B2B marketing and sales leads are the sparks of life and the source of new revenue for every successful small and medium-sized company. Sales representatives would have limited opportunities to convert new customers without qualified leads. Leads are the cornerstone of sales and marketing.
Leads do not fall from the sky. Lead generation requires a planned strategy, persistence, and a deep understanding of one’s target audience. It is not enough to get just any leads. A top priority for B2B entrepreneurs and people involved in sales and marking is to win high-quality ones.
Here is good news that it is never too late to revamp your lead generation strategy. You can attract the right people with the highest potential of converting them into customers by using a carefully planned tactic. Lead generation is the key to growth for any B2B business.
In this article, we are uncovering 8 proven strategies for generating more B2B sales leads in 2021. With these processes, you can update your lead generation system. These processes are the guaranteed way to get more B2B leads in 2021 and beyond.
1. Content Marketing
Content marketing for B2B companies has been big and will still be big in 2021. While most brands know that they need to build relationships and trust with their audience, the execution of actually marketing that content has been a little shaky. You can generate leads through Social Media Posting. There are still 20/80 ratios if not bigger. Only 20% post on their Social Media and 80% read it.
In 2021 just set a new goal to post at least once per week. Do not overcomplicate things, the main idea is just to start it right now. Later on, you will be able to focus on improving the content, taking into consideration the time and date of posting, and so on.
Focus on building out product tutorials, product reviews, expert interviews, customer testimonials, and case studies to circulate across social media and your email list. This will help build up your authority and generate new leads from your existing audience.
2. Email Marketing
Your email list is one of the only things you truly own. As other channels like social media set their own rules, terms, and conditions. If you have an existing list, you can market to subscribers with a well-researched email campaign.
You can develop leads with content that is custom-made to their unique interests and stage in the sales cycle. You can segment your list for even better targeting with website visitor identification.
If you don’t have the list of subscribers you can always ask Axellerato to help you with cold email outreach or generate a list of followers. You can attract hundreds of hot leads by targeting your ideal customers via emails.
3. LinkedIn
One way to generate sales and marketing leads is through LinkedIn. All of your B2B leads are on LinkedIn. You just have to find them and get them.
You can use LinkedIn Premium features such as Sales Navigator or LinkedIn Recruiter to find the right people. Then start connecting with them, building relationships, and initiating valuable conversation. Sales Navigator helps sellers find, follow, and also build relationships with likely buyer prospects. On the other hand, LinkedIn Recruiter help recruiters efficiently find candidates, prioritize them, build pipelines, and manage workflow.
Alternatively, you can find a LinkedIn group that is active and big. To search for a group on LinkedIn, type your field of interest for example “sales and marketing” into the search bar and click enter. It will take you to this page:
Search for a group using the keywords of your target industry like sale and marketing. Keep in mind, there are groups for almost every niche. Subsequently, you need to find a group that is both active and big. Look for both at the same time.
For instance, here is one of the largest and most active “sales and marketing” group with 734,705 members:
Some of the best groups to join are those that have 90% industry discussion and 10% semi-promotional posts. Once you find a group then participate in discussions, like posts, and share the content.
Focus on being helpful and active. Most members will spend more time on discussions rather than promotions, so it is best to keep to the discussion tab. Leads come through individuals, not groups. Therefore, it is best if you have individual high-level connections with the group’s members.
Once you have established a high level of interaction within the group, start connecting with other members. Simply being an active member of the group will give you leads. Top sellers spend hours on LinkedIn. The key to success on LinkedIn is investing a little bit of time every working day.
4. Axellerato Lead Generation
Axellerato Lead generation is a channel that combines 3 previous channels (Content Marketing + Emails + LinkedIn) into one. It is the most effective lead generation channel and maximizes your ROI by reaching out to targeted prospects. 
This strategy has been the most effective and shows tremendous results to various clients from any industry, accelerating their marketing and sales results.
What can be better to reach out to the same prospect via multiple channels at the same time? Even if a prospect will say not interested at that moment, you will keep nurturing him and generating interest.
5. Video Marketing
Video marketing has been hot for a while now, but in 2021 we will see the use of B2B video content. It will take center stage as customers prefer to put a face with a brand. Live video on Facebook and LinkedIn will continue to rise, helping B2B sales and marketing companies stand out from their competitors.
Video marketing is a great way to generate leads, as people are generally very visual learners. Use video content to supplement your written marketing material. You can incorporate video in any part of your lead generation funnel.
Video is a great lead generation tool on its own. You can use video to introduce prospects to the people behind the brand and disperse relevant information in a visually stunning manner.
If you have the time and resources to put into creating persuasive, informative video content, do not pass up the opportunity to get leads from it. Technology is moving fast, and there will be many ways to boost sales and marketing with even more interactive content.
6. Brand Partnerships And Influencers
The big names in your industry have a wide audience, brand authority, and profitable connections. You can use their influence to your advantage by forming strategic partnerships.
For example, you are a B2B company that offers office rental services to startups. You can partner with businesses like major marketing agencies to refer local businesses to your space to rent out for events and team meetings. In return, you can pitch their marketing services to people who use your space.
You can also use influencer marketing to reach a targeted audience. These partnerships will be a two-way street in that they will send leads to you and you will send new followers their way. There is no doubt that influencer marketing especially in the younger demographic has taken off in recent years. Having social influence and strategic partnerships with important brands will be even more important in 2021.
7. Organic Search Optimization – SEO
Search engines are a major marketing channel for B2B businesses. There are business owners using search engines every second like Google to find businesses. Make sure you get in front of their eyes by focusing on your organic search optimization.
You can attract users with search engine optimization that are actively searching for the types of services or products you offer. Optimize your website by targeting the specific keywords users are searching for, making your website fast and user friendly, and publishing valuable content your target audience wants to read.
Organic lead generation is valuable for helping your business grow online. These organic lead generation ideas will allow you to gain more traffic for your business that you can turn into conversions.
8. Podcasts And Webinars
The competition for podcasting will be heating up in 2021. B2B businesses can get ahead by landing guest speaker advertisements and interviews to reach a niche audience i.e., entrepreneurs and people involved in sales and marking for the small and medium-sized companies, and build up their brand authority.
Podcasts and webinars present a great opportunity to talk about your business and the services you offer other business owners. You can answer customer questions, talk about your products, and even share the content across your platforms. This is another smart source of marketing and sales lead generation for B2B businesses that learn how to use these channels to their benefit.
To sum up..!!!
The internet is full of opportunities when it comes to generating leads for your small or medium-sized business, and new technology and platforms are constantly revealing new paths to explore.
Beyond online, there are some real-life channels to explore to generate leads the old-fashioned way too. Just because some tactics are not living on a screen does not mean they are not valuable and valid ways to find new business customers.
Find out Axellerato Lead generation which combines 3 channels (Content Marketing + Emails + LinkedIn) into one to reach out to the same prospect via multiple channels at the same time. You can also reach out to the Axellerato team to have a steady flow of new B2B leads in 2021.
