B2B Lead Generation VA

Generating business-to-business (B2B) leads requires a different set of strategies compared to lead generation for business-to-consumer (B2C) purposes. For instance, lead generation for B2B requires your programs and strategies to align with the type of industry you’re targeting.

Also, B2B businesses usually have different buying processes than their consumer counterparts. B2B transactions require long sales cycles before an actual sale. This means that you need to tailor your lead generation process to ensure that you’re constantly getting enough qualified leads for your sales team to keep your business growing.

B2B lead generation is the process of generating sales prospects and increasing the number of qualified buyers, or business leads, ultimately resulting in increased revenue.

Lead generation strategies for a B2B clientele are entirely different from generating leads to sell consumer goods and services. B2B lead gen demands a more creative approach that delivers competitive intelligence and deep insights into your targeted businesses.

Located within the digital marketing umbrella, online lead generation is a great way to generate high-quality leads and increase sales. The number of ways to generate business-to-business leads online is increasing on a daily basis. That’s why any given B2B lead generation agency needs to diversify their B2B lead generation services to prove a steady stream of marketing qualified leads to their clients’ sales teams.

There are several ways to generate leads for your sales and marketing teams to nurture.

1. Build an online presence

Lead generation programs are not just about generating B2B leads; they also require familiarity with your audience’s buying process to know where their interests lie and what kind of services or products would be most suitable for them.

Having an active website lets you build trust among potential clients, generate leads, and share useful information through your lead nurturing programs. This is a great way to keep your leads interested and engaged with your brand. Eventually, your sales process can turn potential customers from your website into paying clients.

2. Get social

Sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are effective tools for engaging business partners or generating potential leads for your sales team. For instance, when posting content on Facebook or LinkedIn, you are stepping into an arena where new customers and more qualified leads are present.

Share useful information to give them insights about the kind of services you offer, and be sure to include a link back to your business website in the description. As they’re already interested in your products and services, they can easily click on the link to learn more about what you have to offer. This makes social media a free tool for generating prospects for your lead nurturing programs.

3. Pay-per-click (PPC)

Setting up Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, LinkedIn Ads is a great way to get in front of a highly targeted. By setting up PPC campaigns, you can choose your target audience, find out where they spend most of their time online and target them with ads at the right time. You can also use PPC ad campaigns to get in front of potential customers who are already actively searching for your products and services.

4. SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a great way to get more organic traffic and more leads to your sales funnel because you’ll be able to rank higher on search engines and get in front of more targeted leads.

5. Create content

Content marketing strategies, including writing a blog post, email marketing, website content optimization, and creating landing pages, can help you get marketing qualified leads for marketing teams to nurture. You can also improve existing content on your website and increase call-to-action buttons and links for more effective B2B lead generation.

Creating gated content that site visitors need access to by leaving their contact information is also a good way to get sign-ups for your marketing funnel. Eventually, these new leads can move down the sales pipeline and become sales leads that sales teams can then convert into paying customers.

6. Do cold outreach

Cold outreach is another excellent B2B lead generation strategy. It gives your sales and marketing teams a way to get in front of new prospects and businesses by sending emails, cold calling, or sending direct mail with your business information. By doing this, you can establish the foundation for building relationships with potential clients through lead nurturing programs.

A B2B lead generation virtual assistant is a remote worker who works on various B2B lead generation tasks that can be useful to businesses in different stages of their sales cycle.

Because a successful B2B lead generation strategy needs to target multiple channels to ensure customer success, it can be difficult for a single person or a very small team to do everything. A B2B lead generation VA can do various admin, calling, marketing, or creative tasks to supplement your current sales activities.

Here are just some of the services that a B2B lead generation assistant can offer:

Lead Qualification

Not every lead is worth pursuing. For B2B lead gen, in particular, most companies need to focus on reaching key decision-makers. For instance, for tech companies selling pricey software, only the key decision-makers can greenlight the purchase of whatever tool they’re selling. Your B2B virtual assistant can qualify leads to make sure that your sales rep only works on profitable leads.

Cold Calling

Cold calls might have a bad reputation, but they still definitely work. To free up the time of your sales agents, you can let a VA do the cold calling instead.  This way, your marketing and sales teams only need to deal with a lead once they’re further down the marketing or sales pipeline.

Social Media Management

Social media and social proof are big things in marketing and sales now. To maximize the power of social proof, you can hire a social media VA to promote your content and engage with prospects and customers simultaneously. They can also help you gather online reviews from real-life customers to encourage word-of-mouth leads.

Copywriting and Email Campaigns

Email marketing is a great tool for B2B lead generation, and you can hire email VAs to design compelling sales emails or newsletters that help nurture leads along the way. You can also create sales funnels by using landing pages with lead magnets to get more chances to close deals.

PPC Ads and Website Optimization

B2B marketers can’t ignore the power of PPC ads to promote their products and services. To help improve your website’s paid organic rankings and encourage more people to sign up for free trials or buy paid accounts, you can hire a skilled B2B virtual assistant who can manage your website and pay-per-click campaigns.

There are different kinds of skills that you can look for when hiring B2B virtual assistants. The most important one is marketing qualification. If your team knows what they’re doing, then it’ll be much easier for your VA to know how to approach potential customers.

You can look for a few other skills: keyword research, writing, social media management, blogging, SEO optimization, email marketing, online reputation monitoring, and branding. One of the best ways to understand what kind of services a B2B lead generation VA offers is by checking out their portfolio.

Aside from hard skills, you also want to look at a candidate’s soft skills to make sure that they have what it takes to help your marketing and sales team get more leads. Here are some soft skills that a B2B lead gen VA needs to have.

1. They’re self-motivated and can work without supervision.
2. They’re curious, and they continuously try to learn new things.
3. They have good communication skills, and they know how to listen, making it easier for them to understand what you want them to do.
4. They follow instructions well and own up to their mistakes.
5. They’re able to adapt to changes.
6. They can meet deadlines.

If you’re convinced that hiring a VA is the right choice, then there are several ways for you to find one.

Word of Mouth

One of the easiest ways is by asking your current customers if they can recommend anyone who can help with some aspects of B2B lead generation. Of course, you’ll have to ensure that this person has the relevant skills and experience to take on your project.

Online Job Sites

There are online platforms where you can post a job and choose from freelancers with different skill levels and specializations. The downside with these sites is that you will have to do all the vetting and screening yourself. There’s also usually little to no “after-sales service” when hiring from online job boards, so it’s riskier.

Social Media Platforms

You can browse through LinkedIn or post a job on Facebook to find qualified VAs who can generate leads for you. However, social media is even less regulated than online job boards, so the risk is even higher.

Virtual Staffing Agencies

Lastly, you can work with a virtual staffing agency that provides lead generation services. At 20four7VA, we have a huge pool of talented virtual assistants and freelancers from all over the world, so you can be sure that we’ll be able to find someone right for your project. Aside from helping you with vetting and screening, we also offer payroll, HR, and IT support, as well as many other aftersales services.

Ready to hire a B2B lead generation VA to boost your marketing and sales efforts? Book a call with one of our Business Growth Experts today! It only takes a few seconds to do so, and we’ll give you a free quote right after the call.