What Does Lead Generation Mean?
In B2B sales and marketing, lead generation includes the processes necessary to attract potential clients or interested parties to a product or service. A lead is a person who can become interested in what the marketer or service offers.
Leads often work as a foundation for marketing of any type. Many types of lead generation exist as do many types of methods to generate leads. The goals is to produce a lead that converts or goes through with the sales process.
Why Is Lead Generation Important?
Without a lead, there’s no business. Chasing after improper leads can drain funds, cause frustration, and can put a burgeoning business into jeopardy. For B2B marketing, lead generation plays several roles. Lead generation isn’t just important, it’s a necessity. Lead generation:
- Creates new business and fosters business growth by attracting quality leads
- Helps to find genuine prospects that have the best chance of moving to the next stage of the B2B customer journey
- Increases awareness of a business, service, or brand, while also increasing its reach
- Gives opportunities to collect data, analytics, metrics, and other information to help fine-tune the marketing message
- Helps to create a community of customers or clients, rather than a list of disparate individuals and companies.
What Are the Benefits of Lead Generation?
Qualified leads mean a business will already have someone ready and likely willing to take the next step on their customer journey without too much prodding. The goal of lead generation is to find those people with a problem that a particular business, service, or brand can solve.
In this way, the B2B lead generation process can help a business maintain its budget and bottom-line, as the business will not have to spend effort, capital, and resources trying to find the right groups for their services. To put that in perspective, a marketing campaign that targets hundreds of people pales compared to one that targets a handful of the right people.
A single high quality lead cuts out a lot of the waste in time, labor, and money that would otherwise go toward trying to convince a slew of otherwise disinterested parties. In addition, there’s the obvious increase in sales that comes with more leads.
How Much Does a Lead Generation Service Cost?
With lead generation, just as with any other form of marketing, the costs can vary widely based on several factors. However, high quality leads have a high value, so the B2B lead generation companies that can confidently provide them charge a premium. Here, the adage, “you get what you pay for,” often holds true.
In all cases, quality over quantity should stay at the forefront of any business or brand’s agenda when looking for more leads. Different pricing structures exist between lead generation companies. In addition, costs will also have a lot to do with:
- The overall goals of the business
- The expectations of the business
- The size and budget of the business
- How the company goes about generating leads
A business can calculate a potential CPL or cost-per-lead to figure out if they think a B2B lead generation service is worth it.
CPL = Total cost of marketing campaign / the number of leads produced
The value one business places on a quality lead will not look the same from business to business. The company will look for the highest return on its investment. Once the company knows what value they place on qualified leads, they can better work with the prices offered by a professional B2B lead generation company.
For example, a software development company has a willingness to pay a high CPL for qualified leads because they know that lead can return their investment in a multitude of ways. A retailer may have a low CPL requirement because it doesn’t particularly need high levels of technical acumen from its leads. A lead that converts can bring in thousands or even millions of dollars for a business.
A business prospect that purchases a fleet of vehicles will probably cover the costs of an entire marketing campaign; lead generation included. Businesses who understand this tend not to balk at the prices set by top-tier lead generation services. Even when scaled-down, this one truth remains.
The average cost per lead in B2B marketing will depend on the industry, the marketing channel. Some market research data analysts place the overall average CPL across the board at around $198/ lead. The best lead generation companies will have packages and plans to fit all needs.
Inbound vs Outbound Lead Generation Services
Inbound marketing involves using methods to attract leads and bring them in.
Outbound marketing involves pushing the marketing message directly to a potential lead.
For example, inbound marketing can mean posting creative content, using a blog, running a social media campaign. Outbound marketing can include trade show events, cold calling, outbound calls, blanket email marketing campaigns, and other types of marketing that put the marketer directly in the path of a potential lead.
These two forms of marketing aren’t mutually exclusive. Depending on the marketing message and the goals of the business, it’s possible to run both an inbound and outbound marketing campaign. A lead generation agency will know best how to turn these marketing methods into viable lead generation campaigns.
DIY Lead Generation Strategies
A business can and should test the waters themselves when it comes to lead generation efforts. If for no other reason than to see a little of why dedicated B2B lead generation companies exist to generalate leads on their behalf. It’s so easy to generate leads. Here are some things a business might try on its own.
Analyzing Your Target Audience
A business must know specifically who to target. An ideal customer or client gives the business the ability to understand what they need to do and how they need to do it. This works because the business has an acute awareness of exactly who their product or service will serve best.
Building Or Updating Your Brand’s Image
The phrase “image is everything,” isn’t exactly wrong. A brand needs to update and maintain its image to give potential leads a sense they can trust the integrity, voice, and message of the brand. Knowing the target audience can help a brand shape its image and maintain it to attract and keep that audience.
Getting A CRM To Manage Leads
CRM software can do a lot with gathering and managing leads. A business taking the DIY route would do well to implement a good CRM solution into their backend. However, the best CRM software comes at quite a cost that some smaller businesses may find prohibitive. Some of the larger CRM systems can require CRM consulting for training, rollout, and implementation.
Content Marketing
Content marketing means creating material potential leads may find valuable. This can take the form of videos, blog posts, social media marketing, a newsletter, and various other forms of media.
The business should put out this content consistently and actively tune its offerings toward staying valuable while also working to draw in potential leads. Most times, giving away something, such as an e-book, can work well with content marketing.
Network More In 2022
has always represented an important aspect of B2B marketing, but it’s now more important than ever. A business or brand has to make itself known. Businesses need to address their audiences and maybe even show up in person at conventions, trade shows, and other places where potential leads may also appear.
B2B stands for business-to-business. One business may never know what type of synergy they can create with another business beyond a simple client-customer relationship. Edgy, barrier-breaking, and out-of-the-box solutions have become the norm leading into 2022. That only happens when businesses connect. Lead generation services can help to make that happen.
Why You Should Hire a Lead Generation Company
Anyone can see the DIY options, while worth trying and understanding, still require expertise from businesses who want their B2B lead generation done right. Generating leads isn’t easy. In addition, things rarely go well when someone attempts any form of marketing without having the proper education, experience, and aptitude for marketing that helps to nurture leads.
Utilize SEO To Drive Profits
Lead generation isn’t just about finding a prospect. A professional, outsourced lead generation service can and will do much more than that. All the same marketing techniques used to find those ideal leads can also help to increase profits for a business. This is one of the major reasons working with a professional B2B lead generation specialists is worth it.
Email Marketing Campaigns
Email marketing doesn’t simply mean to email and hope for the best. Email marketing requires a plan that incorporates sales sequences and follow-up messages. Sales sequencing, as part of a marketing or sales strategy, involves creating touchpoints facilitated through emails to open a conversation. This is the core of a real email marketing campaign, and the best lead generation services will know how to make it work for the needs of the business.
Advanced Ad Campaigns
Lead generation services often make use of many of various types of advanced ad campaigns and sales funnels. For example, a professional lead generator may use retargeted ad campaigns. If a potential lead engaged with the product or service of a business in the past, there’s a good possibility that person may have an openness to engaging with that product or service again.
It’s possible to re-target a prospect and convert them. This type of ad campaign can work solely on its own as a lead generation campaign, especially for a business or brand having a resurgence. Many other advanced advertising methods exist as well, and a good lead generation agency will find which work best for a business.
These and a host of other marketing methods can work for lead generation. The lead generation services offered by a B2B lead generation service can make all the difference for small businesses and large. All companies can and should use a B2B lead generation service for high quality leads.
What Are You Waiting For?
A proven expert will know how to do what’s necessary to find the valuable leads a business requires without all the rigamarole. Understand that all the DIY options represent a tremendous investment of time, effort, and continuing education in marketing as things change. And things do change frequently, especially with digital and content marketing.
A B2B lead generation company can customize their services for a business. No two organizations, brands, or services have the same needs. A business that wants results will need a lead generation strategy that conforms to the needs of that business to produce those results. Beyond lead generation strategies, there are several other services a B2B lead generation service can offer. Call us today and let’s get this year started right!