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If you're in B2B marketing, chances are that one of your top priorities will be to drive more leads. So that’s what I want to focus on in today’s post, drawing on some good advice from a recent article on b2bmarketing.net.
When your sales team ask you to deliver more leads to help meet sales targets, it's not quantity they're looking for, but quality. Quality leads convert more often and usually at a higher value, and sales teams also prefer them because they tend to require a lot less effort!
So, how can marketing teams improve the quality of those all-important leads?
Online visitors to your website can come from a number of sources, including paid advertising, organic search, personal recommendations and social media. The last of those is a channel many still B2Bs seem to struggle with. But with the influence of social media growing all the time - and B2B buyers from all sectors using these social networks for advice and recommendations - it’s essential to take full advantage of the high-quality new business leads that are now out there.
One of the key tricks for generating leads through social media is changing your mindset; so rather than thinking of social of something that 'has to be done’, think of it as a integral marketing tool for growing a captive audience and presenting your business as the experts. With a recent analyst company report showing that 75% of B2B buyers are now using social media to make purchasing decisions, it's time to start viewing your channels as advanced search engines that prospects are going to use to find out more about you.
Secondly, it's important to know which channels are likely to be most effective for you. It's unlikely that most B2B buyers would use Facebook when making a business purchasing decision; on the other hand, the same analyst report found that well over half of all B2B buyers now use LinkedIn at some point in their decision-making process.
Finally, if you haven't figured out exactly how LinkedIn works or quite what a huge opportunity it represents for you B2B business, you need to get more familiar with the channel. Optimising your profile; publishing long-form posts; monitoring discussions; managing the growing opportunities to take advantage of paid-for LinkedIn exposure.
All this takes time, resources and expertise. If you feel you’re lacking in any of these areas, feel free to get in touch!