TrueCore

September 7, 2022

B2B Lead Generation: How a Holistic Approach Can Boost Sales

One of the most powerful B2B lead generation strategies is one that’s integrated into a thoughtful holistic marketing strategy. Individual channels like social media, email marketing, and your website won’t be effective if every campaign and piece of content is created in a silo. (Read that again.)

Instead, they need to work together to create one consistent path that leads prospects to your desired action. Of course, you want to make the decision as easy as possible! Every aspect of your marketing should be cohesive and serve a purpose in guiding your audience on their buyer’s journey

To take a truly holistic approach to lead generation, every team member involved in aspects of client activities (i.e., decision-making and buying process) must collaborate. It’s also important to understand which segment of the marketing funnel each channel addresses, whether it’s:

So, how should you actually integrate these areas into a holistic plan for the best results? 

Stress not—we’re sharing tips and ideas for cohesiveness in: 

Social Media: One of the Forefront B2B Lead Generation Channels

Social media can be as powerful for B2B as it is for consumer brands. AI-bees reports that 76% of B2B technical firms use social media to gain quick results, and 90% of B2B marketers believe that social media has impacted their business revenue. 

Now, you may be wondering how to generate sales through social media. 

First, your social plan needs to be incorporated into a holistic B2B lead generation strategy. When you create specific content and campaigns for social media, you’ll need to develop corresponding content to keep them engaged and moving down the funnel. Consider how all channels will work together. 

For example, you might host a fun contest or giveaway—prizes can include anything from a gift card to a free product or subscription. Plus, when you hold a contest or giveaway, you could receive fantastic user-generated content (i.e., photo and video contests) and grow your following and email list! 

A diagram of how to generate sales through social media

You could also use social media to share your expertise to build trust and authority by establishing an active presence in social media communities. Find groups related to your field or niche—this can be particularly powerful for those in the B2B tech space! Participate by sharing helpful posts and responding to people’s questions. Groups are a great way to connect with prospects authentically while sharing your unique content, like blog posts and e-books, to drive people back to your site.

When executed correctly, social media can work regardless of your industry and audience!

Search Engines, SEO, Blogs, and More…

Content marketing is still king! It’s all about building trust by answering your audience’s questions and helping solve their problems. So, what is your ideal client searching for online? You can use blogs, customer reviews, and FAQs to boost your website’s search engine optimization (SEO).

Blogging

To be effective, your marketing department will need to collaborate with team members to create content that addresses each stage of the sales funnel, as mentioned earlier. For example, your sales team can communicate prospects’ primary pain points and objections, while your customer support team can guide you on a typical customer’s lifecycle with your company

Pro tip: Include multimedia like videos, photos, and graphics to boost your blog post’s SEO! Visuals are also great for tutorials and portraying complex processes.

Customer Reviews

You already know that happy customer reviews are a great way to strengthen your company’s reputation. But did you know they can also improve SEO? Search engines see positive reviews as a good sign, which could boost your site in the search results. Plus, more online testimonials mean more keywords surrounding your website and brand!

To make the most of your testimonials, be sure to:

Keyword Research

Use keyword research to create content such as blogs, videos, or even specific pages on your site that answer your customers’ most prominent queries—while also boosting SEO. 

  1. Start by gathering information from your sales reps about suggested topics and frequently asked questions.
  2. Use a keyword research tool, like Google’s Keyword Planner, Moz, or Answer the Public to find out precisely what terms/phrases your audience is using.
  3. Develop targeted content around the search terms that have a high volume (meaning many people are searching for them).
A man using SEO keywords to boost his holistic b2b lead generation services

Pro tips: Focus on keywords with high search volume but not a lot of existing content answering related questions or pain points to get a leg up on competitors! Also, include FAQ sections at the end of your blog posts to answer common questions about specific topics while boosting SEO.

Your Website: One of the Frequently-Overlooked Lead Gen Tools

The big question… is your website set up to convert the leads your other marketing channels drive? 

From your core website pages (i.e., Home, About Us, Services/Products) to your landing pages (i.e., standalone pages created for a specific campaign), all your website content must be designed to keep potential customers onsite and moving down the sales funnel

When considering how to generate B2B sales leads, you should ensure that every web page: 

You can drive traffic to your digital home, but if the content isn’t laid out to get the job done, you’ll be leaving money on the table!

Going Beyond With Emails, Digital Advertising, and Telemarketing

Your other B2B lead generation channels also have the ability to deliver a better ROI when incorporated into a holistic strategy.

Email Marketing

Email marketing can be one of the cheapest yet most effective B2B lead generation tools when:

Let’s say you deploy a gated content campaign. Your marketing department would: 

  1. Create your freebie, like a guide or e-book, developed with support from another department, like the web developers.
  2. Design a paid ad campaign on Facebook or LinkedIn, where people can subscribe and download it.
  3. Enroll subscribers in a targeted email list, so they receive a nurture campaign based on their interests, to move them further down the funnel.

That’s just one simple example of how all areas of your marketing integrate for a successful promotion, but the possibilities are endless!

Digital Advertising

Digital advertising lead generation tools can include pay-per-click (PPC) ads, paid social campaigns, and sponsored content. The beauty of digital ads is that you can closely monitor each campaign and measure its ROI to understand exactly how your marketing dollars are working—or where they might be better spent.

As with the other types of lead generation, every digital ad should link to coinciding content, whether it’s a landing page, email campaign, or sales follow-up strategy. For example, if someone clicks on your PPC ad for your latest service or product, they should arrive at a sales page with a form or checkout. Without various departments working together on a holistic marketing mission, this intricate plan wouldn’t be possible.

Telemarketing

A man using telemarketing b2b lead generating tools

B2B telemarketing works so well because it allows companies to target their audience by appealing to their needs and pain points, building a genuine connection with their ideal clients. 

To use telemarketing for a lead generation campaign, you’d need to focus your outbound strategy on contacting decision-makers in specific industries. Your telemarketing team or lead generation company would use these calls to create brand awareness and book a meeting or sales demo. 

An example of telemarketing being bolstered by a holistic marketing plan would be if sales reps supplied the content team with frequently asked questions and ideas for content that would help convert leads. PDFs and helpful content like hub landing pages could be created by marketing and shared with leads by the sales reps. Finally, the social media managers could create posts to move traffic from social platforms to the new PDFs and content hubs—to get more mileage out of the new materials.

Why Holistic B2B Lead Generation? Final Thoughts

While each of these tactics can stand on its own, your B2B lead generation efforts will work best when you take a holistic approach to your overall marketing strategy. This establishes consistency across all channels and ensures your marketing reaches customers at every stage in their journey by creating cohesive top-of-funnel, middle-of-funnel, and bottom-of-funnel content and strategies.

If you are ready to increase your business with an authentic B2B lead generation strategy, speak to a Chameleon Group representative today! We’ll help you create effective campaigns using the techniques that best fit your business.

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