B2B Lead Generation: The Must-Know Strategies and Tools

Streamline Business Communication with our Omnichannel Solution

Paras Kela

Senior Writer:

green tickReading Time: 12 Minutes
green tickPublished : October 20, 2022

Lead generation is one of the most difficult tasks for businesses of all sizes—small, medium, and large. Attracting customers to your products or services, moving them through the pipeline, and converting them into customers is indeed a complicated process that requires patience, skills, and strategy.

But, like everything else, lead generation strategies have evolved over time. A strategy that was effective in the 1990s may not be effective today. For this reason, businesses must stay up to date on the latest lead generation trends and strategies.

In this blog post, we’ll look at 10 successful B2B lead generation strategies for 2022, the top 5 lead generation tools, as well as the fundamentals of B2B lead generation.

Let’s get started.

What is B2B Lead Generation?

B2B lead generation is the process of identifying potential business prospects and attracting or persuading them to buy your product or services. Although this may appear to be a simple activity, the customer lead generation process includes several tasks, such as Attract, Convert, Close, and Delight. 

 B2B lead generation

Each prospect goes through these four stages before becoming a loyal customer. However, the primary goal of lead generation is to assist businesses in materializing demand by filling the top sales funnel of their customer acquisition process. 

If the lead generation process is carried out meticulously, there is a higher probability that most of the leads will be converted into customers at the end of the pipeline.

B2B lead generation Key Advantages

  • Increase brand awareness
  • Help with business transformation
  • Attract only high-quality leads
  • Broaden your customer base.
  • Increase revenue significantly

Overall, B2B lead generation ensures a consistent stream of potential customers to the company, which is critical to its survival and growth.

Why is B2B Lead Generation is Important?

There is no doubt that B2B lead generation is one of the most important aspects of any business and plays a significant role in its success. For example, if you have a skilled lead generation team, you can be certain of a steady flow of potential customers.

The lead generation team will be responsible for analyzing market needs, reaching out to potential leads, persuading them to try the product or service, and eventually converting them into customers. Especially in SaaS industry, lead generation requires a targeted and strategic approach. You can achieve it through the proper SaaS marketing automation.

Importance of B2B lead generation

Another significant advantage of lead generation is that it helps create brand awareness. This means that even if the prospect does not buy your product or sign up for your service at that time, they will remember your brand for future use if you have communicated its benefits to their business.

However, as previously stated, a successful lead generation process entails well-organized activities that can be divided into four stages, as explained below.

4 Steps of B2B Lead Generation Process

The four major steps of the B2B lead generation process are as follows. Let’s take a quick look at each one to see what activities they entail.

B2B lead generation process)

Step 1: Attract

The first step in the lead generation process is to attract visitors/audiences via various inbound marketing channels such as social media, blogs, newsletters, Google responsive ads, and so on. Based on your market and customer research, create a campaign to attract your targeted customer base to the website.

Step 2: Convert

After successfully attracting the target audience to the website, the next step is to persuade them to take specific actions such as filling out the form, clicking on the call-to-action (CTA), scheduling a demo with your sales team, and so on. Overall, your goal at this point should be to direct the target audience to landing pages designed to collect lead information.

Step 3: Close

The third stage of the B2B lead generation process is to convert those leads into customers. Once you have the necessary contact details about the leads who have expressed interest in your product, the next step is to contact them individually and provide them with the best solution based on their business requirements. At this point, your ultimate goal should be to persuade them to purchase your products or services.

Step 4: Delight

Congratulations! You have successfully guided the visitor through all of these stages and converted them into a customer. However, your work does not end here. Now, it is your responsibility to keep those customers happy with your products or services. Make sure that they receive timely customer service and support as needed. To achieve this, you must solicit feedback from them regularly and address their concerns.

Once you have a better understanding of the B2B leads generation process, your next task will be to put the best and most successful B2B lead generation strategies into action.

Top 10 B2B Lead Generation Strategies

Here are the top 10 B2B lead generation strategies for 2022. Let’s go over them one by one.

1. Design a user-friendly website

Creating a user-friendly website with rich content and strategically placed CTAs is one of the most effective B2B lead generation strategies. You must keep in mind that every potential user or prospect will surely visit your website before purchasing your product or subscribing to your services. For this reason, you must optimize your website’s content, layout, and CTAs regularly.

To make your website more informative, include all necessary content related to your offerings, such as blogs, case studies, product guides, FAQs, etc. Similarly, mindfully place CTAs on your website to increase engagement and capture the necessary information about your site visitors.

2. Retarget website visitors with ads

According to various studies, only 5-10% of website visitors will fill out the CTA form or become leads. For the remaining 90%, you’ll need to devise a retargeting strategy. Retargeting lead generation campaigns are typically used to display advertisements to visitors who came to your website but did not complete the intended action, such as form filling or demo request.

This type of marketing is carried out with the help of tracking cookies, which follow the user after they leave your website. Also, note that retargeted ads appear very similar to standard ads; however, they are personalized to the visitor’s needs and often offer discounts. A well-executed retargeting campaign can significantly benefit lead generation.

3. Nurture leads through effective email marketing

Email marketing is still one of the most effective B2B lead generation strategies. In fact, 42% of businesses consider email marketing to be their most effective lead-generation channel. You can leverage this lead-generation technique to gather more information about your prospects.

For example, if a visitor submits their email address and phone number via the website form, you can contact them via a drip email campaign to gather more information. For example, you can design different mail to collect different information about their business, such as business requirements, future goals, budget, and so on. Also, you can use a strong DMARC policy adds an extra layer of protection, making it harder for phishing attempts and improving the reliability of your communication channels.

4. Continuously improve website SEO

Optimizing SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is another important lead-generation strategy. In fact, it would not be an exaggeration to say that SEO and lead generation go hand in hand.

The role of SEO in lead generation

Moreover, most leads or potential buyers will use keywords to search for the product or service they are interested in before visiting your website. This means that you must ensure that your website ranks on the first page of SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) for all such popular keywords.

Overall, well-planned SEO strategies help you increase organic traffic, generating qualified lead-generation opportunities with no advertising or promotion costs.

5. Create an attractive affiliate program

Your customers are your best marketing channels. When they enjoy your products or services, they will definitely recommend them to their friends and groups. This type of marketing is known as word-of-mouth marketing. One way to broaden the landscape of word-of-mouth marketing is by rewarding these customers or affiliates.

The impact of affiliate marketing is evident in the fact that spending on affiliate marketing in the United States has increased from 1.6 billion dollars in 2010 to 8.2 billion dollars in 2022. To summarize, ensure that you have an appealing affiliate marketing program in place that not only rewards your customers handsomely but also helps you in procuring quality B2B leads.

6. Be active on review websites

In addition to your website for product information, prospects will also visit software review websites such as SoftwareSuggest, G2, and others to get first-hand information about the product from users. For this reason, you must keep an eye on these websites’ customers, as they may be a potential source of high quality leads.

SoftwareSuggest customer review website

The reviews will help you track and target your competitors’ unhappy customers, as well as understand the difficulties of your own customers. You can even ask happy customers to leave a positive review on these websites in exchange for a reward or discount. To sum up, keeping a positive impression of your products on review websites will definitely benefit B2B lead generation.

7. Build a strong social media presence

No one can deny that social media not only improves the customer experience but also enhances B2B leads. Social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram enable you to target very specific audiences with paid ad solutions, as well as retarget audiences who have previously interacted with your business.

Further to that, you can collaborate with social media influencers or creators to raise brand awareness and draw users’ attention to your products or services. Besides, through social media, businesses can stay in touch with users 24/7, reach a large user base at a lower cost, and collect user information through various means such as polls, questions, and so on.

8. Effectively follow up with your leads

Lead follow-up is the eighth important B2B lead generation strategy. Lead follow-up is a marketing strategy that connects a company with qualified leads procured through referrals or other marketing channels. Following up on a lead allows a company to build a relationship with the lead and help them transition into loyal, paying customers.

Lead follow up email example

Some of the key lead follow-up techniques are:

  • Send follow-up emails
  • In your follow-up email, exemplify the worth of the product
  • Provide value with each follow-up
  • Inform the prospect of your next steps
  • Always use a catchy email subject line.

9. Offer live demos and free webinars

The next major lead generation practice is to provide prospects with live demos and free webinars. In fact, when it comes to top-of-the-sales funnel B2B lead generation strategies, more than half of marketers say webinars generate the most high quality leads. Similarly, most prospects prefer one-on-one product demos and presentations to better understand the product.

When you discover that a prospect is somewhat convinced but still has some reservations about the product or service, you can offer them a product demo by product experts. This move will undoubtedly assist you in dispelling any doubts that a prospect may have about the product, ultimately converting them into a customer.

10. Leverage modern lead generation tools

The tenth key lead generation strategy is to use modern lead generation tools like Pipedrive, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Intercom, LeadFuze, Agile CRM, OptiMonk, and others. You can use these tools to automate the lead generation process as well as improve lead capture, storage, and nurturing.

Lead generation tools

In addition to analyzing users’ on-site or in-app behavior and creating message triggers to assist them with onboarding, support, or retention, lead generation tools will help you build an inbound marketing flywheel from start to finish.

You can also integrate these lead generation tools with other software and applications to improve efficiency, streamline processes, and gain deeper insights into the data.

Top 5 B2B Lead Generation Tools

The five best lead generation tools are listed below. Let’s look at how they help with B2B lead generation and their various components, such as features, pricing, customer support, and more.

1. Freshsales

 Freshsales lead management software

Freshsales is a leading AI-assisted lead generation software that assists businesses in discovering the best leads, increasing customer engagement, driving deals to closure, and nurturing existing customers with a smart, all-in-one solution. This all-in-one tool eliminates the need for your sales and marketing teams to switch between platforms.

Teams can use Freshsales to get complete context, make calls and send emails, create custom reports, visualize their deal pipeline, identify and prioritize deals, and automate repetitive tasks. 

Besides that, the AI-powered assistant in the tool analyzes historical data to provide deal insights, predictive contact scoring, and next-best-action recommendations, enabling smart decision-making.

Freshsales Features:

  • Sales activity reports
  • Revenue analytics
  • Auto lead assignment
  • Email-to-Lead, Forward Emails
  • Lost deal analysis
  • Action-oriented follow-ups

Freshsales is Ideal For: Medium and large sales teams

Freshsales Free Trial: 21 Days

Freshsales Pricing: Freshsales has four pricing plans, as listed below:

A. Free plan: $0/user/month
B. Growth plan: $18/user/month
C. Pro plan: $47/user/month
D. Enterprise plan: $83/user/month

2. Leadfeeder

 Leadfeeder lead generation software

Leadfeeder is yet another leading website visitor tracking platform or B2B lead generation software designed to assist businesses in increasing sales and marketing ROI. This software assists you in identifying the names of companies that visit your website, converting anonymous traffic into real company names, and revealing the exact behavior of the companies that visit your website.

Furthermore, you can integrate this lead-tracking software with various third-party tools and applications such as Pipedrive, Salesforce, Hubspot, Zoho, Zapier, Slack, and others. On top of that, the AI-assisted features of the software allow you to easily filter and hide companies so that you only see quality leads.

Leadfeeder Features:

  • Powerful contact insights
  • Automatic lead scoring
  • Instant lead generation
  • Multiple filtering
  • CRM automation
  • Personalized email alerts

Leadfeeder is Ideal For: Medium and large sales teams

Leadfeeder Free Trial: 14 Days

Leadfeeder Pricing: Leadfeeder offers two different pricing plans as listed below:

A. Lite plan: $0/ month
B. Premium plan: $87/ month

3. HubSpot Marketing Hub

 HubSpot Marketing Hub lead tracking software

HubSpot Marketing Hub software is a powerful, user-friendly platform that helps you attract the right audience, convert more visitors into customers, and run complete inbound marketing campaigns at scale. 

This lead generation platform saves you time and provides you with all the information you need to offer a personalized customer experience that attracts and converts the right customers at scale.

HubSpot Marketing Hub also enables you to create a powerful website with drag-and-drop functionality, as well as prepare and share content with your target audiences. You can also create personalized messages and engaging calls to action to meet the needs of your website visitors.

HubSpot Marketing Hub Features:

  • Marketing automation
  • Social media marketing & monitoring
  • Ad tracking & management
  • Blogging
  • Website SEO
  • Third-party integrations

HubSpot Marketing Hub is Ideal For: Large sales teams

HubSpot Marketing Hub Free Trial: 14 Days

HubSpot Marketing Hub Pricing: HubSpot Marketing Hub offers three different pricing plans as listed below:

A. Starter plan: $45/month (Includes 1,000 marketing contacts)
B. Professional plan: $800/month (Includes 2,000 marketing contacts)
C. Enterprise plan: $3600/month (Includes 10,000 marketing contacts)

Take note that these are monthly costs. However, if you pay for a year in advance, you will receive a 10% discount on these prices.

4. Overloop

Overloop lead generation tool

Overloop is a multi-channel outbound B2B leads generation platform that is designed to manage your entire sales pipeline, track your performance, and, ultimately, close more deals!

The software includes a number of cutting-edge features that allow you to do things like build and enrich prospect lists from LinkedIn with a single click and send personalized multi-channel outbound campaigns at scale.

Overloop also enables you to manage your entire sales process, from prospecting to closing, on a single platform, as well as track everything to improve the performance of your entire sales team.

Overloop Features:

  • Cold email campaigns
  • Multi-channel campaigns
  • Deals and pipelines
  • Integration & syncing
  • Revenue forecasting

Overloop is Ideal For: Small and medium sales teams

Overloop Free Trial: 14 Days

Overloop Pricing: Unlike other B2B lead generation tools, Overloop only offers one plan– No Brainer, which includes all the features. The plan costs $99 per user per month. However, Users can purchase additional credits if their current credits expire.

5. OptinMonster

OptinMonster lead generation software

OptinMonster is a lead-generation tool that assists businesses in converting and monetizing website traffic. The software allows you to create appealing offers by selecting a pre-built template designed for maximum conversions or starting from scratch with a blank canvas. Following that, you can target and personalize your offers by utilizing the platform’s powerful targeting and segmentation engine.

Furthermore, the platform features a comprehensive dashboard that provides insights into all the statistics you need to improve your lead generation strategy. Moreover, OptinMonster contains a number of features that combine to make the software one of the most powerful conversion optimization toolkits in the world.

OptinMonster Features:

  • Advance traffic redirection
  • Exit intent technology
  • Page level targeting
  • Valuable insights and analytics
  • Multiple lead capture forms

OptinMonster is Ideal For: Small and medium sales teams

OptinMonster Free Trial: No

OptinMonster Pricing: OptinMonster offers four different pricing plans:

A. Basic plan: $16/month
B. Plus plan:
$32/month
C. Pro plan: $49/month
D. Growth plan: $82/month

Take note that these are the monthly costs. However, if you pay annually, you will get a 30-40% discount on these prices.

This brings us to the end of this detailed lead generation guide. We hope that this information has improved your understanding of the subject. To improve lead generation, we highly recommend that you use the B2B lead generation strategies and B2B lead generation tools mentioned above.

Frequently Asked Questions

Lead generation is an important process because it helps businesses procure potential customers.

Freshsales, Leadfeeder, HubSpot Marketing Hub, OptinMonster, and Overloop are some of the popular lead generation software.

There are two types of B2B lead generation: inbound lead generation and outbound lead generation.

Some of the best ways to generate leads on a low budget are to create a user-friendly website, retarget the visitor with ads, follow up on leads, offer live demos and free webinars, and establish a strong social media presence.

Inbound leads are those who contact you directly from their end via referral or other marketing channels. On the other hand, outbound lead generation involves reaching out to prospects through advertising, marketing calls, emails, and other means.

B2B leads are individuals or businesses who could be potential customers for your company.

Updated : January 16, 2024

subscribe image
Let’s Stay in Touch

Subscribe to our newsletter & never miss our latest news and promotions.

people subscribed +21K people have already subscribed
Share This