Lead Generation through different traction channels

1. B2B Marketing
Paulina Ortiz

2. Choose Channel and Test
● Starting point: brainstorm ideas for each channel and
start with the most valid ideas
● Test ideas out in a variety of channels to see which
works for your startup and then scale up
o design smaller scale tests that don’t require much upfront cost or effort

3. Which B2B Lead Generation Methods Work
Best?
Source:Placester.com

4. Traction Channels
• Viral Marketing
• Public Relations
• Unconventional PR
• SEM
• Social and Display Ads
• Offline Ads
• SEO
• Content Marketing
• Email Marketing
• Engineering as Marketing
• Target Market Blogs
• Business Development
• Sales
• Affiliate Programs
• Existing Platforms
• Trade Shows
• Offline Events
• Speaking Engagements
• Community Building

5. Offline Events
Networking and speaking engagements drive success at
events
● Conferences: TechCrunch Disrupt, Launch Conference,
SXSW
● Host own conference and invite loyal customers to
speak on how your product has helped them
o Stream event to get people from out of the area to “attend”
o To target top executives, host the conference in an appealing
city and invite prominent figures

6. Trade Show Tactics
B2B Lead Generation Report 2013

7. Sponsorships
● Sponsor an industry influencer in a workshop or event
to get exposure to your brand
● Sponsor events that would appeal to target market

8. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• “Fat head”: trying to rank for
search terms that directly rank
your company
• “Long-tail”: trying to rank more
specific terms with lower search
volumes
• Invest if search volumes of
terms people use to find
products in your industry are
large enough
• Google Trends: see how your
keywords have been trending
• Open Site Explorer: check # of
links competitors have for a
given term
• Once you’ve settled on a few
terms make sure they are in
page titles and main site and
have other sites link to yours to
increase quality ranking

9. Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
• Before you invest heavily in AdWords, test out different
search phrases with A/B testing and measure CTR for
each
• Aim to have CTR around 2% to ensure a high quality
score from Google
• Advertise on Google search network or ads on Content
Network (non-Google sites)
• Use Retargeting programs (Adroll) to bring interested
users back to your site

10. Social & Display Ads
• Display Advertising through Google on relevant industry
sites
• Direct Ads: reach out to relevant sites directly
• MixRank and Adbeat show the ads your competitors are running
and where
• Alexa and Quantcast helps determine who visits the sites that
feature competitor’s ads

11. Social Media
“Social media is the world’s water cooler”, B2B leads fare there for the taking
Source: Media
Bistro

12. Social Media Tactics
Have Clear Call to Actions
1. Send your social media visitors directly to the website: website is the
most effective lead generation tactic (“lead generation report 2013”)
2. Have a monthly informative newsletter on SMB practices and allow
newsletter signups on your page so you can gather email addresses.
3. Provide links to free tools (e-books) on social media to gather email
addresses.

13. Different Networks
• LinkedIn: 250 million business professionals. Allows
targeting by job title, company, industry, and other
business demographics
• Twitter: 250 million users. Sponsored Tweets that
appear in user’s feed/Twitter card ad unit that allows
advertisers to capture user’s emails that opt in.
• SlideShare: Content Ads on LinkedIn

14. What Social Media Tactics are Most
Effective?
B2B Lead Generation Report 2013

15. Participate in Social Media Forums
Join conversations with potential leads. Being active in
these conversations means ensuring a stronger marketing
presence among people who matter.
● LinkedIn Groups related to your industry/product
● Quora, Product Hunt
● Twitter Chats

16. Website A/B Testing
• Button vs text links
• Location of call to actions
• Size, color, contrast of action buttons
• Page speed
• Adding images
• Headlines
• Site copy
• Testimonials
• Number of form fields

17. Viral Marketing
• The process of getting your existing users to refer others
to your products
• Viral coefficient: K=i*conversion rate (i=# of invites sent
per user and the rate at which thy convert)
• Viral cycle time: how long it takes a user to go through
your viral loop, the shorter the better

18. Public Relations (PR)
• If you have a fascinating story with broad appeal, media
outlets want to hear from you because it drives page
views resulting in more advertisement
• Target smaller sites like Hacker News, Digg, and Reddit
since sites like Tech Crunch and Lifehacker often pick
stories from here
• “If it’s not interesting enough to elicit an emotion, you
don’t have a story worth pitching”

19. PR Tactics
• Follow influencers in your
industry and reach out to
blogs they often link to
• Use Help a Reporter Out
(HARO) to get a mention
on a piece
• Offer reporters
commentary on stores
related to industry
• Follow reporters that
cover your industry on
Twitter
• Build a real relationship
with tem by commenting,
liking posts

20. PR
1. Submit small story to community sites with large
audiences
2. Share story on social media to drive awareness
3. Email to influencers for comment
4. Message blogs in your space to tell them you have a
buzz-worthy story
5. Email blogs that cover story and offer interview

21. Out-of-the Box PR
● Try some customer appreciation tactics that build brand
evangelists that leads to organic growth
o Call customers when new vendors that might interest them sign
up
o Customer of the month program on your site
o Wow one loyal customer a month with over-the-top customer
service and feature that story on your site (it will make others
and potential leads want to become loyal too!)
 http://www.helpscout.net/10-customer-service-stories/

22. Email Marketing
● Lead Generation
o Free Tools (e-books, presentations, webinars) can be
delivered instantly in exchange for an email address
o On the bottom of your blog posts and landing page, ask for
email address
o Have premium content for buyers on your site that require
email address to access
o Create a short free course which at the end you have a clear
call to action, requiring email address

23. Content Marketing

24. Types of B2B Content
● Case Studies
● Customer Testimonials
● Customer Videos
● Product Videos/Demos
● Webinars
● Guest Blog Posts
● e-newsletters or e-books
● Infographics

25. Content & Inbound Marketing
● If you’re creating great content, advertise it on social
media, blog, or on SlideShare to get users to your site
● Host monthly seminars/webinars on topics of interest by
industry
o relationship building with current users and a way to get new
users

26. Most Important Aspect of an Effective
Webinar
B2B Lead Generation Report 2013

27. Content & Inbound Marketing
● Be guest blogger in like-minded blogs with high traffic
o http://alltop.com/ is good for browsing blogs by subject for targeted
advertising and alexa.com can have traffic info
o If you establish a good relationship with them, the bloggers can
become your affiliates
● Videos: with YouTube being the 2nd largest search engine, you
can’t neglect video and its virality effect
o Video series: visit and interview some of your most loyal customers on
how your product has made their life easier

28. Affiliate Programs
● Commission Junction (CJ), Pepperjam, and Linkshare all have
strong networks of affiliates who make a living promoting other
company’s products
● You get to set conditions: commission based on conversions or
signups
o Email lists: Many affiliates have large email lists which they use to
promote products while receiving commission
o Blogs: blogs in relevant industries with high traffic can become
affiliates and promote your product
o You can even get your customers involved in your affiliate program
and take advantage of their network

29. Once you get the Lead… Nurture
• Contact them within 5 minutes of when they sign up
• Engage in at least 4 reach-outs to keep them interested
• Include a call to action
• 82% of prospects say content targeted to their specific
industry is engaging

30. Sources
1. http://www.slideshare.net/hschulze/b2-b-lead-generation-
report-2013
2. http://blog.crazyegg.com/2014/04/14/b2b-lead-gen/
3. Traction Book: A Startup Guide to getting Customers