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LEAD GENERATION COURSE

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Welcome to the eleventh lesson in the B2B lead generation and nurturing course.

lesson 11

Optimisation of the lead generation process

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AUTHOR
Jo Gniewek
Senior System Implementation Officer

My name is Jo Gniewek, and I am the Senior System Implementation Officer at the Sales4Team Agency, which has developed and implemented a system that organises, streamlines and automates the process of generating B2B leads on LinkedIn and nurturing them through email marketing automation.

Together with the agency's specialists, who implement lead generation strategies for our clients daily, we have created a series of step-by-step lessons to introduce you to B2B lead generation.

Here we go!

 

Measuring the process enables it to be accurately assessed and appropriate improvements to be implemented

Edward Deming, the renowned management theorist, believed that 'without data you are just another person with an opinion'. Although this is a sentence taken out of context, it nevertheless points to an important aspect of using business process measurement when evaluating a business process and making further decisions.

Segmentation of the sales process into stages

The complexity of the sales process makes a meaningful evaluation difficult. This task proves to be much easier when the whole process is broken down into smaller stages and each of them is evaluated separately.
For example, a sales process might consist of the following stages: finding a lead, establishing a conversation on LinkedIn, converting a lead to an email, signing up for a webinar, setting up a meeting, accepting an offer, placing an order.
Each of these stages culminates in a response from the lead that allows us to qualify them for the next stage and to attribute success to the actions taken at that stage.
Don't act blindly - collect data

We can only rely on experience, intuition and intelligence when designing a sales process. In other words, we are embarking on an experiment because our hard knowledge of the effectiveness of these activities has not yet been gathered.

At this stage, it is important to plan activities we can easily monitor and measure, for example: through accurate reports from salespeople or digital tools.

The scale of the experiment conducted is also important: just a few failures are certainly not enough to scrap the method chosen.

An example is the beginning of the lead generation process, i.e. expanding your network on LinkedIn. With knowledge of the habits of LinkedIn users, you can multiply the effectiveness of networking. We will discuss this in more detail in the following paragraphs.

Broader picture - deeper analysis

When collecting data, it is easy to make a mistake. An example of this would be trying to make contact with potential clients at a time that is not appropriate for this - for example: during the holidays in a particular region.
Conduct a broader analysis, check current events and sentiment in your target market and decide what impact they have on the outcome of your actions.
A/B tests

When taking action, you are often faced with a choice: which communication idea will prove more effective?

In this situation, you can conduct so-called A/B tests on part of your target group. Part of the group will receive communication variant A and another part will receive variant B. You can also test variants C, D and so on, but make sure that the scale of the test is appropriate to the number of variants.

According to statistical principles, a reliable sample size is a minimum of 1,000, and scientifically we should stick to this.

However, it may turn out that your entire target group is no more than 1,000 decision-makers, in which case your decision should be made on the basis of trends that start at 100-200 samples.

How to improve lead generation based on conversations in LinkedIn messenger

LinkedIn messenger is one of the most effective tools for generating B2B leads. Your first message aims to initiate a conversation. You send hundreds of similar messages, and from experience, we know that roughly every fifth person responds.
You can measure the number of sent messages and reactions to compare them and draw conclusions. You can also try sending varied messages, e.g., in two versions A and B. After such a test, you will find out which message is more attractive to your potential customers.

It often turns out that the best results come from the variant that was not our favorite before the test.

(image: "Conversions" in Sales4Team allow you to measure the effectiveness of your communications)

Abstain from favoring your own assessment.

Among good marketers, there's a belief that decisions based on personal preferences can lead to a dead end. In other words, what appeals to you may only be attractive to a small portion of your target audience. Don't forget this.
How to improve lead generation based on invitations to connect on LinkedIn

Building a network of contacts on LinkedIn is one of the first steps you take in the B2B lead generation process. The effectiveness of subsequent stages depends on how many contacts you acquire.

The platform usually allows you to invite about 100 new people weekly. It's worth using this quota wisely to bypass "dead accounts" and send invitations to people who typically accept them.

LinkedIn itself unfortunately does not provide this guidance. However, users of Sales4Team tools have access to data collected by the system over the years and can easily use it to increase the effectiveness of building their network from about 30% to as high as 90%. 

 

A high acceptance rate of invitations also contributes to building a better account reputation. As LinkedIn values active users who generate positive reactions among others, a good reputation increases the chance of increasing your weekly invitation quota from the mentioned 100 to even 260. This further multiplies the effectiveness and optimizes your actions. 

 

(image: invitation acceptance statistics from a campaign in Sales4Team System)

How to improve lead nurturing through email communication

Email marketing is utilized in the communication strategies of most B2B companies.

In addition to building a comprehensive contact database with marketing permissions, a company can focus on two important elements that significantly impact the effectiveness of email marketing.

Deliverability is a term with questionable linguistic correctness, but it has become widely used in marketing jargon referring to the percentage of successfully delivered email messages. When sending emails about your company and offerings, ensure they bypass spam filters and reach recipients' inboxes. 

 

You can learn more about this topic from a previous lesson. 

 

(image: email message test result in a popular content analysis service for spam: mail-tester.com)

click and return to lesson 9.

Engaging content is the second key element in optimizing communication with potential clients. In marketing, you may come across the saying that "subjects open emails." It's hard to disagree, so refine the subject of your messages, perhaps even conduct A/B tests, to ultimately reach leads more effectively.

Carefully crafted email content will help you build brand recognition, establish yourself as an expert and credible provider, and educate potential clients about your offerings. Before you prepare your first email, think about what content would resonate with your leads. One idea is to analyze the most frequently asked questions in inquiries and during sales meetings.
Creating content that addresses popular issues in short, accessible segments and dispels doubts can yield much better business results than continuously sending information about current promotions.
Summary

Lead generation fits into the broader scope of marketing and sales communication, which is a living, evolving organism. It's valuable to build processes in a measurable way and monitor results to be able to make modifications based on reliable information.

Gated Content is nothing more than a "quid pro quo." You provide an attractive report, e-book, or course, and the potential client leaves their email and name. It's a beneficial transaction for both parties.

With emails acquired this way, you can nurture them by regularly delivering more information about your company and sharing expertise.

Lesson 12 - best practices in a nutshell

During the next lesson, I will focus on compiling the best practices for B2B lead generation and nurturing.
Lesson 12 is coming up in a few days :)

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