In my experience, having worked in lead generation, there is no objective answer to this question.
According to a recent study, social media usually generates the most B2B leads but at a very low cost per acquisition (CPA).
Traditional marketing usually generates fewer B2B leads than social media, therefore many B2B companies are turning to social media.
The cost per acquisition (CPA) of traditional marketing is usually higher than that of social media because companies are using expensive channels to generate leads.
However, there are many other factors to consider when deciding on the best channel for your B2B lead generation campaign; for instance:
- What kind of industry you’re in?
- What target market you’re looking for?
- How much budget your company has?
The list goes on and it is only up to each business to evaluate and decide what works best for them.
Here are some tips from me that I think will help you get started:
1. Determine your lead generation goals
Whatever channel you’re going to use, it is very important to clearly define your B2B lead generation goals.
A good way to do this is by asking yourself the following questions:
- Is my lead achieving the desired results?
- What are my conversion rates? (conversion rate = leads/visitors).
In order to have a successful campaign, your answer to both of these questions should be yes.
2. Know your target market well
Before selecting a channel, it is crucial that you know your target market and who they are.
For example, you’re looking for a B2B lead.
Then ask yourself the following questions:
- What is your ideal customer’s mindset?
- How does he/she consume content? (e.g., online vs. print).
- What kind of content do they like to view? (e.g., product demonstration video vs. industry news).
This will help you determine the most effective channel for your business.
3. Select the right lead generation channels
You’ve determined that your target market is a B2B company, but what kind of lead generation channels could work well?
Here are some ideas to get you started:
Social media (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Email Marketing, etc.) and paid online advertising (Google Adwords, LinkedIn Ads).
To get started in your B2B lead generation campaign, you have to start somewhere.
It is advisable that you use a combination of both traditional marketing and social media/online advertising.
For example, run an advertisement on Google first.
This will help you improve your ad’s performance and make it more effective.
When you already have a high-quality ad with good performance, now you can start using social media to deliver your ads in an interesting way.
A/B test different messages, images, or landing pages until you find the ones which convert best (i.e., generate the most leads).
Email was ranked to be the best channel for producing high return on investment by 50% of B2B marketing professionals in a survey. Search optimization and marketing placed second on that list.
Source
4. Use analytics to track your performance
It’s almost impossible for a company to tell if an ad works well without tracking and analyzing its performance.
The same rule applies when using social media as part of the B2B lead generation campaign.
For example, you might decide that Facebook is an effective channel, but after running a campaign with it, you might see that the leads generated don’t close as expected.
The reason could be many things.
For example, your lead wasn’t qualified; they didn’t have the budget to buy what you wanted to sell, or maybe they were not even interested in what you were selling.
Oftentimes when marketing a product/brand, we focus on getting leads without considering what we can do with them after that.
The point is, we might get leads but they are not qualified at all, and therefore cannot produce desired results (which in this case could be sales).
To avoid this from happening, you will need to constantly monitor your campaigns’ performance.
There are a few ways to track performance, such as tracking sales from your website/landing page; or through the use of third-party marketing automation software.
However do note that if you are using a B2B lead generation channel that requires leads to subscribe to your email list, then you won’t be able to track leads through analytics.
5. Keep tweaking and measuring results
After running a campaign, you’ll need to keep tweaking and measuring until you find the right formula.
For example, maybe your first ad didn’t perform well so instead of giving up, try updating/changing what needs to be changed in order to produce better results.
Or perhaps after analyzing the data gathered from your email deliverability campaign (e.g., open rate, click rate, unsubscribe rate, etc.), you will see that there are certain days when most of the leads were opened.
Take note of this information and use them when scheduling your next email campaign.
These are just some basic steps to get started with B2B lead generation; however, a lot more work is required once you actually embark on a campaign.
Ultimately, what really matters is if you are able to drive qualified B2B leads which eventually convert into sales.
Hopefully, this article will inspire and help you start a B2B lead generation campaign.
Related Post: B2B Lead Generation: 40 Ideas to Drive Your Business Forward
Ali is a digital marketing blogger and author who uses the power of words to inspire and impact others. He has written for leading publications like Business2Community, Inc. Magazine, and Marketing Profs. When not writing, he enjoys spending time with his family.