How to optimize B2B lead generation?
Regardless of the industry in which your company operates, it is essential to answer this question.
Whoever deals with marketing strategies must know how to generate quality leads to increase sales.
The principle applies to both domestic and foreign business.
What are the solutions for quality lead generation if our company targets other organisations?
First, is important to understand what is meant by lead generation in the B2B arena and who are the actors involved in the process.
B2B lead generation: goals and types
In B2B, developing a lead generation activity means designing a series of actions with which to get contacts of professionals consistent with one’s business.
Let us clarify with an example.
An industrial valves manufacturer wants to find foreign customers among companies specialising in gas extraction plants engineering.
Targeted lead generation involves:
- The identification of companies in line with its business within the country of interest;
- The selection of decision makers to contact by e-mail or telephone;
- Their contact by the company’s sales department to gauge their interest in the products offered.
What we have described concerns outbound lead generation: in this case, it is our valve company that contacts potential buyers directly.
In the case of inbound lead generation, on the other hand, it is the latter who get in touch with the manufacturer, e.g. by filling in a form on the company’s website to request more information.
The marketing and sales departments are the actors involved in both types of lead generation; what are the tools at their disposal for a successful strategy?
Lead generation: traditional and digital solutions
A traditional approach to B2B lead generation includes several activities. Let us look at some of them.
- The participation in trade fairs and the exchange of business cards, in order to contact potential customers later.
- The consultation of business directories to find their telephone and e-mail addresses.
- The use of mass-market channels to generate contacts (one example is television advertising).
Today, digital tools offer alternatives: we are not referring just to online searches, but to solutions designed to manage B2B lead generation campaigns to get better results.
Here are some examples of these solutions:
- Sponsored ads on search engines, used to intercept users with certain needs.
- Automated emailing through CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software.
- Advertising on social media;
- Webinars to attract audiences interested in our products;
- Platforms to identify companies and decision makers within them.
This is only a short list, but one that immediately makes us realize the variety of digital tools available to companies to identify business contacts.
An important principle is the synergy between traditional and digital solutions: their combined use allows for maximum benefit, expanding the growth opportunities of the company and facilitating the work of the sales department.
Let’s go back to the example of the company specialising in valves.
Participating in the next scheduled trade fair can be important but not sufficient: the launch of an online advertising campaign, for example, can help to obtain additional leads.
This can be combined with an outbound activity on a selected group of companies, identified within minutes thanks to a platform for searching companies in 196 countries.
What are we talking about?
Explore: the AI-powered solution for B2B lead generation
Explore is Matchplat’s solution to make B2B lead generation easier.
Thanks to a database with over 400 million companies worldwide, it allows you to identify only those consistent with your strategy.
This is thanks to Artificial Intelligence, which enables you to analyse companies’ online contents in real time.
The result is a list of contacts available within minutes, and at a much more affordable cost than a trade fair or business trip.
In this way, it is possible to make business easier by immediately providing salespeople with a series of qualified leads.
Another advantage is the coverage: Explore offers data from companies in 196 countries, accelerating business development in domestic market and abroad.
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