What is outbound lead generation?
Outbound lead generation involves finding and engaging qualified leads that closely match your buyer’s persona. In simple words, inbound lead generation is all about attracting leads towards your business, and outbound lead generation is about going “out” to find the right leads.
By doing so, you basically engage with the prospects who are unfamiliar with your product or services. It requires your sales team to actively connect with the prospects.
Outbound lead generation is more effective in B2B marketing. The objective is to trigger the interest of prospects in your product or service and develop a sales pipeline. In outbound lead generation, you interact with your leads using cold calling, direct email, social media, etc.
Difference between outbound vs. inbound lead generation
A primary differentiating factor between inbound and outbound lead generation strategies is that inbound leads are purely organic, whereas outbound leads require dedicated efforts and consistency to become a sale.
Outbound leads who interact with your sales representatives and marketing experts might not be familiar with your brand and your products. Educating your outbound leads is therefore a determining aspect of impactful outbound lead generation.
On the other hand, outbound leads who interact with your sales or marketing teams are much more informed and educated. They have already covered significant milestones in your sales funnel by consuming your content and identifying your products or services.
That’s why Inbound lead generation starts with the approval of engagement by the prospect, while outbound lead generation is based on an if-else scenario. It means that outbound leads aren’t fully aware that why you are going to approach them in the first place.
The prospect’s consent remains instrumental in both inbound and outbound lead generation strategies. Your Sales & marketing teams must acknowledge the laws and their implications regarding prospect’s data and contact information. It varies depending upon the country, state, or region.
Outbound lead generation strategy for the sales team
Cracking quality outbound leads is all about well-planned and practical sales and marketing practices. There are several ways that generate promising outcomes, including:
- Cold calling the prospects
- Sending outbound email
- Social selling
Cold calling the prospects
Cold calling is one of the most reliable outbound lead generation strategies. The reasons are its impact and fruitful results.
The process starts with having targeted contact lists and then cold-call potential leads listed in the list. The objective is to arrange a session or product demo with the potential customer.
A perfect cold calling strategy involves comprehensive research on multiple aspects of prospects’ demographics and psychology. For instance, the perfect time to call the prospect and choose wise words and compelling accord to promote your product or service.
Sending outbound email
Outbound emails are another budget-friendly and effective type of outbound lead generation strategy. Using this method, your sales representatives push email messages to the prospects to make a first connection followed by further engagement and conversion emails.
The best outbound email strategy is to inform the prospect that you can offer the right solution to their problem. Your outbound email must explain how your product or service can add value to the prospect’s life or business.
Social selling
Most B2C businesses use social media platforms like Facebook for lead generation or Instagram to outreach their prospects. But when it comes to B2B, LinkedIn is considered the most effective platform to perform social selling.
In social calling, sales representatives try to outreach and nurture leads by showcasing your brand identity and product features. It includes sharing content to educate and inform the prospects.
Inbound lead generation strategies for the marketing team
- Content marketing
- Brand Awareness
- Paid Advertisement
Content marketing
Creating and publishing blogs, social media posts, advertisements, promotional banners, video content, and SEO all fall under the umbrella of generating leads through content marketing.
Content marketing is highly effective in engaging and converting prospects into sales by strengthening the brand image and authentication. You need to keep your prospects curious by offering valuable content at each stage of your sales funnel.
Brand Awareness
The brand awareness campaign lies at the top of your lead generation funnel that can be run on different platforms including social media, emails, or print advertisements. It’s a kind of B2B marketing that boosts your brand’s visibility.
The objective of a brand awareness campaign is to engage more leads, specifically those who are unfamiliar with your presence and offerings.
Paid Advertisement
Paid advertisement, PPC (pay-per-click) or google ads are the terms that are used interchangeably by marketers. The goal of running a PPC campaign is to improve your brand visibility by targeting high-intent keywords and showing your ads to the targeted audience.
Pay-per-click simply means you’ll be charged for every click a prospect makes on your online ads. The strategy needs dedicated efforts and attention as opting for wrong tactics or keywords may ruin your campaign and exacerbate RoI.
FAQs For Outbound Lead Generation
- How do you generate outbound leads?
- What are some examples of outbound marketing?
- Which leads are examples of outbound leads?
How do you generate outbound leads?
There are several effective ways to generate outbound leads. But the following outbound lead generation strategies are known for producing the most promising outcomes for any business:
- Social media (LinkedIn for B2B lead gen)
- Emails Outreach
- Cold Calling
What are some examples of outbound marketing?
Some notable examples of outbound marketing are cold-calling, email outreach, advertising through print or digital media, or other ways involving direct contact with prospects.
Which leads are examples of outbound leads?
An outbound lead is a prospect who reveals interest in your brand, product, or services but hasn’t bought anything you offer. In order to qualify as a lead, the prospect needs to show interest in what you’re offering. Once your prospects step inside your outbound lead generation funnel, they go through the lead nurturing process to become a sale.
Conclusion
The method that works best for generating qualified leads primarily depends on your business objectives.
Outbound lead generation costs higher but it boosts your RoI, faster. Outbound lead generation strategies are intended to drive more RoI and develop a comprehensive customer base instantly.
Inbound lead generation is more budget-friendly but shows sluggish performance when it comes to strengthening the bottom line of business. But it allows you to establish trustworthy customer relationships and improve brand visibility in the longer run.
It is recommended to align your marketing and sales team to opt for the hybrid of both inbound and outbound lead generation services for a better likelihood of success.
