Generating leads is one of the most crucial tasks for any organization or brand. To have a successful sales season, having the right leads to approach is vital. Not all companies or brands have a pull strategy - most companies rely on push Marketing to get their sales going.

Generating leads using a variety of methods including marketing and sales lead generation techniques is one of the most challenging jobs of a marketer.

Thanks to digital and Social Media marketing, B2B lead generation has seen a remarkable change and improvement.

Companies can generate leads using inbound methods without spending a ton of money on marketing and advertising. They work in tandem with brand marketing and also help in generating leads simultaneously.

Let us look at some of the best B2B inbound lead generation techniques that are trending in 2023.

10 B2B inbound lead generation strategies for 2023

Generating inbound leads using various marketing techniques including social media and digital marketing is one of the best and the easiest ways to improve your sales.

Here are some of the best inbound lead generation techniques that have been proven to be very effective for B2B:

1. Content marketing

Content marketing has taken over the marketing sphere by a storm. This very effective and helpful strategy uses simple content that connects the company's brand/product or service with the customer.

Simple blogs, website contents and even paid affiliate content can all be effective ways to promote your product as well as generate leads by clicks that land on your website page.

• This technique is most effective for the service industry especially for IT, ITeS and similar brand services.
• It is also great for FMCG, electronics and similar products.
• Hiring a Content marketing team or a content management team that can provide the right content to the companies website and for affiliate sites ensures better working of this technique.
• Collecting demographic details using a pop-up registration or subscription form on the website can help in making sure that the content is targeting the right audience
• Today, there are several tools that can help you with content marketing especially with AI such as ChatGPT and other related services.
• Companies like Razorpay and CCAvenue are creating amazing content that not only creates awareness of their brand, but also attracts B2B business from interested clients.

2. Social media marketing

Having a strong social media presence is non-negotiable today. Every major company is looking to have a credible social media page that shares important and creative content that keeps them engaged with other brands, companies and their customers.

Using the social media page helps in creating a good social presence in the market and helps companies connect as well as generate leads that eventually drive business.

• This technique is best for FMCG and the service industry such as electronics, logistics, food, shipping etc.
• Having a strong, experienced social media team that manages the social media handles including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter etc is important to make this work.
• Choose the social media platform where your competitors are most active and the platform where your expected clientele is most active is a sure shot way of generating more leads using this technique.
• Social media tools such as Hubspot, Canva and Tweet Deck can be pretty helpful in creating a good and strong social media connection.
• Companies like Dunzo, Swiggy and Zomato are leading with this simple technique by engaging business and creating a strong network of delivery partners.

3. SEO (Search engine optimization)

SEO and Content marketing typically goes hand in hand. SEO is the technique that is the key to the success of content marketing.

Without the use of the right keywords, the placement of the keywords and optimizing the content to make sure that the content appears based on the search intent on the search engines, there is pretty much no use of the content in itself.

If you do not want your brand's B2B communication material to get buried under tons of other feeds, it is important to pay attention to SEO or Search Engine Optimization here.

• This technique is most suited for software, hardware, IT services and other related service sector companies.
• Having in place a strong SEO and content team that is well aware of using the right tools and the techniques of SEO management is important to make this method work.
• Using the right content that caters to your target audience and the best tools to modify the content by using SEO is important to cater to the right market.
• There are plenty of tools in the market for SEO today such as Google’s Analytics and Search Console tools, Screaming Frog and their suite of tools for SEO etc.
• Amazon and EBay is one of the best examples of content marketing through SEO, their clever approach towards B2B marketing has helped them build a network of sellers.

4. PPC (Pay per click)

Pay Per click or PPC is another B2B lead generation technique that has been proven effective. PPC has been strongly used for Search engine feeds and for better ranking and therefore helps in better reach in your target market.

Using PPC technique, you can ensure your brands visibility and therefore improve sales by actively picking up the right leads in the market.

• This technique is best suited for the service industry including shipping, packaging and logistics, software solutions, automobile sales and service and other related sectors.
• Using a digital marketing team to come up with a PPC and ad budget on a routine basis to ensure that your brand has high visibility is important for this method to succeed.
• Routine check on data analytics and making use of website analytics is important to ensure that your PPC efforts are best tailored to the target audience.
• Google Ads, AdEspresso and other similar tools are available on the internet to help you with PPC for your inbound lead requirements.
• Cars24 is one of the best examples for PPC that helps in connecting businesses (used car and service) and sellers to create a huge market for used cars via the internet.

5. Influencer marketing

Influencers are everywhere today - be it on instagram, twitter or facebook. But these influencers can actually make a difference when it comes to generating leads.

If you are a business trying to connect with other businesses and looking for B2B inbound leads, influencers may actually be a trump card. Using simple videos, reels, audio books or blogs, they can focus attention on your products and services and attract the right leads from the market.

• Influencer marketing can be suitable for products such as electrical and electronic services, automobile sales and spares, beauty, retail etc.
• Tapping into the right resources for the right influencer is important - there are forums where you can choose the right influencer from groups to make this method work.
• Making sure that the influencer has the best reach in your targeted market is important before you utilize this method.
• Heepzy, FourStarzz Media etc are some online platforms that offer an influencer database for your requirement.
• Airbnb is one of the best examples of influencer marketing trends that connects the business with property owners that have established a large chain of hotels/resorts.

6. Email marketing

Email marketing is probably the oldest trick in the book. Every company in this age and time uses email to connect with their peer businesses, clients and suppliers/vendors.

Email is a powerful weapon to generate inbound leads for b2b sales and should be used effectively as it costs the least and is one of the best methods in the book.

• Email marketing is suitable for all kinds of business no matter which industry it is - IT, ITeS, FMCG, Logistics, Automobile and the service industry.
• Interactive emails with catchy headlines, email signatures that have latest marketing campaigns and softwares/tools that avoid being sent to junk or spam ensures that this strategy works.
• Making sure you have the target audience in mind while designing your marketing campaign and having an email database beforehand is necessary for targeting the right audience.
• Hubspot, Brevo, mail chimp etc are some of the most popular email marketing.
• One of the most popular examples for B2Bis Shopify. Shopify connects clients and its popular email campaigning helps in generating B2Bsellers from all over the world.

7. Webinars and virtual events

Webinars and virtual events are becoming the most trending ways to connect with a brands’ clients, suppliers, customers and vendors.

Webinars and virtual events can be hosted online on social media pages of the company and this is indeed a great way to attract and engage prospective customers and generate interests for b2b leads.

• Webinars and Virtual events are great for software solution companies, Technology companies, education companies, insurance sector companies etc.
• Webinars and virtual events work best when you collaborate with a top notch event planner or webinar creator platform. Choosing the right audience and creating the best landing page is also an important tool to make sure this strategy works for you.
• Making sure that you gather the right audience for your webinar or virtual event is important. A poll or survey of a sample group is important to judge if the audience is right for the session that is planned.
• There are plenty of softwares and tools that can help with virtual events and webinars such as Zoho, Webex, BigMarker etc are some well known platforms.
• Tesla is the best example for Webinar and virtual events - their webinars attract a lot of b2b leads that eventually help in technological associations for their future products.

8. Account based marketing

Creating accounts and hiring separate account holders to take care of these marketing accounts is a new technique that helps in providing targeted marketing efforts to existing accounts.

By concentrating your marketing attention and resources on specific accounts, you are able to not only generate better and more qualified B2B leads, it also ensures that you do not miss out on any potential sale from your existing database.

• This method is most suitable for Healthcare, technology, education, logistics and software based industries.
• Hire key resources to implement and study the specific needs of the accounts and to ensure distinct activities are planned for each account to generate maximum leads - this ensures that this strategy works for the company.
• Creating personalized and custom plans for each account by studying their requirements and collecting data from samples before allocating the various accounts is important so that the marketing efforts adhere to the target audience.
• There are many software solutions that help with ABM or Account based marketing such as HubSpot, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Owler etc.
• The best example for Account based marketing is Citrix - a software based company that has different websites and different programs for each B2B client such as Hospital software suites, Education software suites, IT software suites etc.

9. Chatbots and live chat

Chatbots and Live chat have become one of the standard tools that has been incorporated in all websites today. Providing this feature is great as a pop up live chat option gives clients freedom to ask for quotes and get information without actually engaging with a human.

This gives B2B clients more freedom to interact and acquire information without the fear of being bombarded by the sales team.

• This method is most suited for hospitality, software companies, retail brands etc.
• Ensuring that your website is powered by an interactive and efficient chatbot or live chat feature that can provide useful solutions to clients makes this strategy a success.
• Making sure that the chatbots and live chat is available at the particular websites and in the timings when most visits or clicks are received, helps this strategy to adhere to the target audience.
• Mobile monkey. Hubspot, Botsify etc are some of the popular chatbot programs in the industry. Zoho, LiveChat, Zendesk are some of the best live chat programs.
• Microsoft offers one of the best live chat features where companies can interact with their support team for their specific software requirements on the website.

10. Trusted backlinks

Backlinks are one of the best ways to generate B2B leads in the new, SEO powered world. Everyone on the internet today surfs from one website to another looking for products and services that they are keen on.

Acquiring leads from trusted sites that backlink to the client's website page is one of the best ways to keep tabs on who is looking for what. Based on this data, several leads can be generated in an easy manner.

• This method is most suited for automobile sales, software solutions, communication services, logistics services, retail sites etc.
• Ensuring that you line up the most resourceful and trusted blogs, websites and other materials that actually get more hits from the clients is necessary for this strategy.
• Reviewing the sites that are linked with your own products and services and looking at the analytics of how your leads land on the page is important to adhere to your specific target audience when using this method.
• Google tools such as Analytics and Search console, Backlinkworks etc are some of the popular backlink tools in the market today.
• Hubspot CRM, a popular software company uses backlinks from reputed blogs and websites to generate B2B leads in an effective and efficient way.

Conclusion

It is clear that using these techniques listed below, your company is all set to generate inbound B2B leads and help convert these leads effectively and improve the overall sales and performance.

These methods help in better resource allocation and avoid over spending on marketing and ad budgets, but are able to generate and qualify leads in a creative manner.8.