Two big B2B lead generation mistakes to avoid

Every time a person accesses your company platforms (website, social media page, blog, etc), it’s an opportunity to generate a new lead. Subsequently, every lead is an opportunity to generate sales. The chances of making that happen, however, depend heavily on your company’s ability to market in an effective manner. Unfortunately, it’s common for startups to waste money and miss opportunities to grow their brand by not capturing lead data.

Learning your target audience and designing marketing strategies that are effective in encouraging that audience to take action, is no easy task. All too often, new businesses with no real marketing experience, limited resources, and little time, learn this the hard way. They invest time and money into utilizing blanket marketing strategies that, consequently, are ineffective in helping them to reach their goals. 

Wasting money and missing opportunities is not an effective strategy for remaining successful in business. Though implementing solid marketing strategies to increase lead generation does take some trial and error, you can accomplish your goals faster by learning from the mistakes of others. Continue reading to learn about common B2B lead generation mistakes that could be costing you big: 

Not understanding the difference between B2C and B2B marketing

One of the first mistakes startups make when developing marketing strategies is not having a clear understanding of the differences between business-to-business and business-to-consumer marketing. They begin researching or implementing the wrong marketing strategies for their professional audiences, therefore, causing them to miss opportunities to generate sales. 

The main objective of B2B and B2C marketing are the same (to increase sales), but how you accomplish those goals differ dramatically. For starters, the return on investment is often larger for B2B marketing than B2C. This is because a contract with a corporate entity is going to yield you higher payouts than one transaction with a consumer. There’s also the fact that B2B marketing strategy needs to cultivate strong relationships, educate target audiences on industry-related details, go through a larger chain of command, and accommodate the longer buying cycle. 

B2C marketing, on the other hand, is less about cultivating deep individual relationships and instead personalizing your brand in a way that meets their personal needs. B2C marketing strategies, therefore, need to encompass personalization that humanizes the brand, engaging content that’s easy to comprehend, and emotionally-driven content that persuades them to select you over competitors. 

Trying to do it all yourself

Another major problem that startups have with successfully generating B2B leads is trying to do it all themselves. The idea is to complete everything in-house and save money. Unfortunately, most end up losing more money and wasting time. Marketing is a multi-faceted concept that is ever-changing with the times. It must be constantly implemented, monitored, measured, and fine-tuned to continue generating leads.

Be that as it may, most company CEOs and leadership teams lack the extensive knowledge and experience that is required to market to their target audience. With other tasks on their plates, they also lack the time necessary to invest in building solid strategies that actually work in converting potential clients into actual sales. Marketing and lead generation can never be a secondary thought.

If you’re not well-versed in B2B marketing practices, it is wise to outsource this task to an agency that will work tirelessly to get you the results you want. These marketing and sales agencies have teams with years of experience and training that will collaborate with leadership teams to develop customized strategies that increase conversion rates exponentially. Even if you can’t afford to outsource long-term, there are some growth agencies that will work with you to develop a scalable plan that can later be taught and executed by in-house staff. 

B2B lead generation is essential to the success of your startup. If you’ve noticed that you’re not getting the results you want from your marketing efforts, it is quite possible that you’re making one of the above major mistakes. A quick solution to each of these common mistakes is to work with a reputable marketing and sales agency to help you create an effective marketing strategy that not only generates leads but turns those leads into sales.