B2B Lead Generation is not an exact science; an idea or a strategy may work great for one industry and may not bring any result for other. B2B lead generation strategies even vary product to product and so the most important point is to spend time in understanding:
A- What the product/service is.
B- Who are the customers.
C- What value the product/service brings to the customers.
I have worked with tens of B2B businesses in Manufacturing, Services, Digital Products, Agriculture, Franchising and Hospitality sector and the “Lead Generation” has been the common challenge.
To be very honest, we cannot just generalize B2B Lead Generation in a way that it works for everyone. But, yes, we can sum up all the ideas and activities that actually generate qualified B2B leads. So, here I am summing up all the activities that generated B2B leads for various businesses that I worked with.
You can utilize this list in any way you want, but I would suggest is to paste it in Excel sheet and then delete the activities that do not fit for your business model. The filtered list is your action plan outline for your B2B Leads Generation.
Even if you plan to hire someone to generate leads for your business, this list can be handy to measure their performance and optimize the process.
Use Tangible Marketing Materials:
1- Must have an impressive business card.
2- Flyers and pamphlets with better call to action.
3- Use banners on targeted locations.
4- Get weekly/monthly industry magazine published and distributed for free on targeted locations.
Phone Calls
5- Identify, filter and verify contacts in case if you bought a database.
6- Develop relationships; so before calling better is to email or have your pamphlet delivered to them.
7- Re-engage past opportunities.
Website:
8- Develop great content with a call to action in most prominent places.
9- Optimize your website for Search Engines. (Related Reading: How to create SEO & Social Media optimized website in less time)
10- Create particular landing pages for each product/service. (Related Reading: Landing Page Optimization Best Practices)
11- Must have a company blog. (Related Reading: Business Goals You Must Set Before Developing a Company Blog)
12- Keep RSS subscription on top of the blog so the subscribers should be auto-updated when there is new content.
13- Must have a newsletter subscription form on your blog.
14- Sync your Social Media Profiles to your blog so they can be auto-updated when the blog gets fresh content.
Online Marketing:
15- Market your business using paid search (PPC).
16- Sponsor Newsletter of an influential website from your industry.
17- Put your banner ads on high traffic targeted websites. You can also consider services like T-RANKS to find best in content linking opportunities from relevant and high authority pages.
18- Get listed on niche online directories.
19- Sell leads to local businesses.
(Related Reading: How to Increase Sales through Online Marketing)
Referrals:
20- Get vendors onboard.
21- Keep in touch with industry consultants.
22- Offer benefits to your existing customers for bringing in more clients.
22- Sign branding partners.
23- Referrals via Sponsorships of events.
24- Stay linked with Niche associations.
25- Develop your own affiliate program. (Related Reading: When Should I Start an Affiliate Program for My Business?)
Events:
26- Attend seminars, network with people there and exchange business cards.
27- Organize your own seminars.
28- Be a guest speaker in seminars.
29- Join workshops and keep up networking with people participating there.
30- Organize free workshops.
31- Organize free webinars.
32- Organize teleseminar.
33-Attend conferences.
34- Organize conferences.
35- Participate in tradeshows.
36- Participate in executive briefings
Public Relations:
37- Use free online PR. (Related Reading: How to Get Huge PR under $100)
38- Use a paid online PR for mass targeting.
39- Build relationships with editors.
40- Write editorials.
41- Get local press release distribution.
42- Distribute news to local/niche blogs.
43- Get connected to an authority news agency for news coverage.
44- Write articles for industry magazines.
Direct Mail:
45- Send seasonal emails. (Related Reading: 7 Highly Effective Holiday Marketing Strategies for Small Business)
46- Send postcards.
47- Send dimensional mails.
48- Write personal letters.
Using Mobile:
49- Have a mobile friendly website.
50- Have a mobile app if you actually need it. (Related Reading: When Do I Need a Mobile App for My Business?)
51- Distribute a Free eBook/app via mobile.
52- Use SMS marketing if you have a filtered contacts database.
53- Do not forget What’sapp.
E-Mail & Mailing Lists:
54- Send one-to-one emails.
55- Send one-to-many emails.
56- Send periodic newsletters, preferably once a week.
57- Build and update lists via Social Media.
58- Build and update lists through Podcasts.
Using Videos
59- Leverage YouTube. (Related Reading:Do You Have a Video Marketing Strategy for Your B2B Brand?)
60- Do not forget Vimeo.
Twitter:
61- Build your own lists of experts.
62- Follow lists rather than people.
63- Interact with industry influencers through @Mention.
Related Reading: How to Use Twitter for B2B Marketing & Lead Generation
LinkedIn:
64- Optimize Your Linkedin Business Profile.
65- Build Linkedin Profile Summary with Call to Action.
66- Get Your Linkedin Profile Credible.
67- Give People a Reason to Connect with You over Linkedin.
68- Grow Your Linkedin Network in Right Direction.
69- Create Linkedin company page and update it regularly.
70- Use Linkedin Sales Navigator.
71- Target audience with Linkedin Ads.
72- Use Linkedin Jobs which works in three ways at once; you hire the best talent who bring in their own contacts, your brand gets a wider reach and your company page gets more followers.
73- Join Industry specific groups and be active there.
74- Use basic Linkedin search to connect with more targeted prospects.
75- Update your Linkedin connections periodically with what’s new you have.
Facebook:
76- Must have a Facebook Page which you update regularly, i.e. at least once a week.
77- Sponsor updates using Promote Option.
78- Run ads to get targeted people on your website. Use demographics, interests and actions of users for keep the campaigns more focused.
79- Giveaway stuff through Facebook.
Related Reading: How to Generate B2B Leads from Facebook
Content Marketing:
80- Distribute articles in directories.
81- Do guest blogging.
82- Develop podcasts for distribution.
83- Create and distribute Free E-books.
84- Develop How to Videos and distribute.
85- Get interviewed.
86- Create and distribute Infographics.
87- Create and distribute memes.
88- Develop case studies.
Related Reading: How B2B Content Marketing Drives Sales
Q&A Marketing:
89- Answers questions to most frequently asked questions on your blog.
90- Share these resolved FAQs on B2B Networking websites.
91- Create How to Guides on Industry.
92- Use Quora.
93- Yahoo Answers has a lot to answer.
Working on Branding:
94- Get connected to influencers.
95- Interview influencers and post about it on your blog.
96- Share your expertise on an authority blogs from your industry, either by sending them content or simply commenting on what they have published.
97- Use email signatures with your instant contact details.
98-Sponsor a charity.
Networking:
99- Organize and join local meetups using meetup.com.
100- Give free demos to groups.
Advertising:
101- Advertise in industry specific magazines.
102- TV ads can work great if done rightly.
103- Radio ads do good too, depending upon your nature of business.
