There are two sides to a sales lead generation process: inbound and outbound. Both are equally important, and both will be a part of B2B sales efforts in this decade and those later to come.
Although, there still seems to be a fight against outbound: Marketers say it’s old, it’s dead, or it’s not necessary.
At CIENCE, we use a combination of both and have successfully implemented lead generation campaigns for more than 2,500 companies across more than 250 industries, and while you’re reading this, we will be filling more and more business funnels with outbound leads.
In this article, we’ll name all the reasons behind outbound’s success and give you insights into five effective outbound lead gen strategies that will upgrade your sales efforts in 2024.
Outbound lead generation is a sales process of finding and actively engaging leads that fit your ideal customer profile (ICP). Simply put, inbound attracts leads in, outbound goes out to find them.
For instance, company A provides team-building activities for big enterprises in California. Company B searches for these services and finds you through engine search, LinkedIn, or ads. With some help, this lead may go down through the sales funnel and become a client. That’s an inbound lead generation.
Since the leads need to keep flowing, company A finds one hundred leads that match their ICP and may be interested in this service. Then, sales reps reach out to them by phone, email, pre-targeting ads, or social media. Ten leads are interested and are ready to meet with the sales executives. That’s an outbound lead generation.
Inbound is cost-effective and more of a long-run strategy. It brings you leads that are more nurtured and more qualified to go down the sales funnel, yet it takes more time.
Outbound lead generation actively reaches a broader group of people and therefore brings you more sales opportunities in a shorter period. It gives you control of the leads you target and is great to get ahead of your competitors.
So we say, try both. Add outbound to your inbound to get a perfect equation.
Outbound is undeniably needed due to growing competition, the changing sales environment, global shifts, and digital transformation. A recent Gartner report revealed that by 2025, 80% of B2B sales interactions between supplier and buyer will occur in digital channels, so you'll want to stay ahead of the curve.
These five outbound lead generation techniques will help to grow your sales funnel no matter what.
The number of times people searched for “marketing automation” has tripled over the past five years, and that’s not a surprise. Marketing automation software or a CRM tool is now an essential part of an outbound lead generation process.
A CRM (customer relationship management) software is a tool that stores and tracks every interaction that happens between a B2B company and a lead.
Marketing automation:
Marketing automation is crucial for your outbound lead generation campaigns. The multichannel outreach becomes much clearer: Every interaction with the leads is monitored live. Therefore, your sales reps have more time for a quick reaction. And that matters because of the demand we face now where leads are nine times more likely to convert when businesses follow up within five minutes.
CRM software is a tool worth having. If you need help choosing, check our article, Top 5 CRM tools for 2024. Or, if you consider upgrading your marketing automation software to a new one, check our CRM migration checklist.
Again and again. This strategy was useful yesterday and will be tomorrow. Not to overdramatize, but we think it will stay here and into the near future as well.
The more information you have on your leads, the more ways you have to establish a trustworthy relationship with them. According to Outgrow, 72% of consumers say that they only engage with personalized content.
Personalization:
You can personalize almost anything in the outbound lead generation efforts: calling scripts, emails, landing pages, and even sales objections. Emails receive higher open rates, CTAs perform better, and pre-targeting ads cannot exist without personalization.
If you need some insights into email personalization, check out our 10 Email Personalization Hacks article to grab a prospect’s attention.
All is fair in love and outbound lead generation. Of course, you can still have a primary channel for your outreach, but you shouldn’t disregard the other resources.
Multichannel outreach:
Outbound lead generation channels include cold calling, cold emailing, social media connections, landing pages, pre-targeting ads, content syndication, direct mail, and much more.
82% of buyers say they have accepted meetings with salespeople after a series of contacts beginning with sales cold calls, proving that cold calling isn’t going to die any time soon.
Personalized cold emails can double your reply rates. Social media outreach is cheap and can reach a target demographic fairly quickly. Direct mail is much more tricky to master, although there is almost no competition in the lead’s post box.
No matter which channel you decide to add to the outbound lead gen efforts, it will be useful. For any questions on cold calling, use our guide. We also have a very detailed one on the cold emailing.
Content syndication is the process of distributing your content in multiple ways to reach your target audience. At least 65% of marketers use content syndication as a core part of their lead generation efforts.
Content syndication:
For instance, in the inbound, you use guest blogging and social media to send your content into the world. By using content syndication to increase your outbound leads, you get to choose who and when someone reads your content. You can distribute it through telemarketing (cold calling) or email marketing (cold emails). The top four most commonly used content types for that are whitepapers, presentations, infographics, and articles.
Digital generation takes over sales, with 80% of B2B buyers using mobile devices at home. And according to various sources, this number is about to multiply.
Mobile optimization:
Mobile optimization can be used to enhance both inbound and outbound lead generation. Your website must load fast and look good on mobile devices. However, don’t forget about landing pages, whitepapers, and any other possible links you may include in your outreach. Everything moves fast, and so should your outbound.
To optimize your customer’s mobile experience, fasten the load of pages, use app integrations (an homage to B2C), limit the data entry (make it simpler), or replace it with interactive content.
If you want a deeper dive into mobile optimization, check out what B2B marketers really think about it.
Outbound lead generation is a complicated science; it takes time to get everything right. Whether you need assistance with lead gen itself or implementing new outbound strategies, we are always here for you.