Up to 61 percent of B2B marketers cite funding (plus staffing and time) as the biggest hindrance to their lead generation efforts.
It’s tough enough to inspire audience interest in your products/services, so throwing in limited funding becomes all the more challenging.
But with lead generation bearing a critical role in incremental growth, marketers can’t get away with the “low funds” excuse and cast all efforts aside.
They will need to identify and implement budget-friendly lead gen practices that evoke interest in potential customers and rally them to take positive action.
Explore some of these pocket-friendly tactics
1. Leverage LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a great platform for warming cold outreaches, connecting with industry leaders and customers, and bringing in brand-new leads.
With professionals converging here to catch up on the latest news or learn new things, you have within reach a superb lead gen platform.
Here’s how to get this strategy going:
- Set up your profile. Impressions count, especially the first ones, so you need to think of your corporate profile as a landing page. Put together a strong bio that clearly describes your business.
- Connect with potential clients. Sure, you want to get a lot of connections, but what’s important is securing high-quality targets. Your ideal customer profile should guide your targeting efforts so you can zero in and connect with those you want.
- Show your value. Your LinkedIn feed should contain thought leadership pieces, valuable tips, industry-relevant insight, and interactive elements to generate interest and engagement.
2. Create Effective Landing Pages
If you’re seeing lots of website traffic but low conversion rates, feel free to blame it on your landing pages.
Through action-oriented copy, visual elements, and a clear next step, a landing page provides greater context for the offerings featured in your ads.
It focuses on a specific offer, providing quality experiences to target audiences with the sole intention of driving conversions.
Essential elements that should make up your landing pages include:
- A headline. Being the first thing your audiences see once they reach your landing page, the headline should openly state your sales proposition.
- A CTA button. It helps visitors know what to do next. The button moves them closer to conversion.
- A lead gen form. Its purpose is to collect information from visitors who want to access your offering. Make the form easy to complete by asking for relevant information.
- Testimonials. Credibility is essential to winning your prospect’s trust. Add at least two testimonials (video or text) for social proof.
3. Make Cold Calls
Here’s what you need to keep in mind—people are open to receiving cold calls so long as they are relevant to their situation.
The secret lies in putting together a custom list of companies that may benefit from your solutions. Research these companies and contact people to understand their business drivers and the role your solutions can play.
Then you pick the phone and initiate genuine conversations that aim at building rapport and explaining your solution’s usefulness.
Best practices include:
- Strengthen your introduction. Avoid mumbling your name and the company you work for, then diving straight into your pitch. Articulately introduce yourself and pause for a couple of seconds for the listener to register what you’ve just said.
- Establish connection. After the introduction and pitching, personalize the call by injecting a conversational question. It could cover anything from business to personal achievements. A good question may help lure the prospect into a conversation and break the ice.
- Now pitch. With the conversational introduction out of the way, use your unique selling point to explain the reason for the call. Your pitch should convey an understanding of their company, industry, challenges, and key ways you can improve their situation.
- Gauge interest. Gauge interest through responses or the questions they ask. Use these cues to determine when and how to deliver your key selling points and differentiators and wisely steer your conversation towards the CTA.
4. Double Down Referral Marketing
Prospective customers are likely to listen to peers who’ve experienced your services far more than any eye-catching ads you put out there.
A survey among B2B professionals revealed that 84percent of buyers start their buying process with a referral. Further, referred leads close faster than other leads. Rightly so, since trust has already been established.
It’s no surprise that referral programs are among the strongest sales and lead generation tools.
When setting up your referral program, consider the following:
- Put together clear referral program messages. Write easy-to-understand messages requesting their help in securing business referrals, how they stand to benefit and how the rewards are earned. You can create an FAQ page that details your referral program.
- Design simple lead forms. Too many questions can overwhelm the referrer and may even cause them to stop midway. Use minimal fields to obtain the minimum amount of info to contact the referee.
- Craft compelling referral messages. Offer pre-drafted messages that customers can send out or work with them to personalize the message. You can also give them free rein to write their messages.
- Choose incentives that drive action. From discounts to branded gifts, upgrades, or free passes to events/courses, pay attention to the incentives that will make the most sense to your customers.
- Track metrics. Customer participation and referral conversion rates are excellent metrics to determine your program’s success. The outcomes will help you see what you’re doing right or what may need re-examining.
5. Work on Your Content Marketing Strategy
Content marketing provides educational and helpful content pieces geared towards attracting cold prospects and nurturing warm leads.
The best part?
These content pieces work round the clock to reach defined audiences to inform, answer questions, and position you as an industry expert.
There are tons of content types you can use to pull in high-quality leads, including:
- Optimized landing pages. They have considered the first touchpoint potential customers have with your business. How you engage these visitors determines whether they will linger and poke around or bounce. Make the content relevant, add internal links to increase dwell time, and use irresistible CTAs to urge them to act.
- Blog posts. Create rotating categories for your blog post creation calendar, ensuring you cover the topics your ideal customers would be interested in. Consistent and on-schedule posting boosts credibility and gives your audience a reason to return.
- Email newsletters. Receiving emails from companies you like feels like hearing from your friends. When people sign up for your email newsletters, they essentially accept direct communication with you. Use it to promote upcoming webinars, blog posts, or new product/service launches.
- Case studies. Case studies detail companies in the real world that have found success by using your products/services. It covers the customer’s challenges, their journey towards finding solutions, and the quantitative and qualitative outcomes.
