5 Common Lead Research Mistakes to Avoid

When it comes to B2B Lead Research, you’ve got to give it your best shot in order to achieve the sales outcomes you desire.

Lead generation is one of the topmost priorities in the B2B marketing process and sales operation. Not only is it the biggest factor in bringing high-quality traffic, but it is also key to successfully converting leads into paying customers.

Lead research, however, is considered by many organizations as a pain point. This is mainly because of the abundance of competitions online. This makes the process of identifying, tracking, and engaging prospects even more complicated. Recent statistics suggest that only 10% of marketers feel that their lead generation campaigns are effective. If you feel that your company is one of those that are not getting their desired outcome, you might be doing some of these common B2B lead research mistakes.

Mistake #1 : Not Knowing Your Buyer

Most companies fall short on properly identifying the nature of their target customers. Getting to know your buyer involves knowing their preferences, interests, and what they react to. Delivering your pitch to the wrong audience is a waste of time, money, and effort. Analyzing the nature of your prospects before you approach them is vital to make your campaigns successful.

Knowing your buyer also means knowing the problems they face as a business and tailoring the services you offer to cater to their needs. This is a good starting point to developing a great relationship with your customers, which is very important to keep them happy and satisfied.

Effective marketing strategy demands identifying specific targets at every stage of their journey as buyers. It is essential to allot time to do detailed research to come up with the information that you need. It is possible to use an external lead generation company to help you target people who can be truly interested in doing business with you.

Mistake #2 : Not Utilising the Influence of Social Media

Social media has swept the internet by storm and has changed the way people purchase products and services. Ignoring the power of social media means that you are missing out on an enormous opportunity to reach out to your target audience. Social media is a perfect channel to use to showcase and demonstrate your expertise, attract qualified leads, and educate prospects.

To start with, you have to identify the social media channels that are most appropriate for your industry. The most commonly used social media channels for B2B companies include Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Once you have your social media accounts up and running, try to update and post relevant posts a few times a day. You can share interesting information, share articles, and don’t forget to use calls-to-action in your posts.

With the multitude of social media channels available and the ever evolving trends in social media use, the best way to find out what works for your company is to test different platforms.

Mistake #3 : Treating all Prospects in a Uniform Way

Not all prospects relate to your products or services in the same manner. You might find that some are very easy to convert into paying customers while others prefer to learn more about your brand before moving forward and making a purchase. Despite this common knowledge, some companies still do not take this factor when building a lead generation campaign.

A great marketer knows how to identify and target buyer personas, and at the same time differentiate the content along the buying journey. Creating personalized and specialized content for email marketing campaigns increases the likelihood of them being opened and read.

Make sure your subject lines are brief and interesting enough to hook the reader’s interest. The email body should also be succinct and straight to the point. Be specific with your approach and provide options for your leads to act on.

Mistake #4 : Ignoring Old Leads

Using your leads just once is one of the most common B2B lead research mistakes. Once you have generated leads, started your campaign, sent your emails, and got your response, it might be tempting to abandon the old leads and start generating new ones for your next campaign.

You might be missing out on massive opportunities.

It is important to not let your leads fall through the cracks. A survey by BPM showed that 80% of generated leads are not followed up. Focusing only on short-term leads might make you miss great sales opportunities.

Developing a long-term lead nurturing plan to win those high-quality prospects who are not yet ready to buy right now can prove to be beneficial in the long run. This can actually earn you more conversions.

Lead generation always goes hand in hand with lead nurturing. As a matter of fact, you may have the best leads in your database. You just have to make some more effort to nurture them and show them the best you can offer. If you don’t give your leads what they have signed up for, they will not stay around for long.

Mistake #5 : Not Giving Enough New Offers

From time to time, giving new offers can entice new and old customers to make new purchases. You cannot rely on the same offer on repeat to pitch your prospects. Often, a B2B buyer is keen on consuming quality information of different types.

Offering them more means getting more in return.

Generally, an offer is something that your prospect needs to complete a form to access. You can offer things like free webinars, eBooks, coupons, consultations, and templates.

In order to create the perfect marketing offer, you need to study and consider your target customers’ behavior and your own strengths as a company. You have to align your offer to the products or services you are providing. It must not focus on telling your audience how great your product is but on solving your customers’ problems through it. It is often helpful to educate prospects about the problems your brand can address. These offers can set you apart and make you stand out from your competitors.

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