You know your business needs more leads, but it’s just not happening for you, and you have no idea of what to do to make it better. Not only that, but you’re busy already with enough fires to put out in a day. There’s just no room on your plate for more extremes. These are not unusual problems for B2Bs to have. In fact, we get it and have seen it all before.
Lead generation can be complicated. There are so many potential leads but how do you get to them? Better yet, how can they get to you? You’ve got real questions and there are good answers. That’s why we’re sharing some of the four common mistakes B2B businesses make when it comes to marketing and lead generation.
The Top 4 Common Mistakes You’re Probably Making With Your B2B Lead Generation Strategies
1. Unclear Content
If your niche is in the industrial, technical, or service industries, it’s very easy to speak in a language that others may not understand. It’s not uncommon to have websites, online content, and other content that makes perfect sense to you but is a completely different language to your audience. This industry jargon can be too complex, leaving your audience thinking it’s too complicated for them to understand.
Leave the industry jargon in the office where it belongs and ensure your content and presentations are clear to your audience. People won’t purchase what they don’t understand. If you want to convert them to customers, you have to speak in their language.
2. Not Targeting the Right Audience
Any marketing expert will tell you one of the first things to do before starting a campaign is to define your audience. Your campaign will not resonate with everybody; everyone will not need your product or service. But there is a set of individuals that could greatly benefit from what you’re trying to sell. That’s why it’s important to have a clear buyer persona.
Your buyer persona will describe the type of person you’re looking for to buy from you. They are the ones who have the pain point(s) you’re trying to solve, and therefore, will likely buy from you. If you’re marketing to everyone, that can be expensive and a huge waste of time. But when you know where to find your audience, that can save you valuable time and allow you to concentrate your marketing budget in the appropriate areas.
Stop marketing to everybody. Know who your audience is. Identify them and learn as much as you can about them, so you’ll know how to find them and how to appeal to their needs.
3. Unknown B2B Sources
It’s so easy to get distracted when you have a campaign going — especially if you’re wearing fifty million hats. Tracking and analyzing data in B2B lead generation strategies can easily be overlooked, and you’re left wondering where some leads even came from. But you can’t start a campaign and then forget about it. Nor can you forget to follow up on the leads you do have.
Measuring and assessing metrics is crucial to any successful marketing strategy. If you’re not aware of how well the campaign is going, how can you know if it’s even working? Why would you use the same strategies on your next campaign when you have no clue how things fared with the current one?
We know running a business is hard and requires a lot of time. We know you’re all over the place and trying to keep it all together, but there are some things we just can’t afford to let slip. Campaign metrics are one of them. It’s important to have the right tools in place to accurately and efficiently track data. The other thing is the follow-up.
Once you get the leads, it’s important to follow up — immediately. While you’re on this campaign, don’t forget the leads that have already trickled through your pipeline. Consistent and immediate follow-up are the keys to keeping them a customer.
4. Ineffective Call-to-Actions
Compelling call-to-actions are necessary to convert your leads, and without that, you shouldn’t expect a conversion. It’s crucial to include opportunities for people to convert on your site. Compelling call-to-actions get people to lead generators or offerings on your landing pages or website.
There are two things at play here: the call-to-action itself and where they’re being led. We’ll start with the landing page.
Specific Landing Page
You may have spent a great deal of time crafting the right content to appeal to your lead, but if you send them to a generic page, like the home page, you’ve done a disservice to all of your hard work. Many businesses direct their lead to their home page versus a particular landing page where they can take action. Homepages have varying degrees of information and can be confusing to the visitor. This can lead them not knowing where to go once they land on it. But if you lead your visitor to a specific landing page designed to respond to the call-to-action, it can direct them to a specific action.
Clear Call-To-Action
Secondly, the call-to-action should be specific and clear about what you want the lead to do. What action do you want the lead to take? Do you want them to download something? Do you want them to read a blog? Do you want them to buy your product? Whatever the action that’s needed, that needs to be very clear in your call-to-action.
When there is a compelling and clear CTA, the lead will know how to respond. Make sure your call-to-action is effective with a direct message and a specific location to place action.
Final Thoughts
Lead generation doesn’t always have to be so complicated when there are businesses designed to do that work for you. Let us help! Get more B2B leads with a 5-Minute Marketing Tune-Up. Sign up today to get started!
