B2B lead generation: 15 modern strategies for growth and conversion

Attracting the right buyers is no small feat. However, whether you're in the B2B or B2C space, generating consistent, quality leads is vital for the sustained growth of any company.

While "capturing leads" is a good goal to start with, the most effective B2B lead generation tactics attract only high-quality leads that are truly likely to become paying customers. Building a B2B lead generation process to drive sales growth is challenging but achievable. You just need to dedicate time and effort to implement strategies that best match your business goals.

In this article, we explain what B2B lead generation is and how your business can benefit from it. We also offer up to 15 modern tips and strategies for enhancing your lead generation processes.

Let's dive in.

What is B2B lead generation?

Simply put, B2B lead generation is the process of identifying and attracting other businesses to buy your products or services.

Generating leads involves defining a target audience — potential buyers who fit your products and services — and developing strategies to catch their attention and pique their interest in what your business has to offer. During this process, sales and marketing teams combine efforts to achieve the same goal: turn leads into prospects and prospects into buyers.

What are the two types of sales leads?

In B2B interactions, sales leads are contacts who represent a company’s interests, identified through details like a name, email address, or phone number. When looking for potential contact data, it's important to connect with a real person rather than reaching out to the prospective company's general email. Look for a specific person who answers on behalf of the company, and then start your lead qualification process.

Depending on how leads interact with your business or show interest in what you're selling, they're classified into marketing- or sales-qualified leads.

Marketing-qualified leads (MQLs)

A marketing-qualified lead (MQL) is a potential lead with a high chance of becoming a paying customer. Marketing teams use specific criteria to separate junk leads from MQLs. Once someone becomes an MQL, most marketing teams will get more specific with how they engage and target these potential customers.

Typically, these leads aren't ready to buy quite yet, but they've shown interest in your product or service by subscribing to your website, filling out a form, or downloading content material. They're called passive or outbound leads.

Since they aren't ready to buy, they are also not ready to be included in the sales funnel, as they still need to be nurtured before talking to a sales representative.

Sales-qualified leads (SQLs)

Sales-qualified leads (SQLs) are active or inbound leads who have engaged with your sales team at some level and have expressed a clear intention of making a purchase. For example, they may have requested a demo or called the sales department.

So, they should be quickly added to your sales funnel, as they're the ones who've reached out to your company looking to buy what you're offering. SQLs are crucial for B2B lead generation and should be treated as a top priority.

How does B2B lead generation benefit your business?

B2B lead generation processes make turning leads into customers systematic and predictable, which is valuable for the health and forecasting of any business. After all, selling more products or services will generate more revenue, and revenue growth is the goal of essentially every business.

So, B2B lead generation is directly related to your company's overall progress and success. Here's how:

It builds brand awareness

When a company shares valuable content on its website, social media, or targeted ads as a part of its B2B lead generation strategy, it increases brand awareness and attracts more informed leads who are then more likely to become customers.

It connects you with your target audience

B2B lead generation involves building and nurturing relationships with potential customers, which helps your company connect with your target audience.

When you focus on captivating prospective clients with valuable content rather than flooding them with meaningless ads, you connect with them in a way that makes them genuinely interested in what you have to offer.

It attracts high-quality leads

High-quality leads are those who have great potential to become customers. Raising brand awareness and nurturing relationships are key to drawing in high-quality leads who truly resonate with your business.

When you share content explaining how you can solve a company's pain and a visitor engages with it, this signals that this visitor is a high-quality lead who may be willing to solve their problem using your solution.

It increases sales opportunities and revenue

If your B2B lead generation strategies attract high-quality leads who are more likely to convert, an increase in sales opportunities is obviously the expected result.

And a sales boost consequently maximizes revenue, contributing to your business's overall health and growth.

What are the steps involved in B2B lead generation?

To kick off your B2B lead generation process, you should define which marketing channels you'll use to connect with your target audience.

These channels can be divided into two categories:

• Inbound marketing channels: Leads are generated through channels like website forms, social media platforms, search engines, and online ads. Sales cycles are short, and conversion rates are high.
• Outbound marketing channels: Leads are generated through outreach, such as email and cold calls. More nurturing is needed, so sales cycles are longer.

With this in mind, consider the following three steps to build an effective B2B lead generation strategy.

1. Identify ideal potential customers

It's essential to define the kind of customer you want to attract. We recommend creating an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) to offer a detailed description of the company that can benefit most from your solution.

Here are some tips to help you identify your ideal potential customer:

Create a few buyer personas

Buyer personas represent your ideal customers. To create a buyer persona, you should conduct thorough audience and market research.

Keep crucial information about your ideal customers in mind, such as their industry, which information channels they use, and what pain points they have that you can solve. Once you define one or multiple buyer personas, it's easier to create personalized content that captivates their attention.

Research existing customers

Analyze your existing customers to see what they have in common, such as company size, industry type, and location. If you find out, for instance, that most of your existing clients are SaaS companies, then these may be your ideal potential customers.

Study your competitors

It's also valid to study your competitors to understand who their customers are. If you notice they're targeting a specific type of industry, there's probably a growing market there that you can also start exploring.

2. Identify strategies to generate leads

Now that you know who your ideal customers are, it's time to identify which strategies you can use to catch their attention.

Growth hacking

Growth hacking is a good strategy for small businesses with budget limitations. This strategy combines marketing optimization and tech knowledge to create low-budget, automated marketing campaigns.

Content marketing

Content marketing is essential in B2B lead generation. If you create and distribute compelling and meaningful content, you've got an excellent way of informing your target audience about your products or services and, consequently, it'll attract potential customers.

Account-based marketing

Account-based marketing (ABM) is a strategy in which marketing and sales teams work together to approach specific target accounts within a market. It focuses on customizing marketing messages based on the hyper-specific needs of the account.

Cold calling

This strategy involves calling leads (manually or using an automation tool) to explain a product or service and further qualify them.

Email outreach

Sending emails is another effective way to generate B2B leads. There are numerous excellent email automation platforms (Streak is one of them) to help you easily and effectively manage your email outreach.

Social selling

Social selling is the process of engaging with potential leads on social media to build and nurture a relationship over time. LinkedIn is the most used platform for social selling in the B2B context.

Sales cadences

If your strategy allows, you can combine cold calling, email outreach, and social selling to create a step-by-step cadence for lead generation. Using a cadence that uses all of these techniques often increases the chances of leads engaging with you.

3. Qualify every prospective customer

Once you've identified your ideal potential customers and the strategies you'll use to capture their interest, it's time to determine whether they're a good fit for your products or services.

You can use the BANT sales qualification framework to identify the leads worth pursuing based on their budget, authority, needs, and timeline.

Budget

Make sure your product or service is within the potential lead's budget. They may have budget constraints that prevent them from buying your product or service, so they don't qualify as a potential customer.

Authority

Check whether the person you're talking to is the one who calls the shots. Ensure the potential lead has decision-making authority and the power to make the final decision.

Needs

Identify the prospective customer's needs and pain points to ensure your product or service truly addresses their needs and can solve their problem.

Timeline

Find out the potential lead's timeframe for making a purchasing decision. Are they ready to buy? If not, how much time do they need?

Tips and strategies to elevate your lead generation efforts

Leveraging good B2B lead generation efforts requires a combination of tactics, strategies, and tools. The following tips can help you generate more high-quality B2B leads:

1. Take your lead generation efforts to LinkedIn

Nowadays, social selling isn't just for B2C companies. The social media world is constantly expanding, and valuable B2B connections are built and nurtured on these platforms. In the B2B context, LinkedIn is the go-to.

Make the most of LinkedIn by doing the following:

Create a company page

Creating a profile is the first step. Carefully choose a picture and cover profile, the types of industries related to your business, and craft an engaging description of what your company offers.

Keep in mind that your page needs to showcase everything potential customers may want to know about your business, such as your website, contact information, headquarters, foundation year, etc.

Segment leads using Showcase Pages

Showcase Pages are pages you can create to spotlight individual brands or units of your business. They work as an expansion of your company's LinkedIn page, listed under Affiliated Pages.

Creating Showcase Pages is an excellent way of segmenting leads and targeting specific audiences with content that's tailored to them.

Create and join LinkedIn groups

Join industry-related LinkedIn groups to reach more leads and engage with them. Show that you're open to starting conversations, answering questions, and sharing insights.

It's even worth creating your own group and attracting new members to join. Those who voluntarily join your group are valuable leads worth pursuing.

Expand your network of industry connections

Although it takes time, building an industry-related network on LinkedIn is a powerful way to generate more B2B leads.

To expand your network, share valuable content on your page regularly, engage with industry experts, and explore LinkedIn Sales Navigator to target the right users.

Position yourself as a thought leader

Work on your LinkedIn presence to become an industry reference. Positioning yourself as a thought leader establishes credibility and builds trust within your industry.

There are many strategies you can use to build credibility. Some ideas you can try include:

• Writing high-quality articles or posts
• Engaging with other thought leaders in the comments
• Hosting webinars
• Guesting on relevant podcasts
• Publishing a newsletter

2. Embrace case studies

There's no better way to show potential leads that your solution works than showing them how beneficial it is to existing customers. As helpful as blog posts and email newsletters are, case studies are the kind of social proof B2B sales teams need to close deals.

So, if you have proof and real-world examples that your solution works, do everything you can to make sure your potential customers hear all about it.

3. Run ongoing content marketing campaigns

Content marketing is the core of effective B2B lead generation. Sharing meaningful and tailored content with your target audience is one of the most powerful ways to capture B2B leads.

Here are some strategies you can use when running content marketing campaigns:

Write different types of blog posts for SEO

Writing SEO-optimized blog posts is key to attracting your target audience and driving organic traffic. Craft informative, compelling articles and guides that appear in the top results of search engines. By doing so, potential customers can organically reach your page and develop a natural interest in your brand when doing their own research.

Interview decision-makers and influencers

To reach more of the right kinds of leads, consider interviewing industry influencers and leaders on webinars or a company podcast so that you can reach their networks. Having well-connected people sharing their insights on your page will enhance your visibility and attract more leads.

Look for guest posting opportunities

You can also broaden your company's visibility and reach by writing guest posts on other credible industry-related websites. It's an excellent opportunity to generate backlinks to your website, which attracts more people and helps build credibility (and higher search engine rankings).

4. Optimize your website through A/B testing

A/B testing (also called split testing) is a method for determining which version of your website performs better based on real data. It allows you to learn which fonts, colors, designs, and messages best engage and convert website visitors. Simple actions like changing a button color or pop-up message can significantly impact how visitors interact with your brand.

Plus, having real data showing which version converts visitors into leads allows you to make informed adjustments to your B2B lead generation tactics.

5. Leverage social proof

Potential buyers heavily rely on social proof during their decision-making process. Make sure to strategically display reviews and testimonials of real customers on your website and social media channels.

It's also worth gathering positive feedback on review platforms like Trustpilot to enhance credibility and leverage social proof.

6. Get in as many conversations as possible

Building and nurturing relationships is at the heart of nearly every company's sales process. To generate more leads, you should be willing to initiate and engage in as many real conversations as you can with your potential customers.

When a potential lead reaches out via your contact form asking about a specific feature, take the opportunity to get to know that person and understand how they intend to use that feature. Offer to schedule a call to explain how the potential customer can make the most of that feature's functionality. Make an effort to show availability to answer any other questions that potential lead may have.

Again, having a lead voluntarily contact you and show interest in your solution is a prime opportunity for turning them into a customer.

7. List your company in online directories

Listing your company on online directories helps leads find your site when looking for a specific product or service. Online software directories help businesses discover and compare software solutions, so make sure your company is listed on Capterra, SaaS Genius, G2Crowd, and other directories.

8. Create remarketing/retargeting campaigns

Creating remarketing or retargeting campaigns is the way to relight the sparkle of interest shown by potential customers who haven't converted quite yet. You can use dynamic retargeting tools to create targeted ads featuring a specific service or product already viewed by visitors.

9. Set up a referral program

Word-of-mouth marketing is still one of the best ways to attract high-quality leads. Satisfied customers are usually happy to share what a great experience they've had using your product or service.

So, creating a referral program is another effective strategy for generating more B2B leads. This allows you to devise incentives and rewards for existing customers who share their experiences with other businesses.

10. Send corporate gifts and company swag

Sending corporate gifts and company swag is another tactic you can use to stand out and enhance your brand's visibility. Giving away freebies like hoodies, mugs, and caps with your logo stamped on them keeps your brand at the top of people's minds.

It's also a way to make potential customers feel cared for and more inclined to share good things about your company with others.

11. Run online ads to support your inbound lead generation campaigns

Running well-targeted online ads brings more traffic to your site and boosts your chances of converting visitors into leads. For instance, you can run ads that point visitors to your case studies or demo offer.

Ads are also a way to reach specific types of audiences according to demographic information, such as industry type or company size.

12. Research and reach out to your competitors' unsatisfied customers

You can also generate more leads by contacting your competitors' unsatisfied customers. Try to understand their pain points and why your competitor isn't solving them. You can dig into social media and user review platforms to find unhappy customers and reach out to them directly.

13. Use ChatGPT to find prospective customers within your industry

Ask ChatGPT to provide you with a list of the most mentioned industry-related companies on websites and forums. For instance, if you're looking for fintech startups that may benefit from your solution, use the prompt, "Provide me with a list of the most mentioned fintech startups on Quora and Reddit."

14. Speak at, sponsor, or attend industry events

Industry events are great opportunities to connect with potential customers. Speak at events, set up a booth, and take advantage of these opportunities to position your business as an industry expert.

Be sure to network with existing customers, not only to nurture relationships but also to meet new potential customers they may introduce you to.

15. Use software to automate lead qualification

B2B lead generation involves many tasks and requires lots of effort from marketing and sales teams.

Thanks to technological advancements, many marketing automation tools are available for streamlining manual, repetitive tasks. Finding new leads with the help of a CRM like Streak, for instance, allows you to automate lead capturing, standardize lead scoring, and set up targeted email campaigns.

In sum, using software to automate lead qualification saves you time and resources and generates high-quality leads. It's a win-win.

Optimize your sales pipeline with Streak

With Streak CRM software built into Gmail, you can find leads and manage all of your workflows directly from your inbox. It makes it a breeze to create a sales pipeline and keep track of where each of your leads are in it.

Email power tools like Mail Merge let you send personalized emails in bulk to attract more leads.

Streak makes it simple to capture lead data, automate email campaigns, and share data across your team, enhancing visibility and collaboration.

Try Streak for free for 14 days to see how it could bolster your B2B lead generation efforts. It only takes 30 seconds to get started.

Frequently asked questions

Does B2B lead generation work?

When done with the required effort and attention, B2B lead generation increases sales opportunities, improves ROI, and enhances customer understanding.

To make B2B lead generation work, companies should carefully plan strategies that fit their needs and goals. Some of them invest in their presence on LinkedIn, run content marketing campaigns, and use marketing automation software.

What is the best source of B2B leads?

According to Business.com, the five best sources of B2B leads are:

1. Customer referrals
2. LinkedIn Sales Navigator
3. Web scraping tools
4. B2B databases
5. Trade shows and events

How does a sales team qualify leads?

Sales teams can qualify leads using several lead qualification frameworks, such as BANT, MEDDIC, ChAMP, and FAINT. These frameworks consider prospective customers' pain points, budgets, and overall needs. Finding which method works best for your sales team is a matter of evaluating your sales process, products, and even team culture.

How can I generate B2B leads?

You can generate B2B leads by creating ongoing marketing campaigns, paying for online ad placements, and running A/B tests. You can also create customer referral programs and embrace case studies.

What is the best example of B2B lead generation?

Content marketing is one of the best examples of and strategies for B2B lead generation. Creating high-quality, relevant, and engaging content will captivate potential customers. There are several formats of content companies create, including blog articles, social media posts, podcasts, ebooks, infographics, and more.