In working on this listing, we wondered what the best structure to adopt would be. The idea was to avoid “simply” listing approaches and methods to generate B2B leads.
Finally, it was decided to focus on the working methods for generating leads. This guide is structured along different axes with the ambition to be seen as a real tool to generate B2B leads more easily. It is divided into 4 main parts:
- Convert intent: this is the category to favor if you’re considering launching a lead generation campaign, from scratch. Growth hackers, and sales ops, you are particularly concerned.
- Using content to generate leads directly: we propose here some methods for simple & quick operations to implement.
- Capturing leads: we offer you tips on how to optimise capture rates.
- Acquiring qualified traffic and building authority: the idea here is rather to challenge your channel mix (the set and proportions of your traffic acquisition channels) and to suggest ways to go further.
In this article, we only talk about inbound methods. If your ambition is to create a list of contacts to be qualified for a prospecting campaign, we have mentioned this subject several times:
Sommaire
Converting intent: Lead generation strategies
1. Set up a chatbot
Difficulty: 2 / 5
Cost: Using Intercom, which is highly recommended, costs $79 per month. There are other alternatives on the market. However, Intercom is probably the most effective.
Installing a chatbot to accompany visitors by offering them a conversational interface is simple. It is a very efficient tool, quick to develop and implement on your site.
In some cases, you can route requests to your Slack. This may be of interest to small teams who do not need a customised solution. If no one is online, especially in the evening, Intercom automatically takes care of capturing the leads.
To go further, some tools offer to set up video conversations with the user, directly from the chatbot. Gumstack is very good at this.
To try
Intercom offers a wide range of solutions. These are rich and allow many tasks to be automated using chatbots. A quality tool, but at a rather high price.
2. Google Ads on your competitors
Difficulty: 3 / 5
Cost: In order to get first results on Google Ads, you need to invest several hundred euros. Depending on your niche, the expenses can be much higher and reach hundreds of thousands of euros! The cost per lead is exponential. It increases according to the volume of requests. However, it always starts at interesting levels.
Advertising one’s services on competitive queries is not elegant. However, it is a terribly effective strategy. This is especially true in the software sector. Banned by Google, this practice is still encouraged by account managers.
In order to ensure the success of your strategy, several points should be taken into account. If you are targeting the long tail, add “negative” keywords on the keywords to avoid. We think of “Competitors”, “Contact”, “Login”, “Founders”, etc.
Broader keywords provide initial data that can be refined for subsequent searches. You position yourself on more precise queries. We think of “Alternative competitor, competitor in French, competitor rates” which are more converting.
You are encouraged to be very factual in order to be more relevant. Also, be sure to target your ads to queries related to large companies, rather than small ones.
If you are positioned on a mature market, you need to set up processes for centralising information and updating your landing pages and advertisements. Your ads will be more adapted to your prospects.
3. Sharing email lists
Difficulty: 3 / 5
Cost: Sharing email lists is free, if you have an emailing solution and a database of contacts.
Sharing email lists is an old-fashioned, fast solution.
It is enough to propose to a partner to send a promotional email to its email base, in order to promote an offer, a service. In return, the latter has access to your email database and can promote itself.
The main difficulty is to find the right partner. It must meet a very specific need, downstream or upstream of the one you are addressing.
Pro tip
Not sure which partner to turn to? We recommend that you talk to people you know in the market, or even to clients with whom you have a good working relationship.
4. Sharing of webinars
Difficulty: 4 / 5
Cost: Hosting a webinar is free, if you use your partner’s platform 😇. Otherwise, it costs $89/month for a Livestorm license. Hard to find better in our opinion.
Webinar sharing works a bit like email database sharing. You prepare a webinar with a partner, and you both commit (three, four, … it works too!) to share massively with your customers & leads.
However, this strategy is more time consuming. Creating webinars can be time consuming, and you will need to find a topic & content that is relevant to your respective audiences.
To try
Livestorm offers a free version of its tool, to discover the platform. The ideal way to get started and learn about it.
5. Identify your anonymous visitors
Difficulty: 3 / 5
Cost: This B2B lead acquisition strategy can be free, if you are able to create your own tools. For a ready-made solution, such as Jabmo, it costs between €100 and €500.
Identifying the companies to which your website visitors belong is quite simple. The data collected is then used to optimise your account based marketing strategy.
To develop and optimise such a strategy, several tools exist. Some, like DropContact, are free!
You can also do the same thing with a Loom video which will show you the account associated with the visitor, although it is more rare to have one.
Going further
This is covered in one of our articles, entitled ” Identifying anonymous visitors “. Feel free to read it to learn more about the subject.
6. Sponsorship campaigns
Difficulty: 2 / 5
Cost: Setting up a referral campaign is free, if you have an emailing software. If not, we recommend SendInBlue, at €19 / month.
The principle of sponsorship is very simple. You offer your customers to recommend you. In exchange, they gain something!
Adapt your offer to your target group:
- If you are targeting bosses and founders, you can offer certain preferential deals on your products and/or services.
- If you are targeting managers, personal gifts are more effective. If it is impossible to pay in cash, some gifts are always appreciated. VISA and Fnac gift cards, Mastercard (provided you pass the KYC…) or cases of champagne do the trick.
Be generous, especially if you are in the testing phase. Make an offer that is bound to get some feedback.
If you are considering a large-scale sponsorship strategy, there are players who can help you. Tangocard allows you to automate the reward and incentive process. For this reason, plan several email reminders!
7. Optimise your landing pages
Difficulty: 3 / 5
Cost: Optimising your landing page is free thanks to Google Optimize. However, you have to pay around 100 euros per month to have access to more developed and functional tools.
Beware of CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) gurus who will encourage you to over-optimize. Button colours, margins, etc. Many sites and articles sell exceptional returns for a minor change.
In reality, it is really best to focus on the message. It must respond to a consumer need. It serves to prove that the offer, the service or the product responds to a real problem. The only real CRO is segmentation. The more precise you are in the target & the message you send to it, the more you will convert. Optimising colours and fonts should come (well) afterwards, and answer a more macro issue of consistency and image.
Use A/B tests to measure your optimisations, but be aware of the measurement errors (often much more important than you think) in web-tracking.
Use heatmaps to identify the most frequent UX issues. FullStory allows you to view your visitors’ sessions, and offers up to 1000 sessions / month for free.
8. Work on your forms
Difficulty: 2 / 5
Cost: optimising the forms on your website is free.
An optimised contact/registration form is necessary if your aim is to improve your conversions. Even if someone is convinced, they have to get past filling in the fields.
So if the UX or UI is poor, the chances of the prospect walking away are high. Multi-step forms have shown good results. Conversion rates can be improved by 300% in some cases.
Form analysis tools help to better understand the user journey. Leadformly analyses how the prospect interacts with the form fields in order to optimise them.
This analysis and design platform facilitates the testing and optimisation of form fields. A tool also used to create and integrate optimised forms, without code.
Going further
Leadformly is no longer accepting new customers. However, its documentation is still available. You can learn more about the different ways to optimise your forms.
9. Optimise your email signature
Difficulty: 2 / 5
Cost: Optimising your email signature is free.
An optimised email signature allows you to integrate relevant and converting links at the end of your emails.
For example, the British Red Cross includes a link to its donation page in its email signature. This has resulted in an increase in donations of around 20% per email.
Optimising your email signature with a link to your landing page can significantly improve the number of conversions!
Going further
Want to learn more about email signatures? There is some content on the subject. Our article on professional email signatures is comprehensive and covers the subject in all its aspects.
10. Re-engagement campaigns
Difficulty: 2 / 5
Cost: a good tool for creating a re-engagement campaign costs around €20/month.
It is estimated that it takes nearly 24 hours for a prospect to go cold. It is therefore essential to follow up on the lead in order to convert it through carefully thought-out and optimised interactions.
It is useful to re-engage prospects, even if they have already used the tool. Grammarly, for example, runs re-engagement campaigns for people who have not used the software for a long time.
Generate leads directly from scratch (or almost): Lead generation techniques
11. Exploit B2B trade fairs
Difficulty: 3 / 5
Cost: Participating in a B2B exhibition is a real investment. Depending on the trade fair, you should expect to pay between 2 and 10,000 euros per stand.
The concentration of professionals at trade fairs is high. It is impossible to meet everyone. However, marketing automation software can be used to keep track of who has been there.
You collect the list of people who have stopped at your premises, before filtering it according to criteria specific to your activity (geographical area, committed prospects etc.). The data collected is then used for commercial follow-up, particularly by email.
However, the mailing should not be the only source of communication. You must use all available media. Email signatures, banners, insertion of blog articles, broadcasting on social networks… All means are good to relaunch the prospect.
Reactivity is the key to success. It is estimated that a lead should be reactivated within 7 days of attending the B2B event.
Going further
Prezi offers a workflow that reconnects the prospect 20 minutes after their visit, via a thank-you email. Prospects considered “hot” are treated as a priority.
12. Create a free tool
Difficulty: 5 / 5
Cost: Creating a tool offered to prospects is free.
The creation of a free tool is a formidable lead generation lever. Many examples exist. Hubspot offers a free registration to its CRM before encouraging the purchase of leads.
Others, such as Crazy Egg, offer a free tool to “optimise your website immediately”. An effective and powerful call to action. After registering, you instantly get a heat map.
Setting up a free tool is time consuming and complicated. You have to think and develop your idea. Then you have to find the right way to capture the prospect’s attention. If they stay 90% of the time on the CTA, they should not hesitate to give their email.
13. Leverage webinars
Difficulty: 3 / 5
Cost: A Livestorm license costs €89/month. A tool that we highly recommend.
91% of B2B professionals believe that webinars are the most effective method of education. However, creating one requires a lot of investment and is time consuming.
Once created, the webinar must be viewed. Acquiring a list of registrants is a real challenge. It requires a small distribution effort. LinkedIn remains the preferred playground. The platform is an effective distribution method!
Going further
The subject of webinars has been discussed in many articles. Articles that you can find here:
14. On-site retargeting: Dare to use pop-ups
Difficulty: 2 / 5
Cost: it is possible to create your own pop-ups for free, if you do a little tinkering. You can use other, more complete solutions. Some tools start at $14 / month.
Pop-up windows are generated when an exit intent is detected. This occurs when the user is about to click the close button on the page.
These pop-ups are used to generate leads. They help collect information about visitors who have not yet registered on the site. Usually, a discount code, a free white paper or a free, personalised session is offered in exchange.
The pop-up message can be personalised. A free consultation can be offered to a prospect who leaves the site from the “pricing” page. This strategy improves the conversion rate.
Going further
A study conducted by Sumo in 2019, estimates that the average conversion rate of a pop-up window (no matter which one) is 3.09%!
15. Quizzes or calculators
Difficulty: 3 / 5
Cost: The cost of quizzes or calculators is changing. A simple google spreadsheet can be given away for free in exchange for an email address. Other paid solutions, such as Outgrow, allow you to better structure your approach from $14 / month.
Popular, the quiz must be carefully constructed to serve as a lead generator. To be effective, the UX must be fluid.
Avoid radio buttons and make sure the topic is relevant to your offer. Finally, the reward must justify the game and therefore the lead collection!
16. The case studies
Difficulty: 3 / 5
Cost: Generating case studies is free. This practice is internal to the company.
Generating leads can be done from the content of your website. You can offer to download an article, a white paper or a free guide in exchange for an email address.
Case studies are increasingly used. An effective technique that remains correlated with very high added value content.
Going further
According to hubspot, 13% of marketers cite case studies as one of the main forms of media used in their content strategy.
17. Free consultations
Difficulty: 4 / 5
Cost: Offering a free consultation will not cost you anything. However, you need to prepare it and find the time.
The free consultations bring a lot of value. It is probably the best in terms of a personalised approach.
While it costs nothing, free consultations involve an investment of time and effort. It allows you to get highly qualified leads.
18. Mini-trainings by email sequences
Difficulty: 2 / 5
Cost: A tool like ActiveCampaign offers to create mini email trainings from $9 / month. SendInBlue offers the same features from $49/month. If you are also going to send newsletters, etc., you will have to pay less. Sendinblue will cost you less.
Email sequence training aims to educate the prospect from a series of several messages. Unlike video sequences, this format is simpler and faster to develop. Each email corresponds to a specific stage of the training.
To get leads, a landing page registration can be set up. The form should be very simple but very precise, especially in terms of the number of emails you intend to send.
Pro tip
It is recommended to create formations of 5-6 emails, maximum. This avoids spamming the prospect and reduces the chances of them unsubscribing from the list.
19. Lead Gen Forms on Facebook or Linkedin
Difficulty: 4 / 5
Cost: In order to achieve good results, a certain budget must be defined. We recommend allocating about 50 euros per day to Facebook. For LinkedIn, it is more likely that you will spend around 100 euros per day. You also need to have a lead capture mechanism, content or something of value to offer to those who entrust you with their contact.
A Gen Form, on LinkedIn, automates the filling of lead generation form fields. User data is used to save time.
Mobile users are particularly concerned. 80% of people who interact with a sponsored ad are on mobile. An inconvenient tool to fill in the fields.
The user has no effort to make. He only has to confirm his email address and press the “send” button and he gets his white paper, his guide in a few seconds.
Going furtherThe issue of Gen Form on LinkedIn is discussed in two comprehensive guides:
How to optimise your lead capture rates?
20. Design a true mobile experience
Difficulty: 5 / 5
Cost: Optimising the mobile experience is free.
Mobile optimisation is now essential and meets a real need. The younger generation, which is more inclined to use smartphones, browses, searches and buys from their phones.
Did you know that :
- 80% of B2B buyers use their smartphone at work.
- 60% of them add that the smartphone plays an essential role in their purchases.
- Mobile-optimised B2B marketers confirm a reduction in purchase time and increased customer loyalty.
Going further
A mobile experience is not “just” a responsive site and a design that doesn’t break on a small screen. Design call to actions that make sense on mobile (not software registration for example, but rather “Call me back” or “Make an appointment”)
21. Look after your newsletter
Difficulty: 3 / 5
Cost: Creating a newsletter and sending it to your email list costs €20 / month on Sendinblue. It costs $9/month on ActiveCampaign. Prices increase after that, depending on the size of your list.
The newsletter is the basic tool for lead generation. It allows you to create a regular appointment with the community.
Be careful to be regular, or you risk losing your audience. Similarly, the newsletter serves to provide a lot of value. The content should be informative and of high quality.
You don’t have to produce everything. Some people are content to do curation. A slack account and a spreadsheet are enough to create a newsletter.
Reporting is important. You have to analyse the statistics and listen to the audience. Does one topic appeal more than another? Treat it in more depth, through other newsletters on the topic before refining. This is a great way to learn more about your audience.
Do not overproduce. Quality will always outweigh quantity. Opt for a monthly or quarterly meeting if you don’t have much time to devote to your project.
22. Automate your email nurturing
Difficulty: 4 / 5
Cost: It is possible to automate your email nurturing from $9 / month on ActiveCampaign. Sendinblue costs €49 / month.
Email marketing is the oldest marketing strategy. A marketing channel that is still used by companies to generate leads.
Marketing automation enables B2B companies to achieve impressive results in terms of conversion and cost optimisation.
Marketing automation tools connected to your CRM allow you to automate the sending of email sequences. The messages and sequences are personalised according to the profile and behaviour of the leads.
However, don’t forget newsletters and traditional email marketing, which are still good levers.
23. Capture more from your blog posts
Difficulty: 4 / 5
Cost: The OptinMonster tool allows you to capture more leads from your blog posts, starting at $14 / month. A simple shortcode strategy on WordPress can be deployed. It takes a little time to implement but is free.
Blog posts can be used to drive qualified traffic to your site. However, capture rates are often close to zero.
The cause is the non-existent and approximate attribution mechanisms. Bloggers aim to generate traffic with their content. They then hope that authority and leads will follow.
However, it is simple and effective to include CTAs in your articles. You can offer a free resource or additional information!
Also pay attention to the funnel stage of the article. A registration CTA can be generated on a “Top 10”. It is preferable to have a white paper, a checklist to download, or a sequence of advice by email on an article such as “How to choose your CRM software “.
Again, it is important that the user experience on mobile is not overlooked. CTAs should be designed for smartphones.
OptinMonster offers a free 14-day trial. You will have access to all the features of the tool. This will give you a clear idea of what it can do for you!
24. Bring your social network community to your newsletter
Difficulty: 1 / 5Cost: Bringing your community from your networks to a newsletter is free.
In order to convert your followers into leads, you need to be diligent. If the process is simple, you have to stick to it.
You need to write a teaser post, which you post on your networks. This post invites followers to subscribe to the newsletter.
Another technique is to distribute content via LinkedIn. You invite your followers to interact with the post or sign up for the newsletter so they don’t miss your content when it comes out.
For each interaction on your social networks, add a call to action. The button/link should redirect to the newsletter sign-up page.
Going further
Why is this important? The newsletter is your community with a direct means of communication. No complex algorithms, no risk of losing your asset, no noise. It is a real asset.
Generate qualified traffic and build your authority: Lead generation ideas
25. Distribute your content
Difficulty: 5 / 5
Cost: Distributing your content on your social networking platforms costs nothing.
Optimising your site for search engines is a powerful lead generation lever. But don’t forget to distribute your content.
Repetition is a key element in marketing. Content should be found on multiple sources and platforms. Repetition attracts the attention of your leads, who are used to reading you.
Think about, for example
- Facebook Groups
- Linkedin post
- Forums (e.g. growthhackingfrance)
- Slack & Discord groups (e.g. No-code France)
- Also think about directories, your mailing list, your partners, etc.
26. Don’t neglect Bing Ads
Difficulty: 1 / 5
Cost: The ROI of Bing Ads depends on the investment you are willing to make. A company can spend between 500 and 20,000 euros.
Google Ads is the market leader in advertising and lead generation. But Bing Ads should not be left out.
This tool allows you to get 10% (approximately) of what you generate via Google Ads for a rather low cost of campaign management.
Going further
According to WordStream, the average CPC of Bing Ads is 1.42€. That is 33% less than Google Ads. HubSpot, on the other hand, states that the average CTR of an AdWords ad is 1.91%, compared to 2.83% on Bing!
27. Build an affiliate marketing channel
Difficulty: 4 / 5
Cost: Building an affiliate programme can be expensive, between 500 and 100,000 euros, depending on the compensation you are prepared to offer.
Like Bing Ads, affiliation can become a very powerful channel for generating long-term leads. To do this, you need to target keywords that work well for you in SEA & SEO.
It is then essential to identify the articles of other blogs, positioned on these same keywords. You can then contact the bloggers in question, so that they add you or position you differently.
In exchange, they usually ask for a fixed fee. You can accept and offer them to join your affiliate programme.
They will then generate initial income. Enough to invest more time and generate more leads.
The advantage is the low acquisition costs. They will be much lower than those of other channels, so don’t hesitate to be generous.
Pay attention to the attribution model. The objective is not to have 40 affiliates fighting each other to appear on the query “Coupon + Brand”. It’s all about getting value from the traffic they bring you.
28. Don’t forget Facebook
Difficulty: 2 / 5
Cost: Using Facebook will not cost you anything.
Facebook is one of the most powerful lead generation platforms on the market. With 2.6 billion users per month, it is the third most visited website in the world.
However, the social network is not taken seriously when it comes to paid advertising. This position is not necessarily justified.
B2B marketers who advertise via Facebook generate high-quality leads. The management costs are lower than with other tools, such as Ads.
Going further
It is estimated that 26% of Facebook users who click on an ad make a purchase. It is essential to optimise your landing pages to generate leads!
29. Get invited on television
Difficulty: 4 / 5
Cost: If you are invited as an expert, you may not have to pay anything. However, if you want to “get invited”, you may have to pay up to 3,000 euros.
Television is an excellent lead generation lever. An appearance on a specialised channel can help generate many leads.
BFM Business regularly invites bosses, decision-makers and entrepreneurs to discuss subjects that are generally well understood.
These interventions can be “organic”, i.e. by invitation. You can also pay to be invited as an expert on a panel.
The easiest way to receive offers is to send a mass press release. The media sales teams will then contact you and add you to their mailing lists.
Solutions such as relations-publiques.pro are very effective for distributing a press release.
30. Publish interviews with opinion leaders in your market
Difficulty: 2 / 5
Cost: It will not cost you anything to interview one or more opinion leaders in your market.
Interviewing experts in your market is a very good lever. They are followed and listened to. Once the interview is completed and published, they will share it with their community, which is generally large and qualified.
31. Publish regular blog posts
Difficulty: 4 / 5
Cost: Writing blog posts only requires a personal investment in terms of research and time.
Many companies abandon their company blog after a few articles. Writing takes time. Despite this, blogging is still very effective in generating leads.
Regularity of publication is more important than the number of articles published per week. Setting too ambitious goals (one article per day) is a good way to end up giving up.
In order for the traffic generated on your blog to turn into leads, you need to integrate CTAs in the right places in your articles.
32. Post regularly on Linkedin
Difficulty: 2 / 5
Cost: publishing on LinkedIn will only cost you a bit of diligence.
In terms of B2B lead generation, LinkedIn can be formidable. You have to publish with a certain frequency and offer real value to your community. Patience and regularity help to achieve rather interesting results.
Going further
We discuss the subject in a special article on LinkedIn and the top B2B influencers.
33. Become a data creator
Difficulty: 5 / 5
Cost: Creating effective and relevant content, dealing with targeted data, requires only an investment of time.
One of the most effective ways to generate links is to include data, statistics and references from verified sources in your content.
Google more simply checks the reliability of what you say. The article is trusted and can be re-shared.
By providing interactive and attractive content, especially visually, you will also provide value. Infographics are easy to read. The content is then shared.
34. Recycle your articles into Slideshare presentations
Difficulty: 1 / 5
Cost: You can purchase a paid subscription to Slideshare. However, you can generate leads from the free plan.
It is possible to generate leads via the free version of Slideshare. To do this, you need to link a landing page to your presentation, directly in a description or on a profile.
35. Exploit Youtube
Difficulty: 5 / 5
Cost: the investment to make YouTube videos is almost zero. However, you need a minimum of equipment to make a quality video (camera, editing tool).
The video format is an excellent source for generating leads. 90% of marketers believe that video is the best way to reuse B2B content.
In addition, YouTube is the second largest search engine on the web. But your videos don’t need to be viewed millions of times.
You can simply turn existing content into an informative video. The aim is to target qualified prospects who are conducting a specific search.
Going further
Oberlo claims that video can generate 66% more qualified leads in a single year.
36. Write guest articles
Difficulty: 4 / 5
Cost: Writing a guest article costs nothing. However, it is necessary to invest in finding the right partner, the right platform.
Guest posting is underused. It is an effective link building strategy.
This allows to be read and discovered on other platforms. It also contributes to the optimization of your SEO, thanks to the reception of quality links.
37. Get B2B influencers to share your content or rate your solution
Difficulty: 4 / 5
Cost: Contacting an influencer to propose a collaboration will not cost you anything.
Influencers are an important source of traffic and leads. Before you start, you can create a list of bloggers, vloggers, newsletters, and Linkedin influencers that are relevant to your market.
You contact them to propose a collaboration, such as a guest article. You can then work around a common strategy, such as affiliation.
38. Recycle your blog posts into infographics
Difficulty: 3 / 5
Cost: Making your own infographics is free. Only the investment in time is important.
Making an infographic takes time. Information has to be gathered, processed and worked on, before being presented in a suitable format.
However, the ROI is important. Shared infographics improve traffic, get backlinks and generate leads.
39. Leverage Twitter
Difficulty: 2 / 5
Cost: Using a tool like Twitter costs absolutely nothing.
Twitter allows you to stay up-to-date and share information. A point that B2B specialists like to press.
Brands can generate leads by offering quality content in the form of threads. They can also share third-party content by engaging with users.
40. Think about forums and other specialised networks
Difficulty: 2 / 5
Cost: Using forums and social networks costs nothing.
There are forums from which you can engage in discussion to generate leads. Some of the best known are Quora and Reddit.
You can also deal with more specialised forums, such as Growthhackingfrance or Slack and Discord communities. They allow you to get in touch with an expert and qualified audience.
41. Why not podcasts?
Difficulty: 3 / 5
Cost: It costs between $5 and $50 / month to create a podcast and host it.
Have you ever thought about creating a podcast? This format doesn’t spring to mind when you think of B2B lead generation. Yet it is a tremendously effective tool.
In the USA, the trend is very strong. It is estimated that the number of French people listening to a podcast is around 12 million. A growing figure. Positioning oneself on micro-niches can be very interesting, as the audience reached is highly qualified.
Going further
The investment to make a podcast is modest. All you need is one or two microphones and editing software. You can distribute your podcast via various platforms, such as iTunes, Google Podcasts or Spotify.