Lead generation encompasses activities, processes, and techniques aimed at increasing a company’s number of potential customers. A lead is a potential customer: someone about whom you have certain data and information, including contact details that allow you to “follow up” with this lead. This follow-up typically involves simply calling or emailing the prospective customer.
Lead generation can apply to consumers (business-to-consumer, or B2C) and to business clients (business-to-business, usually abbreviated to B2B). In this article, you’ll find tips to take both your B2C and B2B lead generation to the next level.
Tips for B2B Lead Generation
For many companies, a significant portion of revenue must be generated through business clients. To attract new clients, a strong and distinctive product is needed, as are strong sales skills within the sales team. This requires leads, making lead generation essential. Without a steady stream of new leads, a sales team cannot get to work.
Step-by-step guide to lead generation
Generating new leads usually follows a specific step-by-step plan:
First, the target audience must be determined; consider questions such as:
- What type of company and industry should we target?
- What is the revenue and what is the legal structure?
- What is the target company size?
- Your preferred contact person—what is their role: procurement, marketing, or perhaps a member of senior management?
Once the target audience is clear, a database can be created with organizations and contacts that fit within the target audience. These leads can then be contacted by phone or email. These days, we’re seeing more and more “marketing automation” being used in B2B: this involves sequences of multiple email contacts determined by the interactions that have taken place.
Some time later, the sales team follows up with the companies by phone. During the process, the database may be further supplemented and enriched through “lead nurturing.” It is, of course, also possible to call contacts directly, but this does not always yield good results, as there have not yet been enough touchpoints with the potential customer.
Lead generation tips
Ultimately, of course, all of this should lead to an increase in paying customers. The following general tips will help you achieve that goal:
- Be selective about which companies you add to the database. Focus specifically on companies that clearly belong to your target audience and that are realistically likely to become customers.
- Keep your database up to date by, for example, regularly reviewing your list and updating or deleting records.
- Make sure you have a strong and distinctive product, backed by a solid marketing plan.
- Do everything in your power to convey the message effectively. Try to distinguish yourself from your competition in several ways and clearly communicate that distinction.
Lead generation at the B2C level
At the B2C level, lead generation does not proceed exactly the same way as in B2B. For example, the direct added value of a company’s products and services is much more important to a consumer than to a business customer, especially for smaller items. Furthermore, personal interaction between the company and the consumer is not always essential for the latter, whereas that mutual relationship is of great importance in B2B—these are generally larger and longer-term projects.
Lead generation with SEO
Generating a larger potential customer base in B2C is largely done online. SEO is indispensable for many organizations in this regard. With SEO, you ensure that your company’s website ranks higher in the organic search results on Google and other online search engines. And a higher ranking on Google almost automatically means more website visitors.
Lead generation with SEA
At the same time, you can focus on SEA, or paid search results. SEA is all about paying to secure positions in Google’s search results for specific search terms. There’s a good chance this will immediately drive more visitors to your website, though they still need to convert into leads for follow-up and further lead generation. Of course, it’s then crucial that you’re able to convert enough leads into actual business so that you recoup your investment.
In addition, there are countless other channels through which you can generate leads, such as social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and/or LinkedIn. It’s important to determine how much a lead should cost you; this is expressed as CPL: cost per lead.
Determining CPL and lead generation
To implement profitable lead generation, you need to clearly understand what your product or service delivers and what costs you incur. Without a clear cost-benefit analysis, it is very difficult to accurately determine what a lead should cost and what budget you can allocate. Key questions for determining a CPL:
- What is the conversion rate? In other words, how many leads do you need to generate a single order?
- What is the average revenue per order, and what are the net proceeds after expenses?
- How many leads can you handle per month?
Example:
- A company needs 5 leads to generate 1 order; the conversion rate is then 20%.
- An order generates 1,000 euros in revenue, of which 100 euros remains after all costs.
- If we want to use the full revenue from an order, the CPL is 20 euros. => After all, an average of 5 leads is needed to generate 1 order: 5 leads x 20 euros per lead = 100 euros.
Ultimately, determining a good CPL is a key factor in whether lead generation is profitable or not. A CPL can also change: for example, the conversion rate may rise or fall, and your revenue per order may increase or decrease.
5 tips for lead generation
- Create a solid database of customers/leads you want to approach. Set aside extra time for this phase, as it’s a waste to spend your time and budget on customers who, in the end, don’t belong to your target audience.
- Determine which channels will contribute to lead generation. There are many options, and if you have a limited budget, you can’t try everything: in that case, choose 2–3 channels that best fit your budget and target audience.
- Set clear goals: what do you want to achieve with the leads, how many do you want to follow up on, and when? How much revenue does a lead generate, and how many leads do you need to secure an order?
- If you want to use online marketing, you really need answers to points 2 and 3. Suppose you want to use Google Ads for lead generation; in that case, you’ll want to set fixed costs per goal so that the Google algorithm can optimize accordingly.
- Opt for effective lead follow-up; this can be done by phone, of course, but also through marketing automation. Clearly map out the steps you want to take—whether with a sales team, an automated tool, a combination of both, or in a completely different way—and work this out thoroughly.
