Effective B2B Social Media Lead Generation in 5 Simple Steps

Over 500 people registered for our B2B social media webinar early this week and I must confess that the response was overwhelming. At first I thought that I thought that my campaigning team had done an exceptionally good job (which they have indeed) but as the webinar was nearing to end I had a realization that most of the attendees where present because of the topic - B2B Lead generation from Social Media.

Now this gave us a reason to condense the discussion and present the steps and the steps and processes towards setting up an effective and successful lead generation program for B2Bs using social and online media in simple 5 effective steps:

1. USE EFFECTIVE MARKETING PLATFORMS TO GRAB ATTENTION, INCLUDING:

Search (the number one source used in B2B purchase decisions)
Online advertising
Social advertising

2. HAVE A STRONG CALL TO ACTION
Use clear language telling your audience exactly what you want them to do. Use a big red button they can’t miss.

3. CREATE A DEDICATED LANDING PAGE
Make sure your landing page matches up with what you’re promising in your ads.

Define a clear path for your visitors
Guide users to a single desired action (one offer)
Limit friction, confusion, and distractions

4. RETARGET THEM IF THEY DON’T CONVERT
Perhaps a prospect got to your landing page but didn’t fill out the form. Use retargeting ads to get their attention again. These ads display on third party websites to those who went to your website but didn’t convert. The goal is to bring them back. Your retargeted ad could offer different incentives or a softer sell.

An example of a re-targeted ad

5. AFTER YOU GET THEIR CONTACT INFORMATION
Our jobs as marketers don’t stop when the form is filled out. Sales and marketing must work together to connect with the leads after they've completed the form and ensure the messaging is relevant to that prospect. To keep it organized, track your campaign within your CRM. This enables sales and marketing to track every action including:

Where the lead came from
Campaign details such as media costs
Next steps/directions for sales (Summary info, qualification questions, email templates)
Use your CRM to create shared dashboards between marketing and sales to give everyone a transparent picture of how things are performing.

In Social Media, Top of the Funnel is About Lead Introduction – Not Creation

Yesterday I gave a presentation to a field sales team at Pitney Bowes Software about how we can work collaboratively on our Engage Today social media marketing program to support their tactical success.

I focused the discussion on the four high-value sales outcomes we have been able to consistently deliver:

1. Lead introduction
2. Lead nurturing
3. Deal capture
4. Competitive intelligence

This was the first time I swapped out lead generation for lead introduction in a presentation.

Why the change?

As Strategic Communications Group (Strategic) has matured its business-to-business and public sector focused  “social media for sales” programs on behalf of clients like Pitney Bowes, Polycom, British Telecom (BT), Intelsat, Blue Coat Systems, Mandiant and others, we have recognized that a lead generation expectation simply isn’t realistic.

Companies place considerable weight on quantity when evaluating the effectiveness of a tactical approach for lead creation.  It’s understandable because corporate marketers can model top of the funnel leads to an anticipated revenue output.

While our programs have demonstrated the ability to produce new leads through premium content offers, they are not at a level that survives a cost per lead analysis.  It’s because of this that my recent pitch to two exceptionally qualified and interesting prospects fell short.

Lead introduction though is achievable and, in my opinion, of equal (if not greater) value in a business-to-business and public sector context.  That’s because the majority of vendors sell multimillion dollar, enterprise solutions to executive level decision-makers.

Whether a company is pushing product, service or a combination of the two, it is a consultative sell.  Executive buyers have to be educated and, equally critical, a relationship defined by trust must be established.

Education via thought leadership content and customer or prospect intimacy – those are the core tenets of an effective social media initiative.

A wonderfully composed guest post on Marketo’s blog by Andrew Gaffney of DemandGen Report validates my view on lead introduction as a realistic social media for sales outcome.  Gaffney presents three key points:

1. Executives play a prominent role in the buying process;
2. These executive rely heavily upon peer reviews, feedback and content-sharing to inform their buying decisions; and
3. Social media even more popular among executives than it is among their subordinates.

Author

Marc Hausman

Hi! I am the president/CEO of Strategic Communications Group, a social media marketing consultancy based outside of Washington, DC. Read more at: http://www.thestrategicguy.com