The job of any marketer is to get as many quality leads as possible for the business. But, is it possible without a well-thought-of demand generation strategy? Of course, not! It won’t be possible without driving demand in the first place It is only when you map out a good demand-lead generation strategy along your sales funnel that you can capture high-quality leads effectively. With this in mind, we are discussing 4 demand generation trends that can help you boost B2B lead generation this year.
1. Live Streaming
Videos are trending, no doubt about that! You can see video content (live or recorded) almost on all the social media platforms. Live streaming on social media quickly gained popularity amongst B2C brands who were trying to increase engagement with their buyers. For B2B industry, it seems to be catching on now. More and more companies are adopting live videos, especially webinars and webcasts, to attract their customer base. Did you know that 32% of B2B marketers believe webinars and webcasts are critical to the success of their content marketing strategy? Also, according to Content Marketing Institute, 58% of B2B marketers have already included live video as apart of their content marketing strategy. Wondering, how to use live streaming for your B2B services/products? Here are a few ways you can implement it –
- Start teaching your buyers: How-to videos perform are as “in-demand†as how-to blog posts. Besides that, live Q&A sessions and webinars on topics of interest will boost engagement. People are always willing to learn from industry experts.
- Show them who you are: Highlight your brand values, employees, customer success etc. Give your customers a peek behind the curtains.
- Live stream events. It could be a conference you are going to or a conference you are organizing. For example, you can stream bits and pieces of your product launch. Stream highlights, get feedback and engage with your customers.
There is no doubt left that live streaming will be the next big demand generation tool for B2B industry. If you are looking to boost your demand generation in 2018, you should start using live streaming. Periscope, Facebook Live, Livestream, UStream, and YouNow are the major players in this area.
Must Read: Top 6 Demand Generation Strategies Which Work!
2. Content Syndication and Industry Influencers
With so many brands creating content online, it is difficult to be found, noticed and admired. Collaborating with influencers and syndicating content gives you access to millions of potential buyers. Content Syndication: Content Syndication is the process of sharing content on third party sites in order to make yourself visible in front of a huge following. For example, publishing a post from your blog (which might have traffic in thousands) to Huffington Post, Forbes or Entrepreneur (platforms which have traffic in millions). Neil Patel says, When we started republishing content from the Kissmetrics blog on sites like Entrepreneur and Search Engine Journal, we saw the referral traffic pick up (we got almost 9,492 visitors a month) It is one of the most powerful tactics to engage target audience and gaining visibility. You can know more about content syndication here, here and here.
Must Read: 14 Expert Tips to Boost Your Blog Traffic with Content Syndication
Influencer Marketing With more and more people being tagged as influencers in different niches, collaborating with them to reach your target audience seems like the obvious choice. Not only do you grow your audience, but also improve sales by leaps and bounds. We can learn a lesson from Hubspot’s blog. They regularly partner with influencers who have experience in content marketing, digital marketing and sales. These Influencers write for their blog on areas of their expertise. Not only does Hubspot enjoy new content, it also gains authority. Similarly, SAP works with influencers to create content and organize events. The key aim to collaborate with influencers is to create thought leadership content and gain industry authority. With growing influencer collaborations and marketing in 2017, the FTC put out regulations around branded and sponsored content. It clarifies what brands and influencers have to disclose when working together. Instagram has made it easier with its branded content option. According to Quicksprout, these are a few platforms you can work on with influencers. If you want to generate demand quickly, influencer marketing is the way to go. You can make use of tools like Tapinfluence and Upfluence to find influencers and manage workflow.
3. Retargeting and Native Advertising
Retargeting While you feel that ads that follow are creepy, 3 out of 4 customers now notice re-targeted advertising. It allows marketers to stay on the minds of their audience, increase the visibility and boost the chances of conversion. According to WordStream research, conversion rates increase with retargeting ads being displayed to an internet user again and the wholecreepy factor is overblown. You can use Google dynamic remarketing and Facebook custom audience for retargeting your website visitors. In 2018, more marketers will have a dedicated budget for retargeting. Native advertising It is a non-disruptive form of paid media advertising. According to HubShout, 85 percent of internet users don’t feel that their browsing experience is hindered by native ads Graeme Donnelly, the founder of Quality Formations, says Native advertising has been so well accepted by internet users because it feels natural to the readers. Compared with traditional banners and pop-up ads, native ads are much less disruptive and they don’t give the feeling that the page is cluttered. Promoted tweets on Twitter, suggested posts on Facebook and content recommendation on content discovery platforms are a few known forms. You can read about 12 examples of native advertising here. To give you an example, a native advertising campaign helped GE get 416,000 click-throughs. There is no way you should miss on including native advertising in your demand generation strategy.”
Must Read: 5 Best Practices Every Marketer Should Follow
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