How to Generate B2B Leads for IT Industries?
When It comes to lead generation, you have to consider all the related factors. For example, you are looking to generate b2b leads or b2c leads? For which industry are you looking to generate b2b leads, and there are many other factors to consider.
After considering all the elements, you’ll be able to find out or create a proper lead generation strategy. In this blog, we have discussed 10 strategies to generate b2b leads for IT companies which will help you to grow your IT business but before discussing those strategies, let’s have a quick look at some basics.😀
Related: How we helped an IT company to generate leads?
What Is Information Technology (IT)?
Information technology is the study, design, development, implementation, support, or management of computer-based information systems — especially the use of software and computer equipment. IT staff helps to ensure that computers work well for people.
Almost all companies, from software developers to large manufacturers, have moved to a small “mom & pop” store, requiring skilled technical staff to keep their businesses running smoothly, according to industry experts.
Most information technology jobs fall into four broad categories: computer scientists, computer engineers, systems analysts, and computer programmers. HR managers are responsible for hiring ever-increasing IT staff which should be familiar with the work and topics of the smallest tasks required today.
Some of these are listed below:
- Data management directory
- Information system/analyst
- Expert in digital communications
- Network expert
- Editor/reviewer
- Software developer
- Advocate for technical support
Types of IT Companies
It varies from company to company, there are two types of IT companies:
- Product-based: Companies like Microsoft, Dell, Cisco, etc. They fall under this category. Why it’s called based on the product because they have their category window. They provide lines of services they offer to support their products.
- Service-based: are those companies that do not have a product offering, these companies provide software services and will support you with all the types of software needed to install the software.
Example: Wipro, Infosys, Accenture. They do not own their own product to grow that product based on customer requests. Hotstar is a service provided by Star but developed by Accenture. Symbian is another operating system developed by Accenture at the request of Nokia and they charge the required price from the customer.
See Also: Building Your Business Credibility by not actually building it 🤔
The Role and Importance of IT in our Society
The role and importance of information technology in our society is somewhat different in different sectors let’s have a look. 👀
1. Business: With the introduction of computers, the business world has changed forever. Using computers and software, businesses use information technology to make their departments run smoothly. They use information technology in many areas, including human resources, finance, manufacturing and security.
2. Education: Using technology, teachers can prepare their students for a future filled with gadgets, including tablets, mobile phones, computers and more. With the help of IT, students can explore more and experiment more.
3. Finance: Without information technology, online purchases are impossible, and banks are unable to secure these purchases. Information technology has made sending and receiving money faster and easier than ever.
4. Health care: Improvement in information technology has allowed great improvements in health care. Most medical offices can now send and receive digital medical information from doctors you previously had, such a change can reduce costs.
5. Security: As most of the transactions done online there is a lot of information available online, it is very important to keep it secure. Information technology lets you secure your online data until it reaches the appropriate channels. Using passwords and encryption, information technology remotely hides your digital data, and the only way to access it is through authorized entities.
6. Communication: Globalization has increased as information technology has improved. The world has been brought to a close, and the global economy is quickly becoming an interdependent system. Information can be quickly and easily shared from around the world, and the barriers of linguistic and geographical boundaries are broken down as people share ideas and information.
7. Employment: Information technology has also created new jobs. Programmers, system analyzers, hardware and software developers and web designers all owe their jobs to information technology. Without such progress, these jobs would not exist.
What does it mean to Generate b2b Leads?
The b2b lead generation involves attracting potential leads. You can generate b2b leads in many ways, from cold calling to social media (lead generation sources are varies depending on your target audience). The definition of lead generation may change depending on your specific goals. For example, do you want more people to sign up for your email list? or Interested in attracting more social media followers?
Either way, you need a lead generation strategy — there is no issue if you have multiple goals. If you want to track multiple locations, you can grow your audience and gain access to new ways to communicate. However, not all strategies serve the same purpose.
We have discussed enough basics now let’s come to our main topic, which is lead Generation.🤩
Related: Generated 50+ B2B Leads For Startup in One Month
Looking for New b2b Leads for your IT company?
All businesses, regardless of size, need a steady stream of ever-increasing sales. That is why a significant portion of the sales and marketing budget should be allocated, focusing on finding new b2b and sales leads.
Business-to-business organization can generate b2b leads through various processes. Some of the most effective B2B lead generation strategies are: email marketing, networking, b2b telemarketing, paid advertising and content marketing. Deciding what marketing strategy to implement in your business depends on what is best for your business.
Why look for a new business when you have a nurturing process?
Having a major nurturing process is clearly necessary to increase profits in the business and maintain long-term profitability. However, despite the lead-nurturing process being used to make the most of all b2b leads, Business Lead Generation should be a major concern for business owners and marketing managers.
No matter how reliable your core nurturing process is, your sales and marketing people can only grow them as long as leads and clients are allowed. You and your customers need time to get involved, and if you are constantly looking for new B2B sales, you may not have a client or business that will lead to growth.
Why leave existing customers?
Even if you follow your existing customers correctly, the inevitable truth is that they will eventually go away.
Identifying new business sales for your business is an ongoing process. As mentioned above, there are different business lead generation strategies that your company can use and an effective strategy is, use 2 or 3 different strategies in time to get the best results.
If your company uses email blasts to reach opportunities for your b2b appointment setting campaign, you need to complement it with other marketing strategies, such as b2b television and content marketing.
As your company grows, you also need to increase your lead generation campaigns to find more new leads to keep your business going.
See More: How can you Generate Leads for the Finance Industry Business?
Why it’s hard to generate b2b leads for Tech Companies?- 6 Unique Challenges
The process of gaining trust from readers can be lengthy and for a good reason. If a reader is trying to find ways to achieve the goal or are looking for a solution to the pain point, he/she wants to get the information from a trusted source.
Establishing this level of trust is a big task, but once you get the power in the mind of the reader then they want to hear more from you. This happens when they provide you with their contact information, like subscribing to your blog or website.
As the B2B world suffers from many unique challenges, the process of conversion and acquiring those leads is very difficult for technology companies. Here are some challenges:
1. Some of the Ingredients are Unclear
Communication is important when it comes to marketing and sales. Today’s market has a sharp focus on growing relationships and staying in touch with businesses. In high tech industries, communicating information is complex, and there needs to be clear and consistent engagement between you and the customer.
Unfortunately, understanding a webpage or other online content can be difficult. Industry jargon, flirting, and ambiguous presentation can create barriers when turning to customers. Sometimes, the learning curve is too steep. The formula behind a great communication (whether it’s written or oral) is your language should be as simple as possible and clear as well.
2. Customer Centricity is Rare
Most of the time preference is given to the customer-focused approach, which is absolutely not a bad thing but what works better is to think from the customers’ point of view which is also known as Customer Centricity.
Lead Generation only works when you focus on your audience and their needs, not acting on what you can do for the world. They want to know what you can do for them. A common challenge comes from balancing the need to sell with the need to deliver value. The latter should always be a priority, but it rarely happens.
3. It’s Easy to Target the Wrong Audience
One of the most common lead generation challenges for any company is trying to reach out the maximum number. Often, technology companies forget to reinvent themselves with their buyer persona and target the wrong audience.
Marketing plans and campaigns are very broad, bringing in leads that don’t match your business. If you do not know what your ideal client’s pain points are, you cannot effectively target them.
4. Not all b2b Lead Sources are Known
There is a common question you hear in the b2b world — where do these leads come from? Unfortunately, in some cases no one is really sure. Yes, tactics such as email marketing, organic search and social media can pull opportunities, but b2b lead generation has a large proportion of unknown behaviours and activities.
HubSpot’s research found that the vast majority of leads were from “others.” In other words, the most successful channel for Lead Generation is difficult to fully understand because “other” means not a specific strategy.
It drives more important marketing efforts with a high demand to continually adapt and adopt new strategies. In the long run, it takes a lot of resources, time and expense to find them in your sales cycle before they begin.
5. It’s Difficult to Choose Strategies
There are a variety of strategies and techniques available that have incredible conversion capabilities, making it difficult to know what to implement for your plan. And this decision carries a lot of weight because the average marketing team does not have many resources to work with.
It is not often that surpluses of opportunity become a problem, but, unfortunately, this is what most of the time happens to technology and software companies. A particular challenge that requires trial and error is to underestimate the list that gives the right result.
6. It’s Common to Ignore Some Metrics
Speaking of experimentation, self-help can be a challenge when b2b does not take the time to monitor and evaluate the strategies they practice.
You can’t run a campaign and stay away from it. Measuring metrics and assessing them is an important step in what works and what doesn’t. If the Lead Generation Strategy or Strategies do not work then they must be adjusted, left or replaced.
Now let’s come to the most important topic😍
See More: B2B Marketing Strategies: Guide to Win your Customers
Ten Strategies to Generate b2b Leads for Tech Companies
There are many obstacles that an organization must overcome. You have the business to throw out some external and internal challenges and shoot them down instead of turning them into customers.
But never fear. We’ve got a number of strategies that software and technology companies can leverage that will enable them to produce more efficiently.
1. Provide Content that Matches the Pain Points of your Prospects
Marketing starts with the knowledge of your prospects. It is important to understand what questions or issues your prospects may have. Do they need to reduce the cost of recruitment? Are they interested in new software?
Buyer personality research can help define these pain points, how and when these problems come to your customers. Understanding each person’s unique experience allows you to get your offer on the buyer’s journey to the right stage.
Every personal issue must be combined with a gift: an ebook, video series, or other content to subscribe to your mailing list to receive them.
See Also: 5 Best Marketing Campaigns in India
2. Deliver Thought-Leadership Content
Once the prospects know about their problem and possible solutions, they usually look to a lot of potential vendors.
To set yourself apart from the competition, focus on developing high-quality content such as whitepaper or case studies that show the unique value your products offer. This is especially important for B2B tech companies, who often have to walk to the customers through high technology.
By focusing not only on the things you do differently but also on why your services are better than other’s services, you need to set the tone of the conversation. This will increase brand confidence and boost your reputation, both of which often have a direct impact on the decision maker’s business.
Organizations such as Openview Labs and GE’s Txchnologist share educational content to broaden and expand their audience’s knowledge base. By this you can show your expertise in your niche.
3. Make Sure Your Online Presence is Mobile Optimized
According to a Google study, 42% of B2B decision makers use mobile devices in the buying process. What’s more surprising is that the average American spends 10 hours every day chatting with his phone and shopping.
Mobile usage is on the rise, and the challenge ahead of buyers is to make more complex decisions in less time. As a result, your entire digital presence needs to be optimized for the mobile web. Otherwise, your offer may not be able to meet the lead or work when needed.
Mobile marketing has become very competitive. If your strategies, website, and offers are not accessible, buyers can easily decide to return to one SERP and find another company.
4. Make the Most of Video Marketing
In the same study, Google mentioned that 70% of b2b buyers would watch videos on the buyer’s journey. No doubt that video content is powerful and simple. At the top of the funnel, a polished one-minute video is more effective than a blog on exciting leads because most of the audience can consume videos quickly and easily.
Pandadoc does an excellent job of transmitting content and valuable information within two minutes (this time duration is also good).In a short span of time, they have learned who their target leaders are, what pain relieves them and how to reduce their target customers’ pain, all while being creative.
5. Start Connecting on LinkedIn
Research has shown that LinkedIn is the most fruitful platform for b2b leads, with a yield of 78% in B2B, just 48% for Twitter and 42% for Facebook. Social traffic is valuable, but if you have the resources to focus on a single network, LinkedIn can be a good option.
There are multiple reasons to choose LinkedIn for b2b lead generation like, LinkedIn membership is increasing dramatically, the active users are really active, current and future decision-makers are on LinkedIn.
Those statistics are largely due to the average tech company’s customer behaviours. You won’t find many businesses looking for new software scrolling through Instagram. They want to find thought leaders and their business information such as size, age and other credibility factors.
See Also: [Podcast] How Social Media is Affecting YOUR Business?
6. Run a Word of Mouth with Your Existing Customers
The idea is to reverse the chain, and when someone finds a product or service that provides real value, they will be happy to share it with their close ones. Most of your current customers will have friends or colleagues who may have similar interests. Also through reviews, testimonials and social proof, you can build awareness and trust for your brand.
Word of mouth is one of the most trusted strategies of consumers, “people trust people”.
If your customers are having great success with your business, it’s time to take it one step further and make referrals. Asking them to “refer to a friend” can start to generate b2b leads that are already hot after hearing good things from your current customers. This leads to a growing chain reaction in expanding connections and new business.
7. Schedule Events that your Audience Wants to Attend
Building connections with your target audience is a fundamental step in transforming them to customers. This can be done by regularly interacting with them and find out what type of content are they expecting from you.
Try to provide value to your target audience through events like conferences and webinars. By this, you will be able to establish your business status as a thought leader in your industry, and this will also build awareness about your business among your target audience.
While in-person meetings are completely tangible opportunities, you can still provide value through regularly recorded online events. Webinars are available from anywhere in the world and can lead to a return.
Invite them to sign up for the series or promote your online content with extended content. Take advantage of such events and follow potential customers, connect them to your business, and bring them closer to sales.
8. Collaborate with Influencers in Your Space
Re-leveraging the value of word of mouth and partnering with a leading influencer who can justify your products will give your business an unexpected amount of reach.
Technology “unboxers” and reviewers have a tremendous impact on YouTube, Twitter and other social media channels. You can provide your product or services to major industry influencers before launching the products and releasing them to the public for promotion. Their views and opinions can create high demand.
9. Consider Co-Marketing with Strong Affiliates
Co-marketing is a very common strategy, but it still yields great results. Partnering with a hardware or software company allows you to generate b2b leads, both online and offline, of your own business.
Find another business that has a similar audience that does not compete directly with you. You can support each other’s solutions by providing real testimonials. Dividing the cost will also give you the opportunity to work out the other lead generation strategy in your budget.
Eventually, lead production will only increase by half of the cost.
10. Product Comparison
Product comparisons are very popular among technical business decision-makers. If you’re getting a lot of traffic from SEO strategies, implementing or adding product comparison content is an easy next step. Provide an easy way to evaluate your options directly from one of the potential businesses.
It shows trust in your own products and transparency to stand out in your industry. Creating pages on your website dedicated to product comparisons will increase your ranking and leverage keywords in SERPs like “versus” or “options” against your competitors.
Technology and software companies have to struggle with long procurement cycles, which can be difficult at every stage of the buyer journey. Creating leads with unique challenges and obstacles is difficult. Using the above strategies as part of your larger inbound marketing plan can help you expand your brand awareness to your ideal potential buyers.
Hope this blog is helpful.🙂
Comment below and let us know.
