A complete list of how to generate more B2B sales leads 

A guide on generating more B2B leads, with a range of inbound and outbound strategies to help your business grow.

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Looking to generate more leads fast? You can bring in more piping-hot B2B leads in many ways, but which one is the most effective? Which is the most time-savvy? What’s the most cost-effective?

We have the answers! This guide highlights every possible strategy to transform your lead generation efforts into a well-oiled machine!

But before we get into it, let’s define those different types of leads. The full picture is always the greatest!

The difference between MQLs and SQLs

Surely a lead is a lead, right? Not quite.

MQL

Marketing-qualified leads are potential prospects who have interacted with your marketing activity. The fact they’ve clicked or dug deeper beyond your advertising shows interest, but they might not be primed and ready to buy.

SQL

Sales-qualified leads are prospects that have shown high intent to purchase. They may have encountered your marketing, been actively engaged by a sales rep, or sought out your business themselves. Your sales reps are ready to engage these leads further.

Now that we’ve cleared that up, let’s move on to the best part… the ultimate list to drive more B2B leads! 

How to generate more B2B leads quickly

And the top spot goes to…

1. Email prospecting

Put simply, email prospecting is a cold form of outreach. Be sure not to listen to the “email marketing is dead” fodder. According to our latest report, 67% of buyers prefer to be contacted by email, and 86% of businesses say email delivers “good to excellent” ROI. That’s what we like to see.

It’s an effective way of generating more B2B leads. Allowing you to actively get yourself into the inboxes of people who are seeking solutions to pain points.

To successfully take full advantage of email prospecting, you must:

1. Create a compliant list of prospects who will benefit from your product or service (no bought lists, please!)
2. Send out that first email and begin nurturing the relationship
3. Keep up with the perfect email sequence. Follow up with those who don’t respond, add value and be on hand to answer questions for those who do
4. Take a personalised approach – always make your prospect feel like they’re a number one priority

To get an in-depth look at email prospecting and how to do it well, we have an ultimate guide you don’t want to miss out on.

2. PPC

The ultimate on-point targeting hack. While it can be costly, it’s a quick way to get your offering in front of those actively searching for solutions. 

It’s a form of online advertising that will help get your website to the top of search engine results pages. It’s a quick and easy win for generating more B2B leads.

Want to execute PPC with style? Check out our best-kept secrets for getting more leads from your ad spend.

3. Sales Navigator and InMails

LinkedIn is the king of all social media for B2B experts. And it just so happens that it does a world of good for generating B2B leads. 

LinkedIn Sales Navigator is designed for sales professionals, teams and all businesses big and small! So, it’s important that your teams are making the most of it. This premium service gives you access to features that help the outreach game.

Your most valuable tool? InMail, of course! This allows your team to send messages to prospects even if you haven’t connected with them.

Feeling like a beginner and needing a how-to on making the most of LinkedIn Sales Navigator? We’ve got you covered. 👉 Sales Navigator guide

Before approaching your LinkedIn prospecting, ensure your profile is up to scratch:

4. Paid social media ads

We know LinkedIn is optimal for B2B social prospecting, but there’s a whole court to still take advantage of. If you’re present on Instagram and Facebook, you can take up ad space here to help with lead generation. 

Being present across multiple touchpoints establishes a level of trust through familiarity, which helps keep your brand top of mind. 

Did you know? The encoding variability hypothesis states that when people are exposed to information in multiple contexts, it helps make your brand more memorable. So, what are you waiting for?

But, if we’re being super transparent, your social media targeting won’t be the most exact, which doesn’t always help with spend. Here at Sopro, we’ve cracked the code for that.

In partnership with Clearbit, we’ve added a feature to our internal campaigns. It lets us directly match your prospecting audience onto platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Google Display Network. 

It makes the paid social game highly targeted, reaching those key decision-makers in the right place at the right time. Watch this space. 👀

5. Referral programs

Do you have a whole cohort of customers who love your brand? Bring them in to help with generating B2B leads!

Referral marketing is the process of encouraging existing customers to refer your brand to their contact, helping bring new leads into the sales funnel. Similar to word of mouth, but instead, you’re actively harnessing the power of customer advocacy.

There are plenty of benefits to this form of lead generation: 

• Higher lead quality
• Lower acquisition costs
• Yields a better customer retention rate
• Improves brand awareness
• Increases trust

And get this – it works. Prospects are 4x more likely to work with you if they have been referred.

6. Networking

Networking is a great way for your company to communicate on the ground level. After all, in-person conversations are often more memorable.

Find events and groups that are relevant to your industry and send in your best sales reps for the occasion. Demonstrate your expertise and offer collaboration. It will enable a space to become part of a wider community of professionals.

7. Direct Mail

Now we already know what you’re thinking. No one uses snail mail anymore?! 🐌

And that’s exactly how you stand out from your competitors…

In a world that is tuned into the digital, it’s time to bring in the old-school moves. After all, our State of Prospecting report saw 18% of buyers saying they were happy to receive letters as a form of outreach!

And if we’re shouting about it, you know we’ve tried it.

We ran an internal campaign that sent highly personalised introductory letters before sending an email. Buyers who received letters were 23% more likely to open that follow-up email than those without.

It’s a stand-out approach that offers that extra level of personalisation – and it resonates.

8. Cold calling

Cold calling is a practice readily known amongst sales teams! It is unsolicited outreach to potential customers who haven’t previously expressed an interest in your offering.

Confident sales reps, step forward! Using this to generate B2B leads involves effective communication and adaptability.

It can be a hard and slow process, but it’s not all doom and gloom. A sales rep can make between 35 and 45 cold calls daily. Cold calling as an outreach tactic opens up the floor to a much broader reach. 

It also shows potential for those unexpected opportunities. Evidence from RAIN Group has revealed that 82% of buyers accept meetings with sellers who cold call. It does no harm to put your business out there!

9. Warm calling

Warm calling is where salespeople ring prospects with prior interest or engagement with your offering. Whether that’s from navigating your website, downloading a resource, trying a free trial, or responding to an email…

Due to the prior engagement, this makes this attempt at calling more targeted, and some might say, more successful.

Warm calling provides a more personalised approach for more relevant and natural conversations. The stats speak for themselves – 31% of B2B salespeople build deeper connections with prospects through warm calling.

Also, a prospect is 4.2x more likely to schedule a meeting when a pre-existing connection exists. Not to mention the conversion rate – 20-30%!

This shows how fostering connections and nurturing relationships can go a long way in lead-generation strategies.

10. IP matching – company identification

IP match is a clever little tool that will help you engage with prospects at the right time. It effectively turns anonymous web traffic into named businesses! Helping you fine-tune your outreach, from timing to personalisation. 

Capturing hidden interest allows you to uncover a new audience and segments – magic. 🪄

Here at Sopro, we add relevant prospects from those companies to client campaigns. Introducing our IP Match and Engage feature!

Clients of ours who have used this feature have increased booked sales meetings by 15% and the quality of leads by 38%. So it’s safe to say IP tracking is a great way to generate those B2B leads!

It’s a great way to convert inbound interest into outbound leads.

11. Free trials

Free trials are a great way of generating new leads. It gives prospective customers the opportunity to try out your service, helping them better understand if it works for them before purchasing. This strengthens trust and confidence. 

Not only will this benefit your conversion rates, but it will give you the opportunity to receive feedback, informing you on how to better improve your product or service. 

Not sure? Free trials are one of the most effective lead generation strategies – contributing to 66% of conversions.

12. Free tools

Offering free tools is another viable way of generating B2B leads. Allowing you to add further value to your outreach. It introduces yourself and addresses pain points, offering the prospect value before spending a penny. What could be better than that?

Free tools promote accessibility, allow learning and experimentation, and build a solid foundation for that relationship. 

It’s something we make the most of here at Sopro. Our free Marker Mapper tool helps visitors of our website to identify their total addressable market in seconds. It shows off what we can do… and that’s just the beginning!

13. Competition/giveaway

Is there any greater hype than the opportunity of freebies?! 

Using your social media platforms to run a competition is an effective way to drive engagement. It will also have a hand in increasing brand awareness, getting your community buzzing and expanding reach. But most importantly, it will grow your contact lists!

Using sign-up forms that subscribe users to your newsletter can go a long way to generate brand-new leads. With 34% of new customers acquired through contests, this strategy gives you access to audiences unaware of your offering. 

Even more ways to generate B2B leads

So, we’ve gone over some quick and easy lead generation techniques – let’s go the extra mile!

1. Content

Time to get creative! Compelling content has the ability to drive awareness, garner interest and implement some action. 

Attract with lead magnets! 🧲

A lead magnet is a long-form resource that you offer in exchange for contact information. They exist to demonstrate your expertise. This will help position you as a thought leader within your industry, adding value to what you’re trying to sell. The detail exchange will also give you direct access to prospects actively engaged in your content. 

Lead magnets can come in the form of ebooks, templates, guides and whitepapers. The idea of your lead magnet is to act as a valuable resource for your audience but to leave them wanting more!

2. Social media (beyond the realms of LinkedIn)

Let’s get social! While LinkedIn is great for B2B, it’s important not to discount Instagram, Facebook and X (formerly known as Twitter). 

Social media is a great way to generate new leads and heighten brand awareness, engagement and website traffic. 

This might just be a prospect’s first port of call – checking your social media pages. So it’s important that they’re up to scratch. Audit your pages and ensure that there’s clear contact information available. While you’re there, don’t forget to include plenty of clear calls to action.

Hot tip: add a Linktree in your bio to direct visitors to landing pages, FAQs and other valuable resources.

Utilise these platforms to create engaging content, and be sure to keep up with emerging trends.

Your content, whether organic or created for paid ads, must be sharable. Good content will also encourage conversation, generate user content and attract followers to your website! 

3. Influencer marketing

Yes, there is a space for influencer marketing in B2B – we can’t let B2C have all the fun now, can we? 

You may think making the most of influencers in B2B industries is relatively new. However, a study from Ogilvy highlights that 75% of B2B marketers are now employing influencer marketing. Furthermore, 93% of teams are looking at amplifying this strategy further. 

The time is now!

Working with heavyweight voices can increase brand awareness and visibility, giving you access to new audiences. This can only do great things for your lead generation output. 

Ensure your teams have the time to keep up with emerging trends and voices!

4. Blogging

Creating blog posts that target the needs of your target audience is a great way of driving traffic to your website. It’s a simple and effective way of demonstrating your expertise, experience, authority and trustworthiness. 

B2B companies who produce blogs generate 67% more leads on average every month. 

Blogging highlights that your team are thought leaders in the industry and that you are a great resource to draw from. 

It’s a cost-effective long-term strategy that ensures conversion. Not only that, but it’s also a great space to promote the wins in your own company. Perhaps you’ve published a new report, have created a downloadable resource, or won an award. This is the perfect platform. 

Long-form content such as this is also very versatile. Just one blog can be converted into multiple social posts across various platforms. 

5. SEO

Search Engine Optimisation is the practice of enhancing your website so that it will rank higher on search engines. 

There are plenty of strategies that can help with this:

• Website audits (what can you update)
• Checking in on that keyword research (what is your target audience searching for)
• Getting backlinks (getting other high-performing websites to link to you)
• Implementing a solid content strategy – this is where those blogs can come in!

SEO can boost your B2B lead generation efforts by increasing awareness of your offering through organic traffic. 70% of businesses have reported that SEO generates more sales on average than PPC – and it’s cheaper!

The higher you sit on a search engine results page, the more effective that awareness will be. 

6. Website Live Chat

Using live chat for customer support is a no-brainer, but using it for lead generation? Now there’s an idea! 

71% of customers now expect real-time support through a digital platform. It goes a long way in forming trust, nurturing relationships, and creating a personalised experience. A tool like this also ensures the customer journey is efficient and convenient. 

But how does this tool help with lead generation and conversion?

It’s a speedy form of communication! No need to book meetings or calls when you can have your queries answered in the moment. It also encourages customer engagement, makes space for personalised interactions and improves overall service, which can improve customer satisfaction. Not to mention it’s a great way of collecting contact details!

No brainer, we say! Especially when 79% of businesses have attributed live chat to higher revenue, sales and lead generation.

7. Email signature marketing

First impressions count, and great impressions last. So, when it comes to email outreach, you need to nail it – pay special attention to your email signature. 

Optimising your email signature is a low-cost, high-volume tactic that is simple to implement. It’s a continually active campaign that complements your messaging. To bolster this, a survey of businesses found that optimising email signatures can increase click-through rates by up to 15%. This is great news for landing pages and lead generation!

A well-crafted signature can convey professionalism, credibility, and your brand’s personality. By optimising your signature, you can set the stage for meaningful connections and create a lasting impact on recipients.

8. Review sites

Product reviews are integral for establishing trust, demonstrating credibility and showing off the value of your product or service. That’s why being present on review sites is integral for lead generation. 

According to G2, buyers are 92.4% more likely to go through with a purchase if they’ve read a trusted review. 

So make sure your business is present across these review and comparison sites, and don’t be shy about asking customers for them either. Got a good rating? Show this off on your website!

9. Remarketing 

Remarketing helps with lead generation as it aims to interact with prospects already engaged with your brand. This could have been signalled from a newsletter sign-up to sampling a free trial… the list goes on. 

Advantages of this tactic include increased brand awareness, lead nurturing and re-capturing lost leads. It can take many forms, such as targeted ads, highly personalised landing pages or relevant sales content.

10. Press releases

Not just for the Hollywood stars! 

Press releases are a great way of shouting out into your industry. Especially if you’ve won an award, created a compelling whitepaper, or even launched a new product. The key elements of an effective press release include:

• Have a good idea of your target audience and where they consume information.
• Pique interest with a compelling headline. Summarise the information succinctly but draw enough attention to be clicked on.
• Add insightful quotes from individuals within the business, but be sure to avoid cliches!
• Include relevant details. If you’re shouting about a whitepaper, be sure readers know where to find it. 

The benefits include enhancing your brand visibility, building trust, and strengthening your SEO output. It will go a long way in cementing yourself as a thought leader. All positive steps towards your lead generation efforts.

11. Podcasting

B2B podcasting is ideal for strengthening brand reach and visibility, even more so if you partner up. It will unlock even more sales potential!

Podcasts are becoming increasingly popular, and there’s no wonder why. They increase memory encoding by 12% and heighten brand consideration by 57%. Great news for B2B lead generation efforts. 

On top of expanding reach, you can position yourself as a voice of expertise and authority. There’s also a real human element to podcasts that gives a face to your brand. It allows for storytelling and authentic conversations to come into play. This will foster deeper connections with your audience. 

Want to check out how we’ve utilised podcasts to demonstrate how our service works? 👇

Just a few added extras on how to generate B2B leads

The more strategies you make the most of, the more your B2B lead generation is likely to improve. So, before signing off, we thought we’d drop in a few more valuable tricks and tips.

1. Automation to nurture leads 

Automation isn’t something to fear, it’s there to optimise your sales team output.

There are programs that will automatically arrange follow-up appointments, fire off follow-up emails, and so much more. All while documenting everything in your CRM.

Furthermore, automation can help with lead scoring, helping with organising and targeting the right contacts at the right time. The focus should be on quality and making better use of your sales team’s time.

2. A/B testing

Lead generation strategies are fertile ground for a spot of A/B testing. From landing pages to email subject lines, there’s so much you can play around with. It allows you to track the impact on metrics such as click-through rates, open rates and intent triggers.

Need a good starting point? We looked at the best days and times to send emails in our State of Prospecting report. While it might not be the same across particular industries, it shows that testing can help generate even more leads. 

In fast-moving industries, it’s important to optimise your outreach strategies continually.  A/B testing is essential for lead generation and has been shown to increase conversion rates by 49%.

3. Social proof

Nothing quite as sweet as a good word! 

Customer reviews, awards, informative case studies, testimonials, and certifications are helpful in highlighting the benefits that your business can bring. It’s not only enticing but builds trust, too, making them a must for your lead gen strategies!

Encourage customers to write reviews. And if you’re active on chatty platforms, build a community that encourages conversations and user-generated content. If you’re providing a great service, make the most of it. After all, reviews can double sales and increase conversion rates by 270%.

Social proof performs well across social media and landing pages. A good case to make the most of it in your lead generation campaigns. 

4. Publish original content

Publishing original content like resources, whitepapers, and case studies can go a long way in establishing your authority. It will also help to demonstrate expertise and thought leadership within the industry.

You can differentiate yourself from the competition by providing unique and valuable insights on trends, challenges, or innovations. This is great for your B2B lead generation strategy. 

Content that aims to educate and take the lead in your industry can significantly impact how the sales pipeline moves. It can heighten your credibility, show off your expertise, and make you a trustworthy partner. 

And it’s worth it. 88% of business decision-makers reported that thought leadership increases trust in an organisation.

5. Nail your landing pages

Can you optimise your website for better lead generation? Absolutely.

A landing page is a web page you bring your audience to through your campaign activity. The aim is to secure a meeting or call, bringing prospects into the sales funnel. Alternatively, you can offer a free tool, service, resource, or newsletter in exchange for their contact details. 

Here’s how to optimise your landing pages to reduce the likelihood of them bouncing away.

• Have a focused message. If you overwhelm your audience with too much, they’ll click away.
• Make it pop with an engaging heading and a super clear Call To Action.
• Offer a value exchange. Nowadays, there’s a constant war for people’s attention, making them unlikely to give up their details unless for something valuable.
• Use an easy form. And don’t ask for too much information. Name, job title, and email are just fine.
• Add a little social proof in there! Build trust from the very beginning of that interaction. 
• Continually optimise. What works? What doesn’t? Don’t stagnate, especially if your industry moves quickly.

6. Personalise your web browsing experience

A personalised experience can foster trust and credibility. So, it’s essential to integrate clever tools like dynamic web pages to create memorable and meaningful experiences.

With a dynamic website, the information on the website can be different to each visitor. This can be determined by location, local time, preferences, or the actions they’ve already taken on the website. It goes a long way in creating a tailored and interactive interaction.

But how does this help with B2B lead generation?

60% of marketers say personalisation improves lead quality, and 72% of consumers prefer to engage with personalised messaging. 

7. Mobile optimisation

*Ring ring* The modern B2B buyer is calling, telling us that 42% of them use mobile during their research process.

So, your website and content must be adaptable and well-optimised for mobile. Every customer journey needs to be the same – easy.

Ensuring your website is ready for any device to help with lead generation is simple. Use larger fonts that are easy to read (sans serif is the king), good quality imagery and menus that adapt well. Easy navigation is essential.

Multi-channel efforts are key to next-level lead generation

Mastering the art of B2B lead generation doesn’t need to be complicated! Grasp the basics of outreach and then get creative. It’s all about a multi-faceted approach that harnesses:

• Quality over quantity
• Maximises sales and marketing efficiency

You can navigate the buyer journey effectively by aligning sales and marketing efforts. This ensures an enjoyable experience that builds on your own authority within your industry, building trust. By establishing a great strategy, you build a system that targets the right buyer at the right time and place and with the right message. 

It goes without saying that there are a whole host of quick and easy ways to boost your lead generation strategies. 

Armed with these tactics, you can stay ahead in the competitive B2B landscape, and present your product or service as an expert-lead business solution.