Expanding its customer base is one of the main challenges that a company operating in B2B faces in order to develop its business. B2B commercial prospecting requires deploying major resources. The strategies used to generate leads may differ from one company to another, but ultimately, they all have the same foundation. In this article, we reveal 12 essential ways to find potential customers for your B2B business.
Paid procedures
1- Google Adwords
The vast majority of Internet users, 70%, carry out searches on Google to obtain information on a specific product or service. There is a good chance that your potential customers are among them and are searching for your services with a specific word or group of words. This is where Google Adwords comes in.
See the links that appear at the top of Google search results? These are Adwords. The principle is to enrich a keyword that you want to position to attract your audience, even in a well-defined geographical area. The greater the competition for the keyword, the more the price per click increases.
2- Facebook Ads
Facebook is a social platform that brings together the most people, including a large part of the French population. You will definitely find your leads there. Its advertising tool allows you to target your prospects with a very great advantage which is to be able to define your audience according to numerous parameters (gender, age, location, demographic information, etc.). Facebook Ads is cheaper than Adwords, but it is also effective.
3- LinkedIn Ads
LinkedIn is the social platform most suited to B2B commercial prospecting. The platform has several advantageous tools for prospectors:
- Sales navigator;
- inMail (sending emails via the platform);
- Sponsored link and content.
4- Emailing
Despite the numerous comments concerning it, email marketing remains the most adopted strategy and the one that has worked best for many years. The figures speak for themselves: more than 5 billion accounts are active all over the world and the ROI from emailing is twice as high as that obtained by Google SEO . If you spend 1 euro on emailing, the ROI will be 5 euros. However, it is essential for you to have a rich database . To do this, using an email automation tool is a good option.
5- Retargeting
In B2B, retargeting consists of retargeting a visitor to your site who has not yet converted, using advertising banners displayed on partner sites. Getting them to download your latest eBook is one way to do this. Retargeting can also be done using emailing. Retargeting has a positive impact on the conversion rate of your visitors into leads.
Organic approaches
6- Partnerships
Partnerships are beneficial for companies operating in complementary fields . Your goal will be to target businesses that already have customers and can communicate information about your services or products to their customers. You can form a partnership based on content that you have in common, a white paper for example. Also favor webinars . You will thus be visible to other potential customers, without spending a penny.
7- Relationship with bloggers and influencers
Any company that wants to sell its services must communicate well. Establishing a professional relationship with bloggers and influencers can help you generate more leads. These personalities have a community in which your potential customers are hidden. And since they have some influence on this community, their prescriptive power is more than ideal for your brand. You just need to identify them. To do this, several tools can give you a helping hand. Just be sure to choose the influencer or blogger who will be the most knowledgeable and persuasive.
Owner approaches
8- Blogging
The inbound marketing strategy has become a lever for developing a business. Blogging is one branch of this. In addition to sharing your know-how and gaining notoriety, blogging also allows you to gain visibility. Do you want to stand out from the competition? Work on your blogging and share inspiring content that develops an attachment among your prospects towards your brand.
9- Company website
Your website is your best asset. It is at the level of your site that your potential customers try to find answers to their questions. However, we tend to consider our website as a simple showcase site, but it is more than that. You can develop it into a real lead conversion machine.
Shared approaches
10- Social selling
Social networks are prospecting channels that have become very effective in recent years. Prospectors most often adopt a direct approach in order to monitor the targets . It all depends on the content offered. To arouse the interest of prospects, the content must have high added value. But how ? Your prospect must find interesting elements there that meet their needs. So, adapt your content to this by carefully studying your prospects' problems.
11- References
References are the reviews that your customers leave on your website or within your social pages. Seeing these reviews gives your prospects a feeling of trust in your brand. Which will make them more willing to conclude. So, invite your customers to leave a few sentences.
12- Word of mouth
Nothing is more effective in prospecting than being able to count on the testimonials of satisfied customers who can even become ambassadors for your brand. Like the case with referrals, if your existing customers share their experience with other people, it will expand your customer base. So, don't hesitate to ask your customers for help by asking them to recommend your services to their acquaintances.
Commercial prospecting in B2B is more delicate than that in B2C. However, this is not an excuse to give up and give up. Get back up and start leveraging these different sources to generate more leads.
In B2B, the sales cycle is often complex and therefore tends to drag on. However, B2B prospecting relies on numerous levers that can be used very well to find potential and qualified customers more quickly and more efficiently.
