Lead Generation & Capture Strategy B2B Marketing
It was when I was working on a Dell Servers and Hardware account way back when, that I learnt the important lesson of Content Marketing for lead generation. Distributing reports, insights and other in-depth industry information, to CIOs and other IT decision-makers.
By curating something that is of intrinsic interest to your exact target audience, you not only capture their attention but also their contact details, when you hide the item behind a lead capture form.
These people then become your sales leads, which you will aim to convert into actual customers.
When using this strategy, we call the content piece a Lead Magnet.
One of the great things about this fundamental B2B marketing strategy is that the leads are highly qualified because the content piece (Lead Magnet) is something that your ideal customers would find useful. So, unlike some other digital marketing campaigns, which can attract searches that are seemingly related, but in reality, are completely irrelevant to your business, all the leads generated by this strategy, will be legitimate sales leads, that have a high chance of converting.
The second great thing about this strategy is that it’s free! If the Lead Magnet is developed in-house, then you don’t actually have to spend any advertising dollars on this lead generation campaign. So, it’s free and it’s honestly one of the most effective, win-win!
Content ideas for B2B lead generation:
Industry report
Trend report
Report snapshot (if what you’re selling is the full report)
How to guide
Checklist
Customisable templates
Brochure
In-depth case study
Webinar
Another excellent lead capture strategy is offering a trial. This would involve potential customers creating an account and signing up to test out your product or service for a trial period. This again brings in very qualified leads, giving you a strong possibility of converting the trial customers, into paid customers.
Another way to position a trial is to sign people up as full customers but offer the first 7 days, month or even 3 months for free. This makes the decision to sign up an easier one, driving many more customer subscriptions; then, you have 3 months to make your product/service indispensable to their life!
A great example of this is an email provider partnering with domain services companies. They offer customers who have purchased a new domain, a free email add-on, with nothing to pay until 3 months later. The risk-free simplicity of this offering makes it a no-brainer for many customers, then when 3 months comes along, they’re not going to move email providers.
This example also highlights the importance of getting your trial or Lead Magnet in front of the right audience. In this case, they developed strategic partners, where the offering helped both parties, financially and by providing a good customer experience.
It's easy to see the logic of a trial for digital platforms but what about companies offering more traditional types of business services? Could there be a free assessment or instant quote that you could offer, or a sample pack that could be requested? Perhaps prospects can configure what they need free of charge (such as a contract or design), but downloading it requires them to provide their contact details. It really depends on your specific business, but we’d be happy to brainstorm ideas with you to find the right concept for you.
The last lead capture strategy I want to mention is the classic, email sign-up prompt. A pop-up that’s shown to new website visitors, normally offering a discount in exchange for their email address. Instead of a discount, you could also use the pop-up to promote your latest content piece (report, guide or checklist), sending the document via a triggered email, after they’ve entered their details.
Like with the other tactics, the contacts captured here filter into the Lead Conversion Process. But, that’s another blog post…