Inbound Marketing for B2B: a great way to generate leads

Lead generation is one of the biggest challenges for marketing teams in all kinds of companies. Lead is the phase before client, and their acquisition and persuasion depends on our numbers being even at the end of the month and that we feel satisfied with the achieved goals.

There are many strategies for lead generation: Social Ads, CTAs, Landing Pages, forms, and attractive content. For marketing experts, lead generation makes up 53% of the budget and 80% believe that automated marketing has helped them generate more leads. One thing is certain: most actions involve exploiting the possibilities of the digital environment to the fullest. Designing coherent and multichannel 360º marketing strategies is currently the most useful alternative. 

B2B lead generation demands a different approach than B2C. Companies analyze their options very rationally when it comes to making a decision; it’s more premeditated because it’s subject to the budget and achievement of internal goals. That’s why trust and reputation is so important: testimonials, success stories, data that affirms your claims. Inbound Marketing in B2B needs this support to be effective and help to close sales. 

And if you need help implementing an Inbound Marketing strategy in your company, use the help of a consultancy. Look for the expertise that allows you to make better decisions; let professionals evaluate the state of your project and design a digital strategy oriented to your specific needs. 

B2B Lead Generation with Inbound Marketing 

When B2B companies integrate a CRM tool within their digital strategy, they are able to obtain more information about their contacts, their uses, and their habits within the buyer journey. Therefore, those in charge can decide what contacts (leads) are really interested in the product, focusing commercial efforts on them.

CRM, key for B2B marketing actions 

When it comes to integrating a CRM into an organization, it’s not just about managing the client interactions, but also including the factors that brought this interaction to life. CRM tools meet many functions within a company: storing all the information that leads give us (and what we get from our interactions with them) so we can carry out lead nurturing for loyalty, upsellings that are divided by interests, and push conversions using every type of communication. In addition, many CRMs allow for integration in their platform with other specific tools or automated marketing, finance, ecommerce, or customer service to be more effective.

This way, we can create a database with not only the information that clients facilitate, like email or phone number, but also with other kinds of relevant and high-quality information that is useful for the company. With this information, we can solve one of the biggest difficulties of B2B companies: finding a very defined public that is separate from the masses and that shows a true interest in the brand. 

CRMs that allow for the better management of Inbound Marketing campaigns also have a mission in the area of web analysis: showing users the results in a detailed way.

As the ideal tool to unite all the client information in one place, CRMs allow us to analyze the point in which each negotiation is found. Therefore, it’s possible to personalize the messages even more for potential clients and make lead generation in companies grow. Leads that come into contact with a website don’t have to be ready to buy (there are some that will be, of course), but they also don’t have to be discarded either.

Thanks to the use of specific CRM tools for B2B, contacts can be nurtured so that they receive the message of what the company can offer their business. B2B lead generation works when we know how to identify where the lead is and bring them along through the conversion pipeline with content that wins them over.

The importance of uniting marketing and sales in Inbound B2B

Each department adds their two cents to the process. The Inbound Marketing methodology makes the coordination and teamwork between marketing and sales much easier, what we call smarketing. The benefits of this fusion are multiple: it increases the ROI of both departments, helps team dynamics, and reaches goals much faster.

To be aligned with smarketing, it’s necessary that each team gives visibility to their actions and progress. In addition, they must clearly define the lead process and determine the moment in which the lead is sufficiently mature to meet with a member of the sales team, thanks to nurturing. Although this coordination requires more work, any consultancy with minimal experience will recommend improving this area. The results speak for themselves. 

Social media: a way to acquire B2B leads? 

Social networking is another social space for us and companies have found their niche there where they can talk to their clients, thanks to the high capacity for focusing on the platforms. However, we have to keep in mind that not every social network is worth it and that, for B2B businesses, social networks are showcases for solutions for other companies. LinkedIn is the perfect network to show your expertise and create contacts with other companies. 

When it comes to generating B2B leads, social networks are key, if we know how to use them: 

• LinkedIn is the best platform for this type of business. That’s why it’s a network for professionals and creating business relationships. Use it to launch ads and paid campaigns that complement your professional brand strategy. Share content in groups and in your profile, interact with your followers, create links that amplify the reach of what you’re sharing, and improve your reputation. 

• Twitter is a network centered on information, current events, and the news. It’s frequently used to cover live events and that’s a great opportunity for B2B companies. If you are organizing a conference, event, workshop, or debate, Twitter is the perfect place to go live and share what is happening, using hashtags to create a community and interact with the rest of the audience that is also talking about what is happening.

• Youtube is the best platform worldwide for audiovisual content. It’s the perfect option for your video marketing strategy. B2B clients look for success stories, testimonials, product demonstrations, and expert advice. In 2019, 80% of Internet traffic was videos and by 2022, the percentage is expected to increase to 85%. Video marketing is an upward trend and well produced, instructional, and visually attractive content has the potential to encourage conversion. In addition, given its connection with Google, YouTube videos have greater visibility in search engines (if you care about SEO) and offer us a very complex data analysis. 

Many companies opt for outsourcing and pass the responsibility of designing content strategies to consultancies and agencies who help them manage their corporate profiles. In fact, beyond company profiles, it’s very important to take care of employees’ professional profiles. These profiles also transmit an image of the company and help us put a value on it, especially those of the Sales teams, given that they connect with potential clients through LinkedIn. Make sure to include it in the content plan. 

Why use Inbound for B2B?

After everything we’ve mentioned so far, it’s clear that Inbound Marketing is a positive practice for B2B companies. There are many reasons: 

• Creates trust: Trust is the principle pillar of the relationship between B2B companies and their clients; it’s trust that builds strong and long-lasting relationships. And Inbound Marketing takes very important steps in that direction: they are the clients that will reach the company, given that they are attracted to it.

• Converts to sales: Thanks to Inbound Marketing, leads are converted that, with the right treatment, will become clients. This is something noteworthy and even more so for B2B companies, given that it’s usually harder for them to find clients. Inbound Marketing strategies are a way to amplify your opportunities and center them so you reach the ideal clients. 

• Obtained leads generate conversions: leads that are reached through Inbound Marketing are already interested in what the company offers because it was them who approached the company. From this, we can deduce they have more of an interest and probability of buying the products or services. Marketing and sales departments can focus on realizing actions with this type of clients, with the personalization of B2B campaigns as the principal focus.

• Blog content is linked to sales: for 55% of B2B marketing experts, blogs are one of the main channels of Inbound Marketing. Also, if the content strategy is correct, the blog will become a stronger channel for sales.

There are many reasons why we want to try to implement a B2B Inbound Marketing strategy and see if we can reap the same benefits. If you’re thinking about jumping on this new business opportunity and don’t know where to start, We Are Marketing’s consultancy services will be a great help for you. We will analyze your situation and guide you down the path of digital marketing and tool implementation so you don’t lose a single client.