Every modern marketer will say that inbound marketing is great, while some may think that outbound strategies are obsolete. Indeed, inbound marketing is appealing as it brings you the B2B leads that are already prepared to buy. This means customers enter your sales funnel at the latter stages, right before completing a purchase. However, without filling the upper layers of your funnel with the new businesses leads, you may once have no one to reach the funnel’s bottom.
This is where outbound lead generation performs its part. Outbound marketing is great for business expansion, as it allows you to target a broad audience of your ideal customers and attract quality business leads. The B2B sector represents a fruitful ground for outbound strategies. Let’s focus on the specifics of outbound lead generation for B2B, what makes it efficient, and what are the main outbound marketing strategies.
Outbound Leads vs Inbound Leads
To make sure we are on the same boat, we should outline the definition of each concept.
Inbound leads are the prospects that come to you. These are the people that see your content, feel the interest, and start the interaction with your brand on their behalf. They may access your website, sign up for your materials or blog, or make other actions to demonstrate interest in your product or service.
Outbound leads are the potential clients that you reach out to. They may even not acknowledge your existence; they have seen neither your website nor your product. You find them, contact them, and try to encourage further interaction with the consequential interest in your offers.
As mentioned earlier, the two types of leads basically differ by the stages of the sales pipeline they arrive at. While the inbound leads have already formed an interest in your product, outbound leads may not be even aware of it.
Let’s discover the other significant differences between the two.
| Outbound Leads | Inbound Leads |
| Haven’t had any interaction with your brand; Don’t have any connotations with your brand or product; Don’t realize the need for your solution; Haven’t researched the market for respective solutions; Don’t know your product and its features; don’t have any expectations about it; May be aware of the respective issue, but don’t feel an urgent need to fix it; May have general questions about your product; Most likely are out of the context for your solution. | Are aware of your brand and have had some previous interaction with it; Have certain connotations with your brand or product; Have researched your market niche; Have knowledge and expectations about your product; Have a pressing need to fix an issue your product can help to address; Are actively searching for a solution to the related problem; May have specific questions about your product; Generally, have a wider context for your solution. |
As it derives from the table, inbound and outbound B2B sales lead generation should consider the specific customer perspective, which determines the corresponding lead generation strategies.
Outbound Strategies to Generate Business Leads
If you have chosen an outbound marketing approach and wish to make it your B2B lead generation focus, you should primarily keep in mind the two major things that can make or break your campaign. They are targeting and personalization. First, if you fail to target your ideal prospect, you would waste your time, money, and efforts. Second, personalization can become the main thing that makes your offer stand out.
You can leverage various methods to generate B2B leads online. Check some of the most widespread ones.
Cold emailing for B2B sales lead generation
Although some marketers would claim that cold emailing is dead, we have good reasons to assert the opposite. The average cold email open rate across industries is about 22.15%, which is a very good indicator. Furthermore, there are ways to further increase the open rates and make your email outreach campaigns more efficient.
Remember the two pillars of outbound B2B sales lead generation? Right, targeting and personalization. The first should be considered when you buy business leads or acquire them the other way and is aimed to deliver your information to the audience that is most likely to convert. The latter helps you to avoid getting the recipient’s spam folder.
How else can you ensure that your carefully created email will reach the eyes of your potential customer? Qualified B2B lead generation companies like Belkins provide superior software for email deliverability. Such solutions as email spam checker are developed to help your emails safely arrive at the destination points.
With the right approach and proper tools, cold emailing can become your powerful lead generator.
Cold Calling
Similar to cold emailing, cold calling is not the fanciest B2B leads generation method. However, it is still very relevant for many businesses. Thus, 69% of customers stated that they have accepted a cold call in 2019.
The main advantage of cold calling is that the method is extremely personable. You are reaching out to your potential customer directly and can assess your prospect to adjust the tone and content of your conversation.
What should you focus on when applying this lead generation technique?
- Deliver a personalized message. Yes, personalization rules here as well. And it is critical if you don’t want to sound like a spammy telemarketer.
- Provide a free value to the prospect to spark their interest. Useful materials, articles, free access to webinars, and more will make your offer more precious and raise your expertise.
Video ads
If you have any doubts that a video ad can be effective, check out the chart below. It demonstrates that 54% of customers prefer videos as the source of information from brands.
What makes videos such a worthy tool of b2b online lead generation?
- Videos are engaging, as they combine the two major attention catchers: movement and sound.
- Videos can be shared by your clientele, which helps the ads reach a wider audience.
- Videos have higher click-through rates than typical banners or static ads.
How can you maximize the efficiency of your video ad?
- Tailor your video for your target audience;
- Make it grab the viewer’s attention immediately;
- Be creative;
- Choose the right format, be it a skippable or non-skippable in-stream ad, video discovery ad, bumper ad, or the other type;
- Incorporate a call to action and a link to your website;
- Monitor the performance of your campaign and optimize it, if needed.
Conclusion
Establishing an unobstructed flow of new business leads is critical for any brand. Whether to focus on the inbound or outbound marketing methods or combine both is totally your decision. However, you already recognize that both approaches can bring results if implemented properly. A wisely developed strategy and useful tools will help you to get things off on the right foot with your marketing efforts. What is more, your business can significantly benefit from the collaboration with an experienced B2B lead generator. Qualified experts will help you work out the most efficient strategy and seamlessly implement it with further tracking and optimization.
