For the B2B space, it’s not about getting any old name and contact information in lead generation. Your business needs quality leads – leads that fit your ideal customer profile, have the need and the budget for your product or service, and have some say or authorization in the overall decision-making. So how do you go about collecting high-quality leads and ensuring that you have a better chance of connecting with future customers or clients?
Inbound vs. Outbound Marketing and Lead Generation
When we’re talking about generating quality leads, it helps to separate them into two groups: inbound leads and outbound leads. Or another way to talk about it: warm market and cold market.
Inbound leads are those that contact you first. They discover your brand and your business and reach out with the express interest in becoming a client or customer. How and where they make contact may vary, but in general, like most warm market leads, they often have a higher conversion rate and return on investment.
Outbound leads, on the other hand, are those that you contact and actively pursue, often using marketing campaigns. This includes tactics like direct mail, cold calls, cold emails, traditional advertising, and media buys. The benefit of outbound marketing is that it allows you to control who you’re reaching out to, but the conversion rate will likely be lower.
6 Inbound Strategies for B2B That Produce Quality Leads
Of these two groups, inbound marketing can sometimes be considered more difficult because there are limits to what you can do. You can try different tactics to put yourself out there and be discovered, but you can’t control what people connect with. But let’s take a look at some of the tactics that are proven to be effective:
Valuable Content
While content marketing is often considered separate, regularly creating valuable content that tackles the problems, insights, and resources that matter to your audience is an important component of inbound lead generation. Well-developed content can truly highlight your brand and credibility, allowing potential customers to connect with your business before they ever even fill out a contact form.
Lead Magnets
Everyone likes free stuff, especially potential leads. Lead magnets are what we call high-value resources that you offer for free to your target audience. This can include things like guides and ebooks, premade templates, whitepapers, checklists, quizzes, and so on. The goal is to encourage engagement with your brand in a way that demonstrates that you know what you’re talking about.
Virtual Events
Live webinars, online conferences, workshops, product launches – all of these are types of virtual events that can serve to drive interest and engagement. More convenient and cost-effective than in-person events, these can be excellent opportunities for networking and demonstrating industry thought leadership. According to Statista, 49% of B2B marketers reported hosting 20 and 30 virtual events annually.
Search Engine Optimization
Despite all the shifts in search engine marketing in recent years, there is still no real substitute for the ability to position your business near the top of your targeted keyword search results. It’s about more than just putting a few key phrases into your content. The best SEO in 2025 includes optimizing for both voice search and AI searched. This means targeting longtail keywords that sync with the more conversational tone that people use in voice and AI search tools.
Multichannel Social Outreach
The more present your brand and your business is online, the more likely it is that customers will not only interact with it, but also see it as a leader in the space. It pays to stay present and engaged across multiple channels, including LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, online boards and communities, and more. It’s an opportunity to share thoughts and insights, generate conversations, and respond directly to your audience’s needs.
Networking and Collaboration
B2B thrives through networking and partnerships, cultivated relationships with experts, influencers, and complementary businesses in your industry. Collaborating with these partners on creating virtual events, lead magnets, and valuable content is mutually beneficial to both parties involved.
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6 Outbound Strategies for B2B That Produce Quality Leads
When you take on outbound marketing for lead generation, you have a lot more control on what the message is, who it’s targeted it at, and when they’re going to get it. It’s not about throwing the net around willy-nilly and hoping to catch fish; it’s about getting the right net for the right fish in the right place. Here are a few strategies for you to try:
Account-Based Marketing (ABM)
The idea behind ABM is that it’s not about trying to reach as many leads as possible, but instead focus on giving a smaller group of high-value accounts a very personalized experience. With ABM, you don’t develop generalized campaigns; you create marketing campaigns for each of these specialized leads. It requires a deeper knowledge of these prospects and their pain points, but it can be extremely effective.
Cold Emails
Like cold calling, cold emailing involves jumping into the inbox of a potential client to make your pitch, and it’s more effective than you might think when done right. Don’t use a form letter or something generic; craft personalized messages that you send to those who do the decision-making in your target companies. Talk to them person-to-person and show that you put in the effort.
Direct Mail
Direct mail is easy to overlook amid all the shiny digital marketing tools, but it remains a tried-and-true outbound marketing strategy. Depending on who you want to target and the message or sales pitch you want to convey, you can send out everything from quick and easy postcards to letters to full brochures and catalogs, and as a bonus: you can personalize and target these mailers just like an email campaign.
Referral Programs
Want more potential leads in your system? A great way to do that is to ask your current customers. By establishing a referral program that offers incentives like discounts or perks in exchange for referring new potential customers, you can vastly expand your reach.
Trade Shows
Nothing beats in-person, face-to-face networking, and in-person events and trade shows offer you exactly that. By strategically choosing events with the most potential for your business, creating an eye-catching booth, and putting yourself out there, you can not only generate potential leads, but you can also build new connections that may prove fruitful in the future.
Telemarketing
Your first reaction to this may be, “…that still works?” For B2B, it does, when done effectively. This means having a clear definition of your target audience and the potential customers you want to reach; coaching your sales team to be authentic and knowledgeable; and creating solid call scripts and flows that give your people clear strategies for handling objections and issues.
B2B Strategies for Success
The way B2B brands approach lead generation has some key differences than B2C, and to make the most of your time and your budget, you need to have a clear understanding of the types of strategies will result in quality leads with the best chances of converting to customers and clients. Partnering with a digital marketing agency with extensive knowledge on B2B advertising can give you access to all the benefits without the struggle and headache of sorting it out by yourself. You can contact us here at EdwardsSchoen if you’re interested in learning more.
