How To Generate More B2B Leads: Key Lab Takeaways

  Ross Palley

We invited three B2B tech startups in the Venture Lane community to participate in our Lead Generation Lab. Participants worked directly with a Mentor Committee of three leading tech marketers in Greater Boston to retool their lead generation strategies.

On the Committee, we had Juliette Kopecky (CMO @ LinkSquares), Adam Goyette (VP of Marketing @ Help Scout), and Lauren Kersanske (Marketing Director @ Crayon). Check out their key takeaways below!

How to choose optimal content for inbound…

• Crowdsource opinions on which content to produce. Before spending time and resources developing new content, post the topics you're considering on LinkedIn and other channels. Ask folks to tell you in the comments whether it's content they want to see. You'll validate which topics are worth pursuing, and the commenting should spark some virality.

• Differentiate content for end users vs economic buyers. If you need buy in from both parties to convert prospects into paying customers, make sure you're developing user pain related content for end users and ROI related content for economic buyers. If you have to choose one, converting the end user can speed up your sales cycle. Economic buyers typically put a lot of stake in the end user's opinion of which solution is best for their organization.

• Pay a premium for niche content. If you're having difficulty converting a particular persona into leads, contract a specialty content writer to write for that persona. You may even be able to find that writer in your existing customer base.

How to drive up yields on outbound campaigns…

• Personalizing isn't all or nothing. Try personalizing the top 20% of prospects in your next campaign that are most likely to convert. If you see much higher yields, then you know personalizing more than 20% for the next campaign is worth the time and resources. If the 20% test was a big success, you might even consider contracting someone to enrich data and spin up personalized drafts.

• Mock up the end state. Instead of just explaining what your company does in an outbound campaign, provide a mockup of the end state - e.g. a dashboard view of actionable insights they would see in your product, cost savings realized, etc that is specific to their business. Throw their logo in too.

• Embed interactive tools. If you have a calculator or other interactive tool that prospects can use to see ROI of your product, embed it in your campaigns. The tendency is to just have these tools living on your website, but these lead generators should be everywhere!

How to get started with paid ads…

• Start with Google AdWords. Before moving to higher cost channels like LinkedIn, start on Google AdWords to inform your SEO strategy.

• Budget for 60 days. Make sure you have the budget to run paid campaigns for 60 days, which is the timeframe you'll need to validate whether campaigns are successful.

• Have robust content at the ready.  Asking prospects to sign up for a demo isn't enough content to fuel paid campaigns. Better to tap into a content library you've built up that includes industry thought leadership, case studies, e-books, etc.

Want to take part in one of our upcoming Labs and get 1:1 time with Boston's best operators? Check out our Labs and other membership benefits below!