Interested about b2b lead generation ideas for your b2c sales funnel? Do you want to generate leads for your software company? You’ll learn lead generation ideas for software companies. You’ll learn how to generate leads for your software company. And you’ll learn from the most important mistakes made by leading software companies.
`When we have worked hard on the software of a business, the next thing to do is generate leads for that business. It is the time to contact people who will buy the product and services. Software will always need updating and support from our client. It is also necessary that we generate leads for new customers who will purchase our products/services. In this article, I go over some lead generation ideas for software companies.
Today’s article will investigate lead generation ideas and strategies for software companies, and more specifically b2b lead generation. We’ll take a look at what you can do to generate more quality leads, and how you can successfully convert those leads into sales. If you’re trying to develop a sales-oriented marketing strategy, consider what options are available to you and how they can be implemented.
Lead Generation Ideas for Software Companies – Promote Your Software Generate leads that convert! Knowing how to make a lead generation video, is a skill every software company must have. Also, it helps to know of some Lead Generation Ideas for Your Software Company
Make the Most of Video Marketing
In the same study, Google determined 70 percent of B2B buyers watch video during the buyer’s journey. Video content is powerful and flexible – and nearly half of B2B buyers consume 30 minutes or more of it.
At the top of the funnel, a polished one-minute video may be more effective than a blog in inspiring leads to convert, since they can consume videos quickly and easily.
PandaDoc does an excellent job of relaying content and valuable information in less than two minutes (which is the ideal time, by the way). Here’s a video giving a brief, but detailed, overview of the services they offer.
Within only a short time, they’ve addressed who their targeted leads are, what pain points they alleviate, and how they alleviate them, all while being engaging and creative. An impressive campaign!
Start Connecting and Engaging on LinkedIn.
A scattershot approach to social media does more harm than good for technology enterprises.
Research has shown that LinkedIn leads the pack in B2B lead generation, yielding about 78 percent of B2B leads compared to just 48 percent for Twitter and 42 percent for Facebook.
Social traffic is valuable, but if you only have the resources to focus on one network, pick LinkedIn for lead generation.
Those stats are largely in part because of the average tech company’s customer’s behaviors. You won’t find many businesses looking for new software scrolling through Instagram. They’re looking to find thought leaders and their business information, like size, age, and other credibility factors.
Tableau recognized this behavior and made a move to use LinkedIn Sponsored Content. This pushed their conversion to six percent, raising the bar for qualified leads.
Drive Word of Mouth With Your Current Customers.
Word of mouth is one of the most trusted strategies by consumers. People trust people.
Reversing that chain of thought, when someone finds a product or service that provided real value, they become excited to share it with those close to them.
There’s a pretty good chance that one of your current customers has a friend or colleague with a need similar to their own. Through reviews, testimonials, and social proof, you can boost your brand awareness with these fringe leads.
If your customers are having large success with your business, then it’s time to take it one step further and introduce referrals. Asking them to “refer a friend” can start generating leads that are already warm after hearing good things from your current customers.
This can cause a chain reaction that evolves into an expanding web of connections and new business.
Ask for referrals from current customers
If one customer has a need or interest in one of your products, there’s a good chance he or she knows someone else who would be interested as well. Ideally, the customer is satisfied enough to refer friends and colleagues to your business. Instead of simply hoping they do, be proactive and ask them to do it.
Create a “Refer a Friend” page on your website, where visitors provide a name and email address for potential new leads. Include a similar feature anywhere else you’re trying to generate leads. When offering product demos or event registrations, for instance, ask if anyone else would be interested. That one new lead could turn into several new leads—and more potential business from one communication.
Work with influencers
No matter how great your products and services are, a marketing campaign only goes so far in assuring potential customers of their worth. At some point, you need someone else to advocate for them. Turn to reviewers and key influencers in your industry to provide this.
Send out the product to key influencers before launching, along with links to landing pages. If they like it, their reviews and opinions alone could create demand for it and boost the effectiveness of other lead generation efforts.
Send out surveys
What do tech buyers want? What are they looking for when they investigate a new software platform? Are they looking to save time and money or improve service delivery? Market research could tell you, but so could a survey that asks respondents to tell you.
Avoid questions about a particular product or about your company. Instead, ask what respondents are dealing with at home or in their organizations. Ask them what they look for in a software platform. Ask them what they would pay for a particular solution.
Put this survey on your website, and share the link across multiple channels. These surveys will not only bring in new names, but also give you an idea of what types of offers to make in the future.
Use Content Syndication
Content syndication can help you get more visitors to your website and you can then convert them into leads. Almost 30% of B2B companies find it to be a valuable lead generation strategy.
But how does it help?
Content syndication allows you to publish the same content on multiple platforms. You may think it is the same as adding duplicate content on different websites. But it is not so. When you syndicate the content, the syndicated content refers to the original content so this ensures that you don’t face any SEO issues.
With content syndication, your content will reach a larger audience. It is because the syndication platforms already have a large audience and higher domain scores. Moreover, publishing on these sites helps you build authority.
Due to a large audience on these websites, you are more likely to get more visitors. So, it raises the chances of gaining leads.
However, you should put a CTA directing people to your original website to generate leads.
For example, Google Developers uses Medium to do content syndication.
Image via Medium
So, try to incorporate content syndication in your content marketing and lead generation strategies for optimum results.
Some of the popular content syndication platforms are:
Schedule Events That Your Audience Wants to Attend.
Building connections with your leads is a primary step in converting them to customers. That can be difficult to accomplish through SEO tactics and LinkedIn content posts alone.
Get leads in front of you and teach them what it is you can do for them through events like conferences and webinars. You’ll be able to educate them, upping your trust factor, while also establishing your business’ position as a thought leader in your industry.
While in-person conferences are one-time touch opportunities, you can continuously provide value through recorded online events. Webinars are accessible from anywhere in the world and can be archived for returning leads.
Invite leads to register for a series, or promote expanded content online to your in-person leads. Leveraging events like this and then following up with potential customers after keeps them engaged with your business, bringing them closer to a sale.
Consider Co-Marketing With Strong Partners.
Co-marketing is a pretty common strategy, but it still yields notable results.
Functioning both online and offline, partnering with a hardware or software company, respective to your own business, allows you to generate leads for one another.
Find another business that has a similar audience that doesn’t directly compete with you. You may even be able to support one another’s solutions, providing real testimonies. Splitting the cost also leaves room in your budget to bolster other lead generation strategies.
In the end, lead generation grows at only half the cost.
Add Product Comparisons to Your Content Strategy.
Product comparison is extremely popular amongst tech business decision makers. It only makes sense: if you’re torn between two or three different choices, compare the pros and cons of each to help make the decision.
If you’re getting a lot of traffic from SEO strategies, then implementing product comparison content should be an easy next step. Provide potential customers with an easy means of evaluating their options directly from one of the businesses in question.
It shows confidence in your own products and transparency in your standing within your industry.
Building pages on your website dedicated to product comparisons can also boost your rankings on SERPs and leverage keywords against your competitors, like “versus” or “alternatives.”
Technology and software companies have to contend with long buying cycles, which can be difficult at every stage of the buyer’s journey.
Generating leads is especially difficult with unique challenges and obstacles in the way. But using these strategies as part of your bigger inbound marketing strategy can help stretch the reach of your brand awareness to your ideal potential buyers.
Conclusion
Software companies usually don’t have the budget for huge marketing campaigns like other businesses in their niche. Instead, they need to rely on lead generation ideas that don’t cost a lot of money.
Software companies lead generation ideas used to be really easy. You’d offer something like a free trial and expect people to sign-up but as the b2b marketing has become more focused on lead generation, things have become harder for software companies which are now looking for new lead generation ideas or sales techniques which would help them in their business.