Ultimate Guide to MULTI-CHANNEL B2B. Lead Generation Program. LeadF rce 5 ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS TO RUNNING A SUCCESSFUL B2B LEAD GENERATION CAMPAIGN

LeadF rce

Ultimate Guide to

MULTI-CHANNEL B2B

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Before we dive into the pits of Lead Generation and Marketing, we need to answer the most important question of all – What is a lead, and is the “warmth” of lead measurable?

A lead refers to someone who has expressed interest in your product, service, or solution. These leads come from various sources and identifying where the lead came from will allow you to determine their level of interest and “warmth”.

To add more clarity, we’ll segment “warmth” of leads depending on their stage in the sales and marketing funnel.

Top of Funnel Leads (TOF) are leads who have shown interest in your brand but you don’t know yet where they are in the buyer’s journey. They could just be shopping around, researching, or something in your message resonated with them. These leads are often generated from content marketing campaigns, email campaigns, etc. It is important that you nurture and keep engaging with these leads, so they convert into Middle of Funnel Leads (MOF).

Middle of Funnel Leads can be generated via nurturing TOFs, but these leads can also be generated via your own website, email activity, PPC campaigns, social channels, and affiliate partners.

Lastly, we have Bottom of Funnel Leads (BOF), which are leads that have not just shown interest, but are considered as "ready-to-buy" prospects as they have already shown intent to buy. You can generate these leads by nurturing the TOFs and MOFs, via referral programs, or using an “intent-based” lead gen strategy.

Regardless of level, all lead generation activities should start by capturing customers’ attention and continue feeding their interest by offering a steady stream of value propositions through different prospect-engagement channels. Thus, it is important to not only focus on inbound campaigns but mixing it with outbound programs and implement a truly holistic lead generation system.

According to the data gathered by Invesp, about 95% of marketers say they know how important multi-channel marketing is for targeting. However, only 52% of marketers surveyed use 3-4 channels in their lead gen and marketing strategy. In the same survey, a total of 55% of marketers said they either don’t have the time and enough resources to implement a multi-channel lead gen model, or they don’t have a clear understanding and/or find it difficult and intimidating to roll out this model.

Indeed, setting up a multi-channel lead gen model demands a lot of infrastructure and manpower.

This guide explains the importance of multi-channel lead generation and will teach you how you can effectively implement it for your business.

Lack of time

and resources understantingLack of to develop multi-channel campaigns Difficult to roll out multi-channel campaigns

23%

21%

11%

1%

The very first step to any lead gen or marketing activity is to identify your target market. This can be tricky and an intimidating task if you fail to conduct extensive analysis and research. There are two primary problems when it comes to market identification – creating a niche, and

specificity of target titles. CREATING A NICHE

A lot of businesses think that they need to reach out to a wide audience for more visibility and brand awareness thus, capturing everyone who needs their product/service. Targeting very broad target audience creates a problem by overstretching the marketing budget, resulting to little to no results. When companies start digging deeper, most of the time, the demand is concentrated in a specific set of audience or niche. Thus, it is important to zoom in on your target demographics and firmographics to narrow down your industry selects. The more

targeted your approach is in terms of target companies, the more concentrated your engagement efforts will be, cutting marketing costs while increasing your campaign ROI.

MARK YOUR TARGETS

SPECIFICITY OF TARGET TITLES

The second problem most companies face in identifying their target market is excessive focus on targeting high level titles within an organization. Most marketers often concentrate their messaging to go after people who sign the check i.e C-suite and leadership titles. This reduces their number of opportunities and increases their CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost, or the overall cost to acquire a new client).

Target your customers

that you know Exclude current customers to only

reach new customers

Reach users similar to

your customers

Once you have determined your niche, it is now time to build your lead generation system. Multi-channel lead generation is undeniably the future of lead generation. The idea might be ambitious but fortunately, it’s just a matter of identifying key metrics so it’s easier to compare and optimize your preferred marketing mediums and channels.

There are tons of campaigns that you can try and combine:

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

This is one of the most effective yet challenging channel since media platforms are very congested. However, a targeted message to the right audience can make social media a viable source for lead generation. Extensive research is still necessary to figure out which social media platforms your audiences often use. Some of the mainstream channels include - Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Daily tracking of running ads is necessary to analyze and optimize the campaigns. Depending on the product/service, the perfect audience size for targeting starts at 500,000 potential reach. Lastly, make sure that you have a good landing page where you embed your social media pixels for your retargeting campaigns later.

RUN A MULTI-CHANNEL CAMPAIGN

GOOGLE PPC

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

SEO is the process of optimizing your website so it improves ranking on different search engines such as Bing, Yahoo, and Google. This is a long-term project and involves a lot of moving parts from researching your keywords, setting up meta descriptions, developing tons of content with targeted keyword phrases, internal and external linking, fixing image alt tags and a lot more. Create your marketing calendar first and set a content strategy because establishing your reputation will help you gain traction and rank on search engines faster.

SMS (MOBILE TEXT MESSAGE) MARKETING

According to Campaign Monitor in 2019, open rates for SMS can go as high as 98% compared with the average open rates for email at 20%. However, not a lot of companies leverage its marketing potential yet. Start running SMS campaigns and think of it as a simpler version of email marketing. You may send out a reminder SMS to your leads about their schedule

consultation or even a thank you SMS for subscribing to your service.

EMAIL MARKETING

Running a multi-channel campaign doesn’t require you to start from scratch. Conduct a competitor research so you have a decent idea of what others in your industry are doing (i.e. marketing channels they are using, running paid campaigns, copywriting strategies, etc.). It is also helpful to pinpoint where your audiences are most frequent. Google is one of the safest options but if you have extra dollars to spare, it is a good idea to explore niche marketing channels such as Bing and Yahoo.

After you have identified the best marketing channels for your business, establish a structured multi-channel campaign. A multi-channel marketing campaign combines a variety of inbound and outbound marketing channels to communicate with potential customers. These include social media, email, websites, mobile, and many more.

When launching your first multi-channel campaign, make sure that your ads fit each marketing medium you have selected. For example, if your first campaign is a combination of Google Ads, Social Media Ads (Facebook & Instagram), and email, then make sure that your creative assets are tailored toward each channel where your ads will be displayed/shown.

To give you an idea, here are the diverse types of ads that you can try:

PHONE ENGAGEMENT

Engagement through phone plays a vital role in outbound marketing. This strategy is highly effective for B2B businesses as this allows

real-time and personal communication with leads. For instance, when people submit phone numbers from your paid campaign forms, give them a phone call to provide more details about your business. Dwell more on their interest and aim to provide a positive real-time experience.

Google

Formulating the idea for your ads is easy but preparing the assets can take time. In summary, here are the things you need to do to kick start your advertising journey:

01

02

Identify target audience

03

04

Set timeline

05

06

Create creative assets and messaging

Size and dimensions (specific for each platform)

07

Check out some great examples of various ads below and observe how they’re crafted. You can replicate these and apply your own touch of branding:

GOOGLE DISPLAY ADS

SOCIAL MEDIA ADS

16

Texas Solar

1,989 likes

jhon_doe Lorem ipsum dolor@your_name... more View all 99 comments

LEAD FORM

We tested several landing pages to see where the best placement is. Results revealed that web forms that are instantly visible in a landing page convert well over those lengthy form that are less visible. For instance, if your business doesn’t run SMS campaigns at the moment, it might not be best for you to ask for people’s phone numbers. It is significant to note that asking for too much personal information can greatly impact the conversion rate of your lead forms.

After you’re done strategizing your multi-channel campaign, your goal should always be to drive traffic back to your website (landing pages). A landing page refers to the page on your website where a visitor arrives at after clicking an ad. In this context, we know now that a landing page is important, therefore, every part of your landing page must be carefully considered in order to generate quality leads.

Here are some of the things that you should consider when optimizing your landing pages:

LANDING PAGE EXPLAINED

DESIGN AND SPEED

Always choose usability over design and never compromise your page speed for design, this is the general rule of thumb. Take into

consideration the page view both in desktop and mobile (as a lot of people are visiting websites now using their mobile phones). According to Google in 2018, 53% of visitors leave a site that takes 3 seconds to load. Hence, put always in mind that speed is a killer.

your email ...

your phone number...

The possibility of conversion usually starts to take place when someone visits your landing page. It technically occurs when a website visitor (potential lead) takes a desired action in your digital properties such as filling out a form, signing up for a newsletter, making a purchase and whatnot. As a marketer, your goal in mind when creating digital assets and building landing pages is to increase conversion rate.

COPY AND STRUCTURE

Having an aesthetically pleasing design, if not paired with proper copy and structure, won’t convert. Ensure that your copy and structure is convincing, tells a story, and addresses the pain points of your prospects as this will lead to generating quality leads. Ask yourself, “What is the problem that your business is trying to solve?”. For example, a lot yogis have problems with sweaty hands, however, no yoga mats are currently available in the market that solves this problem specifically. So, if you have created a product that solves this issue, position your brand by focusing on the resolution you are providing through the copy and structure of your landing pages.

CALL-TO-ACTION

Your CTA buttons should unfailingly be concise and clear. It must stand out on your landing pages and that’s non-negotiable if you’re looking at increasing your conversions. If your landing page copy fails to convince a visitor to take the next step in the buyer’s journey, your CTA is your last resort. Find the perfect color for your CTA buttons, make sure that you leverage powerful words, and your CTA buttons look like clickable buttons.

Let’s say hypothetically, you got a lead from one of your landing pages. What do you do next? You engage and nurture the lead.

Lead nurturing refers to the process of building a relationship with the goal of retaining as many prospects as possible as you drive them further down your sales funnel.

There are myriad ways on how you can nurture your leads depending on your available resources and infrastructure. Here are some lead nurturing tactics commonly used by B2B and B2C businesses:

ENGAGE AND NURTURE LEADS

Email drip campaigns Email newsletters

Blog posts and content marketing Social media marketing

Messenger sequences (via mobile chat apps like Messenger) Retargeting ad campaigns

Blast these lead nurturing tactics to prospects that have shown interest in your business. These strategies are considered to be follow-ups or a way to reconnect to people who have taken some action towards your business. To help you identify, these prospects could be any of the following:

Visited your website

Downloaded a lead magnet (i.e. free eBook, checklist, guide, etc.) Booked or scheduled a consultation

Called your business Made a purchase

Subscribed to your newsletter

Majority of sales don’t happen during a prospect’s first interaction with your business. According to data gathered by Invesp, 80% of new leads don’t translate into sales. Companies that have a lead nurturing strategy in place generate 50% more sales-ready leads at 33% lower cost than those who only follow up a few times.

Here’s a sample scenario of an effective lead nurturing system:

After defining their target audience, Company X started running social media ads and used the platform’s native lead form. They used “free eBook” as a lead magnet to acquire phone numbers and email addresses. Right after receiving the leads, an automated SMS is sent thanking the prospects for their interest. This message also contains the download link to the free eBook. They also have an email drip sequence to keep nurturing the leads until they’ve shown interest to buy or are ready to talk to a sales rep.

Specially for products and services with longer sales cycle, lead nurturing is necessary and can mean the livelihood and growth for your business.

Here are some examples of email drip series:

1 Email #1 – Thank You email

2 Email #2 – Frugal tips that can help them save more money

3 Email #3 – Discuss more details about your services

4 Email #4 – Provide value proposition and invite them to book a free consultation

STEP 1

SOCIAL MEDIA

Potential client sees a Facebook ad or your page and clicks on your web link

STEP 2 LANDING PAGE Potential client sees your awesome offer for new patients and clicks!

STEP 3

THEY’RE CAPTURED! They gladly provide email

STEP 4 THEY DOWNLOAD They download their gift and coupon

and arrive! STEP 5

THEY SHARE

In the mean time they share your deal!

HOW DID WE DO?

SUBMIT A REVIEW

REVIEW FUNNEL PAGE

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK

How would you rate your overall experience?

John Smith Customer Service Follow-Up

Positive reviews (4-stars or greater) to external review sites (Google)

A week ago Negative reviews (3-stars or less)

funeled internally for follow-up LEAD MAGNET PROCESS

Since running a multi-channel campaign is a complex process, getting access to a full all-in-one marketing automation tool is necessary. A full-pledged marketing automation like Marketo or Eloqua provides key features such as email marketing automation, tracking and analytics, lead nurturing, scoring and ranking, social media automation, and many more.

Marketing automation tools allow you to streamline, automate, and measure results in an efficient way, therefore, increasing revenue and ensuring development of your marketing tactics. Find a platform that permits you to integrate all channels so it’s easier for you to manage and gather data.

For instance, an email marketing automation software like ActiveCampaign allows you to create and schedule email drip sequences to your mailing list. It permits you to segment your contacts for you to specifically send targeted email to a group of people. ActiveCampaign also provides reporting and analytics that you can use as baseline data for improving performance. This tool helps a lot in lead nurturing through email marketing.

The first step in choosing a marketing automation tool is for you to identify the needs of your business. Are you looking for channel-specific marketing tools? Are you in need of automation software that supports your middle/bottom of the funnel strategies? Or you want a full-funnel marketing automation software?

The second step is more about the technicalities of the automation software. To help you, here’s a quick checklist:

Always leverage your chosen marketing automation tools by using it to its full potential — use its features effectively and interpret gathered data.

LEVERAGE MARKETING AUTOMATION

CUSTOMIZABILITY– Is it customizable to cater varied business tasks?

SCALABILITY – Are the features expandable and upgradable to handle your business growth?

INTEGRATION – Is it possible to integrate the software to existing tools of your business?

Running a multi-channel lead generation program for B2B businesses is a challenging task. Hence, identifying and preparing all the essential elements needed to kick start your lead generation campaign is imperative.

LeadForce has helped hundreds of businesses grow by sharing our years of expertise in lead generation through our free and valuable resources. If your business has been moving in the same direction for a while and drastic positive changes have not been noted, incorporate the things you have learned in this guide to your business.

Thank you for taking the time in reading our free lead generation guide and if you need help in executing your campaign ideas, feel free to reach out to us and we’ll gladly assist you.

For over 15 years, LeadForce has helped establish successful businesses in the digital space while simultaneously growing our team of experienced marketers and competitive sales professionals.

In 2013, LeadForce was incorporated with one goal in mind – provide real and affordable sales and marketing solutions to help you grow!

Since then, LeadForce has evolved to providing a full-funnel marketing ecosystem for all brands digitally. This has been made possible by developing internal systems that work together to offer a seamless yet effective marketing strategy for all our clients.

A strong combination of inbound and outbound marketing strategies is what LeadForce proudly offers to our clients. Our methodology is simple, we treat our client’s business as if it is our own therefore offering versatile workflows that are tailored toward the needs of our client’s business.

We have bridged the gap between the client’s needs and the demands of the digital age. Our expertise is acquired from our track record of millions of dollars of marketing strategy executions partnered with our competitive team of marketing strategists, sales consultants, graphic design team, web developers, and more.

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ABOUT US

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Ultimate Guide to

MULTI-CHANNEL B2B