Introduction
In the ever-evolving landscape of B2B marketing, lead generation remains a critical focus for businesses aiming to drive growth and achieve their objectives. As we approach 2025, the need for innovative and effective lead generation strategies has never been more pressing. With increasing pressures on budgets and the necessity to demonstrate a clear return on investment (ROI), businesses must adopt approaches that are both efficient and impactful. I will delve into three powerful lead generation strategies that businesses can implement to stay ahead of the curve: the omnichannel approach using intent data, Account-Based Marketing (ABM) with a simple approach, and social selling. Each article will provide a step-by-step guide to help you create and execute these strategies, ensuring your efforts are focused, budgeted, and human-centric.
Omnichannel Approach Using Intent Data
Step 1: Understand Intent Data Intent data refers to the information collected about a user’s online behavior that indicates their interest in a particular product or service. This data can be gathered from various sources, such as website visits, content downloads, and social media interactions. By analysing intent data, businesses can identify potential leads who are actively researching or considering their offerings.
How to Get Intent Data:
- Bombora: Provides comprehensive intent data by tracking business web activity. Very useful if you are focused on the US market.
- Cyance: Offers intent data solutions that help identify in-market prospects. Very useful if you want to focus on the European market
- Content Syndication Providers: Now, I know that the costs of the two intent tools mentioned can be quite high and often throw a spanner in the works for campaign budgets. With this in mind I would recommend that you consider using content syndication providers who can offer intent and audience information at a lower cost and a campaign by campaign basis.
Why Use Intent Data for Focus?:
- Targeted Marketing: Intent data helps you focus your marketing efforts on leads who are already showing interest in your products or services, increasing the likelihood of conversion.
- Efficient Resource Allocation: By targeting high-intent leads, you can allocate your marketing resources more efficiently, ensuring a better ROI.
- Personalised Engagement: Understanding the specific interests and behaviors of your audience allows for more personalised and relevant interactions.
- Guarantee a CPL: Using intent data via a content syndication provider you can guarantee a CPL, this will often be based on data capture form.
Step 2: Identify Key Channels To implement an omnichannel approach, you need to identify the channels most relevant to your audience. These channels could include social media platforms like LinkedIn, email marketing, search and display ads, IP targeting, your website, mobile apps, content syndication and even in-store experiences if applicable. Use tools like Google Analytics, CRM data, and social media insights to determine where your audience is most active.
Think Outside the Box:
- Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH): Consider using DOOH advertising to reach your audience in physical locations with digital displays.
- Webinars and Virtual Events: Host webinars and virtual events to engage with your audience in real-time and provide valuable insights.
Step 3: Integrate Your Marketing Tools Ensure that all your marketing tools are integrated to allow for seamless data flow and coordinated campaigns. Platforms like HubSpot, Marketo, and Salesforce Marketing Cloud can help manage and coordinate your campaigns across multiple channels.
Capturing Audience Data:
- Landing Pages: Create landing pages that offer valuable content (e.g., eBooks, whitepapers, case studies) in exchange for user information. This helps capture audience data and build your lead database. Its key that you offer them content that they can’t get anywhere else, craft content specifically for them.
- Forms and Surveys: Use forms and surveys to gather additional information about your audience’s preferences and needs.
Step 4: Personalise Customer Interactions Use the intent data collected to personalise your interactions with potential leads. For example, if a user has shown interest in a particular product or topic, follow up with personalised interactions offering more information or special promotions. Implement dynamic content in outreach and personalised recommendations on your website using AI-driven tools like Dynamic Yield. For me this is a key area where many campaigns fall down. You have identified the audience, you have engaged with them and captured their information. They have had a positive experience but once a lead is captured nine times out of ten the follow up is normally a direct sales message. It’s at this stage I would encourage you to be human, nurture these leads, spark conversation and keep the experience positive and personal like the first touch point. When the time is right then outreach with your sales message.
Additional AI Tools for Personalisation:
- Adobe Target: Provides AI-powered personalisation and testing capabilities to deliver tailored experiences.
- Evergage: Offers real-time personalisation based on user behavior and preferences.
- Optimiz
- ely: Helps create personalized experiences through experimentation and optimisation.
- Synthesia: An AI video generation platform that allows you to create personalised video messages for your audience. It’s great for adding a human touch to your outreach efforts and allows you to create videos at scale and in a range of languages with a few clicks.
- Persado: Uses AI to generate emotionally resonant copy for marketing campaigns, ensuring your messages connect with the audience on that human level.
- Seventh Sense: Optimises email delivery times based on individual recipient behavior, increasing the chances of your emails being opened and read.
- Conversica: An AI-powered sales assistant that engages with leads through personalised email conversations, helping to nurture and qualify them.
- Drift: A conversational marketing platform that uses AI to create personalized chat experiences on your website, engaging visitors in real-time.
Step 5: Create Consistent Messaging Your brand guidelines will outline your brand voice, messaging, and visual elements, and its key they are followed across all channels to maintain consistency. Create templates for social media posts, email campaigns, and website content to ensure a unified message.
I also think it’s key to delve deeper. You know this audience has shown intent in a particular area, topic or for a product. You will know their industry and they key job roles/functions you are targeting. With this in mind you should then try to craft your messaging based upon this so that its relevant to them. Use this insight wisely and invest the time to truly create messaging for your audience as outlined below.
Writing for Specific Audiences:
- Segment Your Audience: Divide your audience into segments based on demographics, job titles, functions, and challenges.
- Tailored Content: Create content that addresses the specific needs and pain points of each segment. For example, if you’re targeting IT managers, focus on how your solution can streamline their operations and reduce costs.
- Use Case Studies and Testimonials: Share success stories and testimonials that resonate with your audience’s challenges and demonstrate the value of your offerings.
Step 6: Track and Optimize Performance Monitor the performance of your omnichannel campaigns using analytics tools to measure engagement, conversions, and customer satisfaction. Use tools like Google Analytics, Salesforce, and Tableau to track key metrics and make data-driven decisions to optimize your strategy.
Be Agile:
- Regular Reviews: Conduct regular reviews of your campaign performance and make adjustments as needed.
- A/B Testing: Use A/B testing to experiment with different approaches and identify what works best for your audience.
- Feedback Loops: Establish feedback loops to gather insights from your audience and continuously improve your strategy.
Step 7: Leverage AI Across the Campaign AI tools can help manage and coordinate content across multiple channels. For instance, AI can analyse customer data to suggest the best times to post on social media or send emails. Use AI tools like Hootsuite for social media scheduling, Mailchimp for email marketing, and IBM Watson for data analytics to ensure a cohesive strategy.
AI Tools for Campaign Management:
- Hootsuite: Manages social media scheduling and analytics.
- Mailchimp: Offers email marketing automation and analytics.
- IBM Watson: Analyses customer data and provides insights for personalised marketing.
- Marketo: Provides marketing automation and lead management capabilities.
- Salesforce Marketing Cloud: Offers tools for email marketing, social media marketing, and customer data integration.
Conclusion
By implementing an omnichannel approach using intent data, businesses can create a seamless and personalised customer experience, driving higher engagement and conversion rates. This strategy ensures that your marketing efforts are focused, budgeted, and human-centric, ultimately leading to better ROI and sustained growth. To truly bring this to life I’ve created the diagram below to show you an example of a lead generation campaign using intent data with an omni channel approach.
