You probably already know all you need to about inbound lead generation: a prospect calls or emails you, you answer their questions, and that’s basically it. Outbound lead generation – deliberately attracting sales leads from organizations you’ve never had contact with before – is a whole different ball game.
In this article, you will discover:
Learning how to engage contacts through various channels using outbound lead generation techniques can be a lifelong process. So, let’s start from the basics and, at every stage, think a little about how these concepts can be applied within your business strategy, whether your company is large or small.
Outbound lead generation refers to a set of tactics meant to kick-start the sales process by contacting new prospects directly. Ways of doing so include cold calling and email outreach to a carefully defined target audience.
Importantly, an outbound strategy that actually converts prospects into clients typically focuses on providing them with value – information, buyer’s incentives, etc. – while gaining and increasing their interest. Your sales team must also be ready to handle follow-up tasks like fielding an increased number of phone calls in order to nudge new leads down the sales pipeline.
Designing and implementing a successful outbound campaign can get complex. Fortunately, there are several B2B lead generation companies that can help you. They may, for instance, help you define an ideal customer profile, reach out to prospects on your behalf, and – crucially – measure campaign effectiveness so you can spend your marketing budget wisely.
Depending on your industry, relying on advertising, content marketing, and other inbound methods to make people show up at your door may not cut it. To place this statement in context, almost 20% of marketers consider outbound marketing to be not just useful but crucial to their business. Here’s why:
Inbound and outbound marketing strategies can be highly complementary. For example, cold calling is most successful when inbound tactics have already created awareness of your product.
Understanding how these two styles of marketing produce qualified leads for your sales team to follow up on requires an appreciation of the differences between them. The following table gives you an idea of how each measures up against the other:
In general, outbound marketing engages with the target audience directly, while the inbound approach nurtures a broader pool of potential customers without first generating specific sales leads.
The main difficulty with outreach-focused campaigns is that, during the initial pitch, someone will usually have a low level of trust in your brand and its products. You therefore need to use proven techniques to build engagement and turn prospects into customers:
While whole books have been written on how to cold-email effectively, most agree that it’s important to personalize your message depending on your customer’s industry, the kind of solution they’re looking for, their role within their company, etc. It’s also essential to follow up on initial contacts: 55% of buyer inquiries are generated by messages that build on any interest the first may have generated.
Cold calls, while more time-consuming than emails, can strike a good balance between intrusiveness and responsiveness. In order for your sales team to be prepared for each call, it’s essential to research each of the companies you plan to contact in advance and determine how you can add value to their operations.
For example, if you’re a SaaS company, generated leads may include information like the prospect’s employee count, existing infrastructure, estimated IT spend, and so forth. Armed with this information, the representative selling to potential leads can pitch products and services aligned with the customer’s needs.
One of the benefits of using a list-building service is that these often provide information beyond basic email addresses. If the organization you wish to convert into a customer, or influential individuals within that organization, has social media accounts, you may choose to reach out to them on these platforms.
This strategy often includes paid ads run on Facebook, TikTok, or whatever service your prospective clients tend to use. Once your brand has gained some exposure, you can pursue more direct, relationship-building avenues like commenting on prospects’ posts or utilizing paid influencers.
PPC advertising is cost-effective in that it’s targeted at exactly those people who are already interested in products or services like your own. Even so, it can be rather pricey and is best used as one prong of a multi-channel strategy aimed at generating leads online.
Applicable to both B2C and B2B lead generation, this simply means encouraging current clients to recommend your company to others. Incentives may include discounts or special offers.
Your efforts along various avenues both support one another and collectively cast a wider net. While cold emails can generate good results, you shouldn’t be blind to social and other forms of outreach.
While this article focuses primarily on online lead-generation tools and methods, there’s no reason not to get creative. Old-fashioned networking with industry professionals in a real-world setting, for instance, often sets the stage for an appointment with a new customer.
Used for anything from recruitment to building personal brands, LinkedIn is also useful for marketing. Almost two-thirds of respondents in a recent survey indicated that they’ve made a sale over this professional social media platform.
While you can reach out to prospective clients using LinkedIn groups and direct messages, you can also use it to compile a list of names you want to contact. An email lookup tool like that offered by BookYourData can then convert these into email addresses with a 97%+ accuracy rate.
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If you have a collection of high-quality written articles relevant to your industry – whitepapers, how-to guides, case studies, etc. – you have the option of re-publishing these pieces on multiple platforms. While this is really content rather than outbound marketing, the two approaches can be usefully combined in order to generate more conversions.
Much of outbound marketing revolves around obtaining a list of suitable addresses, acquiring the right cold email software for seamless automation, and analyzing lead data for insights to use in future campaigns.
This means that, occasionally, relatively minor things can fall through the cracks, like whether your message and website display correctly on small screens. Be sure to use responsive designs, keep content short, and remember to test it on multiple devices.
Even smaller companies can take advantage of outbound marketing, gradually building a database of good prospects and closing more deals, more quickly. Let’s summarize what part this strategy can play in your business:
The goal of outbound marketing is usually to address a particular type of prospect, namely the ones most likely to become customers. This approach is also highly customizable and cost-effective. However, getting it right requires some expertise and certain tools you may not yet be familiar with.
For example, you need to confirm that the contact details you have for leads are up to date. This becomes easy with the right partner; BookYourData, for example, offers real-time email address verification on a pay-as-you-go basis.
Lead generation tactics like those above are normally associated with a B2B sales environment. However, by carefully selecting the channels to use, the same techniques can certainly be of help to B2C companies, too.
Setting up an outbound campaign, including compiling a list of prospects and their contact information, takes significant effort and investment of resources. It’s a strategy, not a tactic. After several months, however, such an initiative is highly likely to yield higher sales figures.
These strategies have different emphases and work differently on different audiences. Combining the two often has a synergetic effect and is highly recommended.
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