How to get 100s of Online Leads for your B2B Software/IT company?

How to get 100s of Online Leads

When it comes to lead generation, different industries use various strategies to bring in new customers. So what works for a law office that serves divorce clients may not work for your B2B tech/software company. When marketing for your business, consider your target audience and take note of their pain points, values, and preferred solutions.

GENERATING ONLINE LEADS FOR YOUR TECH/SOFTWARE COMPANY

There are various ways you can bring in new online leads for your B2B company. Below are a few that will help you provide value to people that fit your buyer persona and pique their interest in your product or service.

Source: HubSpot

The hubspot study showed that lead generation sources in B2B companies, inbound marketing tactics grabs the lion share of the leads.

The best three lead sources for B2B companies are SEO (14%), email marketing, (13%), and social media (12%).

Below are a few that will help you provide value to people that fit your buyer persona and pique their interest in your product or service.

Lead magnets are great for lead generation in any industry. But for B2B technology and software, in particular, you have to know what types of content that will bring the leads to you. A lead magnet is a piece of valuable content that your audience consumes in exchange for their email address or other contact information. Below are lead magnets that work wonders for companies that sell software to other businesses:

eBooks:Write an informative eBook about the value your tech/software company provides to businesses and the benefits and features of your software.

Webinars: Software and technology can be cumbersome. Hosting webinars can educate your audience about how to use certain services as well as how they work and will affect your bottom line.

Downloadable PDFs: Best practice guides, problem-solving tutorials, checklists, worksheets, and templates can provide great value to your prospects.

Quizzes: Like with downloading a free trial, your potential customers can take a quiz to see if your software or company is a good fit for them and will effectively solve their company/department’s challenges.

Once you offer these pieces of content to your potential customers and receive their emails in exchange, you can send them marketing emails to help move them down the funnel. HubSpot, a company that offers marketing, sales, customer service, and CRM software, is a great example of using lead magnets effectively. They offer free, downloadable guides and eBooks for prospects email addresses in return.

Free trials/Demos:This is mainly used for lead generation for software and services that are not complicated and are ‘ready to go’ without requiring much configuration or setup. For more complicated software or SAAS products, free trials are best use for existing leads when they are in ‘Consideration’ stage to help them make decisions. The decision-makers want to be sure about how your software works before they decide to buy it. 

Planscope.io, a SaaS tool that helps web developers and designers create collaborative estimates with clients and keep them up to date as projects move towards completion, offers a 14-day free trial to bring in leads. Prospects can enter their email addresses to see the product in action.

Furthermore, to see how well your landing page is performing, it’s a imperative to do some A/B testing. This will test different changes to your landing page and see how well they convert. For example, place two variations on your landing page such as different button colours. If one is orange and the other is green, you can test them against each other for the most effective colour.

Lead generation shouldn’t just happen online. To get as many leads as possible, you should promote your tech/software company offline as well. Below are some offline methods you can use for lead generation:

Events:You can host conferences, meetups, and if you’re just launching your company, host startup parties to connect with potential customers.

Strategic partnerships with complimentary service providers:Partners can help promote your company to produce more leads.

PR and media:Thought leadership articles, press releases, case studies/testimonials, awards, events, and social media can boost PR and brand awareness, and thus, drive more leads.

Paid ads are a great way to supplement your SEO strategy. You don’t need to rank in order to display your ads. Below are some paid lead generation methods you should be using:

Social Ads: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn all have a built-in advertising platform for businesses that want to generate more leads. The best part? You can specifically target your

ads to your desired customer.

Google Display Network: Display ads can be shown on millions of sites that partner with Google, increasing your exposure and your tech company’s chances of getting leads.

PPC: These ads show up in search results regardless of rank. The more relevant your PPC ad is to a user’s search intent, the more likely they are to click and become a lead.

Retargeting/Re-marketing: Whether on social media, the Google Display Network, or Google PPC, you can retarget users who have engaged with your company or visited your website–but haven’t made a purchase–through these platforms.

Everyone knows that video is one of the most–if not  most–entertaining forms of content on  the internet. Did you know that video marketers get 66% more qualified leads per year? That’s because potential customers gain trust and educate themselves with video in an entertaining way, which can increase sales.

Create engaging videos to show your audience how great your software can be for their business and how it differs from the competition. You can also create explainer videos to showcase the latest technology your company has produced. Whether you post a video on your landing page, social media, or homepage, you can grab the attention of your visitors and bring in more leads.

For example, Zendesk, a company that offers customer service software and a support ticketing system, use video to show–not tell–the benefits of using their software. The video taught customers and prospects about their products and how to use them. Video is a great medium for explaining how to use complex things like software and technology. It’s a lot more effective than reading multiple pages of a manual with complex language and instructions.

You can build a microsite that targets a very specific audience. For example, B2B company Mitchell provides software solutions for claims management and the collision repair process. They developed a new product called Program Freedom that delivers a cloud-estimating and communication platform to help insurance carriers, repair facilities, suppliers and OEMs. Then, they created a microsite specifically for that product.

Developing a microsite for your focus product and writing relevant news articles can help drive search engine traffic to your site and generate new leads. Add a helpful FAQ and create clear CTAs to invite visitors to connect with your company and request more information.

No matter the industry, social media marketing is always a go-to strategy to bring in leads. Why? Because there are millions (and billions) of active users you can target to generate leads and drive traffic to your B2B website. Follow the below tips to build your following across multiple social media channels:

Partner with social media influencers:Hiring social media influencers to promote your product or service is a great way to drive new leads for your tech/software company. They have a large following on social media and fans that are actively consuming their content.

Start a Facebook group: After starting a Facebook group, you can regularly add engaging content to attract your target audience. Running paid ads or creating gated content to post in your Facebook group can boost lead generation even more as you’re exposing your B2B company to more users and providing them with incentives to engage with your brand.

Become a thought leader on Twitter:You can position yourself as a thought leader on Twitter by regularly posting fresh, new content about topics relevant to your industry. Engaging with other thought leaders can also help you grow your Twitter following and generate new leads.

Connect with prospects on LinkedIn:LinkedIn should be part of any B2B marketing regime. Lots of CEOs hang out on LinkedIn, so you can target this audience if you’re selling software to help with different business functions such as accounting, bookkeeping, talent recruitment, etc.

Run contests/offer discounts:You can run contests or offer discounts to draw in leads. People love winning things and getting deals on certain items. For example, you can give your audience a chance to win a free MacBook or offer a 25% discount on select software.

Create engaging content on visual platforms like Instagram and Pinterest:Engage new leads by finding creative ways to get your B2B tech/software company noticed. For example, Citrix, a software company that make apps and data more secure, takes tasteful photos of their logo on various items–a pie, a mug, or atop a tall building.

People love proof. It shows that something actually works and works to a high standard. It also shows that the claims you make about your software, product or service are actually warranted. A great way to establish proof is to test or benchmark your software or services. Get with an unbiased third-party to test your software or service. Then, share your successful results publicly, whether through a video or blog post.

I absolutely believe this. Exceptional lead generation outcomes will be achieved if you are relentless, focused and experiment with different tactics, and combine tactics across multiple channels.

You will only know what does and doesn’t work if you experiment and when you know what works, you will be able to use your time, resources and budget more effectively to generate higher ROI, growth and profits.

I hope this post has given you some understanding on what’s options are available for B2B software, SAAS  and IT companies lead generation. If you have any questions or would like to speak to us, reach out to us and yes, please feel free to comment below.