A good lead is a good deed. If you are involved in the lead generation process of a business, you would agree with us. Which business would reject new leads? However, simply piling on new leads is not enough. The relevancy and quality of a lead are essential. While most businesses are engaged in finding new ways to increase their lead count, the quality of leads is often overlooked. 

The “quantity over quality” approach is detrimental to a business’s growth and counterproductive. Today, companies can deploy different lead generation techniques. Out of these, email marketing lead generation has garnered considerable popularity in recent years. But, why?

Email marketing is cost-effective, saves time, and is a tried and tested way to generate relevant leads. In this article, we will look at some email marketing B2B lead generation techniques used by companies. But, before we begin, let’s understand what email marketing lead generation is and why it is important. 

SEE ALSO: B2B email marketing tips & best practices + Free Template

Understanding email marketing lead generation

Email marketing lead generation essentially means pulling in new leads via the email opt-in form. The aim is to get as much information on potential customers including email addresses, contact details, and more. 

This is just the beginning. Email marketing lead generation involves strategic lead nurturing to ensure leads convert into customers. 

Email marketing lead generation strategy is essential, but why?

Email marketing lead generation or email marketing B2B lead generation is very important for businesses. It helps them expand their customer base and generate more sales. Without an effective email marketing lead generation strategy, your business will struggle to boost sales and expand. 

Therefore it is important to have an effective email marketing B2B lead generation strategy up your sleeve. With the right strategy, you can not only attract more leads but also nurture your audience and do your best to convert them from a prospect to a paying customer. 

Recent research shows that nearly 50% of marketers believe that email marketing is the most effective strategy to generate online leads [1]. 

A well-made email marketing lead generation strategy will provide the following benefits to your business:

  • You can target the most relevant audience
  • Higher brand awareness
  • More leads, more prospects, more customers, more revenue. 

Although there are plenty of effective lead generation techniques out there, today, our focus will remain on email marketing lead generation. Let’s look at some email marketing techniques for better and improved lead generation. 

Email marketing strategies to improve lead generation

Email marketing inbox concept

We have understood the importance of creating a lead generation strategy for your business. It is now time to look at different ways to generate sales leads for your business. 

Read along to learn about effective email marketing B2B lead generation strategies for your business. 

1. Lead scoring is important

Have you wondered why some well-crafted marketing campaigns cannot produce the desired results? One reason for this is that you are not reaching the right audience at the right time. This is where lead scoring comes into the picture. It allows you to capture high-quality prospects. 

Lead scoring is a good way to segregate and prioritize your leads. It is an effective email marketing B2B lead generation technique that ensures you connect with relevant prospects. 

Using email automation to score leads is one technique to use lead scoring in marketing.

For instance, it boosts your chances of converting a potential buyer if you send them an email offering a 25% discount on a product they’ve seen before on your website.

You may take advantage of this by displaying an exit intent pop-up as the visitor is leaving the product page if they aren’t already subscribed to your list.

2. Create engaging and concise emails

You may have heard that ‘the first impression is the last impression.’ It may not be entirely true but your prospects may not open your email again if the content is dull and not engaging enough. Therefore, it is crucial to craft concise emails that are to the point. 

A lot of elements in your email’s design can distract recipients from the key message of the mail. Here are a few practices to follow while crafting emails. 

  • Plain fonts

Ensure that your emails are not very flamboyant. The text should be easy to read. Thus, ensure you use a plain and simple-to-understand font. 

  • Design

Choose a simple and clean template design that is easy on the eye.

  • Text formatting

Start with clear and concise writing. The message of the text should be clear and not confusing. Highlight all the important points so that it is easier to consume your emails. 

  • Clear CTA

The call-to-action button should be easy to locate, especially for people reading on different devices. 

3. Thought-provoking and catchy subject lines are a must

Email marketing inbox

Did you know that the attention span of humans is just 8 seconds in 2022 [2]? This means that you only have 8 seconds to set an impression. This is why it becomes extremely important to tickle your creative side and write catchy subject lines. Today, many marketers use different elements including italic, font, bold, and emojis in their subject line to grab attention. This strategy can make a world of difference to the success of your email campaign, increasing your open rates, and eventually your conversion rates. 

For example, if you start a food blog, you would ideally want to focus on exciting trends around the food industry. But before your audience read the content of your blog, you are expected to leave a hint of curiosity to engage with customers.

4. Do not forget to include a strong call-to-action (CTA)

Every email campaign should include one compelling and clear CTA. Include a strong and compelling CTA in your email that is easy for readers to act on. Use creative language to grab your readers’ attention and convince them to take action in order to include a powerful CTA in your emails.

CTAs that invoke a sense of urgency, excitement, or suspense is the most effective. They are tough to ignore and motivate readers to take action, assisting you in increasing conversions.

5. Consider creating gated content and focus on content upgrades

Creating gated content and regular content upgrades ensure you can use relevant and insightful content in your email collection tool. 

Gated content essentially refers to content that can be accessed only after someone enters their contact details. You can use gated content as a content upgrade to persuade people to join your email list.

For example, when users read a blog post, you can prompt them to download relevant ebooks, reports, articles, and more in exchange for their contact details. While gated content allows you to monetize your blogging efforts, in the long run, it expands your email list in the short term. 

6. Leverage the power of social media

Social media lead generation

Your social media platforms can be an effective tool for expanding your email list. You may add a CTA to your profiles and schedule daily postings to promote your free download and keep producing leads automatically.

You should promote your social accounts through your email list besides promoting your email list on social media. With this approach, you will expand your email list and social media following concurrently. You can also use tools like Facebook marketing tools, Twitter marketing tools, and more to achieve the best results on social media.

7. Turn to split testing to boost click-through and open rates

 Split testing your emails is crucial to optimise your copy and strategy optimization. There is always room for improvement, and by testing many iterations of your emails, you can identify the ones that are working the best in order to improve conversion rates.

For every email you wish to test, you need to define the parameters that need to be tested. These parameters are the CTA, subject line, body content, graphics, or email message style.

After determining which elements to test first, you can start split testing with the AB testing feature in your email marketing tool.

8. Your content should add value

Remember the 8-second rule in the third point of this article? This is why ensuring your content provides value to your users is crucial. Do not create and deliver “fluff content” just for the sake of it. Create insightful emails that keep your readers engaged. 

Remember to always prioritize value above everything else. You only need to identify the main challenges of your target audience to develop valuable content and offer solutions to those problems. 

Email marketing lead generation is effective, do not miss out

Every email marketing B2B lead generation technique listed in this article has delivered the desired results over time for small and medium-sized businesses. As a business leader or a decision maker, you need to identify which of these techniques you would like to implement for your business. 

SEE ALSO: 15 staggering email marketing statistics for 2022

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Feature Image: Image by Omar Nasif from Pixabay

Image 1 Source: Image by rawpixel.com

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Sources:

[1] (2022) “Lead Generation Strategy Trends” Wayback Machine [online] Available from: https://web.archive.org/web/20161118165320/http:/ascend2.com/home/wp-content/uploads/Lead-Gen-Trends-Survey-Summary-Report-150708.pdf [accessed September 2022]

[2] (2022) “User Attention Span: the Biggest Challenge for Marketers [2022]” [online] [accessed September 2022]