Lead generation & lead management.
The cornerstones of B2B marketing.
What is meant by lead generation and lead management?
In B2B, reaching out to potential customers is the foundation of marketing success. In this context, B2B marketers frequently talk about lead generation and lead management. Here, we explain exactly what these terms mean:
What is lead generation?
Lead generation refers to the process of identifying potential customers – known as leads – and sparking their interest in a product or service. The aim is to collect the contact details of potential customers through targeted marketing measures, such as content marketing. These leads are then converted into actual customers during the subsequent sales process.
What does lead management mean?
Lead management involves the systematic capture, management and maintenance of collected leads. This process involves evaluating and prioritising leads, and guiding them through targeted measures until they are ready to make a purchase. Effective lead management thus helps to increase the conversion rate and make the sales process more efficient.
Why is lead management essential for successful marketing?
In B2B marketing in particular, it is crucial to generate qualified leads and nurture them through lead management. This is primarily due to the often complex and lengthy purchasing processes. B2B purchases involve significant costs and are therefore carefully considered. Lead management therefore ensures that potential customers remain engaged throughout these processes.
In addition, lead management ensures clear processes within the company itself. Thanks to defined workflows, it is clear when a lead is handed over from marketing to sales, and who the specific contact person is. Even with a large volume of leads, all contacts are followed up on – without any leads falling through the cracks.
Four key benefits: The advantages of lead management for B2B marketing.
- Targeted outreach: Through effective lead generation, B2B marketers can reach companies that have a genuine interest in their products and services. This reduces wasted coverage and saves resources.
- More efficient sales processes: By prioritising leads, you can pass promising contacts directly to the appropriate contact person. Providing personalised support to leads increases the likelihood of a conversion.
- Long-term customer loyalty: With professional lead nurturing, you address the individual pain points and needs of your leads. This strengthens trust in your company and builds a lasting customer relationship.
- Measurable results: Lead management provides clear KPIs and analytical capabilities. This allows you to precisely measure the success of your strategy and continuously improve it.
Unlock the full potential of your leads!
From creative assets and engaging content pieces to account-based marketing: as a B2B marketing agency, we support you throughout the entire lead management process. Interested? Get in touch now and reap the benefits!
The 5 steps of lead management.
In lead management, it all starts with lead generation. This involves identifying potential customers through targeted marketing initiatives. Their contact details are then collected, for example, when they register for a webinar or download a white paper.
The next step involves evaluating and prioritising the leads that have been collected. There are a wide variety of models and evaluation criteria for this lead scoring process, which are assessed on a case-by-case basis depending on the industry and the company. The aim is to filter out the most promising leads from the pool.
Based on the results of lead scoring and the data collected on leads, they are forwarded to the sales team during lead routing. This ensures that each lead has a designated contact person who can then apply a tailored sales strategy and, ideally, secure a conversion.
Lead nurturing is used for leads who are not yet ready to buy. The aim is to nurture the leads you have gathered, continue to provide them with relevant and useful information, and thereby strengthen the relationship and trust between the leads and your company. Ideally, lead nurturing will help you persuade your leads to make a purchase decision.
At the end of the lead management process, it is time to analyse the process: What works – and what doesn’t? Which touchpoints perform best? Are there regional peaks? Based on the insights gained, your lead management can be optimised and budgets allocated more effectively.
Generate targeted leads.
As mentioned earlier, lead generation is the first step in lead management. There are essentially two different approaches to this: inbound marketing and outbound marketing. Although the two methods differ in key respects, they share a crucial foundation: a detailed target audience analysis.
The findings of the analysis reveal relevant pain points, individual needs and challenges that can be addressed during lead generation. By specifically targeting your own audience, resources are used efficiently and the interest of potential customers is piqued from the very first contact.
Generate qualified leads with inbound marketing.
Leads are considered qualified, above all, when the contact in question shows a genuine interest in your business. If a lead is genuinely interested in your products or services, the path to a purchasing decision is much more natural. Inbound marketing is an effective way to foster this genuine interest.
Inbound marketing often makes use of informative content. It attracts leads by providing answers to relevant questions, highlighting solutions to the leads’ problems and offering valuable insights. This approach requires a certain amount of patience, but pays off in the form of a strong customer relationship.
Outbound marketing: Scale efficiently with automation.
With outbound marketing, your business proactively reaches out to potential customers in a targeted manner. Depending on the data you have collected about your leads, you can run effective ad campaigns, utilise predictive marketing, or carry out traditional cold calling.
Although outbound marketing yields results more quickly than inbound marketing, it can be perceived as intrusive. We therefore recommend focusing primarily on inbound marketing to generate qualified leads.
How can you successfully generate leads?
Hella Gutmann and wob show us how it's done!
FAQ: Frequently asked questions and answers.
Leads can be divided into Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) and Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs): MQLs show an interest in a product or service, whilst SQLs are already characterised by their readiness to buy. In addition, mature leads that are on the verge of making a decision are referred to as hot leads.
Strategies from inbound or outbound marketing are ideal for lead generation: targeted content marketing, search engine optimised content, email marketing and so on. It is important to analyse the target audience precisely at the outset and address their specific pain points.
Inbound marketing passively attracts leads through high-quality content and is primarily designed for the long term. Outbound marketing, on the other hand, involves the company reaching out directly to potential leads.
CRM systems such as Salesforce or HubSpot are ideal for keeping track of leads. In addition, marketing automation tools help with managing and prioritising leads.
Common KPIs used to assess success in lead management include the conversion rate, the cost per lead and the length of the sales cycle. In addition, companies can analyse which touchpoints perform best, which initiatives generate the most responses, and whether there are any seasonal fluctuations.
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