9 tips to ramp up your B2B data provision efforts

According to a 2013 study published by Hubspot, more than 90% of businesses use b2b data provision strategies to increase their lead generation efforts. With such a high figure, any advices that can be garnered to ramp up your lead numbers are always welcome. To make the monstrous task of b2b data provision easier use the below mentioned tips:

1.       Great content encourages action. There are a lot of details involved in inbound marketing. These details include SEO keywords, subheadings, and even sentence structures. Good content should funnel an impression into a lead, and then finally into a conversion. A well-crafted entry should generate more than a head nod. It should motivate people to sign-up and make purchases, which will ultimately help thebusiness, grow.

2.       Providing only information isn’t enough to make great content. Your b2b data provision strategy should build a perception of expertise around your service or product. To do this, provide meaningful tips and factoids. Providing information is the apex of the triangle. The rest of it involves promoting, optimizing and monitoring the information and use it for lead generation

3.       Great content has to be irreplaceable. Think about it. Top results in search engines get 33% of clicks. This is because your content has to be the leading resource.

4.       Try to tap into your inspiration sources on a regular basis. This may sound like a CEO quirk but everyone finds their own unique way of seeking inspiration. To become the leader in your industry with stellar content means you have to do everything you can to get ahead.

5.       Workplace culture can also be a resource. Your blog can be a conduit for delivering strategic marketing content. Your personality, idiosyncrasies, culture, and modus operandi are all resources.

6.       Even though the public appreciates all the information, tips, and tidbits your company has to offer, it does not appreciate nitty-gritty aspect of your organization. Ensure that things such as bad days, inside jokes, and personal quarrels are kept private.

7.       Be a hub that promotes community not a company-promoting megaphone. Inbound marketing is not an opportunity for putting on a promotional event. They are a chance to engage your audience into a conversation. Social media networks, videos, and blogs can engage customers on a topic.

8.       Don’t forget to KISS or “keep it simple stupid”. Only your industry is familiar with the nuances and jargon of your area of expertise. Your information is valuable to customers but only if it is enriching to them. Therefore use language that is understandable by lay people. Try to avoid going over their heads.

9.       Pay attention to details such as optimizing headlines, micromanaging social media sites, and re-optimizing your keywords. These details, however tedious they might be, do matter!

If you are look for innovative ways to ramp up your b2b data provision efforts consider implementing the 9 tips mentioned above. 

How Do B2B data solution and lead generation companies generate leads

Since long, the B2B marketing has been considered to be different from B2C marketing. The

reasons for this may be many; ranging from its longer purchasing cycle, multiple stake holders in

decision making process, distinct buying motivation and cost per sales deal being higher. But

increasingly, these dissimilarities between the two are fading away.

The competition in B2B arena is also getting more cut throat and one really has to work hard to

win a deal against others. Business buyers are now expecting more benefits like their personal

use consumer brands; they are more demanding and less discounting than ever before. They are

valuing customization above generalized products. In order to stay competitive in such rapidly

changing B2B sales world, the traditional marketing strategies need to evolve to the next level

and become more data-driven, to maintain their customer relationship backed by years of

experience.

Here are some guiding lines to help you understand that how to adopt the ‘give more to

customers than what they expect’ approach followed by the B2B data solution and lead

generation companies

1. Customer is the King: If you are still trying to shove down your archaic approach or

product down your customer’s throat, you must stop. Stop, because your B2B customer

would not buy what he does not want. You must go back to the drawing board, and shift your

approach from being inflexible to empathetic. Understand what your customer is looking for,

understand his problem and then design a solution for him. All that your customer cares for

is, to find ‘the solution’ to his problem and how your offering solve it faster and better than

others in the market.

2. Business relationship management- the CRM of B2B marketing: Customer relationship

management (CRM) is a famous jargon in B2C marketing, but yes it is now one of the key

formulas in B2B marketing as well. Once you customer shows trust in you, build on this

relationship and make it stronger, do not pounce on him for sales just let the benefits flow in.

Today’s B2B marketing is about building and fostering the few quality leads that you have

not focus on volume of B2B leads generation. Lead generation is not a one-time effort in

B2B marketing, instead it is an ongoing process and hence even after the sales, don’t cut off

from the customer, keep in contact. Especially, if any representative approaches you from

your client for advice, information or support related to your business, you must take that

extra step to help him out. These small favors make the connections that would bring in the

next deal. B2B lead management is much important than lead generation.

3. Don’t act blindfolded, Data helps: In order to strike right and be ahead in the competitive

world, B2B marketers cannot afford to leave key decisions like which customer is active,

what product is suitable and price to be quoted, to the understanding and opinion of the sales

& marketing team. Customer data is a valuable resource which should be exploited to

discover new prospects, identify cross-sell opportunities and anticipate customer behavior.

Hence, utilizing B2B data solutions as your single most powerful resource to base your

marketing efforts will prove to be a very beneficial move in the long run. There is such a

huge amount of customer data available today that a B2B marketer can pitch in early and

provide the customer with a solution before he even asks for it.

B2B customers have evolved into a very demanding lot and hence knowing the knitty-gritties

of their business needs via customer data is a prerequisite for the success of B2B marketing.

Thus, the B2B data solution and lead generation company that adapts itself to the changing

business scenario, must be chosen to buy the data.

B2C lead generation formula

Attracting leads and retaining them and converting them into sales is a big challenge. It not only needs persistence but also a well panned marketing strategy. A good marketing strategy is the lifeline of your business. You must set up goals for effective tapping of customers and build valuable B2C data provision and lead generation. Here are five essential factors which would effectively generate relevant leads:

1.       Clearly define your target customer: Finding your ideal prospects would be close to impossible if you have a blurred definition of your target market. In B2C arena, you must have clear qualifying criteria for those people who would have requirement for your products or services. Why would your product stand out from your competitors? Keep your answers ready as these will back your lead generating strategy.

2.       Build on the prospect list: Initially you can buy customer data lists to provide the initial push to sales, but repeating this means would not only be expensive but may also decrease the effectiveness of lead generation through these lists. Instead, a better way of lead generation would be to build your prospective customer database as you progress in business. You can ask for referrals from your customers to add on to your existing customers. Referrals prove to be strong leads.

3.       Engage your customers with rising benefits: A wonderful marketing tactic would be to keep your customer engaged to make more sales after the first purchase. His can be done by offing discounts or exclusive offers on subsequent purchase. For example, you may offer free trials for upcoming products to your existing customers. This can tremendously help your marketing campaign.

4.       Work on brand image: Spoiling your current customer would also mean that you spoil any future purchase from them and also lose their referrals. Hence build a good customer service process, which effectively serves your customers and stays on top of any issues that they face. The purchase might not be memorable but the experience of dealing with your firm can be. Make your customer experience a means for B2C data provision and lead generation.

5.       Lead management: If you conquer Lead generation for your business, the battle is not over. You will win this battle of business only by setting up effective lead management systems. Your follow up tactics have to be very effective, such that no lead goes waste and your team is able to convert maximum leads into sales. All your primary efforts will bear fruit only if the secondary step of lead management is performed well.

Optimize your Lead generation strategy by combining various tools but set each one of them in the best of the ways. Use excellent customer mapping techniques for a productive lead generation and help your business grow manifold with all the above techniques.

Generating Leads With Social Media - Top Strategies Used by Consumer Data Provision

In today’s world, internet and social media is increasingly becoming a popular and wide spread means of marketing as well as business promotion, whether it is for a B2B or a B2C business set-up. However, just a mere presence on social media would not suffice. It is important to ensure that your business profile on social media is widely exercised and promoted using the right tools and techniques so as to ensure success.

Following are some of the most recognised and successful techniques  used by consumer data provision companies for generating leads through the social media:

1.        Contests: Contests are the most popular tool of lead generation, particularly amongst the B2C business set-ups and can be operated from the most basic and user-friendly social network websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The essential idea behind contests is to make the communication more interactive with the customers by asking them to participate with their life experiences and testimonials regarding use of your products or services. However, consumer data provision companies believe that the important thing regarding contests is offering great incentives and prizes, which would motivate the customers from participating.   

2.        Content Curation: Content Curation is a tool for generating leads using the content already available on the social media and presenting it in an innovative manner. This is essentially followed by the business set-ups which find it hard to generate original content every now and then. However, while doing so, consumer data provision companies suggest that businesses must not forget the golden rule associated with social media publishing, which is to maintain a consistent content posting speed and quality.

3.        Social Media Groups and Communities: Groups and communities on social media like Facebook and Google are not only fruitful for B2C marketers as it is one of the best mediums to interact one-to-one with your audience. They not only make you more aware of potential target customers but also introduce you to people and/or professionals from your trade itself.

4.        Infographics: Although infographics is one of the most user-friendly tool for social media lead generation, it is also a challenging one and not easy to accomplish. However, consumer dataprovision companies believe that if executed in a proper manner, it can prove to be very successful for all forms of business set-ups. Essentially, it is a visual compilation and arrangement of relevant information put across in an interesting manner, using graphs, schedules, charts and pictograms. 

5.        Video: Videos are again a powerful means of lead generation, using social media. However, like infographics, videos too need to be executed in a proper manner. An amateur video made in an unprofessional manner is least likely to serve your purpose through the social media. You can even prepare a video and graphic combination on SlideShare and thereafter, have it uploaded on social media websites for powerful marketing.  consumer data provision suggest to hire professional companies to make the video and let it get viral to gain audience.

These strategies suggested by  consumer data provision yield result only if the campaign is designed keeping the target audience in mind. So, be very careful.

B2B Data Provision - Social Media Lead Generation

Contrary to what is generally associated with a B2B business set-up, the B2B business requires equal amount of marketing and targeting efforts as in a B2C business set-up. The most fundamental difference, however, between the two still remains, is the target audience. Unlike B2C business marketing, a B2B business set-up is more focused on professionals and traders belonging to the same industry or business field. Thus, the efforts need to be targeted.

As a crux of the matter, even B2B marketing is required to be as rigorous as a B2C marketing, particularly when done through the online medium. Earlier businessmen believed that social media is only for B2C lead generation, but experts have shown that social media can equally be used for B2B business set-ups. Following are a few tools that are used by B2B data provision companies to generate B2B leads:

1.        Building Strong Network: Creating strong networking in your related trade and business is not only crucial but is also one of the keys to successful marketing. Affection, interaction and time are the three most essential ingredients of a strong networking system, which a marketer must offer when looking at generating leads, particularly through the online medium. Social media offers the ideal platform to marketers to generate leads over the internet. You form connections, nurture them, facilitate sharing of vital information and knowledge and gradually work towards building strong business bonds with these leads.

2.        Content Sharing: One of the best means for increasing lead generation online used by B2B data provision companies is through publishing and sharing informative content with people from related trade and business. However, while working on the content to be shared through the social media, it must be kept in mind that the content should be more solution-oriented than product-oriented, which would prove to be more beneficial for the people reading the content. As a matter of practice, you must indulge in more third-party content rather than own product related content, which would inculcate more trust in the minds of the readers. Once the lead is generated, you can slowly work towards achieving business targets through them.

3.        Buy Social Ads: Another way of generating leads through the social media used by B2B data provision companies is by setting up a means of paid advertising. Posting ads of social networking websites, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Plus etc., are some of the means to divert traffic to your website website. 

4.        Social Media Outreach: Social media outreach to influential people is another way in which B2B business set ups can facilitate lead generation online. This essentially entails building a rapport and relationship with most influential personalities and/or organizations in your business trade or field using the social networking websites. For instance, on Twitter, you can engage interaction by re-tweeting, favoriting and replying to the tweets of such influential persons. Even on LinkedIn, you can engage interaction by joining same communities and groups as such influential persons and facilitating conversations and discussions with them. Over a period of time and gradually, you can then indulge in private chats and email conversations so as to initiate business development.

   

4 Secrets why leads generation services UK have their bags filled with quality leads

Are you terrified for your next meeting with your manager as you have not yet managed to meet out your monthly targets. Are you looking out for the conversion tips that you can implement on the business website? Wondering why the lead generation services UK always have a bag full of quality leads for almost all business niches? Then you need not worry, as this secret is revealed below. Here are some techniques that you can use to convert the visitors into leads without much of ado:

1. Say NO to stock photos: When somebody try and pretend to be someone they are not, it is quite annoying. And you think, why can't they be just what they are? If your business use the stock photos, the visitors might feel icky. Stock photographs are a pretense as the perfection that is portrayed in the images is overrated. Real pictures might not be perfect but surely help people trust the brand. It sends out a loud and clear message that people are working with the real people and not scammers who might disappear overnight. Real pictures lend the human-touch to the online business and add to the credibility of the website. Hence, improves the conversions.
2. Give some space to Call-to-Action: The call-to-action is a loner and deserves some space. It is important to let it breathe to perform well. Wondering why? The energy of the loner is lost in the crowd. The importance of the call-to-action is diluted when it is surrounded by several things. Distractions lead the visitors astray while a clutter-free placement of call-to-action button delivers optimal results.
3. Spoilt by choice: We all love choices and if given choices, we find it to be an ideal situation. But it might also prove to be taxing for the brain. Even a simpler comparison gets difficult if there are too many choices. Most of the times we are left indecisive and end up not making any choice. Research shows that when people have limited choices, they make more purchases. If you truly want to give the choices, reduce the number of choices. Thinking reduce to what number? Anything more than one is simply too much.
4. Understand the quirkiness of the target audience: It is very important to understand the quirkiness of the target audience. Wondering why? This is because the better you know thir eccentricities, the better you can customize the messages, so that it touch their heart. This is much like the real life situation, you connect to few people immediately because they understand your quirks and have similar habits. Thus, the trust factor comes in immediately. We are not on our guards when we are around them. So, it is a good idea to conduct customer surveys, read the research studies and understand the target audience

  

So, apply these conversion lessons today without procrastinating them until tomorrow. If you want to go slow and steady, apply them one by one. But, remember the manager is keeping a count whether you are meeting your target or not. 

The mechanics of lead generation By using Offers

To make inbound lead generation possible, you need four crucial elements. These are offer, call-to-action, form and landing page. All these together make a perfect mix for generating leads. Wondering how offers can help in lead generation. Here are some tips that you need to remember to generate quality leads:

1. Create irresistible offers: “Offers” is one of the most powerful and tempting word. As a sales person or marketer, the primary aim is to make people say 'Yes' to your offer. SO, it is important to have an offer that is exclusive and rare to make it desirable. Scarcity has a big psychological influence, as it creates a fear of shortage and a sense of urgency. Offer can be either limited time offers, limited quantity offers and a combination of limited quantity and time offer.
2. Bandwagon Effect: Not only monkeys but also people have the tendency to copy one another. When we see our social circle or competitors doing one thhings, we tend to follow it. One way to make people realize how good the offer is by mentioning the number of people who availed the offer. For example, on the blog page under the 'Subscribe' module indicate the number of people that have subscribed. It is a proof that it is highly trusted and popular among the people.
3. Leverage NewsJacking: If there is something buzz worthy, align the offers with 'whats hot'. Companies that leverage newsjacking for this technique works well for other offers too. Make the offer as irresistible as possible to power the leveraging both popularity and timing.
4. Different offers for different buying stages:  The common offer that you will see on the website is 'Contact Us' as every business wants sales, but remember not everybody is sales ready. Some buyers might need more information than others, therefore develop different offers at different buying cycles. A buyer in the initial stages might want an ebook or guide, whereas a buyer in the sales funnel, might be interested in free trial. Don't create offers for every stage, just make primary and secondary Call-to-actions to the offers throughout the website.
5. High-value offer formats: Not all offers are equal, some perform better than the others when it comes to lead conversion. Some of the offers that do well are: ebooks, presentations, reports and research, whitepapers, live webinars, blog posts and demo requests. It is recommended to test different offers with the audience to determine what really works for you.

Last but certainly not the least, avoid the over-use of the jargons and terms used in the industry. When describing the offer stay away from using the words like 'robust', 'scalable', 'easy-to-use' and 'cutting edge'. One last tip, spend good amount of time writing the headline, as it is alone the crowd puller whereas content is traffic holder.