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You know as an agency owner that there’s no shortage of tasks that you have to tackle to in order to grow your business. Moreover, it’s agreed upon by 61% of marketers that generating leads is the toughest of them all.
If you have no leads, you can’t drive revenue. That means having a clear B2B lead gen strategy is key for the long term success of your business. If you noticed your leads are starting to dry up, this is most likely the reason.
Don’t sweat, though. If you continue reading, we will teach you proven strategies for generating more B2B leads.
Don’t miss out on Morphio’s free AI marketing software to optimize each method too.
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1) B2B content marketing is a must
The B2B buyer’s journey is becoming continually longer and more complex. 51% of buyers say how long they take to make a decision has greatly increased because of this.
Consumers have more resources than ever to make an informed buying decision and that’s exactly why content marketing is incredible for B2B lead generation. It helps establish trust, create thought leadership, and educate customers on relevant topics.
Research topics with a buyer persona in mind
Here are the three steps you need to take to begin reaping these benefits.
You can’t target everybody. Good content draws in a hyper segmented audience that cares about your industry and what it has to offer.
For example, you might target marketing executives in 6-7 figure digital agencies or chief technology officers in SaaS companies depending on your exact buyer persona.
A buyer persona is a generalization of your ideal client. Think demographics, psychographics, desires, and pain points. Organizing these into an imaginary character allows you to attract a specific kind of person to your blog.
We recommend using a tool like HubSpot’s blog idea generator when you’re stumped for topics. You’ll get suggestions in the snap of a finger.
Begin by entering a keyword. Click the “Add” and “Give Me Blog Ideas” buttons afterward.
The left displays five blog post ideas you can navigate through. Entering your contact information via the right option will give you 250! That could be a year’s worth of content ideas.
Always audit if the topics you research align with your buyer persona. Would your ideal client be searching for those blog posts and interested in them? Would they solve a problem their experiencing?
On that note, check out our Eloqua vs HubSpot comparison.
Produce long-form actionable content
Step into your reader’s shoes. What are they ultimately trying to get out a piece of content? Knowledge.
That means you need to skip the fluff. Avoid big blocks of paragraphs and filler content to hit a specific word count. The internet has enough of that.
Instead, amaze your readers and improve their lives by producing long-form and practical articles.
Backlinko performed a study where they analyzed over one million Google results, discovering that the #1 spot was typically 1,890 words long.
But how exactly do you make content “practical”? Some of the main ways are:
- Including interesting and relevant statistics to back up any claims you make.
- Uploading graphs and charts which display helpful data.
- Showing readers how to perform tasks step-by-step.
- Providing useful tools and apps.
Taking these simple steps transforms an everyday blog post in an article reader can’t wait to finish and share.
2) Don’t neglect your SEO
Leads from search engines have a conversion rate of 14.6%! Very few channels can say the same. Despite this, many agencies still don’t put enough energy into their SEO. They’re practically missing out on free revenue.
The main thing you need to focus on is on-page SEO. As you could guess, these are the elements on your website. Most of it is set-and-forget, meaning that you do it once, forget about it, and enjoy the rewards.
Here’s how to do it yourself.
Use a tool like Ubersuggest to find high-value search terms
Keywords are the bread and butter of good SEO. They will act as the foundation of all the content you produce.
There are many free keyword research tools you can use like Ubersuggest to begin finding search terms, as well.
Begin by typing in a word or phrase and clicking the “Search” button.
Select the “Keyword ideas” tab to get more inspiration and data on search terms.
The left side has all of the search terms while the right side displays the content which ranks for these terms.
Use competitor’s content for inspiration and to gauge the quality of content you will need to produce to outrank them.
Remember that Google’s algorithm will look at the front page of results and want your content to be similar. This means you should take notes on word count, images, design, etc.
Once you’ve narrowed down high volume keywords you’d like to target, you’re probably going to think “Where the heck do I place these?” and we have the answer.
Optimize your website and content for these keywords
There are very specific areas of your website and its content that keywords need to be inserted. Search engine crawlers look in certain areas for data to figure out what your pages are about.
The first place to enter keywords is within the URL and headline of a page. Make sure that the URL is short and clean, as such:
A simple URL is both simpler to understand for readers and search engine crawlers.
Next, add the keyword into the title tag and meta description of the page. While this is proven to not directly affect SEO, it does indirectly by increasing click-through rate through bolded text like this:
Finally, optimize file names and the alt text of images to include keywords if it makes sense. Remember that Google has a team of scientists developing their algorithms. Keyword stuffing won’t get past them.
3) How to execute B2B email marketing
Email marketing might be decades old, but it performs like it’s brand new. With an average ROI of $40 for every $1 spent, you’d be crazy not to have it mixed into your lead generation plan.
Creating an email list also means that you create your own platform. You’re not reliant on social media or a website that can be gone in the blink of an eye.
Here’s how to begin using email marketing for B2B lead gen with that being said.
Step 1: Create an opt-in form with a tool like Mailchimp
Users can’t subscribe to you without a form. This way you’ll need to use a free tool like Mailchimp for creating opt-in forms.
Sign up from the homepage by clicking the “Sign Up Free” button.
Enter a username, password, and email on the following page before clicking the “Get Started!” button.
Once you’re in the platform, navigate to “Signup forms” from the “Audience” tab. Here you can choose from several options.
If you choose to embed your forms, click “Select” and customize the fields, design, and settings.
Simply copy and paste the code onto any area of your site such as the footer or sidebar to begin collecting emails.
However, you can’t kick your feet up just yet. You need to offer leads an incentive for subscribing.
Step 2: Offer a lead magnet
A lead magnet is a free resource you offer in exchange for a user’s email. It’s win, win.
Common lead magnets include:
- E-books
- Whitepapers
- Case studies
- Checklists
- Cheatsheets
You should advertise directly that subscribers will receive the resources for signing up. Look how Salesforce pulls this off:
You have to enter in your information for their free books and other material which helps them get in contact with you later.
This can easily be done by creating a new campaign on Mailchimp, selecting the “Automated” option, and “Welcome new subscribers” afterward.
Once you have created the lead magnet, you can upload it to the campaign and insert a download button. It’s that easy!
Step 3: Keep the list clean and respect your lead’s inboxes
You inserted a signup form and created an irresistible lead magnet. What’s next? Cleaning your list and sending out newsletters.
Over time you will have inactive subscribers or email addresses that bounce. These can decrease performance and give inaccurate information when you track email analytics.
This is why we suggest using a tool like Hunter to verify emails and ensure they’re working.
Upload a CSV file of your subscriber’s emails via the “Bulks” tab and it will analyze all of them individually.
You can then redownload the list with only the verified results remaining.
Send out newsletters to these subscribers every time you publish new content, launch new products, or have news to share.
Keep the 80/20 rule in mind here, too. That means 80% of your emails should be value-driven and the remaining 20% can be used to sell your services.
Taking these steps will grow your email list, build relationships with subscribers, and convert them into paying clients over time.
Conclusion
Generating leads is often the biggest struggle for B2B agencies. One of the culprits of why this happens is due to not having a clear lead gen strategy.
To get around this, agencies should begin publishing content that attracts a specific buyer’s persona. An effective approach is to grow a company blog as it brings users directly to your website.
Each piece of content and your website need to be focused around industry and topic related topics to drive the most organic traffic, as well. There are many free tools like Ubersuggest that will make this process effortless.
Content can also be integrated with email marketing through lead magnets and opt-in forms. Email marketing empowers you to build your own audience and tap them at any time.
But not all leads are the same. That’s why you should start a free trial with Morphio to see how our AI platform can help your agency identify the highest quality segments to retarget in your lead gen plan.
