27 | June | 2011 | Fearless Competitor

B2B Lead Generation | How to generate leads

How to create one kick-ass lead generation campaign (from scratch)

Recently I visited a 1/2 billion dollar business intelligence company who was looking for a global leader for lead generation. They rejected me, (the President of the B2B lead generation consultancy, Find New Customers) saying “the team did not think you are the one to create our lead generation campaigns.”

So we dedicate this post to Peter Isaacson, SVP of Worldwide Marketing at Microstrategy - who concluded I was unable to create lead generation campaigns.

Want to share a comment with Peter about his conclusion? Email your comment to pisaacson at microstrategy.com.

This is why this blog topic is how to create a kick-ass lead generation campaign. We can show the world (and one clueless business intelligence software company) how to create great lead generation campaigns.

Let’s get started. Here’s how to create one kick-ass lead generation campaign:

Start with great research
The most important thing you need to do is great research. Who are the target buyers? What problems are they trying to solve? What questions do they need answered to buy? Whom do they prefer and would they buy from us?
Find thought leaders and keywords
Who are the respected thought leaders in the industry? When searching for a solution to the problem we solve, what words do people use in search? Network with those thought leaders and use those keywords in your content.
Map and develop content
You are looking to create content to move prospective buyers through a buying process. So you need to map content to buying stage, decision role, industry, product line, etc. The goal is to create modular content that can be used as needed on a one to one basis. Keep in mind that content marketing is an ongoing strategy. You cannot stop.
Build landing pages and develop attraction strategies
We suggest thought leadership using a blog and personality, such as humor, interviews and so forth. Also, as you create content, you’ll want to reuse the keywords you devised in step 2.
Launch, measure results, and continually refine
Now we are ready to launch. But you need to measure results and continually refine and improve the program. You want to move the focus on one approach to another based on results. Marketing is the process of continual experimentation and refinement.

What do you think? We love comments and people who share. Please enter your comment below.

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Jeff Ogden (@fearlesscomp) is President of the B2B lead generation consultancy, Find New Customers. He presented “How to Build an Awesome Personal Brand” at the 140 Social Media Conference and appeared to discuss B2B lead generation on Sales Lead Management Radio.

To learn about Jeff, please visit “Who is the Fearless Competitor?“

Find New Customers helps companies (with between 150 and 5,000 employees who sell complex products to businesses) to implement world-class lead generation programs. As companies struggle to create quality sales opportunities for sales teams, they turn to lead generation companies like Find New Customers.

IMHO, the industry is dead.

When I worked for a UK search marketing firm, Green Light, they used two main strategies to drive SEO results:

On page optimization - layouts, keywords, etc.
Link Building - they used to buy domains just to get links.

But as this video by Rand Fishkin points out in How Google’s Panda Update Changed SEO Best Practices forever - with the Panda update - the Google algorithm changed dramatically. Machine learning and social sharing drive results today. Inbound links and keyword stuffing are dead.

What do you think? Does the Panda update kill the business for search marketing firms? Post your comment below.

To learn about Jeff, please visit “Who is the Fearless Competitor?“

Find New Customers helps companies (with between 150 and 5,000 employees who sell complex products to businesses) to implement world-class lead generation programs. As companies struggle to create quality sales opportunities, they turn to lead generation companies like Find New Customers.