Successful lead generation strategies are “scientifically dynamic.” You’re willing to mix it up, but you’re not just throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. Instead, you’ll target leads using this 7-step framework.
Whether you are sending emails or writing SEO-focused web content, use it to structure your B2B lead generation strategies.
Use This 7-Step Framework for All Your Lead Generation Strategies
1. Calculate
Your lead generation business plan feeds your sales funnel. It’s responsible for building awareness, generating interest and creating the sales opportunities that turn into appointments with prospects who become clients. It takes a little math to determine how many leads you need to reach your lead generation revenue goals.
Figure out the number of leads you need to capture by calculating your leads-to-sales ratio:
- Take your overall revenue goal.
- Divide by your average sale to get the number of closed sales needed.
- Divide that by your close ratio.
There’s no such thing as a free lead lunch
As you run your B2B lead generation activities, you’ll want to think about another calculation – cost per lead. You won’t get leads for free. Some activities have a higher ROI than others. As you refine your process in later steps, focus more energy on the most effective marketing strategies.
Now that you know how many leads you need, it’s time to reach out and get your target audience to engage with your business to capture leads.
2. Create
You can tell people you are an expert all day long, but demonstrating your expertise is a more effective B2B lead generation tactic. You do this by creating content that educates prospects and showcases your solutions.
What to write for your B2B content marketing:
- Articles
- Blog posts
- Checklists
- ebooks
- Emails
- Guides
- Infographics
- Landing pages
- Web pages
As you create content, you’re balancing 2 goals
Goal 1: Convince prospects you are worth listening to and have solutions to their problems
Position yourself as a thought leader and your company as a trusted partner.
Goal 2: Make your prospects the stars of the show
Vividly bring to life how they’ll succeed by working with you.
Those sound like opposing goals, but they aren’t. There are ways to write that highlight what you do without coming across as self-centered. We do it for our clients every day and by following StoryBrand principles.
Tip: Make it manageable with a ghostwriter
You don’t have time to write every article, email, and webpage on your website. At KLA Group, our custom content development solution fits into your larger email and SEO marketing strategy. We learn your solutions, tone of voice, and what appeals to your target market.
3. Promote
You can’t publish a blog once a quarter, have an SEO-friendly website, show up at an annual event, have employees post a few times on social media, and call it a day.
You need an integrated digital marketing strategy that consistently engages prospects across multiple channels, like email and social media platforms. You’ll also want a plan for getting high-quality backlinks. Local media markets shouldn’t be ignored either. Our clients have seen success after appearing in segments on the local news.
4. Follow up
Leads won’t convert themselves. Sales has a responsibility. Hold them accountable and remind them this isn’t even true cold calling.
They’re reaching out to marketing qualified leads who have interacted with your emails, attended a webinar, or downloaded a resource on your website.
The problem and solution in the resource becomes fodder for their conversations with potential customers.
Banish cold calling reluctance
See how our hands-on training leads to more closed sales
5. Automate
Advanced lead generation systems scale because they leverage the power of marketing automation tools. Instead of sending one-off emails, you have the power to create sophisticated campaigns. For instance, people who download a guide can end up in a nurture campaign related to the problem and solution discussed in the resource.
If you don’t have access to automation tools, or don’t want to manage them on your own, consider working with a digital marketing agency. At KLA Group we use automation tools, like Keap and HubSpot, to run your lead generation campaigns.
6. Analyze
You can’t have “set and forget” marketing efforts. Dynamism is critical to success. You won’t know what to tweak unless you’re looking at metrics, evaluating what is and isn’t working, and refine your strategy. The data will come from multiple sources, including your Google analytics account, marketing automation platform, LinkedIn sales navigator, and SEO analysis tools.
7. Adjust
Once you know what should be changed, make your adjustments, then monitor the impact of the changes. Maybe you needed to shift the keyword focus for a blog post or try a new subject line on an email. Whatever it is, you’ll analyze your efforts and continually update your strategy until you reach your goal.
Then you’ll set a new, higher goal and start the process over again.
Give Your Lead Generation Strategies a Boost With Expert Consulting
If executing the 7-step framework and completing all the lead generating activities that didn’t make it into this article sound daunting, consider outsourcing your marketing. The team at KLA Group has a Do-It-For-You service that manages your entire lead generation system.
We’ll work with you on the strategy, then take care of the details, meet content deadlines, manage SEO, send emails, track results, and make data-informed adjustments to optimize your plan. Leads delivered to your sales team have shown interest in your solutions. If a salesperson or the team needs coaching, we can help there too so they close more deals.