Lead generation for B2B shops that is successful, is often the results of trial and error. It’s possible that what works for one set of leads won’t work for another. In this case, you perform a lot of A/B testing on the email drip campaigns you send out and the landing pages your designers work on. It is only one part of the process to learn how to get B2B sales leads. The primary objective is to come up with the strategy that works best with these leads for business development.

Most marketers say that generating traffic and leads is their biggest challenge. Hence, you’ll need a strong lead generation process if you want to increase sales. Marketers and sales representatives can follow a proven framework based on processes.

In order to increase conversions, marketers are implementing different strategies to generate B2B leads. To find out what works, you will need a bit of experimentation. But if you are not sure about where to begin, the best tip is that your target audience’s preferences will determine the methods you use so keep a close check on these. In order to generate good leads, it’s important to figure out which B2B lead generation strategies are best for your specific business needs.

Lead Generation for B2B Shops

Before jumping to the techniques, let’s shed some light on B2B lead generation.

To generate B2B leads, the first step is finding the contact information of potential customers. Cold outreach, social media, or responses to inquiries are used by reps to contact leads with a list of high-quality leads.

Reps measure the likelihood of leads buying when they interact with them. Their goal is to gauge where leads are in the buying process so that they can find a way to persuade them.

As a result of a series of meetings with multiple vendors, the prospect finally picks you as the vendor to work with. Now the customer success department takes on the matter and begins onboarding.

Lead Generation Techniques

In order to help you generate B2B leads, we have compiled a list of techniques that can help you convert prospects into leads and those leads will eventually turn into valuable assets.

1.    A/B Tests on Key Pages 

Tracking where visitors’ eyes landed first on a website while browsing can help you make big decisions – whether it’s a headline, CTA, an incentive such as a free trial, etc. The company uses a heat map tool to determine which was the element that made a visitor stay on the website for a longer period and act. As a result of the findings, you can be confident that tweaking their homepage would lead to more B2B sales leads. Experimenting with the new background image, the search bar, or a different font can lead to a huge spike in conversions. Not only does this work while working on a website, but you can do this for your web copy, ads, email campaigns, and CTAs.

2.    Lead Generation for B2B Shops: Automated Email Marketing

In today’s drastically evolving digital world, no one can send emails to hundreds of prospects on daily basis. It is unlikely that you have the time to sit around sending out emails every day as a B2B marketer. Also, this is not something you should have to do especially when there are so many automation tools. You can generate traffic for your business with little effort by using email marketing automation. Once you get familiar with the tool, it only takes you or your team a short amount of time to set up segments, write emails, and determine when they should be sent. Subscribers to your newsletter, for example, will participate in lead nurturing campaigns. When a returning customer abandons his cart, he may receive an e-mail with a discount code. Find some pro tips about email marketing in this article.

3.    Case Studies and Testimonials

Most online buyers rely on the views and testimonials of previous users of particular products and services. Specifically talking about B2B buyers, who are highly analytical, risk-averse, and often need the approval of multiple ROI-minded decision-makers before making a purchase. Those who are interested in your product or service are basically on the verge of buying it. All they need is a bit of reassurance. Are there any strategies you can use to convince them to convert? Providing evidence of your product’s benefits is one way to demonstrate the value of your product. The use of case studies is a great way to demonstrate the value of your products and services. Take advantage of your website’s case studies by sharing them on multiple social media platforms. Make your credibility skyrocket by blatantly promoting them.

4.    Interactive Social Media 

One of the best ways to learn about your prospects is to see which platforms they are most active on. Coming up with the appropriate strategy based on their preferences can be an effective process. You can use this knowledge to create highly targeted social advertising campaigns. Segment your target personas so you can create a message or offer that resonates with them. Asking customers to share their experience with your product/service as a review, and keeping your social media platform fun and interactive using polls and quizzes improves the lead generation process in B2B industries.

To learn more about how social networks can be used for lead generation for B2B shops, read this articles: B2B Leads: Successful Lead Generation on LinkedIn, B2B Lead Generation on Facebook, How does it work?  B2B Lead Generation on Instagram

5.    Content Optimization 

The smart google algorithm considers multiple factors before deciding at which spot to put your website in the google search. All types of digital content are picked up by Google and other search engines as well, including press releases, blog posts, guest articles, images, other graphics, motion pictures, and infographics. Optimize your content form with relevant keywords to ensure your target audience can find it for ranking purposes. Optimize your content for long-tail keywords – the ones with more than three words can help you achieve extremely high B2B purchase intent and therefore increase sales with minimal SEO effort.

6.    Know Your Audience

Every business requires comprehensive market research to generate leads. To formulate a strategy that works for your target audience, you must first determine who you are trying to reach. When your audience needs information on a matter that you specialize in, they should turn to you instead of your competitors. It is possible to establish yourself as an industry leader and advisor by providing market research reports. The research provides crucial data on the demographics and other factors about your audience as well. You can optimize your content for mobile and desktop users based on these findings.

7.    Webinars and Online Events

The post-COVID world is a completely different place for B2B lead generation. The trends have changed hence, having a webinar is a fantastic way for your brand to showcase its expertise. Hire experts or pick someone from your team to deliver educational content that is engaging and entertaining as well. That can help attract more people to attend. The more interesting and engaging the session, the more conversion you will experience at the end of it. Even if they don’t convert, you can use the information to nurture them. Webinars are typically pre-recorded and shareable after production. Don’t limit yourself to just sharing information. Be creative and turn it into a Q&A session, expert interview, or product demo.

8.    Lead Generation for B2B Shops: Infographics and Visuals 

A page loaded with written content will fail to attract more audiences. They might not even read it till the end, therefore, content that is visually appealing performs exceptionally well. Original infographics have been cited as the best-performing visual content by over 40% of marketers in B2B. A common misconception is that you need to come up with a new copy each time, but the reality is that repurposing content has proved equally effective. Turn your blog paragraph into a video, social media posts can become an image text for the website and so much more. Use infographics to present survey results, steps in a process, or other useful or educational information. This effort may even lead to getting backlinks from blog posts that feature your site.

9.    Ask for Referrals 

Leading brands are asking their customers for referrals these days. The B2B lead generation industry is aware of the fact that word of mouth is the best form of promotion and nothing can beat that. Offering some kind of incentive for referring a friend motivates people to take part in that. For example, in exchange for three referrals, recipients could receive a free month off their next subscription. There is a good chance that they’ll know someone who would make a great prospect for your business. Asking customers to refer to their friends is especially beneficial for website development and Shopify marketing.

10. Affiliate Marketing

Paring up with industry leaders who have a stronghold in the market can help you make a buzz. Affiliate marketing can prove to be the best link-building strategy for your B2B lead generation. Working with influencers is another way to generate views, engagement, and followers. In order to achieve this, they produce content that attracts their audience. Providing tips, tutorials, and product unboxings are examples of this in the B2C industry. Through a partnership with them, you will be able to reap the benefits of their hard work.

In conclusion, prospects are likely to convert more readily when brands craft personalized gifts for them. Strategize your B2B lead generation plan based on the above-mentioned pointers. You must, however, remember that overthinking and over-optimizing your lead generation doesn’t drive results. Make sure you work with your teammates to come up with some strategies and tactics that could work, and then put them into action.

Lead Generation for B2B Shops – Summary

We have outlined 10 suggestions for more B2B leads for your shop or website. You can use one or several this techniques in combination with LeadRebel in order to achieve maximal results. Whichever combination of mentioned techniques you are going to select, you will be in need of optimizing your funnel’s conversion rates. And what is the best tool to do that? Right! Go to LeadRebel-signup. See you on the other side

Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/182229932@N07/48340797921

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B2B Lead Generation on Instagram

In its childhood days, Instagram, like many other social networks, was there to have fun. However, the turning point came in 2015, when Instagram Ads appeared on the scene and attracted the undivided attention of the business community. 

In the B2C sector, countless sellers successfully use their channels for marketing purposes and lead generation on Instagram. What are the chances for B2B?

We will answer this question and inspire you to try out some strategies for your own B2B business.

Why B2B Leads on Instagram? 

When Instagram introduced Ads in 2015, the platform suddenly evolved into a place for dynamic relationships between brands and potential customers. 

Promotions and lead generation took center stage for the B2B sector. 

B2Bs face different challenges than B2Cs do. B2Bs frequently offer specific products that are tailored to niche markets and minor target groups. Any emotions? Nope.

Reasons why Instagram is suitable for B2B lead generation:

• Instagram offers companies an opportunity to communicate with potential customerson an emotional level. 

• Instagram provides the infrastructure for good marketing: photos, videos, slideshows, Instagram LIVE, stories and more. 

• Over time, Millenials are becoming decision-makers, and they love Instagram. This study by Millward Brown Digital and Google says 89% of B2B decision-makers research online and choose products. 

• Hashtags. Today, it is no longer Twitter that lives on Hashtags, but Instagram. Used correctly, they make sure that users find companies. 

• “Swipe Up”. Instagram has added a feature to its stories allowing viewers to swipe up to a link defined by you. Read more about it below.  

• The engagement on Instagram is very high. 

Success: Instagram Marketing for B2B Companies Pays Off

There is a reason why large B2B companies are on the spot on Instagram.   

With their visual language, companies build and convey their brand character via Instagram. 

Siemens has shown that Instagram advertising can be successful in the B2B sector. With only 565 contributions, the German technology group has 142,000 subscribers today.  

When we first checked in 2018, it had 246 posts and 43,700 subscribers. 

Just one week ago, Siemens succeeded with this video getting over 11,053 views: 

Pay particular attention to the description Siemens is using. They use a few specific hashtags, “@” and emojis. 

In general, Siemens relies on professional images rather than smartphone snapshots, as IBM does: 

You like it, but you don’t know where to start? 

Try out different things and see what content creates interaction best. In the first place, the most important thing is to get followers. 

At a later stage, you will have ample time to separate the wheat from the chaff. Your first aim is traffic. In the end, it doesn’t help to laboriously generate content that no one is looking at.

Step-by-Step: How B2B Companies Generate Leads on Instagram 

• Post Daily
• Boost Image Production
• Plan Your Posts

In the B2B space, the following areas have proven successful on Instagram:

• User-generated content
• Insights into the corporate culture
• Customer experiences 
• “Behind the scenes” content 

Instagram is a platform that lives on influencers. It is, therefore, a good idea as well as an exciting business opportunity to work with such influencers to increase brand awareness.  

Post Daily 

Instagram is living in a world of images and videos. If you want to stick in the minds of potential decision-makers, you need to post different things several times a day. 

You should publish a regular Instagram post at least once a day. For example, professional-looking, high-quality images that still appear as if they were shot randomly. 

The content of these posts should be specific, relevant and contain up to 10 related hashtags. You can also embed emojis – have a closer look at the Siemens description. 

Add hashtags to your caption or in the first comment.

Boost Image Production

Are you free taking pretty pictures all the time? Probably not. 

Therefore, schedule some time for taking high-quality photos. A decent smartphone is suitable, as IBM has demonstrated. Allow yourself two hours once a week – during a time of day when you have plenty of daylight at your disposal.

Plan Your Posts

Fortunately, you can now use tools to create your posts in advance. Buffer, Hootsuite and others are available for this purpose. There you can manage the posts and keep them up to date. They will be published without your intervention. It wasn’t always like that. 

With this pre-planning approach, you always have posts in the queue, but can still react spontaneously whenever something newsworthy happens. 

Create a posting schedule containing four parts.

As a B2B entrepreneur aiming for lead generation on Instagram, you should consider all four parts. If you do so, you are using Instagram as your lead generation tool. 

Part 1: Lead Generation with Instagram Stories

Publish between 5 and 15 Instagram stories every day. You cannot automate them, but you should schedule them.

According to this blog post, Instagram Stories are the most effective strategy for more B2B leads. Flight Media won 58% more leads with the step-by-step instructions.

You don’t have to post stories at the very same time each day. Whenever you update your story, you automatically reach the top of your followers’ feeds.

Before you start video recording, you should create a short script (at least mentally) for most of your stories. Naturally, “spontaneous shooting times” are also part of the program, but a solid content strategy should include spontaneous times alongside the use of video recording apps.

Part 2: Instagram Follower – Swipe Ups. 

If you do not yet have 10,000 followers, you should aim for this number. Why? 

The reason is Swipe Ups, a recent feature on Instagram. 

By using Swipe-Up-Stories, you can easily add clickable links to your stories. The viewers of your story only have to swipe up and get exactly where you want them to be. 

This is a very effective call-to-action. You can grow you Instagram with the help of this trusted service.

Part 3: B2B Lead Generation on Instagram with Instagram Live

Instagram Live offers the biggest scope of engagement. That’s why this feature is so exciting. However, you should be very clear about what you want to achieve with your sessions.

You can adapt the following content plan to your individual needs: 

• Have all tools (whiteboard, notes, screen sharing, etc.) ready.
• Be aware that trolls can make life difficult for you and consider appropriate responses to them.
• If you go live, you should mention your topic in a comment as soon as possible. In this way, your viewers know what it is all about – even if they arrive later. 
• Think about an opening question to get people involved and engaged in the first few minutes.
• Before you end the broadcast: do mention that you will now answer questions from the audience.

Announce when you will go live again and what the topic of this live stream will be. Next comes the call-to-action. 

Say goodbye – and that’s it. 

If you intend to collect leads, you are advised to go live once a week. 

Part 4. Engagement

Once you implement the first three parts, you will reap more messages and comments. That’s good. Now you need to respond to every single action, every follower, every question and every comment. 

Build connections every day.

Why? Engagement is Instagram’s currency. Hence, this fourth part certainly cannot be neglected. 

Successful Instagram Lead Generation: Review and Measure Your Campaigns

Latest by now, it has become clear that Instagram marketing means a lot of effort. To make it worthwhile, you need to know your ROI. This will ensure that you are making the right investment and getting the most out of Instagram.

Based on the ROI, you can determine whether it’s worth using Instagram to generate leads, or whether it’s better to use another approach. 

There are several ways you can measure your Instagram success: 

• Click rate on the target page
• The conversion rate on the target page
• Customer acquisition costs
• Etc.

In addition to these metrics, you can also track clicks on the link in your biography. Most people do this with bit.ly. 

For the actual tracking, you should use Google Analytics.

This simple campaign URL builder adds the code that Google Analytics uses to track the campaign source (in this case, Instagram). 

Fill in the fields and generate a campaign URL that Google Analytics can analyze. 

The result is a bit.ly link that is correctly forwarded to Google Analytics. In this way, you combine the power of Google Analytics with a convenient short link, making life easier for you and your followers.

Conclusion: Lead Generation on Instagram: It Must Pay Off 

Products from B2B companies are becoming more and more specialized and technical – one of the big challenges of our time. Visual communication is essential to address customers on an emotional level.

Instagram is perfect for this. Decision-makers of B2B companies also obey the rules of marketing psychology.

If you want to implement an Instagram marketing strategy, you must clearly define which goals you want to achieve and whether the cost-benefit analysis is worthwhile.

Key-Findings: 

• Post at least once a day
• 5-15 Stories per day
• Instagram Live: at least once a week  
• Communicate with users and respond to each action

Then, Instagram lead generation will be successful.

Featured image source: https://pxhere.com/en/photo/1290636

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