High lead generation with a high conversion rate is the goal of any B2B marketing campaign. As a marketer you want to acquire a solid amount of leads for your sales team. After all, high numbers look good but you also want these leads to be qualified and out for a buy or else you are wasting time, energy and budget on nurturing people who aren’t, and never were, interested in buying your product in the first place.
In other words, the higher your B2B lead generation the more difficult it is to nurture and convert each and every single one into a customer. This is one of the main issues originating from purchasing databases and contacts off third parties; you end up acquiring exceptionally large lists of unqualified leads. You might be able to convert some but hardly as many as you would hope for… and this looks bad. As much as you want to present your sales team with an impressively high amount of leads, it really is important to generate quality over quantity. A high conversation rate stemming from a lower amount of leads will look much better and will be much more profitable than a high lead generation with a low conversion rate.
What defines a qualified lead?
A qualified lead is a potential customer who has a certain problem to which you offer the solution. They might be at various stages of their buying journey and it is your job to point them in the right direction to eventually make the transition from lead to customer. By analysing exactly who your customers are and what decision stages they go through as they decide on a product fit for them, you can already cut out a vast amount of ‘unqualified’ leads and figure out who will buy from you and who won’t.
How do you generate qualified leads?
It is a balancing act but there are ways. One of them is a customer centric approach. Allow potential customers to find you as they embark on their buying journey. Be there and be part of the solution as they investigate and look for a product like yours to solve their problem(s).Let me throw a buzzword at you: Inbound Marketing. Surely you have heard of it, but you might not quite know what it is all about. Well, inbound is a marketing strategy that can help you produce high quality leads. One that will not only make you look good but also your sales team: With high quality comes high conversion.
How can you make inbound work for you?
Inbound is an approach that radically challenges traditional marketing and sales campaigns. With online having become an information hub from which potential customers can draw materials and educate themselves before even approaching you, the solution holder, it has become imperative to become part of the initial thought process that consumers engage in as they embark on the buyer’s journey. Companies need to establish themselves as thought leaders within their respective industries. Here, high quality content is key. By creating interesting and educational reads such as blogs, newsletters and ebooks, you can show your potential customers that you understand their struggles and can offer proactive solutions. You can help and nurture potential customers along the way and make them come to you. By offering compelling, invaluable content in exchange for contact information you can then turn readers into qualified leads, knowing that there is already interest established in your product. From here you as well as your sales team can actively nurture and engage with them and convert them when they are ready to buy. Consequently your conversion rate is higher.
By focusing your efforts on generating high quality leads over a high number of leads, you are saving a lot of time, effort and are consequently upping your ROI with an increased conversion rate. So it might be time to forget about the numbers and focus on results.
To find out more about qualiity lead generation, download our free eBook.
