A lot of business owners struggle with how to generate B2B leads. And this can lead to a lot of frustration when sales numbers don’t budge. The good news is you can bring in new, high-quality B2B leads just by using the right methods…

Let's admit it, business to business (aka B2B) sales and marketing can be tough. Oftentimes it is more challenging to customize your communication with a business than it is with an individual customer. 

Most business owners find it difficult to generate B2B leads because they give it a “one-and-done” approach—and that's where they get it wrong. The truth is, it takes substantial effort, time, and the right methods to see results. 

Moreover, there’s one crucial thing you need to remember when operating in the B2B sphere: You’re still attempting to solve a problem for real people—they’re simply professionals on the hunt for a solution to an issue they’re experiencing within their business. 

Curious to learn how to generate B2B leads? Then let’s dig into the top four creative tactics and best practices for guaranteed outcomes… 

Leverage LinkedIn for B2B Lead Generation

LinkedIn is a haven for B2B lead generation. Top salespeople spend hours and hours on the social networking platform because they have realized it has an impressive ROI. If you're wondering how to generate B2B leads from the platform, the first step is joining a big, active group and being its no.1 supporter and participant. 

Find a Group That's Big and Active

To search for a networking group on LinkedIn, all you have to do is enter a keyword specific to your target industry in the search bar. You'll get several options, but you don't just join for the sake of it; look for a group that has a huge following and is always active. 

Get Involved

After finding an appropriate group and settling in, the next big task is getting involved, i.e., liking posts, sharing the content, and participating in discussions. Remember, it's not just about being seen as active alone—you also want to spark some deep conversations and provide meaningful solutions. 

Connect with the Members

Once you establish yourself as a proactive and helpful member, you can now think of getting up close and personal with the participants. Being an active participant in a group isn't quite enough to generate leads because they (groups) are more about discussions than promotions. Therefore, creating connections with the members is the actual gold mine. However, you can still benefit from the group by creating a landing page or whitepaper and then requesting a promotional favor from the group owner. 

Leverage Cold LinkedIn Outreach

Besides getting active in relevant groups, one tactic for how to generate B2B leads is by leveraging cold outreach on LinkedIn. This refers to the process of sending promotional messages to users outside your connections circle. You can take the conventional route of sending connection requests to potential leads where you're allowed to reach out to up to 300 characters. Or, you can simply purchase the premium plan to get in touch with an unlimited number of users, hence improving your chances of generating quality leads. 

Personalize Your Email Marketing Campaign

There's no denying that email campaigns remain one of the most effective ways of generating leads. It's also true that emails can add up to no good when written inappropriately or targeted to the wrong audience. 

Remember the “mark the message as spam” button? 

If you're wondering how to generate B2B leads through email marketing, the solution lies in personalizing your campaigns. 

When business owners and executives open their emails daily, they see many promotional messages like yours. And if you can't convince them within the subject line or the first sentence that your email is worth their precious time, they'll keep scrolling in a flash. 

Your emails need to pique your audience's interest by speaking their language. Even if it means writing in an informal style by including emojis, GIFs, or slang to get the message home, you should go for it. That doesn't mean that your primary plan of generating B2B leads has to fade away—just the delivery mechanism based on your audience's persona.

Below are some actionable tips and best practices for personalizing your email marketing campaigns:

• Address recipients by their business names (specifically, add names to the subject line)
• Link to a relevant landing page
• Keep it engaging by focusing on the problem you can solve
• Be concise and straight to the point—prospects' time is precious
• Schedule emails to send in your audience's specific time zones
• Ask the right questions, especially in the sign-up forms
• Include a CTA underneath your signature

Create Tailored Content for B2B Sales Leads

Although learning how to generate B2B leads may seem more challenging than B2C leads, the need for content is the same. You must tailor your B2B content for a specific brand or agency if you want to command their attention and pique their interest in what's on the table. 

Here's how to tailor your content marketing for the right B2B audience… 

Use Customer Avatars

When creating customer avatars to help you reach your target market, don't focus on the entire company. Instead, target the key decision makers in the business. In simpler terms, determine who, within the business, will most likely benefit from your product or service, then build an avatar based on the following aspects:

• Job title
• Location
• Position in the company
• Desired goals
• Age
• Pain points
• Favorite content channel

In learning how to generate B2B leads more effectively, it’s worth noting that this is one step you shouldn’t skip!

Identify Search Intent

After determining your audience, the next step is noting the reason behind their queries on the search engines. A user could be searching for a product or service to dig out more information, learn, or purchase. Knowing your target audience's search intent helps you to create tailored content for B2B sales leads. 

You can leverage SEO tools like Moz to determine searcher intent on the topic. You can also check Google's “people also ask” section for more targeted ideas. Remember, popular keywords with higher search volume tend to attract mostly a B2C audience. However, high-value keywords with lower search volumes are usually a preserve for the B2B sphere.

Craft Irresistible Calls to Action

Without a call to action (or CTA), your B2B lead generation campaign literally amounts to nothing. How else would your prospects get in touch with you after being impressed with what you have to offer? Let your audience know what you want them to do without mincing words. 

But remember, it's a real person on the other side of the screen, and they need persuasion to take the action you want them to. And more often than not, how well you craft your email determines if you'll win your audience's hearts.  

Here are a few best practices to help you create irresistible calls to action:

• Use action triggering words like join, subscribe, contact, download, register, and so on.
• Create a sense of urgency (time) and scarcity of what you offer using words like “Today Only” or “Now.”
• Unless you offer them, avoid terms like “Money-Back Guarantee” or “Free Trial.” But if you have such incentives, it's even better because it makes your CTA hard to scroll past without clicking.
• Use numbers where possible.
• Ensure your CTA is incredibly eye catching, i.e., use bright colors that contrast the rest of the content in your campaign. 

Important Note: When your core objective is to generate B2B leads, you want to focus more on the benefit and value of clicking that CTA. For example, instead of saying, “Register for our Webinar Today,” you should tell your audience what they stand to gain from attending that webinar. So, a more appealing CTA would sound like, “Learn How to Cut Your Expenditures in 30 Days.”

Final Remarks on How to Generate B2B Leads

To recap, here's how to generate B2B leads:

• Leverage LinkedIn by joining groups with your target audience, participating actively, and connecting with other participants. Don't forget to practice cold LinkedIn outreach.
• Create tailored content with a touch on the customer avatars and search intent. 
• Customize your email marketing campaigns to match your audience's style and convenience. 
• Create top-quality calls to action that focus more on the benefits and value of what you offer. 

Once you put these best practices and creative tactics into action, you can look forward to an increase in high-quality leads—and more sales as a result!