Identifying ways to improve your ROI (return on investment) on your B2B lead generation campaign is an essential marketing strategy. Strangely though, this doesn’t always have to mean making significant changes to create a difference.
Often, small and minor modifications like increasing your website’s loading times can have a powerful impact on your success rates.
Why You Need Qualified Leads to Improve ROI
Successful B2B lead generation is not all about getting a high volume of prospects straight into your sales funnel. The efficacy with which you achieve this objective is of utmost importance.
As it’s usually the case with many primary activities, a lucrative return on investment is the ultimate signal of B2B lead generation that works.
So what exactly can you do to improve your ROI?
Qualified leads go a long way to help you develop a healthy pipeline. You can’t measure your ROI on a B2B lead generation campaign with precision without following up on opportunities each time they show up.
If you’re a sales manager, maintain a view of your strategies by tracking and monitoring your sales funnels as you identify potential bottlenecks.
For instance, if you have people who are stagnating or wholly stuck at the leads’ stage, then know for sure your team isn’t capable of qualifying prospects. Your best bet here would be to revamp and overhaul your qualifying and nurturing activities.
You may also have to fine-tune how you assign tasks to your reps. Move fast, though, because the sooner you get out of average or bad deals, the sooner you can move on to qualified prospects.
Here is what it takes to use marketing data as a tool for determining the critical areas to improve the ROI of your b2b marketing lead generation campaign.
Set Clear Goals
Setting clear goals means aligning your marketing objectives with the business’ commercial KIPs. Involve your sales teams to ensure your sales and marketing strategies are streamlined and aligned to the same goals.
Always ensure that your metrics are quantifiable, and focus on the set goals. This step is essential because it will help you keep a close eye on the progress. Focus on delivering quality before forecasting quantity.
Many strategies take time, and there are always measures you can take to expedite progress after identifying areas that need improvement.
Keep in mind that some of your marketing strategies should be around measured risks and bets. If any of your many techniques underperform, try to move as quickly as possible while sticking to your marketing plan.
Update Your Data
Start with auditing your data to identify any weaknesses in your campaigns. Auditing will show you the areas that worked best, and if your data aligns well with sales, indicate where the business is getting the best ROI.
You’ll then have an idea on your next step, which includes setting key targets and metrics and putting your strategy in motion.
Focus on specific activities, like automated email solutions. In other words, use your email list to generate reports that can help you take your online advertising plans to the next level. Note that online advertising platforms generate data on clicks and impressions.
Be sure to keep track of all the contacts you make during offline marketing activities like trade shows. Tactical data generated from these activities play a crucial role in marketing.
Once you’ve audited your data, go the extra mile to ensure that what you advertise to your target audience is factual, current, and relevant.
Your data should also flow well from how you collect, use, and archive it. This flow is essential because if your marketing plan documents the data collection and management journey with disconnected joints, it’ll be challenging to identify how sales unfold accurately.
Eventually, replicating your success will be a hit or a miss. To sum up, you have to pinpoint specific marketing plans that contributed to growth.
Set a Plan
Before starting your campaign, you should have a plan to guide your actions. Keep in mind that in B2B, it’s the data that rules.
Ask and answer the following questions when setting up a plan:
- Who are your prospects and targets?
- Where are they?
- Is there a specific person or a group of people you can engage with to achieve a particular objective?
- Which channels will you use, and how often?
- Will your budget be enough?
Once you’ve clarified this information, you can go ahead to set up a six-month marketing plan. Your plan should define the channels, measurable data, and frequency in detail. The worst mistake you can make is to delay the implementation of your plan because of some decisions you have to make. Remember, quick action is what will affect your long-term growth.
Companies sometimes fail to organize their data, so they end up with low-quality leads in their pipeline. To generate high-quality B2B leads, you need to know what your ideal customer looks like because it makes it easier to create more targeted ads.
Evaluating your contact details from time to time can help you update your database to attract the right type of prospects. Analytics will help you identify common yet essential traits of your loyal and most profitable customers.
Use this info to come up with B2B lead generation solutions that work. As many marketing experts say, ‘The most reliable predictor of future success is past performance.’
On that note, the best prospects for your business’ solutions are customers whose traits, behaviors, and habits closely align with those of your topmost current customers.
Keep in mind, though, that customer habits and traits evolve, which leaves you no choice but to monitor trends and adjust your strategies accordingly.
Make your plan detailed yet straightforward. Include a budget, a timeline during which you expect to meet your goals, and a contingency if your plan doesn’t work. When setting up the strategy, be sure to take into account the following data factors:
- IP search tools to analyze your site visitors
- A speed test to identify page load times
- Lead conversion numbers
- Email open rates and clicks
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator
In your plan, you may need experts’ services to help you in your B2B lead generation campaign as you work to improve your ROI. That’s why your marketing budget should always include outsourcing expenses.
Think of it as an investment, because outsourcing will allow you to leverage the skills, experience, and general expertise of the partner you bring on board. Ultimately, you will manage to save on time that your team would have spent on inefficient manual efforts.
You and your sales and marketing team can then focus on other marketing and B2B lead generation areas that need improvement.
Review Your Results
It is impossible to assess or improve your B2B lead generation campaign if you fail to analyze data and results. To succeed in marketing, you must plan, launch, and take time to review and test. Stay optimistic, too, as you follow the mantra that there’s always room for improvement in your campaign performance.
Marketers have more than enough data today compared to decades ago. Take advantage of this perk and make the most of the data that comes your way. Don’t just target consumers with engaging and captivating content; keep track of how your elaborate campaign plans are performing.
Collect each data point that your campaigns generate. You never know what’s necessary until you start analyzing data. Don’t rely on the ‘best guess’ only to find you don’t have the relevant data to back it up. Take the time to test, adapt, and correct what needs updating in your marketing plan.
As you do this, remember that one strategy may work in a particular campaign and fail in the next. You need to master your plan and learn different techniques. If you lack skill, look to experts for help, they are always there.
You can’t evaluate and continuously improve your B2B lead generation without referring to your database. It is, and will always remain, your first port of call for all your sales and marketing teams.
Track and monitor your strategies’ progress to get people into your pipeline with reliable and accurate contact details. Train your marketing team to create leads complete with relevant data that includes demographics, geographics, and firmographics.
In Conclusion
For your B2B lead generation campaign to produce desired results, you have to organize your data and attract high quality leads. The quality of your leads will influence your ROI’s quality. So it’s vital to attract relevant people who are interested in what you’re selling.
Start by figuring out your ideal target customer, their behavior and activities, and what they are looking for. Then come up with top-notch strategies that will help them get solutions. Always ensure that your lead generation strategies deliver leads that can translate into sales.
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Ashley Wilson is a digital nomad and writer for hire, specialized in business and tech topics. In her self-care time, she practices yoga via Youtube. She has been known to reference movies in casual conversation and enjoys trying out new food. You can get in touch with Ashley via Twitter.
