B2B Lead Generation Campaign
The B2B lead generation campaign is a short-term strategy for direct multichannel outreach to a targeted number of potential clients. It is part of a general lead gen strategy. The campaign’s primary goal is to start a business-to-business conversation with decision-makers working at certain companies and set up meetings with them for your salespeople.
Companies use B2B lead generation campaigns to:
- Customize their communication with different segments of their total addressable market (TAM);
- Test various outreach tactics, tools, channels, messaging and combination thereof;
- Manage lead generation more efficiently; and
- Analyze market response.
Who works on B2B lead gen campaigns?
- The Campaign Manager is in charge of planning, supervising, analyzing, and introducing changes to the campaign.
- The Lead Researcher creates a contact list of decision-makers.
- The Sales Development Rep(s) conducts the outreach via chosen channels, communicates with prospects, manages the CRM, sets appointments, and qualifies leads.
- The Campaign Strategist creates messaging for the campaign (email, scripts, landing pages).
- A team can also include Strategists, Designers, Email Delivery Specialists, Quality Assurance Managers, Team Captains, Web Developers, Intent Data Specialists, and Ad Specialists.
Tools used to conduct B2B lead generation campaigns:
- General tools:
- CRM
- Project management software
- Google products: Sheets, Docs, Data Studio, Presentations
- Research:
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator and alike credible databases of decision-makers
- Email validation software (e.g., EmailVerifier.com, MailTester.com, Email List Validation)
- Intent Data platforms (e.g., Bombora, G2)
- Outreach:
- Dialers
- Call recording/analyzing tools
- Display Ad tools
- Calendars
- Chatbots
- Appointment setting tools
Stages of the B2B prospecting campaign
1. Planning
You need to define:
- The product/service you’ll be promoting;
- The segment of you TAM you’ll be reaching (e.g. industry, company size, geography);
- Ideal Customer Profile;
- Buyer Persona;
- Outreach channels;
- How to promote the product/service (messaging);
- Campaign goals and KPIs;
- Reporting system; and
- Hiring and additional training programs.
2. Lead List
To conduct a B2B lead generation campaign successfully, you will need a list of decision-makers. There are two ways to acquire it: purchasing it from a third party (such as a lead generation company or a platform) or conducting sales research in-house.
3. Outreach
Modern B2B lead generation campaigns require a multi-channel outreach. Using just one channel decreases the efficiency of your campaign.
Most B2B companies use the following three channels:
- Phone
Sending a prospecting email is usually the first step in the outreach followed by a phone call and/or a message on LinkedIn. In some cases, the campaign manager opts for Facebook or other social networking websites. For example, when reaching out to private entrepreneurs.
Recently, the leaders in B2B lead generation began applying additional channels:
- Offline (e.g. sending a material present to a decision-maker)
- Display ad (e.g. showing the company’s banner advertisement to a prospect)
- Video (e.g. recording a personalized video for prospects)
The messaging of the outreach campaign should focus on the decision-makers' challenges, goals, and KPIs rather than on the company or product/service that is being promoted. It should also be personalized (or at least seem like you spent much time studying the company that you’re writing to).
Generating individual value for your prospect should be the most important aspect of your message. Most B2B lead generation specialists suggest applying A/B testing for the campaign emails.
Email text or phone call script doesn’t guarantee the success of your campaign. Much depends on the SDR’s ability to hold a conversation with a prospect via email or telephone.
Reps should have comprehensive knowledge about your product/service, its USP and problems it can solve in order to answer all the questions of your prospects ASAP.
4. Analysis
Monitoring and analyzing the health of a B2B lead generation campaign is an essential part of its success.
We suggest making reports every day/week/month/quarter and including the following items:
- Lead research:
- number of leads generated
- number of outdated leads
- Emails:
- Phone calls (Dispositions):
- dials
- conversations with gatekeepers
- voicemails
- conversations with the decision-makers
- LinkedIn:
- messages
- opened
- answered
- Appointments:
- set via email/phone/LinkedIn/Landing page
- show-up
- no show-up
- conversions to deals (in a monthly or quarterly report)
- Conversion rates:
- by channel
- by wave
- by messaging
- by SDR (if you have more than one)
- to appointments, to deals
- Other:
- SDRs’ additional activities (e.g., sales intelligence)
- ROI:
- campaign expenditures
- revenue generated by the campaign
- comparison to other campaigns
Reports will enable you to see whether you chose the right strategy or not. However, it’s important to set the right timeframes to making such conclusions. If your sales cycle is long (e.g. exceeds nine months), TAM is small and the average quota is lower than the median 11 leads/mo across all industries, a monthly report will hardly provide enough data for the analysis. Wait for a couple of months to see the results.
The cost of a B2B lead generation campaign
Please use our ROI tool to estimate how much a b2b lead gen campaign would cost your business.
Related posts on CIENCE blog:
- Biggest Challenges od B2B Lead Generation
- Sales Lead Generation Process
- Guide to Selecting a Lead Generation Company
Summary
Lead generation campaigns are a useful tool to plan and implement an outreach targeted at a particular segment of your Total Addressable Market. It enables the company to deliver a more customized and personalized message and build a more genuine business conversation with a potential client.