Have you ever watched a movie set in the 1950s or ‘60s where there’s a door-to-door salesperson and thought, “Did that ever work?” Well, back then, it did. It was called cold calling, and it was something we’d now refer to as an outbound sales strategy. But the times have changed, and if someone came to your door unannounced today, you’d probably feel uncomfortable or simply wouldn’t answer.
Inbound lead generation is the solution to that. It allows businesses to attract buyers who are searching for products or services that align with their offerings.
Rather than reaching out to leads, inbound strategies focus on creating content that is so valuable buyers actively seek you out.
But how do you make that a reality?
Read on to learn how the best businesses use inbound marketing to generate a consistent flow of high-quality leads.
The Best Channels to Use in Your Inbound Lead Generation Strategy
A robust inbound lead generation strategy focuses on nurturing relationships with prospects and understanding the importance of the buyer’s journey, paying close attention to where they are in the marketing funnel.1 This can be achieved through multiple different channels, including:
- Content Marketing
- Search Engine Optimization
- Social Media Marketing
- Email Marketing
- Paid Ads
Content Marketing
A majority of B2B buyers consume 3-5 pieces of content2 before speaking with a sales rep - and the volume of content they consume has increased nearly 19% in the last year alone.3 That means buyers are actively looking for quality, informative content to help them understand their problem and find the right solution.
Content marketing is all about meeting that demand and offering your target audience actionable insights, reliable information, and even entertainment. This could come in the form of blog posts, whitepapers, eBooks, and even webinars; the key is simply to deliver consistent quality and ensure that you are providing real value.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
You could have the world’s best B2B website, but if nobody sees it, it will not help you generate leads. SEO is all about making your website and content more visible to the right audience, so that all that effort that went into building it actually pays off.
This breaks down into two categories: content SEO, which consists of producing a high volume of quality content that uses the right keywords and speaks to your desired audience; and technical SEO, which involves optimizing the functionality of your website so that it meets various technical criteria, such as Google’s Core Web Vitals.
Social Media Marketing
A strong presence on social media can dramatically increase the organic reach of your brand and lead to meaningful engagements directly with your target audience in real time. In fact, a recent study found that 60% of B2B marketers find social media their most powerful channel for generating revenue.4
Why? Social media enables your business to benefit from network effects: when a post is popular, it will be widely shared and appear on a lot of buyers’ feeds. This gives them an opportunity to discover your business organically, and if your solution fits their needs, they will likely research your brand further.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is often considered a cornerstone of outbound marketing, but it is also a reliable, effective, cost-efficient way of supporting your inbound strategy.5 Regular emails to warm prospects help nurture relevant leads and keep your brand top of mind. It is also an excellent way to promote your content marketing efforts and move leads through the funnel.
Paid Ads
While organic engagement is important, many B2B brands want to generate leads faster, and paid ads are the perfect way to accelerate the process. Google Ads and LinkedIn Ads essentially allow you to gain the same benefits as organic SEO and social media marketing, but without requiring the same long-term commitment.
The key is to carefully target your ideal audience and use the right lead magnet to lure them in. While some buyers may be most tempted by downloading a piece of thought leadership content, others will be more responsive to a demo or information about your solution. It’s important to test a variety of strategies with a range of CTAs to identify which offers work best for each of your audiences.
How to Build an Inbound Strategy
Once you understand each of these channels, the next step is to determine the role each will play in your inbound strategy. While most businesses will benefit from all of them, it’s important to consider:
- How quickly you want to generate leads
- How much time, effort and budget you are willing to commit to inbound marketing
- Which channels you are already using, and which you have expertise in
- Which channels will be most impactful on your specific target audience
This will form the foundation of your inbound lead generation strategy. But for many businesses, the sheer complexity of both developing and implementing such a strategy will prove too much - which is why so many choose to…
Partner with a B2B Lead Generation Agency
If you truly want to create an inbound lead generation strategy that brings in new business and boosts ROI, ProperExpression can help. As a leading B2B lead generation agency, we have helped B2B businesses develop inbound strategies that led to $455k in new revenue in just 6 months.
Want to learn how we could produce similar results for your business?
1. https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/marketing-funnel
2. https://www.demandgenreport.com/resources/reports/2019-content-preferences-survey-report
4. https://www.insiderintelligence.com/content/b2b-social-media-marketing
5. https://www.hubspot.com/inbound-marketing
