Uncovering the complexity of B2B lead generation
Lead generation is all about finding the perfect way to turn prospects into loyal customers. But guess what?
B2B lead generation sometimes feels like a puzzle that’s missing a few pieces. It takes a special approach. One that overcomes all the challenges and focuses on authenticity and building real connections.
But not all specialists and agencies understand this and offer you quick wins or strategies for other types of businesses.
In this post, we’ll go over how you should and shouldn’t go about B2B lead generation.
How you shouldn’t approach B2B lead generation
Very often B2B lead generation agencies offer a service like this:
1. You portray your ideal customer
2. The agency finds LinkedIn users who match the portrait
3. The agency sends them a bunch of intrusive messages.
4. The agency finds those people’s email addresses and bombs them there.
These types of agencies won’t spend time on quality content. Nor will they spend time building connections between you and potential clients on social media.
This type of work amounts to cold emailing without permission from users. It’s nothing more than multichannel spam. And this approach leads to low conversion rates.
But that’s not even the whole problem.
What’s the problem with cold outreach in B2B lead generation?
Your company’s reputation drops below zero in the minds of those who have received these cold messages.
Imagine if every one of you reading this post receives three private messages from us within a week offering to buy our service. And then you get the same message five more times via email.
One of you might even buy our service.
What about the other 1,000 people?
It’s already difficult to run an effective inbound or ABM (account-based marketing) program.
Never be seduced by quick wins like this.
How do you go about B2B lead generation
B2B lead generation is more complicated than the e-commerce cycle, which is:
- Do a branding,
- Generate traffic,
- See conversions,
- Optimize the branding.
And this approach will also fail:
- Find ICP (Ideal Customer Portrait),
- Find a customer base on LinkedIn,
- Bombard them with emails.
Not only do you have to find the right way to generate leads, you also have to track where they come from. But even tracking software can fail. You’ll learn more about that later in the text.
First, it’s Important to understand this:
1. B2B buyers rely on the recommendations of their peers when making a purchase
This was true even before COVID, but thanks to COVID this process has accelerated dramatically.
Instead of searching Google, “What tools should I buy to create TikToks?”, you’re more likely to go to a community in Slack and ask 13 CMOs. Or you email three people you met at a conference and ask them what they do.
To back this up, here are some statistics from Evan Hughes:
“Over 75% of website demo requests said they were made aware of the brand by a different source than the attribution software reports.
Here’s the breakdown of SRA (self-reported attribution):
𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘶𝘴…?
31% Colleagues/friends/word of mouth
24% Internet/paid search/Google/Bing
18% Community/G2/podcast/event
16% Paid Social/LinkedIn/FB
11% “Other” or N/AHowever, attribution software (HubSpot) reports:
82% Direct/Organic
11% Paid Search
2% Paid Social
5% Other\MixDespite those number, marketers still prefer attribution software over qualitative customer feedback.”
This only led to:
- The budget is shifted to demand capture vs create
- SEO is preferred because organic “seems” so high
- Investment in paid social gets slashed
- Leadership favours CTR over qualitative feedback
2. You must invest in content
Almost every SaaS becomes media. Founders are learning from their kids to make videos that take off on TikTok.
People are still looking for things, they just have a lot more ways to look.
10 years ago, it was mostly Google. Today, that search can be on Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, in the community, in a LinkedIn group, at events, etc.
A very typical way:
1. You listened to a podcast with a startup founder.
2. Then you watched his video from the conference.
3. Your former colleague told you how he implemented this software in his new company.
4. You Googled the company and clicked on “contact sales.”
The marketing software tagged you as an organic user, but you can’t do anything with that information.
This makes attribution a very difficult task. In consumer businesses, at times like this, they turn to “marketing mix modeling.”
In B2B, there isn’t enough data for this kind of calculations.
This approach doesn’t prioritize the channels that are typically used to generate demand because the attribution software is based on tracked digital touchpoints.
This limits the marketing team’s ability to select the tools they can use to attract new customers.
On top of that, we’re reaching limits every year on the Internet.A single source of truth for attribution has become a utopia. Using Google Analytics alone is no longer effective. It’s getting harder to track users across the web and iOS apps, and cookie-based strategies are losing their utility.
Conclusion
B2B lead generation is complex. The key is to build trust, deliver valuable content, and adapt to the changing preferences of your target audience.
Avoid the pitfalls of cold outreach and focus on building genuine relationships, leveraging peer recommendations, and creating compelling content.
By implementing these strategies and staying agile in tracking and attribution, you can overcome the challenges of B2B lead generation. You would position your brand for sustainable success in a rapidly changing environment.
Tip: learn more about leadgen channels in a previous blog post: Lead generation or how to attract customers to your website
