You’ve heard it before, but it bears repeating: A business is only as successful as the sales leads that it generates.
The new year, then, is a good time for your company to reevaluate its all-important sales lead engine – continue to develop and utilize the tactics that work, scrap the ones that don’t, and implement new, timely strategies to drive up leads.
In the ever-changing B2B marketing world, new tips and tricks for generating sales leads surface each year. Here are four of the most promising for 2016:
Don’t Just Sell. Entertain.
By the year 2025, millennials will constitute 75 percent of the workforce worldwide. What does this mean for your B2B marketing strategy?
It means fewer sales pitches and more entertainment.
Millennials are accustomed to communications that don’t just inform but also entertain. Come at millennial B2B buyers with just cold, hard numbers and bullet points, and you’ll nearly always walk away empty.
Instead of relying on a traditional sales pitch, concentrate on delivering content that engages buyers and interests them on a human level. Stories (which our brains are hard-wired to appreciate), videos, and interactive applications that showcase your company’s personality and its services work best.
It’s ok to create content that addresses what your ideal customer is searching for.
Don’t be Content with Your Existing Content
It’s no secret that content is king, and its throne is getting mightier by the year. Chances are, you’re blogging by now, but are you blogging enough? Perhaps not.
Consider: The software company Hubspot remains one of the web’s fastest growing and most successful online businesses. Its secret: Original content, and lots of it. By encouraging all Hubspot employees to contribute to the company blog, the site frequently ends up with 5 or more new pieces each day.
Among other benefits, blogging regularly forces you to stay up-to-date on industry developments and technologies. It shows your clientele that you are a helpful, trusted resource, which attracts new leads. Allow comments on your blog, and you can communicate directly with your customer base and keep a finger on the pulse of your industry from the buyer’s POV.
Two years ago, AdWeek revealed that B2B companies that blog regularly generate nearly 70 percent more sales leads than non-blogging operations. Increase your output of helpful and original content in 2016, and your sales leads will skyrocket.
So just how much content is enough? According to HubSpot, 15 original blogs translate to 1200 new sales leads a month. That should keep the folks in sales occupied for a while!
Think Fast
So much for the notion of the B2B buyer who shops the market thoroughly and carefully weighs all options before committing. An InsideSales study shows that up to half of buyers simply go with the company that contacts them first.
This is where having a perpetual social media presence is critical. Make yourself available on both the giants and the industry-specific niche platforms so that you can respond immediately to leads.
Be More of a Social Media Socialite than a Seller
While you’re increasing your social media presence, it’s a good time to rethink your social media tactics as well. LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are proven gold mines for sales leads, but not if you waste your face time making blatant sales pitches. Instead, post helpful and/or entertaining info that establishes you as a trusted source with a great personality, and customers will seek you out when they are ready to buy.
