B2B stands for Business to Business. So B2B lead generation is where you generate business leads for a business. Many lead generation initiatives involve generating leads from consumers, but these business to business lead generation projects involve getting leads from potential business prospects.
For example, a construction supply company wants to sell its products to construction companies, not to consumers. How does a company find and generate leads from potential customers?
Here are some ideas to generate leads of potential customers:
- have field sales reps that make introductory visits,
- exhibit at trade shows to come home with new leads,
- offer free demos or samples of your product or service
- reward existing customers to provide you with referrals
- run contests or sweepstakes
- become an expert, writing, blogging, or speaking about your product or service
Of course, you can also employ many of the techniques of b2c programs as well:
- Pay-per-click campaigns
- Direct mail
- Telemarketing
A new option, covered by Dave, is pay-per-call, where you run ads online and show a 800 number and the advertiser only pays for the calls generated.
Do you have suggestions of effective b2b lead generating programs?
Another idea for successful B2B lead generation is event management such as webinars or customer success stories. This type of lead generation program can be viewed by multiple prospects at one time. In addition to capturing information up front during the event registration, if the potential customer enjoys the webinar, they are more likely to return to your website and request further information on your product. Be sure to follow up with attendees and provide a recap of the presentation. You can also email "Here's what you missed..." content to prospects who were unable to attend and send them instructions on how to attend the next event.
Posted by: Kristen | July 6, 2007 9:26 AM | Permalink to Comment