details, interests, and behavioural traits. You should also describe their goals, pain points, and buying patterns. You should use a template or a tool to create and organize your buyer persona. We can also use images or illustrations to give your buyer persona a face.
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Validate and update your buyer persona. To create a buyer persona, you need to validate and update your buyer persona regularly. You should test your buyer persona with real customers and prospects and get their feedback and suggestions. You should also monitor your buyer persona’s behaviour and preferences and track any changes or trends. Also, we will jointly revise and refine your buyer persona as needed and keep it up to date with your market and industry.
Offer Each Persona a Clear Value Proposition
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To stand out in a sea of competitors, you must articulate why prospects should choose your offering over others.
Your value propositions should answer the lead’s question,
“What’s in it for me?”
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Sticking with our B2B software example, let’s brainstorm.
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Our cloud-based software reduces operational costs by 30%
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Automated workflow management and real-time analytics, so you can spend less time chasing data and more time putting it to work
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Maximize your budget and resources
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Privacy law compliance strengthened and simplified
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Landing Pages and Lead Magnets
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Once you’ve captured your audience’s attention with tailored messaging, you need a place to direct them — a landing page. An effective landing page converts visitors into leads by encouraging them to take specific actions, such as signing up for a free trial, requesting a demo, or downloading a resource.
Effective landing pages are clean, focused, and centered around a single call-to-action (CTA). They should also match the messaging that brought visitors there in the first place, providing a seamless experience.
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When using web forms to collect contact data, you can incentivize visitors to exchange their contact information for valuable content like ebooks, whitepapers, or webinars.
However, Gating your valuable content can be self-defeating since many visitors avoid filling out web forms. Ensure prospects can do effective self-serve research on your site early in their buying journey.
Otherwise, they’ll go elsewhere.
You can improve your lead nurturing workflow by following some best practices and tips based on the following:​
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Segment your leads based on their characteristics and behaviours. For example, you can segment your leads by industry, company size, role, location, pain points, interests, etc. This will help you create more relevant, personalized content and offers for each segment.
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Are you using a multi-channel approach to reach your leads?
Don’t rely on email alone to nurture your leads. You can also use other channels, such as social media, SMS, phone calls, chatbots, etc., to communicate with your leads and provide them with different content and interactions.
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Align your content with the buyer’s journey stages. As your leads move from awareness to consideration to decision-making, they need different types of content and information to help them choose.
For example:​
In the awareness stage, you can provide educational content, such as blog posts, ebooks, infographics, etc.
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At the consideration stage, you can provide comparison content, such as webinars, case studies, testimonials, etc.
In the decision stage, you can provide persuasive content, such as free trials, demos, proof of concepts, discounts, etc.
Test and optimize your workflows.
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To ensure that your lead nurturing workflows are practical and efficient, you must test and optimize them regularly. You can use tools like A/B testing, analytics, feedback, etc., to measure and improve your key performance indicators, such as open rate, click-through rate, conversion rate, etc.​​
B2B Lead Generation Strategies​
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You need an omnichannel approach to reach and influence buyers. The tactics below reinforce one another.
Now that we’ve established the core components of a successful lead generation strategy let’s dive into some specialized B2B lead generation tactics that can supercharge your efforts.
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What are the critical components of content marketing for lead generation?​
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In-depth, industry-specific content is a powerful tool.
Think of whitepapers, case studies, video tutorials, and informative blog posts tailored to your ideal buyer’s pain points and interests.​
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For example, let’s say you offer a cloud software tool solution, and your ideal buyer is Alan, a chief information officer at a Fortune 500 company.
What type of content can you create?
A detailed case study showcases how your solutions improve productivity, security, and strategies specific to the vertical industry.​
A weekly newsletter highlighting emerging cloud solutions, threats, and successes​
Regardless of the content format, the goal of this lead generation tactic is to leave your buyer persona thinking,
“This company truly understands the unique challenges we face and can provide the solution we need.”
Email Marketing Tactics
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You can improve your email marketing tactics by following some best practices:
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Write catchy and clear subject lines. Your subject line is the first thing your recipients see, and it determines whether they will open your email or not. You should write subject lines that are concise, relevant, and enticing. You can use tools like [SubjectLine.com] or [CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer] to test and improve your subject lines.​
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Optimize your email design and layout. Your email design and layout should be attractive, responsive, and easy to read. You should use consistent branding, colour scheme, and font style. You should also use images, videos, and other visual elements to enhance your message and engagement. You can use tools like [Canva] or [Mailchimp] to create and edit your email design and layout.
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Include a clear and compelling call to action. Your call to action is the most important part of your email, as it tells your recipients what you want them to do next. Please include a call to action that is specific, urgent, and visible. You should also use action words, such as “download,” “register,” “buy,” etc. You can use tools like [ButtonOptimizer] or [Unbounce] to create and optimize your call-to-action buttons.
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Test and measure your email performance. To ensure that your email marketing tactics are effective and efficient, you need to test and measure your email performance. You should use tools like [Litmus] or [Email on Acid] to test your email deliverability, compatibility, and quality. You should also use tools like [Google Analytics] or [HubSpot] to measure your email metrics, such as open rate, click-through rate, conversion rate, etc.
​Social Media Outreach Strategies
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You can improve your social media tactics by following some best practices and tips:
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Optimize your social media profile and bio. Your social media profile and bio are the first things your prospects see, and they should reflect your brand identity and value proposition. Use a professional photo, a catchy headline, and a clear and concise description of what you do and how you can help your audience. You should also include a link to your website or landing page where they can learn more about your product or service.​​
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Share valuable and relevant content. Content is key to generating leads on social media, as it helps you educate, inform, and persuade your audience. You should share content that matches your audience’s interests, needs, and stages in the buyer’s journey. You should use different formats and styles, such as articles, videos, infographics, podcasts, etc. You should also use hashtags, keywords, and tags to increase your visibility and reach.
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Interact and build relationships with your audience. Social media is not a one-way communication channel but a two-way conversation platform. You should interact and build relationships with your audience by responding to their comments, questions, and feedback, liking and sharing their posts, and mentioning and tagging them in your posts. You should also join and participate in relevant groups, communities, and chats where you can showcase your expertise and authority.
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Use social media ads and tools to generate leads. Social media ads and tools can help you generate leads by targeting and reaching your ideal customers, capturing their contact information, and nurturing them until they are ready to buy. You can use tools like LinkedIn Ads, X Ads, Facebook Lead Ads, Instagram Lead Ads, etc., to create and run your social media ad campaigns. You can also use tools like [6sense’s Conversational Email] or [Hootsuite] to automate and optimize your social media lead generation efforts.
Webinars and Events for B2B Leads
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You can improve your webinars and events by following some best practices and tips:
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Plan and promote your webinars and events in advance. Plan and prepare your webinars and events well in advance to ensure you have a clear agenda, a compelling topic, and a reliable platform. Promoting your webinars and events through your website, social media, email, and other channels would be best to generate interest and awareness among your prospects. You can use tools like [Eventbrite] or [GoToWebinar] to create and manage your webinars and events.
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Engage and interact with your attendees. You should engage and interact with your attendees during and after your webinars and events. You can use tools like [Slido] or [Mentimeter] to create polls, quizzes, Q&A sessions, and feedback surveys. You can also use tools like [Zoom] or [Skype] to enable live chat, video, and audio communication.​​
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Follow up and nurture your leads. You should follow up and nurture your leads after your webinars and events to maintain the relationship and move them closer to the sale. You can use tools like [6sense’s Conversational Email] or [Mailchimp] to send personalized and automated emails to your leads based on their behaviour and engagement level. You can also use tools like [6sense’s Account Engagement Platform] or [HubSpot] to track and measure your lead generation performance, such as lead volume, lead quality, lead conversion rate, etc.
Cold Outreach and Personalized Messaging
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You can improve your cold outreach by following some best practices and tips:
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Use multiple touchpoints and channels. Don’t rely on email alone to reach out to your prospects. You can also use other channels, such as phone calls, social media, video, etc., to communicate with your prospects and provide them with different content and interactions. It would be best to use multiple touchpoints, such as introduction, follow-up, reminder, etc., to build rapport and trust with your prospects.
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Provide value and relevance. Don’t make your cold outreach about yourself or your product. Instead, make it about your prospects and their problems. You should provide value and relevance to your prospects by offering them helpful information, insights, or solutions to help them achieve their goals or overcome challenges. It would be best to show them how your product or service can benefit them and why they should choose you over your competitors.
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Personalize and customize your message. Don’t send generic or mass messages to your prospects. Instead, customize your message to each prospect’s pain points, needs, and interests. It would be best to use their name, company name, industry, role, etc., to address them and show them that you have done your research. It would be best to use a friendly, conversational, and professional tone to engage and make them feel comfortable.
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Include a clear and compelling call to action. Your call to action is essential to your cold outreach, as it tells your prospects what you want them to do next. Include a call to action that is specific, urgent, and visible. It would be best if you also used action words, such as “schedule,” “download,” “register,” etc. You should also provide an incentive or a reason for them to take action, such as a free trial, a demo, a discount, etc.
How Ranking in B2B Directories Benefits Lead Generation
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B2B directories can help you boost your SEO by providing backlinks, citations, and traffic to your website. Backlinks are links from other websites that point to your website and can improve your domain authority and ranking. Citations include mentions of your business name, address, and phone number on other websites, and they can improve your local SEO and credibility.
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B2B directories can help you target and segment your audience by allowing you to list your business in specific categories, industries, locations, and niches. This way, you can reach the right prospects looking for your products or services and who are more likely to buy from you. You can also use B2B directories to research your competitors and potential partners and to find new opportunities and markets.
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B2B directories can help you showcase your value proposition and reputation by allowing you to create a detailed and attractive profile for your business. You can use your profile to highlight your products or services, unique selling points, testimonials, awards, certifications, and social proof. You can also use your profile to provide contact information, links to your website and social media, and calls to action.
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B2B directories can help you generate and nurture leads. B2B directories can help you develop and nurture leads by providing various tools and features, such as lead capture forms, email marketing, analytics, reviews, ratings, etc. You can use these tools and features to collect and qualify leads, communicate and follow up with them, measure and optimize your performance, and build trust and loyalty.
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In conclusion, if you are a B2B Tech organization, these are just the most common Lead Generation topics for building a great sales funnel.
Invest in B2C lead generation services.
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With B2C lead generation services, you can help your business reach more qualified leads who are looking for your products or services. To get your lead generation strategy off on the right foot, start by partnering with the right company.
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B2C markets directly to consumers
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B2C lead generation focuses on quantity over quality. B2C leads are usually cheaper and easier to acquire than B2B leads, but they also have a lower conversion rate and retention rate. B2C lead generation requires more creativity, emotion, and urgency to capture the attention and interest of the prospects.
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B2B leads are usually more expensive and harder to acquire than B2C leads, but they also have a higher potential value and lifetime customer value. B2B lead generation requires more research, personalization, and nurturing to build trust and credibility with the prospects.
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The most reliable way to generate leads is to write content that people will find useful. You can create blog posts, ebooks, infographics, etc., that educate, inform, and entertain your audience. You can also use lead magnets, such as free guides, checklists, or templates, to capture their contact information.
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​Launching B2C paid advertising campaigns. You can use platforms like Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, etc., to create and run targeted ads that reach your ideal customers. You can use different types of ads, such as search ads, display ads, video ads, etc., to showcase your products or services. You can also use landing pages, forms, and CTAs to collect and qualify leads.
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Marketing your B2C business on social media. You can use platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc., to build and grow your online presence and reputation. You can share valuable and relevant content, interact and engage with your followers, and join and participate in groups and communities. You can also use social media ads and tools to generate leads, such as Facebook Lead Ads, Instagram Lead Ads, etc.
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Setting up a Google Business Profile for your B2C company. You can use Google My Business to create and manage a profile for your business that appears on Google Search and Maps. You can use your profile to display your business name, address, phone number, website, hours, reviews, photos, etc. You can also use your profile to attract and connect with local customers, and to generate leads, such as calls, messages, bookings, etc.
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Building a B2C email list. You can use email marketing to communicate and nurture your leads and customers. You can use email marketing platforms, such as Mailchimp, to create and send personalized and automated emails to your subscribers. You can use different types of emails, such as newsletters, promotions, announcements, etc., to provide value and relevance to your audience. You can also use email marketing tools, such as analytics, segmentation, and A/B testing, to optimize your email performance12
4 B2C lead generation strategies:
If you’re ready to get started with lead generation for B2C businesses, here are four strategies you can use to generate more leads:
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1. Search engine optimization (SEO)
Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of your business's best B2C lead generation strategies. This strategy involves optimizing your website’s presence in search engines to help you reach more qualified leads.
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SEO uses keywords to help your website appear in relevant search results. You’ll need to conduct keyword research to find applicable long-tail terms containing three or more words to integrate into your website.
In addition to integrating the right keywords, you’ll also follow some SEO best practices like:​​
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Having a fast-loading website
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Having a mobile-friendly website
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Delivering a positive user experience
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Adding site security
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Opting for local SEO
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You can rank higher in the results when you have a website optimized for search engines. You then drive leads to your site when they search relevant terms, and your website appears in the search results.​
SEO is an excellent strategy for helping you attract qualified leads to your website, where they can learn more about your products or services.​
2. Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising
Another great B2C lead generation strategy is pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. PPC ads appear at the top of search results as a paid listing –– they’re tagged with the word “ad.”​
PPC advertising is one of the best B2C lead generation strategies because it helps you drive qualified leads ready to buy. PPC ad visitors are 50% more likely to buy than organic visitors.​
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Like SEO, PPC involves optimizing your ads for relevant keywords to help them appear in search results. You’ll bid on these keywords to get your ad placement. Your bid amount and the quality of your ad will determine your positioning.
In addition to selecting the right keywords, you deliver a great ad by:​
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Including ad extensions in your ad to give more reasons to click
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Creating a custom landing page to keep leads focused
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Using negative keywords to prevent your ads from appearing in irrelevant searches​
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Running PPC ads is a great way to get your business at the top of search results and drive qualified leads interested in what you offer. Best of all, you don’t pay for these leads until they click on your ad!
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3. Social media advertising
Aside from PPC, you also have the option to generate leads through social media advertising. Social media ads appear in users’ newsfeeds tagged with “sponsored.”
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You can run social media ads on platforms like:
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X (Twitter)
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Instagram
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Facebook
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LinkedIn
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Pinterest
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Social media ads enable you to target leads based on your customer demographic. You can put your ads in front of people likely interested in your products or services.
When you run social media ads, you’ll want to follow these best practices to help you generate the most leads:
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Use high-quality visuals
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Create relevant and informative ad copy
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Try different ad formats
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4. Content marketing
Content marketing is a lead generation strategy that goes hand-in-hand with SEO. For your website to rank in search results, you need pages to rank –– Content marketing helps you create those pages.
There are multiple formats of content you can create, but the most popular formats include:
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Blogs
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Videos
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Infographics
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Ebooks
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Guides
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When you create content, you create an avenue for people to discover your business as they’re looking for helpful information. To help you create content that successfully drives leads, you’ll want to follow best practices like:
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Check that content matches the user search intent to ensure you deliver the correct information
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Use a variety of content formats to appeal to multiple audiences
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Create content often to have a continuous flow of traffic to your website
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Use a content marketing calendar to stay organized when you’re creating, editing, and publishing content​
DigitalLevers is an award-winning lead generation agency that knows how to craft campaigns that drive B2C results. With our client-first approach to marketing, you’ll get a lead-generation campaign built to drive more leads and revenue for your business.
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Ready to earn more qualified leads for your company?
Click on or call us today at 908.442.0039 to speak with a strategist about our B2C lead generation assistance!