By Lead Gen Automation Tools, Lead Generation, Lead Generation Trends, trends, buyer journey
In recent times, companies have been struggling to attract new leads for further expansion. The amount of data and prospects on multiple platforms that marketers need to go through is immense, therefore identifying qualifying leads is harder now more than ever. In this article, we’ll take a more in-depth look at a few b2b lead generation industry trends, and give you recommendations on how to maximize the number of qualifying leads for your business.
Personalized outreach with buyer intent data
Buyer intent data refers to aggregated data that provides insight into where the target audience is in the buying cycle. This is very important as many companies fail to adapt their external communication and content strategy to each specific step of the buying cycle. In addition to this, it is vital for companies to anticipate where the prospects are going and what they are doing. There are three steps that help with the b2b lead generation process:
1. The first step to becoming relevant for each step is known as the awareness phase.
This means that you need to adapt your content strategy and make it visible to where buyers are identifying opportunities they want to pursue.
2. The second step is the consideration phase.
At this stage, prospects have defined their goals and have committed to finding solutions.
3. The final step is the decision phase.
Here, prospective buyers have chosen their solution and searching for specific companies to fulfill their needs.
The content that you need to create can be repurposed to each stage of the buying cycle, however, it should be focused on your prospective’ goals, instead of your own company or products.
Capturing buyer intent can be a very simple task if done correctly. This can be achieved using so-called lead generation tools such as ebooks, whitepapers, webinars, or gated content. Once you captured your prospects’ email addresses, you can identify at which step of the buyer cycle they are and act accordingly. Moreover, it is very important to leverage the latest emerging technologies, such as AI and Machine Learning, to make the buying experience more personalized, and the selling experience more straightforward.
With the right buyer intent data, you should be able to filter out the noise and focus your efforts on moving people through your funnel.
Video Sells
Experts predict that by 2020, 82% of all internet traffic will be dedicated to video content. Marketing professionals already use video marketing to increase online engagement. Video consumption is on the rise and companies need to leverage their power to provide product demonstrations, share testimonials, or even presentations of the business itself. B2B Lead generation using videos can be beneficial, as it allows companies to build a personal brand, by sending out personalized follow-ups, and sales follow-ups. In addition to this, videos can increase the efficacy of landing pages and lead forms.
During this sanitary crisis, the growth of video consumption combined with the lack of in-person meetings could give your company and sales teams the edge to increase the number of qualified leads.
Automation is still winning
Lead generation used to be an old-dated process that meant offering a white paper, creating an email funnel, and manually pass the best leads to the sales team.
In 2021, as well as in 2020, automation is most likely to drive lead generation to new heights. A report from Harvard University anticipated that by 2020, 10% of all jobs would be automated. Despite the fact that last year has brought other important things to light, many of the day-to-day tasks involved in the lead generation process can and should be automated.
As stated before, leveraging AI and Machine Learning technologies can help companies and sales teams better manage this process.
Let’s take a look at how automation will drive lead generation efforts in 2021. The first thing to look out for is tool integrations. Manually entering data into your company’s CRM system can be a time-consuming task, but with modern tools, this is done automatically, leaving more time to build a connection with the prospect.
Despite its limitations, chatbots can provide better insights into what a prospect is looking for and give an indication of where it is in the buying cycle. AI-powered chatbots can find information regarding the company prospects work for, job title, and the problem they are trying to solve. In addition to this, chatbots can answer simple questions and share resources to better pre-qualify the leads in question.
The reports show that automation is on the rise. By 2021, this industry will be worth more than $83billion dollars. If your company does not yet have an automation strategy and tool in place, this is the perfect time to invest in it and get on board.
Conclusion
It doesn’t matter if in 2020 your company did not focus on lead generation tactics. 2021 presents many opportunities including trying new lead generation tools and leveraging the newest technologies.
In addition to being more effective in b2b lead generation, the trends presented above such as automation, video sells and emerging technologies such as AI and Machine Learning are tools that can help to improve the quality of your leads. As such, companies need to consider what these tools entitle in the long term. For more information regarding lead generation email techniques, make sure to drop by our blog and discover relevant information for your business.
In addition to this, we have a full coaching program that explores in depth each prospecting method and practice. Join the B2B Prospecting Academy for a unique experiential learning program with like-minded B2B senior business owners and sales representatives to learn how to generate at least 50 qualified leads this quarter.
