In a market crowded with competitors, how can businesses generate leads from B2B databases?

5 ways to get more B2B leads from marketing database lists

Marketers and sales teams struggle to produce high-quality B2B leads.

Lead generation is the most important goal for 91% of marketers, but it’s the greatest challenge for more than 1/3. (Source: RulerAnalytics )

This means your lead generation and sales process must not only work, but be better than everyone else’s.

A more effective lead generation process increases sales and grows your business.

Competition forces your marketing team to put more resources into a B2B lead generation strategy.

For SMEs, entrepreneurs, and businesses during peak periods, this can seem overwhelming.

As a B2B database provider, we know the secret to generating B2B leads here at More Than Words Marketing.

And we’re happy to share it.

There is no secret

There are a few ways that you can improve how you generate B2B leads that are completely unique to your company.

Develop a B2B lead generation approach aimed at selling your products and services to your specific target market.

This creates sale-qualified B2B leads that are easier to convert.

Make it personal

Offering relevant content is the key to B2B lead generation.

Whom are you targeting, what are they looking for, and why would they buy from you?

If you know who you are selling to, you can tailor your lead generation strategies to turn them from prospects to qualified sales leads.

Remember

Using marketing messages that are unsuitable or inappropriate on the right sales leads is just as damaging as using the perfect marketing message on the wrong sales leads.

More Than Words provides companies with accurate, up-to-date contact details for decision-makers within UK businesses, schools, and public sector.

Data enrichment

It is not necessary to have a lot of customers’ contact details to generate B2B leads.

It’s quality marketing data, not quantity, that’s the key to lead generation.

Our account managers work closely with you to discuss your business first.

With an understanding of what you do, we can provide you with highly-targeted contact data that lets you connect with more of the right people.

5 ways to successfully generate B2B leads

1. Sell strategically

Miller Heiman Group founders Robert Miller and Stephen Heiman introduced the concept of strategic selling.

The Miller Heiman method

Miller Heiman’s method centres on building relationships between the various parties involved in the sales process, rather than just focusing on lead generation.

To generate leads, Miller Heiman uses three steps that connect businesses with the decision makers and stakeholders they are selling to.

Step 1: Categorising

This phase looks at all individuals involved in the purchase.

Through the seller’s sales funnel and at each stage of the client’s buying cycle, it sorts B2B sales leads based on how influential they are.

Step 2: Determining

Here, marketers identify the groups of B2B sales leads most likely to support them, and which are most likely to push back.

The decision can be based on knowledge of job titles, industry trends, or past experience.

It is possible, for example, that teachers in schools want the new technology you are providing, but local authorities are being very careful with budgets.

Step 3: Influencing

Using the information gathered during the previous steps, marketers use this stage to communicate with different stakeholders in a meaningful way and influence them through various means.

More Than Words note: Jeremey Donovan’s one-page summary of “The New Strategic Selling” is a useful visual guide to this method of generating quality leads.

2. Send cold emails to generate B2B leads

Targeted cold emails still work.

According to ConstantContact and MailChimp, B2B emails typically have an open rate of 14% to 23%, depending on the industry.

So, use highly-targeted marketing lists, coupled with a well-written subject line and some personalisation increases these rates significantly (more below).

Email marketing can generate:

1. immediate, high-quality leads, and
2. pipeline (future) leads

Lead generation also lets you know which recipients are considering purchasing your products and services.

Our managed email marketing service

Using our managed email marketing service, we send professionally designed email campaigns from our trusted servers to contacts from your B2B database.

Our team excels at making cold leads warm via email and building relationships with B2B leads over time – regardless of the business, product, or service.

Communication not contact

Our emails always focus on generating leads by encouraging interaction with recipients that leads to new business.

Personalisation, engagement and participation from the first email are key.

Many emails are sales-driven, but businesses need to convey their insights and experience in providing positive outcomes to their customers in other emails.

Having sales leads learn from a business is the first step in building their trust when they’re close to making a purchase decision.

Sell on benefits

Our email copywriters thoroughly research:

• our client’s industry,
• the products and services they sell,
• why buyers need them,
• what stops buyers from making a purchase, and
• their competitors.

The sales pitch

Sales pitches are driven by clearly describing:

• the benefits of our client’s products and services, and
• the way they solve a problem or help the prospect make more money.

Narrow focus

A sales rep’s biggest enemy is choice.

Each email lead generation campaign should showcase ideally just one product and service to give customers a good sense of its benefits and value.

More Than Words note – In this post, Nutshell offers 16 examples of cold emails that work well to generate interest and hold onto a customer’s attention, along with some templates to get you started.

3. Make warm calls for quality B2B leads

Despite its unfavourable reputation, cold calling still generates quality B2B leads when used properly.

Warm calling is different.

A warm lead is someone who you have heard of in the past or is a good fit for your product or service based on your knowledge of their business.

Telemarketers need to ‘warm up’ new leads before calling them.

More Than Words note – HubSpot identifies a number of options for creating warm leads, which includes our preferred method:

Sharing valuable, high-quality content

More Than Words Marketing believes in using multi-channel marketing to generate leads.

B2B lead generation is all about making sure that potential customers see and trust you before they even hear from you.

Relevant content is the best way to accomplish this, both in outbound and inbound marketing strategies.

Only you know what your USP (Unique Selling Point) is.

By demonstrating your knowledge and using it to assist others, you can tell everyone else.

Send videos and social network infographics or just talk about what you have learned via cold emails.

Essentially, you’re offering value from the start.

Just tie your first call into what your sales leads have already seen, and you have the basis for a warm call.

Example: More Than Words Marketing

We helped an established uniform supplier launch a new product line within the care sector by boosting their brand profile.

In addition to a successful client base within the hospitality and leisure industry, the client has a strong background in supplying branded workwear and uniforms to larger organisations.

They wanted to connect with and generate leads from larger Care Group buyers.

However, they lacked the contacts and resources to launch a targeted sales and marketing campaign.

What we did

We compiled an email list of contact information and basic decision maker information, collected from 700 leading care homes of the desired size, and supplied it to our client.

Next, we analysed the data and began generating leads.

To do this, we used lead scoring – identifying potential buyers who were TPS registered and who met the basic requirements proposed by our client.

We then launched a 40-hour telemarketing campaign.

In this way, we identified buyer information and cycles, identifying each sales lead’s needs.

With this connection we showcased our client’s product range with a view to connecting the two businesses to increase sales leads.

Leveraging the client’s existing reputation and providing them with a value proposition specific to their sector, these warm calls generated 135 requests and 14 immediate leads, with more opportunities to follow up later.

4. Automate your marketing

80% of marketers believe marketing automation is beneficial to B2B lead generation strategies, according to RulerAnalytics.

Furthermore, marketers using automation software generate 451% more quality leads than those using manual methods, and 77% of them convert more B2B sales leads than those without it. (Source: APSIS)

What is marketing automation?

Marketing automation utilises technology to streamline marketing efforts.

All aspects of a campaign can be managed from a single automation platform.

This includes email and social media platforms, mobile messaging, and managing ads.

(Source: Salesforce )

The use of automated lead generation tools is growing rapidly.

Small businesses are adopting digital marketing platforms to capture leads, manage, nurture, and perform actions that help generate sales leads and convert them into customers.

Example: Box

Box, a software company, wanted to increase the number of trial users that became paying customers.

Using just one channel – email – the company created an email-based content series based around key product features, called “Box Tips”.

The educational blogs and videos were sent at appropriate intervals to keep users moving through the sales cycle, finally converting into billable users.

Do you really need to automate?

Remember, not every business needs a marketing automation tool – you should only consider investing in this option if your B2B company has:

1. one or more marketing channels that works for you,
2. one or more employees who works solely in lead generation,
3. a fully-defined marketing process from which all of your marketing efforts derive,
4. more money than time for marketing, and
5. a concerted effort to grow your business.

Another solution

Before marketing automation is essential, outsourced email campaigns are a great option for lead generation and increasing sales leads, while allowing you to dedicate your time to other processes.

5. Get creative with direct mail

Businesses of all sizes use direct marketing to generate sales leads.

Address details in More Than Words’ B2B contact database let you be creative with direct mail – one of the most successful forms of direct marketing.

According to a recent JICMAIL report,

“In Q2 of 2019…consumers engaged with 91% of all Direct Mail. By Q2 2020, this figure had soared to 96%.” (Source: DMA )

How does direct mail affect the buyer’s journey?

The DMA reports as a direct result of receiving mail:

• 92% have been driven to search engines or online directories
• 87% have been influenced to make online purchases
• 86% have connected with a business online
• 54% have accessed social media platforms
• 43% have downloaded something

There is no doubt that direct mail is effective in generating qualified leads.

With the ability to grab attention and follow up online, it creates a strong basis for multi-channel marketing.

Example: Nestle – Kit Kat Chunky

Using freebie marketing and personalised direct mail, Nestlé’s marketing campaign is one of the best we’ve seen.

The ad integrates the product’s value proposition as well (the ‘chunkiness’ of the chocolate) as a final masterstroke.

B2B audiences also benefit from this tactic.

Example: RCI Financial Services

RCI Financial Services is the UK finance partner to Renault, Nissan, Infiniti and Dacia.

Through this highly-personalised brochure, this direct mail campaign was designed to persuade existing customers to register to its online account.

It discussed how to do it and the benefits of activating the account.

On the cover of each brochure, RCI listed the customer’s name, town, and make of car, and what customers would gain by activating their account.

The campaign achieved a 9.7% conversion rate.