Social media has evolved far beyond a platform for sharing updates and connecting with friends. In this fast paced digital era, it has become a powerful platform for businesses looking to expand their reach, engage with their audience, and most importantly, generate leads. Active social media lead generation strategies help you to akquire more and higher quality customers, without huge additional budget.

In this ever-competitive landscape, mastering the art of social media lead generation is no longer just an option; it’s a necessity. In this blog, we will talk about seven proven strategies that can work wonders for your business. So, let’s explore these strategies and unlock the secrets to effective social media lead generation.

1. Optimize Your Profiles

The foundation of social media lead generation starts with creating compelling and informative profiles across platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok and Instagram.

Your profile should resonate with your target audience, clearly communicate your value proposition, and include a compelling call-to-action.

Here are the five things that you can adopt to optimize your social media profile:

• Choose a professional profile picture and cover photo.
• Craft a keyword-rich bio with contact information.
• Include relevant links and customize vanity URLs.
• Use keywords and hashtags strategically.
• Engage with your audience consistently and monitor analytics.

2. Content is King

Creating high-quality and valuable content is crucial to attract and retain your audience. It begins with consistently sharing content that educates, entertains, and solves problems for your followers.

Whether it’s blog posts, videos, infographics, or webinars, engaging content can position you as an industry authority and a trusted resource. Here’s what you can do to gain social media lead generation:

• Create high-quality and valuable content that addresses your audience’s needs.
• Consistently publish fresh and engaging content to keep your audience coming back.
• Diversify your content format, including blog posts, videos, infographics, and podcasts to cater to different preferences.
• Share user-generated content to build trust and showcase customer testimonials and experiences.
• Focus on storytelling and authenticity to connect with your audience on a deeper level and make your content memorable.

3. Utilize Paid Advertising

Leverage the advertising features offered by social media platforms to reach a wider audience and enhance your online presence. Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, LinkedIn Sponsored Content, and Twitter promoted Tweets, as well as integrating your Instagram feed on your website, are powerful tools to target specific demographics and interests, helping you in social media lead generation more efficiently.

You can utilize paid ads in multiple ways. Here are some tips that can come in handy:

• Define your ideal customer personas to ensure your paid ads reach the right people.
• Choose social media platforms that align with your target audience’s demographics and preferences.
• Create attention-grabbing headlines and concise, persuasive ad copy that highlights your unique value proposition.
• Incorporate visually appealing images or videos that resonate with your audience and support your ad’s message.
• Utilize platform-specific targeting features, such as custom audiences, lookalike audiences, and retargeting, to refine your audience selection.
• Regularly analyze ad performance metrics, adjust your targeting parameters, and refine your ad creative to improve lead generation results over time.

4. Run Contests and Giveaways

Hosting contests and giveaways can quickly boost your social media engagement and lead generation efforts. Encourage users to participate by offering valuable prizes and incentives in exchange for their contact information or other desired actions.

You can do this in a variety of ways. We have gathered some important guidelines that can help you while you adopt this strategy.

• Determine the specific objectives of your contest or giveaway, such as collecting email addresses, increasing followers, or generating user-generated content.
• Select a prize that resonates with your target audience and aligns with your brand, ensuring it’s attractive enough to encourage participation.
• Clearly outline the rules for entry, including how participants can enter, eligibility criteria, and any required actions such as liking, sharing, or tagging friends.
• Utilize your social media channels, email newsletters, and website to promote the contest or giveaway. Consider using paid advertising to boost visibility.
• Gather participant information, such as email addresses or user-generated content, and use it to nurture leads with follow-up emails or engagement strategies after the contest or giveaway ends.

5. Social Media Lead Generation Strategies: Social Listening and Monitoring

Pay close attention to what your audience is saying about your brand and industry. By actively listening to conversations and monitoring mentions, you can identify potential leads and engage with them in a meaningful way.

You can do the following to ensure your social media lead generation strategy is effective.

• Pay attention to emerging trends and gauge sentiment around your brand and industry. This insight can inform your content strategy and customer engagement.
• Respond promptly and thoughtfully to comments, mentions, and messages on your social media profiles. Engaging with your audience can foster positive relationships and address concerns in real-time.
• Monitor your competitors’ social media activities to identify gaps or opportunities in your own strategy. Take note of their successes and challenges.
• Use the data and insights gathered from social listening to refine your social media strategy, tailor your content, and meet the changing needs and preferences of your audience.

6. Use Lead Magnets

Create irresistible lead magnets like eBooks, whitepapers, or exclusive discounts to entice social media users to share their contact information with you. These incentives should align with your audience’s interests and needs.

Here are three examples of lead magnets for social media lead generation that can work wonders for you.

2. Exclusive Social Media Webinar Series: Host a series of live webinars on a topic related to your industry or expertise and promote it through your social media channels. Participants can sign up with their email addresses to access the webinars. This not only generates leads but also positions you as an authority in your field.
3. Boost Your Social Media Graphic Design with Our Templates and Tools: Craft your social media strategy with ease using our downloadable resources, including content calendars, graphics templates, or hashtag guides. Elevate your designs and transform your online presence by subscribing with your email or following us on social media.

3. Social Media Challenges: Launch a social media challenge that encourages participants to engage with your brand and content over a specified period. For instance, a fitness coach could run a “30-Day Fitness Challenge” where participants receive daily workout plans and nutrition tips via email or social media messages after signing up.

7. Social Media Lead Generation Strategies: Take advantage of chatbots

Implement chatbots to engage with visitors on your social media profiles and website. Chatbots can provide instant responses, answer questions, and collect valuable lead

information 24/7, enhancing your lead generation efforts even when you’re not online.

Chatbots are instrumental in enhancing social media lead generation efforts in various ways:

• Chatbots provide immediate responses to inquiries, enabling 24/7 engagement with social media users. This quick interaction can capture leads’ attention and interest when they are most engaged.
• By asking a series of questions, chatbots can qualify leads based on location, budget, or interests. This ensures that leads with the most potential are prioritized and focused on.
• Chatbots can deliver automated follow-up messages, nurture leads, and guide them through the sales funnel. They can provide information, answer questions, and offer content that moves leads closer to making a purchase decision.
• Chatbots can collect valuable lead information, such as email addresses, phone numbers, and preferences, which can be used for personalized marketing campaigns and lead segmentation.
• In industries like real estate or consulting, chatbots can facilitate appointment scheduling by allowing leads to book meetings or consultations directly through social media, streamlining the lead conversion process.

Social Media Lead Generation Strategies: Conclusion

In the fast-paced world of social media, staying ahead of the curve with these lead generation strategies can make all the difference.

As you embark on your journey to attract, engage, and convert leads through social media, remember that consistency and adaptability are key. Keep refining your approach, analyzing results, and evolving with the ever-changing landscape of social media to ensure your strategies remain effective.

Remember that social media lead generation is not a one-size-fits-all endeavor. It requires ongoing adaptation, careful monitoring, and a commitment to delivering value to your audience.

By consistently implementing these strategies, listening to your audience, and staying agile in your approach, you can build meaningful relationships, nurture leads, and ultimately, achieve your business goals.

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Author Bio:

 Aabhas Vijay stands as the creative and imaginative founder behind Avija Digital, an agency that specializes in crafting ingenious online strategies and trust worthy marketing solutions. Aabhas has demonstrated himself as an outstanding authority in the realm of digital marketing specifically for SaaS (Software as a Service). He is an exceptional expert in brand positioning, content creation and audience engagement. Moreover, Aabhas’s prime focus is on organizing cohesive strategies and formulating plans that lead to long term brand sustainability.

The post 7 Social Media Lead Generation Strategies That Work appeared first on Leadrebel Blog.

What is LinkedIn Automation?

LinkedIn automation refers to the use of software tools and bots to automate certain tasks on the LinkedIn platform, such as sending connection requests, sending messages, liking posts, and more. This technology aims to help users save time and streamline their workflows by allowing them to execute repetitive tasks at scale without the need for manual intervention.

What is the Benefit of LinkedIn Automation?

The benefits of LinkedIn automation include:

1. Timesaving: Automation allows users to execute repetitive tasks in less time than it would take to perform them manually.
2. Increased efficiency: Automation can help users’ complete tasks more efficiently, allowing them to focus on more important aspects of their work.
3. Improved outreach: With automation, users can connect with more people and send more messages than they could manually, which can increase their chances of making valuable connections and generating leads.
4. Better engagement: Automation tools can help users engage with their audience more effectively by automatically liking and commenting on relevant content.
5. Scalability: Automation can help users scale their outreach efforts without adding additional resources, allowing them to reach more people and generate more leads.

What are Potential Risks of LinkedIn Automation?

While LinkedIn automation can be beneficial, there are also some potential downsides to consider:

1. Risk of account suspension: LinkedIn has strict policies against the use of automation tools that violate its user agreement. If LinkedIn detects that a user is using automation tools in a way that violates its policies, it may suspend or even permanently disable their account.
2. Negative impact on user experience: Overuse of automation tools can lead to a poor user experience for others on the platform, particularly if it results in spammy or irrelevant messages.
3. Limited personalization: Automation tools may not be able to provide the same level of personalization as manual outreach, which could limit their effectiveness in some situations.
4. Potential for errors: Automation tools can make mistakes or send messages to the wrong people if not set up correctly or monitored closely.
5. Reduced authenticity: Some users may perceive automated messages or actions as impersonal or insincere, which could damage their trust in the sender.

Overall, the downsides of LinkedIn automation can be minimized by using automation tools responsibly and within the platform’s guidelines. It’s important to strike a balance between efficiency and personalization to ensure that outreach efforts are effective while maintaining a positive user experience.

What are the Best Practices of LinkedIn Automation?

Here are some best practices for LinkedIn automation to help you use automation tools responsibly and effectively:

1. Follow LinkedIn’s guidelines: LinkedIn has strict policies against the use of automation tools that violate its user agreement. Make sure to review and follow these policies to avoid account suspension or other penalties.
2. Personalize your messages: While automation can save time, it’s important to add a personal touch to your outreach efforts to avoid appearing spammy or insincere. Customize your messages based on the recipient’s profile and interests.
3. Limit the frequency of messages: Don’t send too many messages or connection requests in a short period of time, as this can be seen as spammy behavior. It’s best to stagger your outreach efforts and limit the number of messages you send per day.
4. Monitor your automation activities: Regularly monitor your automation activities to ensure that they are working as intended and not causing any issues, such as sending messages to the wrong people or exceeding LinkedIn’s limits.
5. Target your outreach efforts: Use automation tools to target your outreach efforts to specific audiences based on job titles, industries, or other criteria. This can help you reach the right people and increase your chances of success.
6. Keep your profile updated: Ensure that your LinkedIn profile is up-to-date and includes relevant information. This can help increase your credibility and make it easier for others to connect with you.
7. Use automation in conjunction with manual efforts: Don’t rely solely on automation tools for your outreach efforts. Instead, use them in conjunction with manual efforts to ensure a balance of efficiency and personalization.

Overall, using LinkedIn automation tools can be beneficial, but it’s essential to use them responsibly and within LinkedIn’s guidelines. By following these best practices, you can effectively leverage automation to improve your outreach efforts and generate more leads.

What not to do During LinkedIn Automation

Here are some things to avoid doing during LinkedIn automation:

1. Don’t violate LinkedIn’s user agreement: LinkedIn has strict policies against the use of automation tools that violate its user agreement. Avoid using automation tools in a way that violates these policies, as it can lead to account suspension or other penalties.
2. Don’t send generic or spammy messages: Personalization is key to successful outreach efforts. Avoid sending generic or spammy messages that are not relevant to the recipient’s interests or needs.
3. Don’t exceed LinkedIn’s limits: LinkedIn has limits on the number of connection requests and messages that users can send per day. Avoid exceeding these limits, as it can be seen as spammy behavior and can result in account suspension or other penalties.
4. Don’t rely solely on automation tools: While automation can be helpful, it’s important to also include manual efforts in your outreach strategy. Don’t rely solely on automation tools, as this can result in a lack of personalization and authenticity.
5. Don’t forget to monitor your automation activities: Regularly monitor your automation activities to ensure that they are working as intended and not causing any issues, such as sending messages to the wrong people or exceeding LinkedIn’s limits.
6. Don’t ignore replies or messages: If someone responds to your automated message or connection request, don’t ignore them. Respond promptly and personally to show that you value their interest and are not just sending generic messages.
7. Don’t use automation tools to scrape data: LinkedIn’s user agreement prohibits the use of automation tools to scrape data from the platform. Avoid using automation tools for this purpose, as it can lead to account suspension or other penalties.

By avoiding these practices during LinkedIn automation, you can ensure that your outreach efforts are effective and align with LinkedIn’s policies and guidelines.

Tools for LinkedIn Automation

Here are three tools which we have selected for you.

Salesflow

Salesflow is a LinkedIn automation platform designed to help agencies, sales teams, and growing startups/SMBs generate quality leads quickly. It features a variety of features that enable users to automate their lead generation and outbound sales processes. These features allow users to grow their network automatically, generate more leads, get more out of Sales Navigator, build brand awareness, and amplify their Sales Navigator accounts. Additionally, Salesflow offers a customer success and support team to guide users through their automation journey and an intuitive and easy to use platform. With a growing international team servicing 10,000+ users across 120+ countries, Salesflow’s services have been proven successful in many case studies, testimonials, and reviews.

Pricing: basically, pricing is 99 Euros/User per month. But depending on team size, price might fall to 64 Euros per seat.

Expand.io

Expandi.io is a LinkedIn automation tool that helps users skyrocket their LinkedIn game and become an outreach pro. It allows users to contact their prospects on LinkedIn and by email via automated sequences that are easy to launch. The software is designed to think for you, creating the highest number of personalized touch points with your audience. It offers a range of features like LinkedIn Outreach (Invites to Connect, Messages, InMails, View, Like Content, Follow & Endorse), Email Outreach, Image & GIF personalization, and Smart Sequences. With Smart Sequences, users can combine 9 different actions in one sequence, define time delays between them, add as many steps as they wish, and set up conditions in the sequence to create different if/else outcomes based on their leads’ behavior. Expand.io is the one of the best LinkedIn automation software on the market and promises results within 24 hours of launching the first campaign.

Pricing is very straightforward: 99 $ per user/month.

Linked Helper

Linked Helper is an automated tool for generating leads and sales on LinkedIn. It helps users find and connect with potential customers and turn them into loyal customers. It also helps users to manage their contacts with an inbuilt CRM system. The tool offers 31 features to automate the process of connecting, messaging, and engaging with leads. It is available in 180 countries and rated 5-star. The tool also provides instant 24/7 support. It offers features to scrape and export contact information, build funnels with chains of messages, send personalized messages, go over the weekly invitation limits, use hyper personalization, and integrate with 3rd party CRMs. It also provides multi-source targeting, advanced limits, and customizable working hours.

Pricing starts at 15$ per month for a standard suite and reaches 45$ per month for “Pro” suite.

Summary

LinkedIn automation is the use of software tools and bots to automate certain tasks on the LinkedIn platform, such as sending connection requests, sending messages, liking posts, and more. It is used to save time and streamline workflows, and its benefits include improved efficiency, increased outreach, better engagement, and scalability. There are many tools available to help users with LinkedIn automation, such as Salesflow, Expand.io, and Linked Helper.

However, there are potential risks that come with using LinkedIn automation, such as account suspension, negative impact on user experience, limited personalization, potential errors, and reduced authenticity.

To use LinkedIn automation effectively and responsibly, it is important to follow best practices such as following LinkedIn’s guidelines, personalizing messages, monitoring activities, targeting outreach efforts, and using automation with manual efforts. Additionally, it is important to avoid using automation tools to scrape data, sending generic or spammy messages, exceeding LinkedIn’s limits, relying solely on automation tools, ignoring replies or messages, and not monitoring activities.

image source: https://www.picserver.org/highway-signs2/l/linkedin.html

The post Introduction to LinkedIn Automation appeared first on Leadrebel Blog.

What is sales funnel?

During a purchase all customers go through a certain journey, from the determination of their needs to the purchase decision, this journey consists of several stages, all of which are referred to as the sales funnel.

Let’s take a simple example:

During internet research an entrepreneur reads about the effectiveness of search engine optimization and the impact on the long-term increase in sales. Then he inquiries about suitable providers in his area, sends several inquiries, receives several answers, and after few discussions he decides on a specific company. This entire customer journey can be described as a sales funnel.

Why is sales funnel so important?

You can only improve and optimize something if you understand it. Sales funnel consists of several stages and optimizing each stage has an impact on the overall result. You can also quantify your sales process much more easily and define KPIs for the individual steps. In this article we try to explain all parts of the sales funnel in as much detail as possible, provide KPIs for the individual steps and explain the importance of LeadRebel for your sales funnel.

Structure: The stages within the sales funnel

The sales funnel is a process that consists of four stages: perception, interest, decision, action. Here you are reminded of the legendary film where Alec Baldwin explains the idea of the sales funnel in quite detail.

So, think of AIDA: Awareness, Interest, Decision and Action. Each of these steps requires a certain level of expertise from you. Depending on the size of the company, different people are responsible for the individual stages, different external service providers and, of course, different software and success metrics. Let’s go through each step in more detail:

• perception
• interest
• decision
• action

Perception

There are different starting points. In one, customers know exactly what they need and may already be actively looking for the appropriate solution. In other cases, customers don’t even know they have a specific need. For example, nobody had a need for iPads before they came along. As Steve Jobs said: “Some people say give the customers what they want, but that’s not my approach. Our job is to figure out what they’re going to want before they do. I think Henry Ford once said, ‘If I’d ask customers what they wanted, they would have told me a faster horse’. Regardless of where you pick up the customers, they first must become aware of you.

So, the goal here is to increase awareness of your product or brand, be it through PR, search engine optimization, social media, etc. This also applies to products/services that are new and that customers are not yet explicitly looking for. For example, many marketers don’t even know that there is a way to identify their website visitors. Accordingly, you are not specifically looking for such software. But we must meet these customers where they are.

Once the target audience has spotted you, you need to stay on their radar. In most cases, there is no purchase the first time. So, customers need to keep seeing you, hearing from you, so that when it comes to deciding, you’re the first port of call.

The aim here is (if we are talking about the website) to generate as much traffic as possible. So, we define the first KPI: Traffic. Of course, traffic is not just traffic, it can be highly relevant or completely irrelevant. The fine tuning will be done later.

Interest

Interested visitors come to your website more often, stay longer, look at more pages, often start the ordering process and change their mind during the process. In this step it is important to convince the website visitors with the relevant content and interesting offers. The relevant KPIs are length of stay, number of repeated sessions, number of pages viewed per visit, etc. Most analytics tools as well as LeadRebel offer options for optimal tracking of these KPIs.

Decision

At some point customers must decide for or against your products and services. At this point, customers can still be influenced, be it with particularly good customer service, pricing, special offers or a targeted build-up of pressure.

The number of qualified inquiries, registrations, trials, and other comparable customer actions can be used as a KPI.

Action

At the end of the process, the purchase decision is made. If a customer decides against your product, he is not yet lost. A customer can be reactivated via so-called lead nurturing, for example with the help of regular newsletters or information about special offers, etc.

The KPI here is the number of purchases, orders, subscriptions, etc.

An example of a sales funnel

Let’s take a fictional software company. This company generates web traffic primarily using Google ads and search engine optimization. Typical traffic is 2,000 visitors per month. 2% of these visitors contact the company and make an inquiry. Of these 2% (i.e., 40 inquiries), 5% are converted into customer projects. So that means 2 new customers per month:

2000 * 2% * 5% = 2, which means that 0.1% of all website visitors become customers.

In this fictitious example, we can now tweak various points and try to increase the number of customers won each month.

Increase in traffic

Suppose that on average a visit costs 1 euro (as a mix of free SEO traffic and paid Google Ads traffic, where a click costs 2-4 euros). If you want to double the monthly traffic, the company must dig deep into their pockets. Since SEO traffic would be difficult to influence in the short term, you now spend more per click on average, e.g., B. 1.5 euros/click. If the number of acquired customers is to be doubled, 4,000 visitors must come to the website, on average a click would increase by 50%, so a company now spends 6,000 euros per month on traffic. If one paying customer previously cost 1,000 euros, it now costs 1,500 euros. You can do it; But you don’t have to.

Optimize conversion rate of traffic

In our example, only 2% of the visitors showed active interest. What if you increase this number through various measures? There are numerous ways to optimize conversions: A/B testing, better content, call-to-action optimization, chatbots, etc. But suppose the company increased the website conversion rate from 2% to 3%. Then the company gets 60 monthly inquiries instead of 40! 1% increase in conversion rate increased the number of inquiries by 50%. While increasing conversions sounds easier than it is, the leverage is more obvious than just driving traffic.

And the last step

Turning inquiries into customers. In the original example we spoke of 5%. What if you increase that rate to 10%? Here at LeadRebel the rate is 30%! This means that every third trial registration turns into a subscription. But let’s take 10% for the sake of simplicity (which is already an excellent result in many industries). In this case, out of 2000 visitors and a 2% conversion rate, 4 visits are converted into customers. That corresponds to an increase of 100%!

What if you optimize the KPIs across the sales funnel at all three points, we calculate with 4,000 visitors, 3% conversion rate and 10% conversion of inquiries into customers:

4000 * 3% * 10% = 12, a sixfold increase!

It is a theoretical example and in reality, the numbers do not increase linearly (more traffic does not always have the same quality, processing 60 leads is more difficult than 40 and supporting and onboarding 12 customers is significantly more complex than 2. But the core message remains – if you optimize the KPIs across the sales funnel, you have multiple leverage.

LeadRebel in your sales funnel

But where does LeadRebel come into play here? The answer is clear: in the second stage, where you convert visitors into conversions. In reality, the 3% conversion rate is pretty good, not every website can guarantee such a high rate. But even in this case you lose 97% of the visitors and they remain at the level of perception or interest at best (at worst these visitors forget about your existence).

LeadRebel is THE answer to this problem. By knowing which companies have visited your website, you can proactively contact them. A calculation example:

Traditional funnel: 2000 * 2% * 5% = 2 customers/month

Now we make the following assumptions:

• Traffic stays at 2000 visitors/month
• For example, LeadRebel recognizes 20% of visitors, so at the end of each month you have 400 recognized companies.
• Around 50% of this will likely be irrelevant, e.g., B. educational or government institutions, your competition, your suppliers, or existing customers. So, there are still 200 contactable companies
• You contact them and get a worst-case 1% activation rate, so you can convert visitors into customers. That equates to two customers.
• In addition to that, you still have your 2 customers per month, resulted from inbound marketing.

With LeadRebel alone, you doubled the number of monthly customers, and that for only 89 euros/month. If you remember, it has the same effect as triple the Google Ads budget.

Sounds interesting? Then read on.

Build sales funnels

For each stage of the sales funnel, there are dozens of methods to help you grow the funnel. However, it makes no sense to tackle all possibilities at once. Instead, you evaluate the options one at a time, what works stays, what doesn’t gets dropped from the list (or you can try a second time, with a different approach). Here are some ways you can achieve your own goals in each phase:

Sales funnel: achieve visibility

• SEO
• Ads (Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.)
• Social media
• Content marketing
• Public relations
• Referrals / affiliate programs
• Banner ads
• Street advertising
• Word of mouth
• Virality
• Advertising in print media
• etc.

Sales funnel: Build interest

• Retargeting (one-time visitors are targeted with advertising via different channels)
• Offer interesting content
• Helpful tools and solutions
• Cultivate interest with newsletters, pushes, mail marketing, etc.
• Webinars, free training sessions
• Product trials, demo sessions
• etc.

Sales funnel: Influencing decisions

• Conversion optimization
• Social proof (references, press, big names as customers)
• Fast response to inquiries
• Generate FOMO
• Regular and persistent follow-ups
• Short-term offers and promotions
• Face-to-face meetings (bring your own charisma into play)
• etc.

Sales Funnel: Force action

Same methods as above. If you’ve been diligent, you’ve already done most of the work up to here. Sometimes you’re just having a bad day, or someone else is having a better one. But, at the end of the day, the sales funnel is all about the math. When you are in the right market with the right product, your total efforts will yield a predictable result.

Sales funnel KPIs – how to measure success?

The results of your sales efforts must be measurable. If you work based on gut feelings, “it’s working” or “everything sucks,” you don’t notice important changes in the business or in the market until it’s too late. It may be that sales are increasing, but important KPIs are already sending warning signs. If you’re not careful and don’t react in time, sales growth will also go south at some point. On the one hand, KPIs serve as early warning indicators, on the other hand they confirm or reject a hypothesis about the effectiveness of certain channels.

Here is a list of the KPIs that we believe are important for online sales and lead generation:

1. Traffic

Self-explanatory, although the relevance of the traffic is important here. You can see the relevance based on user activity on the website, such as length of stay, number of pages per visit. By the way, on LeadRebel you can also see a video recordings of all website visits.

• Traffic to inquiries or traffic to trial conversion

If you get 1000 visitors a day and 50 of them sign up for a trial, then your conversion rate is 5%.

• Customer conversion rate inquiries/trials

If out of those 50 trials, 5 become paid customers, then your rate is 10%.

• CaC (Customer acquisition cost): Cost of your marketing and sales efforts divided by the number of customers acquired

From the example above: Before the optimization, for 2000 Euros you acquired 2 customers (if we neglect all other costs), then CaC in this example is 1000 Euros. After integrating LeadRebel and paying an additional 89 euros per month (we omit the additional costs for distribution for the sake of simplicity), the CaC is 519 euros.

• Customer Lifetime Value

It describes the contribution margin that a customer realizes throughout his “customer life”. Of course, CLV should be higher than CaC.

You can find these and more KPIs in this article: 10 important KPIs in modern sales.

Sales funnel summary

If you’ve read this article up to here, let us know and you’ll be credited with an extra week of our free trial (three weeks total). Now that you know what role the sales funnel and optimization play in modern sales, you can optimize your funnel step by step, hopefully with the help of our software.

The post Sales Funnel – How to Build a successful Sales Funnel appeared first on Leadrebel Blog.

We have already written about B2B lead generation on LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook. But there is one big player, changing digital world as we know it. In a couple of years, TikTok has managed to take over digital space. In 2021, TikTok was ranked the most downloaded app of the year. And not many professionals realize that this platform can be used as an effective channel to generate B2B leads. 

With an active user base aged 15 to 24, TikTok has become one of the key platforms for large global brands as well as small businesses. It offers a variety of features and opportunities other platforms lack.

Find out more about the best practices and tips for successful B2B lead generation on TikTok in 2022 in this short guide. 

What is lead generation

B2B lead generation is used to identify and initiate an interest of ideal customers for your products or services. B2B marketers capture the attention of leads and nurture them for sales. The process of nurturing sales includes many marketing tactics that build visibility, awareness, and interest within a target audience.

On TikTok, you are closer to a younger audience, which offers a lot of opportunities, however, may be quite challenging. The TikTok phenomenon with short-form content allows you when done right, to reach millions of users across the world. From there you can generate quality leads and get more people to buy your products or services.

The main benefits of lead generation

No business can go without lead generation, as its profit and growth highly depend on a built audience around the company’s brand. Lead generation brings visibility, credibility, trust, and interest from a target audience. 

How exactly do leads affect your business? Here’s a look at some benefits of B2B lead generation. 

Brand awareness

Brand awareness is all about how many people actually heard of your brand. It’s key for new startups and businesses of any size to gain a good reputation among the target audience, which leads to higher profit potential and brand value. 

The goal of lead generation is to position your company as a leader in the industry. When a customer needs to purchase a product or service they think of your company first. This requires creative and clear communication of the product value and uniqueness on the market. 

Boosted revenue

When done correctly, lead generation can be extremely cost-effective. With the right messages and offers across all your content, you can reach the most interested consumers. This leads to more sales and revenue. 

Nurturing leads helps to turn them into real customers and get higher conversion rates from different marketing efforts. Businesses should focus on lead generation, as it allows them to get more people interested in what they have to offer.

Efficient use of resources

Lead generation has evolved over the years and now with advanced tools powered by AI, marketers can spend less time on mundane tasks. Instead, they can get more creative with their messaging for marketing campaigns. There is no need to look for leads on your own. 

You can gather data using automation tools, which also offer powerful analytics features. By analyzing data and identifying key trends and patterns you can create more effective personalized campaigns, specifically tailored for your target audience.

More quality leads

The top priority for marketers is lead generation. This isn’t just a statistic, quality leads are the backbone of any business. You can have all the content you want, but if your target audience doesn’t engage with it and isn’t willing to buy what you are offering, then it’s a waste of time and money. 

For an effective lead generation that brings many quality leads, you need to tailor all of your content across different channels to the needs and interests of a specific audience. 

Trackable results

A great feature of lead generation is that you can track all the results and measure the success of your campaigns. You can also use your previous results to attract new prospects. Social proof is a major trust aspect, as there’s no better way to convince a new customer to consider your products than a review from a past client. 

The data you collect will also help with making well-informed decisions in the future that will lead to more growth opportunities. 

Why choose B2B lead generation on TikTok

TikTok has changed the way we perceive content. Now creating unique engaging short-form content is extremely important for a company’s further growth. Even though TikTok is more known as a platform for young audiences and funny dance challenges, the platform is taking new approaches to be more business-oriented. 

A study conducted by the Content Marketing Institute

TikTok is constantly working on introducing more features for businesses, so there are many opportunities for B2B companies. More and more companies are discovering the platform as a great way to promote products and generate leads.

Here are the key reasons why businesses should choose TikTok for B2B lead generation:

Mobile-first experience 

With the increased use of mobile apps, there is more demand for excellent mobile experiences. TikTok has managed to win the ‘mobile-friendliness’ game and made the user experience simple and smooth. And the short videos that are its main content are perfect for those who watch while at home, taking a break, or during their daily commute. 

Businesses have noticed the great potential in short videos and have jumped into trends. It’s a platform where you need to focus on creativity and effective clear communication. A key to success is entertaining, clever, and personal content. Mobile content is so important that there are entire video marketing strategies that prioritize it in their content creation process.

Access to the young audience

Unlike other platforms, TikTok understands what a younger audience needs. The algorithm is advanced and picks various videos for the recommendations that keep people hooked for hours. You can use the app to your greatest advantage and effectively advertise products to a wider audience. 

Oberlo demographic on TikTok users ages

Offers tools to make creative videos 

TikTok supports brands that create authentic and engaging content that accurately represents the brand’s value. TikTok retains users much better than any other competing platform, the audience is eager to watch new content and engage with brands. 

Some businesses have found it difficult to start a TikTok campaign and manage the company’s account, however, everyone can find their specific approach. Some focus on recreating trending videos while keeping their business authenticity present. 

Others focus on storytelling so potential customers understand them.  Whatever content you prefer as a business, brand value and uniqueness are very important! 

Key tips for effective B2B lead generation on TikTok

Get inspired and create unique videos for B2B lead generation that make you stand out from your competitors, to do that follow a few best practices:

Be authentic

First and foremost, be authentic. TikTok is a very personal platform, where to build relationships with your audience, you have to be authentic. On a business account, viewers want to see the people behind the company, their stories, and who are they buying from. 

Brands with charismatic leadership have been doing great on this platform, so make your brand more human and connect on personal levels. A brand isn’t just a faceless structure but a group of passionate individuals who are invested in the brand. Make sure to show it through the content you post on TikTok.

Focus on creating relevant engaging content

TikTok video is between 15 and 60 seconds, every second is critical for B2B lead generation. For a user to watch the whole video, it’s important to capture their attention from the very start. Valuable content will help you find your potential customers quickly. For a video, it’s recommended to first provide a problem, a product designed to solve it, and an impact the solution had – all in a few seconds.  

Another great marketing technique is the UCG tactic. It encourages users to create content as a response to yours and engage them with your brand or have them participate in a challenge you’ve started. 

TikTok UCG Flywheel

Interact with other brands and try to find an interested audience

TikTok isn’t just another way to promote your brand, it’s about building a community around your brand. That means engaging with the audience in the comment section is crucial. Be sure to always have your comments turned on and respond to user comments and questions. 

Make sure you’re also active in other brands’ comments, run discussions, and engage with other users. You can also follow hashtags and find content relevant to your industry. This is a great way to find out what your competitors are doing, which tactics they use to engage with the target audience, and analyze what’s working and what’s not.

B2B Lead Generation on TikTok: Final thoughts

TikTok is developing extremely quickly across the world. If you use the right strategies on TikTok and create content that grabs the attention of your potential customers, you’ll generate more quality B2B leads and raise your brand awareness. 

As more and more brands are coming to TikTok to communicate with their audience, you can expect many changes and new tools being developed for a better experience for businesses. 

Title image source: https://www.trustedreviews.com/news/tiktok-now-uses-ai-for-user-violations-heres-what-it-means-for-you-4154531

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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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What is B2B Lead Generation Software?

B2B Lead generation software is designed to assist B2B businesses in generating new leads from various channels.

Here are the steps how we use B2B Lead Generation Software LeadRebel ourselves:

1. Edit Leads
2. Find the contact person
3. Get in touch
4. Email follow-up message
5. Call

People often ask us: “I have good traffic on my website, and with LeadRebel, I know who visited my website. What’s next? What should I do with all this information?”

There are several ways to convert website visitors into new customers. In fact, many of our users have quite different approaches, and we will soon reveal best practices on how our clients utilize the power of LeadRebel.

In this article, however, let’s first talk about how we handle the data ourselves. With it, you can adopt a similar strategy or develop your very own — one that may be even more effective.

Step 1: Using B2B Lead Generation Software for Editing leads

Every website is different. Some have low traffic, but mainly from B2B sources, and the recognition rate is high; others get larger traffic from private households and barely have any recognition. By recognition, we mean matching the website visitor to a member of an organization’s staff.

Here at LeadRebel, we manage to recognize about 20% of all website visitors, but not every hit is helpful. At LeadRebel, we focus on a specific B2B segment, so we filter out anything that doesn’t fit: Big corporations, where it’s hard for us to reach out to particular contacts, government agencies, higher education institutions, and other organizations we are not hunting for. Next, we look at the time spent on the website and hide all visits that last only a few seconds.

In the end, about 10% of the data volume remains in the dashboard.

Step 2: Find the contact person

You are probably familiar with the “Find employee” function if you already know our software. If not or not too well: You can search for such contacts on the dashboard for each company. These will be sorted according to the criteria you specify (e.g., the company’s roles relevant to you).

Besides social media profiles of employees working for the respective company, you can also find their email addresses and phone numbers with LeadRebel.

There you have it, a list of contact persons with all relevant contact data.

Step 3: Get in touch

Once we have tidied up our dashboard, i.e., removed the companies that are not relevant to us and found which contacts are in each company, we approach them. Our first move is to send a contact request via LinkedIn, connect with the person and send a template-based message.

Of course, the more personalized the message, the better the conversion rate. However, due to capacity constraints, we have to do this without extensive adjustments.

On the dashboard, we tag the organizations we’ve already addressed appropriately.

Step 4: Email follow-up message

Anyone on LinkedIn holding a middle or senior management position knows just how severe the message overload can get. So, it’s no surprise that many of our requests go unanswered.

For this reason, we will send our first follow-up via email. We refer to LinkedIn and get a bit more specific on our offer to that particular company. The good thing about LeadRebel is: we know exactly which page our visitors went to, and we know what they looked at (say, which landing page or blog article). We can therefore target the user’s specific interests directly.

We recommend investing a little more time into these emails, that is, address the benefits of your product or service concerning your visitor’s interests more clearly.

Step 5: Call

Finally, we have come to the last stage of our LeadRebel-based customer acquisition process: calling. If we don’t get a response via LinkedIn or email, we just call. Some of our clients skip the prelude altogether and pick up the phone right away. That’s fine. Perhaps you will even achieve better conversion rates that way.

We believe that potential customers should at least have a rough idea of what we’re talking about. Many can already remember who we are if we refer to LinkedIn and our email. This makes it easier for us to break the ice.

We usually allow two days to pass between steps 3 and 5. This way, prospects have ample time to react to our messages.

B2B Lead Generation Software LeadRebel Results

As you can see, the process we have implemented is very straightforward. We still do generate new leads regularly and bring them to a close.

What does that mean in numbers? In this blog, we have frequently talked about the sales funnel and corresponding KPIs. You probably know that there are several neuralgic points in the funnel where even the slightest optimization can produce significant leverage. Let’s look at these KPIs and the impact LeadRebel has had on our own sales pipeline:

As described, LeadRebel recognizes about 20% of our inbound data volume. Nearly half of it is filtered out, leaving us with 10% that we can treat as leads. Around 20% percent respond to our outreach through the various channels (let’s take 15% as an average), and of those, about 20–30% result in a sign-up.

In short: out of 1000 visitors, we recognize 200 on average, 100 of them are leads, 20 people respond to our follow-up, and 5 sign up. This equates to 0,5% of our inbound traffic.

Conclusion

Over the last year, LeadRebel has become a key lead source for our own business.

Is it reasonable to generalize our case? Surely not. Not every website has a 20% recognition rate. Not every product offering starts at only €29 and is comparatively easy to sell. And, of course, not every website has enough traffic to generate sufficient leads and turn them into customers over time. What we do is just one of the many ways to use LeadRebel to empower your sales force and help them succeed.

Translated by FabForward Consultancy

The post How We Use LeadRebel Ourselves and Contact Our Website Visitors appeared first on Leadrebel Blog.

Usually, entrepreneurial growth is regarded as “slow but steady.” We do not fully agree with this statement. After all, a good kick-start never hurt anyone. Which leads us straight to B2B growth hacking. B2B growth Hacking strategy is about helping your business grow through imaginative, unusual, or bold marketing strategies.

See how it works from the following companies. In this article, you will get an overview of growth hacking for B2B companies and learn about: 

• proven growth hacks 
• exclusive inspiration and how these ideas can be implemented today
• case studies and take-aways: Slack
• two examples of growth hacking for B2B start-ups
• summary 

B2B Growth Hacking: what has proved itself worthwhile

Globally, three companies have shaped the term growth hacking substantially: Dropbox, Hotmail, and Airbnb. Thanks to the hacks used, all three companies have massively expanded their follower base within a very short time.

1. Dropbox
2. Hotmail
3. Airbnb
4. Pipetop
5. Slack

Dropbox: The recommendation hack

Growth Hacking Cornerstone – Number 1: Dropbox’s double-edged recommendation scheme

1. Users who recommend Dropbox to a friend will receive free additional storage space. 
2.  The person who registers via a link also receives a promotional gift.

This win-win opportunity paved the way for the company’s rapid growth, which today has 500 million customers.

Source: Google. Referrals by Dropbox. Perfectly SEO-optimized, of course. 

“How-to: How’s it going today? Payoneer is currently applying the same strategy and is likewise growing successfully with it.

Hotmail: Backlinks

Growth Hacking Cornerstone – Number 2: Building on proven concepts

Well, Hotmail’s big days are over, actually. But: The company had managed to register 6 million usersin just six months.

This worked because the company used its original 20,000 subscribers as “carrier pigeons.” Every email sent contained an automatic message linking back to Hotmail. And it reads: PS: I Love you.Get your free Hotmail email address.

PS: “I love you” worked so well because it was cordial and sympathetic. The concept was new, and people liked it. So, the results didn’t take long to show and almost everyone who clicked turned into a Hotmail user. 

“How-to”: How’s it going today? Add “Powered By” or trust badges to the footer of your websites and in your email signature. 

The integration of “Powered by” or trust badges into the signature or footer is easy to implement and produces excellent results. The principle behind it relies on references: If you use brand widgets of a reputable brand or if people see your product on other websites, this can lead to a growth boost.

Example of a “Powered by” integration. Source Screenshot: Optinmonster

The world-famous Hotmail signature. Source Screenshot: Optinmonster

Airbnb: Backlinks

Growth Hacking Cornerstone – Number 3: From zero to millions

Airbnb is famous for effortlessly finding affordable, stylish and exclusive accommodation – wherever you go. 

It wasn’t always like that. Airbnb also had to build up its customer base in laborious detail work. In the early stage, its founders discovered that Americans who did not want to stay in expensive hotels searched Craigslist for alternative accommodations. Without further ado, they had the opportunity to have their listings copied there. 

The idea is brilliant. And theresult? Immediate access to a potentially huge market.

Source Screenshot: Airbnb Facebook Account. Without Craigslist no overnight stay in the “Wienermobile.”

Before we reveal to you how this can be done today, please reflect on the most important growth hacking rule: pirate metrics. 

If you simply want to remember the basics of growth hacking, just remember “AARRR!“

Acquisition -How do your customers find you? 

Activation – How enjoyable is the initial point of contact for the customer/visitor?

Retention – How many of your customers do you retain or lose?

Referral – How can you transform your customers into ambassadors? 

Revenue – How can you increase revenue?

Preliminary conclusion: before you growth-hack, you need to know your customers inside outand know where they are. 

“How-to: How can the Airbnb strategy be implemented today? Use advertising portals, contact exchanges, and LinkedIn marketing. 

LinkedIn probably is the most important social network for B2B companies.

In addition to the common content sharing features, LinkedIn offers a handy tool: you can see the users who have viewed your profile. Yup! Thanks to this hack, you can find out which LinkedIn users have been visiting your site.

You must have a Premium LinkedIn account and insert the following HTML code on your website:

<img src = ”https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?authToken=XXauthType=name&id=XX” />

Here, XX stands for your LinkedIn ID page.

Pipetop: The pufferfish among the growth hackers

Growth Hacking Cornerstone – Number 4: Fake it until you make it 

The pufferfish uses a visually awe-inspiring adaptation technique when it is in danger.

The fish sucks in water or air and suddenly becomes three times as big as usual. This warning prevents other sea animals from messing with the prickly fellow. 

Pipetop, a Danish company, followed a similar approach in its sales strategy. The start-up wanted to give the impression that it operates in several countries, although it had only one office in Denmark.

Instead of opening different offices, they bought several Skype numbers in different countries. Although the company is no longer on the market today, this hack created the necessary confidence for sales, especially in the highly competitive B2B sales market.  

“How-to: How’s it going today? Here the motto is: “steal” the strategy. Buy (Skype) numbers and place them on the website. This gives the impression that your company is bigger than it seems.  

“If many others find something good, it will also work for me” – that is the concept of social proof. A lot depends on this today – who wants to use a service that nobody else is interested in? 

That’s what Uber’s rival “Lyft” also figured out. The company solved its problem (too little demand, too few operators) by paying taxi drivers to pretend being booked and waiting for passengers. This mass of suppliers ensured that potential passengers were convinced of the service quality even before their journey.

Case Study – Slack: Growth the easy way

Growth Hacking cornerstone – number 5: Convince with simplicity and a great product

Founded in 2013 by Stewart Butterfield, Slack is a cloud-based hub where multiple companies can collaborate in real-time.

Here are some company facts: 

• 1.25 million paying users
• 4 million active users per day
• The fastest-growing SaaS company of all time
• Turnover from 0 to 4 billion USD in only 4 years
• 77% of Fortune 100 companies use this software

The Slack growth hacking strategy in detail 

Slack did not use cold calling, lead generation, or support campaigns for its growth hacking strategy.

It is worth mentioning here that the founding team – besides Butterfield – was made up of Eric Costello, Cal Henderson, and Serguei Mourachov. They all were involved in building the photo-sharing site Flickr.

By the way: Slack is worth more than 100 times as much as Flickr today. 

The most crucial growth strategy at Slack:

• Optimization for PQLs (product-qualified leads) instead of 
• optimization for MQLs (marketing-qualified leads) 
• or SQLs (sales-qualified leads).

This means that Slack focused on generating active logins rather than building a massive database of inactive users.

This was achieved with a free product version.

Charges only apply once the user wants to unlock additional functions such as memory or app integrations. This is a tactic used by many SaaS companies.

Slack is different, though, because they are always focused on one goal: They want to make the day for your users as easy as possible by doing the organizational work for them. 

Instead of pushing people to try out the demo version by using intrusive sales techniques, Slack relied on paid advertising (retargeting) and the following concept: simplicity. 

• Instead of technical jargon, the user sees simple slogans, ads, and landing pages.
• The company uses easy-to-use registration forms, friendly ads, and uniform branding.

“How-to: How’s it going today? 

The Slack Growth Hacking Take-Aways for B2B lead generation agencies. 

Word of mouth: Improve your product continuously and simplify people’s work. Make it easy for people to share your innovation with colleagues and friends.

Use paid advertising: Do not rely on scattering losses, but on paid advertising. This is particularly recommended as part of social media marketing. 

Give a lot but make yourself well paid for giving “more.” 
This can be done through extensions. It’s quite logical, actually: Thanks to the integration of a multitude of apps and functions, not only Slack is continuously growing, becoming more powerful and indispensable, but your company, too.

Growth Hacking for B2B Start-ups: Feel free to think out-of-the-box 

There are a host of unorthodox ways you can use to accelerate entrepreneurial growth. Even on a shoe-string budget, start-ups can implement their ideas. The only prerequisite is to be innovative.

Especially extensions, as mentioned above, holds particular potential for companies in the growth phase. 

Base CRM: Use Chrome Extension

Convert your product or service so that a user can use it as a Chrome extension. Whenever users open Chrome, they can automatically access your product. 

Google Chrome is one of the most popular web browsers. Over 60 % of Internet users use it as their standard browser.

Build into Chrome is the Chrome Web Store, the app marketplace where you can publish apps and extensions (so-called Chrome extensions). When a user adds your web application to Chrome, a link to your service is continuously displayed in the browser’s bookmarks bar, increasing the likelihood of a return visit.

Example: Base CRM. The Chrome extension of Base CRM has almost 30,000 users.

When Base CRM (a widely used and popular CRM solution) introduced its Chrome extension, the company immediately recorded nearly 30,000 downloads.

For a few hours of development time and just $5 investment for the Chrome installation, they got a world-class growth hack for B2B companies. 

Growth hacking for start-ups & founders: Udemy & Co.

Source Screenshot: Udemy website. One-time course generation, lifelong customer acquisition 

Create an online course and establish yourself as an expert in your field. 

Course platforms like Udemy create an additional source of revenue, increase your credibility, and generate leads.

That is for life, with a one-time investment. 

With these tools, you can easily create courses:

• Camtasia (screenshot)
• Audacity (audio recording)
• Teachable.com (Create and manage courses)

As a teacher and expert, you are automatically perceived as a professional and authority. They take you and your opinion seriously. This can have an incredible effect on your brand, your person, and your company.

You think it’s too complicated? If you’ve already created and regularly shared content in the form of blogs, e-books, presentations, videos, and interviews, you have more than enough material to create a course.

Re-use the entire content of a topic, create courses, and then refer to your new offering in your normal online activities.

Growth hacking for B2B companies & start-ups: Conclusion and outlook

Growth hacking is about using resources that are already available to you. A good growth hacking strategy not only has the goal to expand the company but also to focus on customer benefits.

This shows the first category of growth hacks. The second category (which is also suitable for start-ups) shows you that it can be worth going new ways and trying things that are not mainstream. 

Growth hacking for B2B companies, therefore, focuses on two aspects:

• Creativity and the desire to continually improve one’s own product and to expand the application possibilities.

Of course, you can’t copy any of the strategies and expect miracles. But you can better understand the dynamics and psychology behind the examples and take advantage of the critical points. The listed examples show that you can achieve good growth success even with the smallest budget or even real-time commitment.

More interesting articles:

If you’ve wondered how much a lead costs on average in your industry, read the article about the value of acquiring new customers.

Privacy is paramount when it comes to email marketing. Read this article about GDPR and its impact on marketing and sales.

If you want to learn how to generate more leads, read this article about 13 ways to generate leads.

How to increase your Website Traffic

Picture source: https://pixabay.com/illustrations/arrows-growth-hacking-profit-1574173/

The post B2B Growth Hacking – Tips and Tricks for More Growth appeared first on Leadrebel Blog.

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

The post B2B Lead Generation on Instagram appeared first on Leadrebel Blog.

B2B Lead Generation on LinkedIn

Looking back at the developments in online marketing over the past few years, you will notice that customer acquisition has changed dramatically. Nowadays, we try to make contacts on social media. LinkedIn is no exception to this. And right here, B2B leads can be found with ease.

B2B companies need to win leads with a creative strategy if they want to be successful in this interconnected world. For most marketers, this means developing a strategy that encompasses multiple strategic levels – including social media marketing on various platforms. 

This article discusses ways to generate leads on LinkedIn and introduces each method.

LinkedIn Is One of the Best Platforms for Lead Generation

Internal surveys conducted by LinkedIn show that 93% of all B2B marketers believe that marketing within the platform is the most effective way of generating leads. If you need to launch an optimal B2B lead generation campaign on LinkedIn, you can also check the definitive guide from Gotoclient.

In every online guide, you can read how to win leads using LinkedIn. It always comes down to the same thing: Join. Be active. Collect leads.

There is nothing wrong with all this, in general, except if it were that easy, we wouldn’t have to publish another blog post.

Therefore, your query as to whether you should invest time and money in a LinkedIn approach is justified.

Success with LinkedIn Leads: Why bother?

LinkedIn Statistics

According to their own information, the network has: 

• 500 Million members (13 million in the DACH region) 
• 61 Millions of high-ranking influencers and 
• 40 Millions of decision-makers who are using LinkedIn regularly. 

Among those users are creative marketing specialists as well as influential managers in exact those hierarchies their marketing actions aim at.

LinkedIn is, therefore, a place where you can reach decision-makers promoting a product or service (or generating leads).

• The average CEO on LinkedIn has 930 connections. 
• 24.5 million company pages were registered by 2 July 2018. 

This makes LinkedIn – in contrast to other, more informal social networks – a serious platform for lead generation. 

Turning Your LinkedIn Page into a B2B Lead Generation Page

1. Use an image that attracts attention or interest
2. Create a concise and convincing company description
3. Align the Recent Updates section to conversions

So you want LinkedIn Leads? Then, your site needs to target for it.

The first strategy we want to bring closer to you is the transformation of your business site into a B2B lead generation page. What this means is that in the future you will be portraying precisely the opposite of what your company is currently showing. 

Let me guess. Your company page quotes the most important facts about your company. Please get rid of it because:

Unfortunately, nobody reads the information and facts about the company. This implies that before the prospects even looked into your services, your profile is out of the game. 

Instead, structure your company page in such a way that it leads to a conversion action. A conversion action is a click onto your website, either in the company description or in the updates.

Step 1: Use an image that attracts attention or interest.

The header image is the easiest way to stimulate the visitor’s interest and actively encourage him to interact.

Place a message directly in your header. For instance:

• “Get your guide to reach the influencer you need.”
• “Step by step to the perfect header on LinkedIn: design guide included”

The reader’s next logical step is to get the promised material.

Remember: The picture must catch the reader’s attention and prompt him to take action.

Step 2: Create a concise and convincing company description.

Even if the first step proves successful, many companies fail at this point.

Your company page must not reflect any dry facts. How strongly you grew and how many locations you operate right now are not the stuff a lead generation page is made of.

• Talk directly to your target group. Invite them to communicate with you.
• The most important part of your company description is the first two lines.

That is all visitors can see. To get more information, they must actively click on “See more”.

That means, you got only two lines to draw the visitor’s attention.

All the beautiful paperwork you have done for your company website will be waste of time otherwise.

Step 3: Align the Recent Updates section to conversions.

If potentials customers don’t click their way to your website because of your information description, convince them to remain with your updates by publishing updates regularly. As long as you do that your site will show an active and appealing feed. The best path into your customers’ minds are updates that deal directly with their interests and needs:

• Relevant blog updates
• Links to infographics
• Industry information

Remember: “Clicks” is all you want. Always keep this in mind when publishing updates. Key to success is what you write and how you convey the message.

Using Groups on LinkedIn Correctly 

Well done! You have laid the foundation for your lead success with your company page. The next step for successful lead generation on LinkedIn is to boost your activity level.

Before you roll your eyes: LinkedIn groups provide a perfect environment for testing updates and content your target audience respond positively to.

Do the following:

1.  Search for suitable groups
2.  Join
3.  Keep up a certain amount of activity.

This is for lead maintenance. Yet, we recommend that you set yourself a time budget for this marketing activity.

How to find groups? By performing a group search with relevant keywords.

Source: blog.linkedin.com 

Group searches do not have the same advanced features like people or company searches, but you can still narrow down your search by keyword, category and language.

Search for groups that have the following characteristics:

• Highly relevant. The group has to meet as closely as possible what you expect from a target group.

• The group has to be very active. LinkedIn arranges groups by activity level. Thus, pay attention to the group’s activity in the search results and select those that are “very active”.

Should You Start Your Own B2B Lead Generation Group on LinkedIn?

Once you join groups and interact with members, you can judge whether there is a demand for a new group with a specific need. 

Your advantage: As a moderator, you can establish yourself as an expert and gain recognition. By acting as a facilitator, not a salesperson, you have created a meeting place for your audience where you can engage and interact effectively.

This is a pretty neat and free strategy to get in touch with LinkedIn leads directly. 

Forming a group yourself has the big advantage that you can set the direction. The drawback is that you have to spend time making the group come alive. 

A good compromise is to focus your search or to create a group that is not directly concerned with your topic. If you join a group where everyone does the same thing, competition is high. 

Pro tip: Pick or create groups that indirectly deal with your subject area. As an example, join a group of web developers instead of a group of lead generation experts. Sooner or later, a web developer may need lead generation strategies. If you only surround yourself with other experts, you will shrink your social pool.

Organic or Not: Which Content Strategy Should Be Persued?

As you know, content is THE vehicle to inspire customers and spark their interest. LinkedIn offers marketers two ways to reach and interact with their target audiences: 

• Free, organic reach
• Paid advertising

Using paid LinkedIn products makes it much easier to reach the right people. It is not always easy to see through all the product settings, and you should be prepared that it will take you some testing before you find out what will bring you leads.

Regrettably, organic measures are no longer sufficient to deliver content to people. Instead, combine the two strategies.

We suggest you find out what the best mix of both types of advertising may be for your business. A mixed strategy is, in our opinion, the key to unlocking the full potential of your company presence on LinkedIn.

• Rule 1: The bigger your organic reach, the more profitable the paid advertising will be.

This means that you should test your free content before promoting to ensure that you only invest in worthwhile material.

• Rule 2: Keep focusing on organic reach but pay for the distribution of popular content. This strategy will earn you more engagement.

Organic Reach plus Paid Ads for B2B Lead Generation on LinkedIn

Once you start building your organic reach, you can invest in a range of paid advertising opportunities concurrently. With it, you will reach the right people on LinkedIn and be able to involve them on a larger scale.

You have the following options:

• They distribute content in the LinkedIn feed with content sponsored by LinkedIn.
• Reach potential customers with LinkedIn Messaging in LinkedIn Sponsored InMail
• Reach customers early in the buying process with display ads on the LinkedIn.com desktop site. The tactic includes program-controlled purchases.
• Place dynamic ads as well as text ads.

A Detailed Look at Paid Advertising on LinkedIn

• Sponsored content
• Video ads
• Sponsored InMail
• Display ads

In online marketing, the right content at the right time plays an indispensable role. When it comes to accompanying prospects from lead generation to closing, you should focus on guiding them from one stage to the next.

The following LinkedIn products are a good foundation of a marketing strategy that delivers valid leads.

Sponsored content

Put your content in front of your target group directly in the LinkedIn feed. That is, you can attract readers’ attention with the right content.

Sponsored content is relevant because it is the most versatile advertising product currently available on LinkedIn.

You can refine the settings for brand goals and awareness goals in the outer part of your sales funnel or direct lead goals in the inner part of your funnel. Which goal you pursue depends on your strategy.

Tip: When using LinkedIn advertising products, be sure to familiarize yourself with the settings. Both the LinkedIn blog and all the explanation pages are perfect resources available to you. It takes some time at first to get into it. Schedule fixed sessions to get yourself accustomed to LinkedIn strategies. It will pay off.

Video ads

This content type will help you captivate a professional audience at every stage of the buyer journey. Create short videos with a crisp description. If it’s challenging for you creating such content, turn to professionals – for at least a while – until you get the hang of it.

This is a premium strategy that you can leverage for well-performing content. It’s the perfect tool to tell stories, to channel qualified traffic to your website and push high-quality leads on the right track with a targeted call-to-action.

Sponsored InMail

When it comes to sending personalized messages to potential customers in the most direct way, this product is the best choice. LinkedIn users use Sponsored InMail for specific data collection.

LinkedIn provides proof on its website that this measure produces cost-effective, high-quality leads and more deals.

Source: business.linkedIn.com

Also interesting: What does the lead generation cost? This article tells you.

Display ads

This is a powerful way to ensure that you get on the radar of potential customers early and increase brand awareness.

Thanks to the LinkedIn purchase option, you can reach the right customers in a buying environment with highly visible display ads and accurate targeting via your preferred Demand Side Platform (DSP) or Agency Trading Desk (ATD).

Display ads are a very accurate and effective medium that allows you to provide your target audience with the most relevant information that is now available to you.

This dynamically generated ad format uses information from LinkedIn member profiles. It is convenient if you intend to redirect visitors to your company website.

The LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms

LinkedIn employs some of the most brilliant advertising minds of our time. So in turn, the products that LinkedIn offer us meet our needs quite accurately.

A product that you can use are forms provided by LinkedIn.

They are available for: LinkedIn Sponsored Content and Sponsored InMail.

It works like this:

1.  Add a call to action (CTA) to your paid content or message in InMail.
2.  You immediately collect complete information.
3.  Automatically link leads to targeted offers and content.
4.  Access your leads with Campaign Manager or your favorite third-party tools.
5. Measure the success of your lead generation campaigns.

Source: LinkedIn

Do you recognize how targeted this measure is? 

Top Tips for Customer Acquisition on LinkedIn Using Lead Gen Forms

We have collected some top tips below, which we found directly in the LinkedIn resources. LinkedIn uses these strategies itself to generate leads.

Top tips:

1.    Choose the right target group. Check which people responded well to which content. The offer, used to attract the prospective customers, must be aligned with the target group. 

•    Create forms. Only select three to four fields for your lead gen form. LinkedIn and other well-known program providers (such as Hubspot) found out that using less than seven fields increases the conversion rate. 

Tip: Check whether three or five fields give you better conversion rates.

•    If you have a high opening rate for forms, but a low lead volume, you should reduce the number of fields in your template. At the same time, check whether the wording of your form suits your target group. 

•    Interact with your leads promptly if you have said to do so it in the initial message. Write thank-you messages mentioning when you will contact the lead again.

Insider tip: Combine LinkedIn products

If you want to go full throttle when generating leads on LinkedIn, then combine products, but only after you have executed all the tips from this post.

An example of this is the combination of sponsored content and sponsored InMails. According to LinkedIn, this increases opening and click rates. 

This is a strategy that LinkedIn applies itself: LinkedIn compared the performance of two campaigns. For one campaign they only use “Sponsored Content”, while for the other they combined “Sponsored Content” with “Sponsored InMail”. 

The result: 

• LinkedIn recorded a 25% increase in Sponsored InMail opening rates. 
• The click rates increased by 95%. 

This is because you can connect to your leads through multiple, very bespoke channels. 

If LinkedIn uses these channels, you should do so, too. 

Conclusion and Final Thoughts 

LinkedIn offers many opportunities for lead generation and is the ideal medium for B2B companies. But: Without a well-directed strategy, LinkedIn is just another time-waster which does not generate leads. We do, therefore, recommend that you develop a comprehensive approach – the basics of which can be found in this article.

If you opted for a social media strategy on this network, you should combine organic reach and paid options. The paid LinkedIn options scale well and offer accurate settings. To maximize your advertising efforts further, you should explore available resources such as the LinkedIn blog and downloadable white papers

Image Source: https://pxhere.com/en/photo/1445953

The post B2B Lead Generation on LinkedIn appeared first on Leadrebel Blog.

Introduction: Facebook – A Gold Mine for B2B Leads

What is B2B Lead Generation on Facebook? Social media has fundamentally changed the way new customer contacts are generated. It can be a rich source for new leads. Even though Facebook is not considered a B2B environment, 32 million German-speaking visitors use the social network every month, 22 million even every day. Thus lead generation on Facebook can significantly boost your sales.

In B2B marketing campaigns, the potential of Facebook is often underestimated, as the platform is mostly utilized for B2C communication. It is evident, however, that many decision-makers from major companies use the platform daily and thus offer great potential. 

So why is Facebook often neglected in B2B campaigns? This is due to LinkedIn and Google, which have primarily established themselves as B2B platforms. Facebook, however, is by far the world’s most-visited network, and business decision-makers spend 74 percent more time there than on any other platform. For this reason, Facebook holds an impressive potential for lead generation, which we want to unveil for your company step by step in this article.

“Due to its huge audience, Facebook is an excellent network for B2B lead generation.”

“Hot” and “Cold” Traffic in B2B Lead Generation

Visitors of your website or Facebook page can be roughly divided into two categories. These two categories must be handled differently. 

Cold traffic includes potential customers who do not know your brand yet and are not familiar with your products and services. Such users may only visit your website because they became aware of your product through advertising. Motivating such visitors to make a purchase will require plenty of work.

Hot traffic represents a much smaller proportion. These visitors are already aware of your brand and acquainted with your products and services. They are much more likely to be persuaded to buy. To qualify for hot traffic, visitors must possess the following characteristics:

• They know your brand.
• They feel attracted to your brand and trust it. 

Consequently, your goal will be to “heat up” the cold traffic and generate more leads from it. There are two excellent methods for achieving this task:

• Retargeting: Retargeting is the most effective tool to create hot traffic for your website. We discuss this topic in this post in detail.

• LeadRebel: Our software enables you to reach 98% of visitors who have been to your site frequently but would never have contacted you. LeadRebel not only shows you which companies have visited your website, but also which products or services are fascinating for these companies and who is the right point of contact in the organization. 

Step by Step Lead Generation on Facebook

Every lead campaign has one primary goal: to generate as many potential customer inquiries as possible. Facebook offers you various ways of doing this, which we will present below. However, before you launch a new campaign, you should take some time to plan it.

Requirements for Successful Lead Generation on Facebook

To run Facebook campaigns, you must own a company page on Facebook. It should reflect your corporate identity and have as many followers as possible. 

Your company’s Facebook page requires maintenance. All relevant data must be correct, and the contact information must always be up-to-date. Before you plan your first campaigns, you should have regularly offered relevant and exciting content. The more followers your Facebook page has got, the more successful your lead campaigns will be. There is no need to include a link to your website in every post, but you should nevertheless invite your visitors to your site regularly. 

Your website should be tailored to prospects and offer added value. The landing page should be well-structured. Place promotions or news of interest at the top to attract customers. Once on your website, the first few seconds matter keeping your customers from bouncing back.

Planning the Lead Generation Campaign

B2B lead generation on Facebook can be very efficient. Facebook empowers you to target your ads very effectively. When you promote an ad with Facebook, you can define your target audience and pick the type of campaign.

On Facebook, lead generation should take place in the following sequence:

Definition of the Target Group
Before you launch the campaign, consider your target group, it’s demography and interests.

• Gender
• Age
• Location. You can define the geographical locations of your target audience. Thereby, you have the option of setting multiple areas.
• Detailed Targeting. Once you have identified the target group, you can address them precisely with their areas of interest. The selection allows you to define or exclude specific interests from the list.

After you have made all your choices, Facebook will show you the number of people matching your Facebook audience. You can adapt the advert to your budget and choose the intervals.

• Advertising Campaign Structure

You decide how you want to address your target group:

• Advertising campaign
  • Special offer
  • Contests
  • Brand marketing

Ways of Lead Generation

Decide whether the lead generation should be organic, with paid advertisements, or by retargeting measures.

Track Lead Generation Goals

It is vital to capture the outcomes of lead generation so that you can later evaluate successes and compare your optimization measures.

Organic Lead Generation on Facebook

Facebook provides several ways for you to generate leads for free.

Facebook Groups

More than one billion people use Facebook groups every month. For small and medium-sized enterprises, this is an excellent opportunity to address specific target groups. Register with as many groups as possible visited by your target audience. Ask group members for valuable information and help. Impress them with your expertise first before offering them more information on your website.

In Facebook groups, many visitors ask for help with specific problems that you or your team members can solve with your know-how. By offering solutions to problems, you will build confidence in your business and products. In these groups, you also have the chance to address a large target group and to announce special offers.

Always provide added value to your peers and prospects before asking for something in return. A wrong answer to a question would be “this is on our website”; it is always better to say: “You can solve the problem this way… more information can be found on our website”.

Follow this outline for a perfect response:

“Many people have this problem. There are several ways to solve this. 

(1) Approach

(2) Approach

(3) Approach

We also have XX solutions on our website that might help you further.”

Video Content for Lead Generation on Facebook

• Normal Videos
• Facebook Watch
• Facebook Live

Several years ago, Facebook recognized how vital videos are. Nowadays, they have priority over all media like pictures and texts. Videos have become the most critical content type on Facebook that you can leverage for your lead generation offering marketing professionals a wealth of new opportunities.

Producing good quality videos doesn’t have to be expensive. Today, they can be created using advanced smartphones and edited on computers using standard software. The results can often compete with professional productions. Even if the outcome is not perfect, it still produces better results than informative texts.

Facebook offers you several ways to do this:

Normal Videos

You can include videos in your news feed. These will be displayed on your main page or in groups. They can help you highlight the benefits of your products, services or specific features. Of great advantage, though, are videos that help your customers make better use of your products. Moreover, the good thing about it: promoting these videos is currently very cheap on Facebook!

Facebook Watch

Watch is Mark Zuckerberg’s answer on YouTube. With Facebook Watch, you have a way to broadcast videos in a kind of TV channel. Interested parties can watch all videos one after another or select the desired video from your selection. Watch lets your company promote a wide range of videos that are transparently displayed to visitors. You can upload an entire series of your products and services providing more value to your customers. Also, you can prepare interviews with customers and employees who can share their insights or specific benefits.

Facebook Live

For some time now, Facebook has also been offering a live video option. Facebook Live allows newsworthy content to be published to visitors such as webinars or live product presentations and is, therefore, particularly well-suited for B2B. If you are planning to offer live videos, you need to pay special attention to the airing time to reach as many visitors as possible. It is advisable to plan the broadcasts well in advance and send invitations to your target audience.

Lead Generation on Facebook with Facebook Pixel

One of the most exciting options on Facebook, however, is retargeting. It is essentially a sophisticated method to address your target audience.

What is Retargeting?

Retargeting is simple. You can purposefully address people who have visited your website before. You can witness this approach every day on your very own Internet behavior. Once you have visited sites that use retargeting, you get ads from those sites displayed on social media.

Likewise, you can use retargeting to generate leads on Facebook. All you need to do is insert a code into your website, which Facebook calls Pixel. This code tells Facebook when visitors triggered actions at your site. You can control how Facebook will respond to those actions and to whom you want to display ads.

Retargeting B2B Customers with Facebook Pixel

Many websites today use Facebook’s retargeting option. The ability to use Pixel for tracking visitors’ actions is appealing to many industries. The information provided by Pixel may be used to return visitors to the website or to turn visitors into potential customers.

Other social networks like Google and Twitter also offer retargeting possibilities, but Facebook Pixel can be used in the most effective way for B2B lead generation.

How Does the Tracking Pixel Work?

The tracking pixel is a tiny HTML image 1 x 1 pixel in size. It is mostly displayed in the same color as the background so that it remains invisible to visitors. When a visitor hits the website, the visitor’s data is transmitted to the tracking pixel’s server. As a result, the website owner can retrieve many of the visitor’s data and use it for advertising purposes. Since the browser can deactivate cookies, tracking pixels are a viable alternative.

Why is B2B Retargeting on Facebook so Effective?

One of the prominent reasons for using Pixel is its effectiveness in B2B lead generation. Pixel can significantly boost the performance of your advertising campaigns. Let us take an example to demonstrate its impact.

Imagine a customer is seeking a remedy for a problem. During his research, he finds your products or services and throws a short glance at your website. Owing to the amount of work involved and other external circumstances, he cannot, however, take a closer look at your offerings. Soon he forgets your website because he didn’t have ample time to get to grips with the benefits of your products.

With Pixel, you can send information to the customer after a while, which will help him to remember your products. You may send them special offers, price scales, or specific information. Advertising can be placed at defined intervals, pending the customer’s decision to purchase.

However, there are even more reasons to use retargeting for lead generation on Facebook:

• On average, 98 percent of visitors leave your website before leaving their data and converting them into a customer.
• Up to 75 percent of customers place goods in the shopping cart and leave the website without buying them.
• The chance to convince customers of your products or services is disproportionately higher with retargeting.
• The likelihood that visitors see your ads in social media after visiting your site is considerably higher.

All in all, Facebook Pixel is a very versatile tool to improve your B2B lead generation and to address user-defined target groups individually. You can run many small campaigns and target small groups to improve your chances of success.

Bottom Line

B2B lead generation on Facebook is one of the most powerful tools in your marketing and sales strategy. You can execute both paid and free campaigns and generate numerous B2B leads. You can redirect traffic to your website. With the help of LeadRebel, cold traffic will be “heated up”, and you can address your visitors systematically.

Image source: https://www.pexels.com/photo/facebook-ads-text-2556703/

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