We simply can’t help ourselves—we want a new BIG idea, we want to make a BIG difference, we want to target a BIG market and capture a BIG share. There’s really nothing wrong in wanting BIG, except one small problem—having to wait for it and sometimes, waiting too long.
One of the key reasons for this waiting and often, failing to garner the desired results is a mire of legacy issues. A problem I have frequently pointed out in my writing. Large organizations governed by “brand marketing policies” (a.k.a. restrictions and limitations) are particularly plagued by this issue of not being able to break the shackles and explore new opportunities.
Let’s discuss how to make SMALL changes and gain some QUICK wins for your B2B lead generation efforts.
5 Easy Ways to Reward Your B2B Lead Generation with Quick Wins
1. Optimize Your Landing Page. B2B companies are steadily moving share of budget from offline to online marketing and lead generation. That’s the good news. The bad news is, most of these companies are still thinking and running their online lead generation campaigns like in the old days, where a strategy was agreed upon and then played out exactly as per the plan. B2B buyers are dealing with an online landscape that changes very fast. Having the flexibility and agility to suitably adapt your B2B marketing is critical.
The beauty of the online world is that you can tweak and adjust your landing page design, test different calls-to-action and revise content as often as you need to. You have to be on top of things, however, to recognize the need to make changes and then make them as quickly and efficiently as possible. An optimized landing page will deliver valuable, measurable results for your B2B lead generation, but you have to monitor, experiment, test and adjust continuously. Remember that every page of your website, including the Home page can and should function like a landing page. Each page needs a strong and persuasive call-to-action. The cumulative effect of all these landing pages working optimally will pack the right punch and deliver the momentum you want to see in your sales funnel.
Case Study: With all the knowledge they had about landing page optimization best practices, SAP was still losing money on a PPC campaign that just wasn’t performing well. Kudos to the senior marketing executive who took the company’s branding guidelines, identified the problem areas with their current landing page and got the required buy-in to make changes that optimized the page for greater conversions. Read the case study here.
2. Pay for Targeted Eyeballs. Organic search traffic is very valuable and you definitely want to build volume. However, it takes sustained effort and time before you start to see the fruits of your online content marketing and SEO activities. In the meantime, paid advertising is a good medium to explore and it now extends far beyond pay-per-click campaigns. All the major social and digital collaboration channels from Facebook to LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, Skype, SlideShare, and more are offering targeted advertising as well as retargeting as a means to boost lead generation. B2B marketers have mostly been a shy lot so far while B2C has really taken online ads to the next level. Getting executive buy-in is still quite the challenge for many of these B2B organizations, but it only takes a financial quarter or two of consistent ROI to prove the merit of these techniques. Try it!
3. Choose the Right Automation Tools. And make sure they work for your business. Far too many B2B companies are draining their resources and time purchasing marketing automation tools and CRM software programs that are not designed specifically for their business. Then they have to hire high-paid consultants to try and adapt these tools and systems to their existing ones. Staff training on the new tools is another huge investment in terms of time and money. Where’s the ROI after all this? You can’t kill a mosquito with a cannon. You can’t boil the ocean. And you definitely don’t need to throw the baby out with the bath water. BUT the baby has to grow, and adapt to changes, and wear new clothes, and get the right nutrition.
4. Evaluate Wisely. Run appropriate tests to determine what’s working, what’s not. Here is a nice collection of tests. The only way to know where the holes are is to experiment, test, deploy, measure, test again, and so on. We live in fear of testing and failing but failing is a necessary part of learning and improving. Like one wise guy said, “I’ve learnt so much from my mistakes, I think I’ll make a few more!”
5. Cast Away the Legacy Issues and Look Ahead. We fear losing our jobs. We fear losing revenue and being held responsible. We fear being outdone by the competition. We fear trying what we have not tried before. We fear standing out as different. We fear being reprimanded for bold actions. This fear is the legacy, the bane of our times. How can anyone expect the big box companies to move on a dime when their internal structure is still based on the old command and control structure? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the customer has changed, markets have changed, lead generation techniques have changed, so CHANGE BEFORE YOU HAVE TO. Don’t hang on to those “we have always done it like this” mindset when new opportunities are flying past you every day. If you are the CMO of a B2B company, you need to make sure that this message of change and speed is translated into action and not merely chanted as the new mantra.
Have you seen some recent quick wins for your B2B lead generation activities? Feel free to share on my blog. Is your lead generation stuck in a rut? Need new ideas to make things move in the right direction? If you liked this post, click here to sign up for the ALEA e-newsletter.
