The ultimate goal of a company is undoubtedly lead generation - this is of course also and in a very special way true for the B2B sector.

The following article not only explains what a lead actually is but also how B2B lead generation service works.

lead generation works.

For this reason, we will give you ten tips on how to make interested parties aware of your company or your product.

The term "lead" comes from the English "to lead" and describes the

contact data of a company that has been generated through different marketing measures.

It should be noted in this regard that a lead is not just any contact data, but rather those of potential new customers.

rather those of potential new customers.

A generated lead is a data set consisting of fixed components.

Which components are involved, i.e. whether, in addition to an email address, a telephone number, date of birth or the profession of the contact are also collected, is to be decided internally within the company - as a rule by the sales and marketing departments.

the marketing department.

It makes sense to follow a simple rule in this regard:

Only those data that are also processed and therefore relevant should be requested from the interested parties, who are also potential customers.

Statistics show that the conversion rate decreases with an increasing amount of requested data.

Just like B2C, B2B lead generation can be carried out in different ways, whereby a basic distinction is made between offline and online methods.

between offline and online methods.

The following ten tips refer to B2B lead generation in the digital area, whereby the classic measures of inbound marketing are used.

Social networks are still and increasingly an excellent option for B2B lead generation.

for B2B lead generation. As a company, you can easily get in touch with potential

customers via social networks.

It is important to use classic B2B portals such as Linkedin or Xing in addition to Facebook & Co.

On these portals, potentially interested parties can be contacted directly. Once the contact has been

contact has been confirmed by the lead, you as the company gain access to the lead's personal network

and have the opportunity to generate further leads.

Organic search is still considered one of the most important sources for B2B lead generation.

Try to place your website as high as possible in the Google rankings for various relevant search queries. This is best achieved through content that offers added value. Remember that newsletter topics, press releases and guest articles also have an influence on the ranking results.

For the B2B sector, the following applies in principle: spontaneous buying decisions are rare.

As a rule, an intensive examination takes place after the actual needs have been determined.

In the course of this, different offers, products or solutions are analysed and compared with each other. With the help of

With the help of publications in the form of studies and white papers, you can prove your professional competence.

If you offer such content on your company's website for free download in return for leaving your contact details, the likelihood that your company will become better-known increases.

In addition to whitepapers, free e-books are also suitable for lead generation in the B2B sector.

When creating e-books, it is not mandatory to base them on a current topic - as is the case with studies, for example.

An e-book can also be published in the form of a guidebook and contain tips relating to an explicit problem or task area.

It is important that you do not promote your company's products or services too obviously or superficially. This would impair lead generation, as the newsletters you publish would probably not be recommended to others.

Companies that sell services or products for the B2B sector know that these generally require more consultation than services and products for the B2C sector. For this reason, it makes sense to present one's own service or product to potential customers within the framework of lectures or seminars and with recourse to practical examples.

A quite cost-efficient form of lead generation consists of holding webinars.

The generation of contract data takes place within the framework of registration of the interested party, who can then participate in online seminars free of charge.

As a rule, webinars take place just like traditional seminars at a date communicated in advance, whereby they usually consist of a lecture as well as a question and answer session.

With regard to webinars and in order to activate a large number of participants, it is important that the focus is not on your service or product, but on specific problem solutions, topics or the like.

If, on the other hand, it is a pure sales event, then you will cause displeasure among the participants and a recommendation is also rather unlikely.

If, on the other hand, you act in a well-thought-out manner and offer the participants added value, you will be able to provide them with adequate

offer them adequate services after the webinar is over.

The company's own website is still an excellent option for B2B lead generation.

If you want to ensure that visitors to your website using one of the different contact functions - whether e-mail, chat or telephone - to communicate with you, you should rely on visitor recognition.

Different analysis tools are now available for this purpose.

Such tools can automatically identify which topics and products were of interest to the companies that visited your website.

who has visited your website?

The data generated in the course of this process

can be processed by the sales department of your company to generate the companies as customers.

as customers.

Nowadays, almost all companies that are active in the B2B sector use their own website to present their company as well as their products or services. It makes less sense to hope that interested parties will contact your company.

In this respect, it is more effective to use one of the classic marketing instruments, namely the newsletter.

Make sure that the potential customer subscribes to your newsletter so that you can provide him or her with further information in the course of the customer journey and remind him or her of your company.

If there is not enough time for lead generation, buying leads is also an option.

Of course, buying leads in the B2B area is far more price-intensive than in the B2C area, but ideally, due to the more precisely defined target group, the potential return per lead is also significantly higher.

When purchasing leads, you should make sure that the target group of the company overlaps with that of your company.

overlaps with that of your company.

Purchasing leads from competing companies, on the other hand, makes less sense.

Many B2B customers, just like B2C customers, turn to Google to get the information they need before making a purchase decision.

Accordingly, search engine marketing is also part of generating leads. Above all, try to achieve good visibility in organic search results for relevant keywords.

However, it is also important to generate good visibility with regard to paid search results.

Therefore, use Google AdWords as effectively as possible. The majority of users click on those search results that have a prominent placement and these are usually the Google AdWords ads.

Although online advertising is an option for lead generation in the B2B sector, classic banner advertising usually does not generate the

banner advertising usually misses the desired target. You can avoid this problem with native advertising.

Place advertisements in relevant specialist portals, blogs or newsletters of suitable media. Make sure that the content is embedded editorially because then the chance that your company or the products or services of your company will be noticed by potential customers is much higher.

However, make sure that the texts are of high quality. Content for advertorials is

usually prepared journalistically and arouses the interest of the potential customer through the

potential customer.