As B2B enterprises increasingly make use of automation, it’s no surprise that the technology is now being applied to lead generation. Today, 80% of B2B marketers use automation for this purpose . It’s a shift that not only reduces human input but makes it easier and more effective to identify and nurture potential new clients. In this post, we look at the ways that automation is used for B2B lead generation and discuss the infrastructure requirements the technology needs.
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How B2B lead generation is changing
Recent research shows that 85% of B2B companies consider lead generation to be their most important marketing objective . With advanced technologies like data analytics and AI now easily available, the way B2B enterprises generate leads is changing. These new technologies enable companies to identify potential new customers with remarkable accuracy, giving them insights into how relevant a prospect is and their readiness to engage.
The reason why this is possible is that automation technologies can unify data from across a variety of channels and touchpoints, providing marketing teams with a cohesive customer profile. This includes data from websites, chatbots, social media and even offline interactions, like phone calls or personal meetings. Combined, this data gives enterprises a better understanding of their prospects which, in turn, enables marketing to be tailored to suit the preferences of individual businesses.
This tailoring includes marketing content. Instead of generating a wide variety of generic content in the hope that some messages will strike a chord, today, automation enables valuable content to be precisely targeted at the right audience and, importantly, at just the right time in their buying journey. For example, 68% of B2B marketers use strategic landing pages to convert leads .
This more strategic approach ensures that potential clients receive information that is highly relevant to their challenges and goals and, in doing so, encourages high-quality leads with improved chances of conversion.
Automation in lead generation
Today, an increasing number of enterprises are benefiting from the integration of automation into their lead capture and nurturing tactics. The use of automated lead capture tools, such as web forms and chatbots, streamlines initial interactions and ensures vital information is collected so that lead nurturing can start almost immediately.
Indeed, lead nurturing has evolved considerably thanks to automation. Enterprises can now implement automated email campaigns, tailored to the specific interests and behaviours of each lead, thus keeping potential clients engaged while guiding them through the sales funnel. What’s more, by using the data to segment audiences and personalised messages, these campaigns can become even more effective.
Over recent years, social proof has become increasingly sought after by business customers. Another use of automation is that it can collect and collate an enterprise’s social proof, from various sources, so that customer ratings, reviews and testimonials can be prominently displayed on websites, social media and emails. This can be vital in providing prospective clients with the reassurance they need in their decision-making process.
For more, read 9 Ways Social Proof Can Boost Your Website
Using AI for predictive lead scoring
Lead scoring, the process of ranking or prioritising leads according to their value to an enterprise, has been transformed by the use of AI. Armed with powerful algorithms, these tools can analyse huge amounts of data, including content interaction, social media engagement, sales histories and behaviour patterns, accurately giving each lead a score that predicts the likelihood that they will become a customer.
With this information at their fingertips, enterprises can quickly identify and prioritise their highest-quality leads, allowing them to utilise their time and resources efficiently by focusing on the most important prospects. In this way, automated lead scoring can make the sales process much more effective.
The other advantage of AI here is that lead scoring can adapt and learn over time. As more data becomes available and the sales generated by historical scores are analysed, these systems can modify their scoring criteria so future predictions are even more accurate. This ensures lead scoring models remain effective going forward as market conditions change and customer behaviours evolve.
Personalisation at scale
Personalisation has become increasingly important in marketing as it ensures content is more relevant to individual prospects and provides a better customer experience. One of the values of automation is that it enables personalisation to be achieved at scale. Again, this is possible due to the analysis of data on how potential customers interact with enterprises. This data can include everything from website visits and content downloads to email engagement and social media interactions, with every action potentially offering some insights into a lead’s interests and preferences.
While often used for email marketing, automated systems can also personalise website visits, offering customised content, product recommendations and even custom pricing options for thousands of potential leads.
Discover 6 Reasons Email Marketing Is Still Relevant
Integrating CRM with automation
For automated lead generation to work effectively, the automation platform needs to be integrated with an enterprise’s customer relationship management (CRM) system. Linking the two systems allows an enterprise’s sales and marketing teams to have access to the same information, thus eradicating issues caused by data silos and enabling both teams to work towards shared goals in a more coordinated manner. For example, if a sales team can access a lead’s interaction with a marketing campaign, they will be better informed to conduct their outreach.
The other advantage of this integration is that it automates the transfer of lead information between systems. This reduces manual data entry and the risk of errors while the combined data from both platforms enables better lead scoring and segmentation. Moreover, the unified data also provides more accurate and detailed reports, delivering insights about the effectiveness of marketing and sales strategies and thus driving future improvements.
Hosting infrastructure requirements
Given the significant collections of data needed for automated B2B lead generation, together with the use of powerful technologies like data analytics, AI and automation platforms, enterprises seeking to benefit from it will require a robust hosting infrastructure. Aside from needing the resources to store their data and operate sophisticated applications, enterprises will also require high availability, security and scalability.
To ensure lead generation can take place without interruption and that data can continuously be collected, server reliability is a prerequisite. So too is scalability, which enables enterprises to scale up resources to meet increased traffic and data processing needs. Cloud hosting, which offers 100% uptime, together with on-demand scalability and pay-per-use pricing is one cost-effective option that enterprises should seriously consider.
Security is another important consideration, especially for enterprises that collect and store business intelligence and personal or sensitive data. Strict security measures to protect the infrastructure and data should include advanced firewalls, intrusion and infection prevention tools, data encryption and advanced backup solutions.
Need to enhance security? Read The Most Effective Security Tool for Linux-Servers
Conclusion
Automation brings benefits to many business operations and, today, this includes B2B lead generation. By collecting marketing interaction data, implementing automation technologies, integrating the CRM and putting the right infrastructure in place, enterprises can access highly accurate insights, predictions and lead scores. Together, these enable businesses to segment audiences, personalise marketing experiences, optimise campaigns and automate communications.
Considering automated B2B lead generation? Find the right infrastructure solution today and get the ball rolling. For more information, visit our Enterprise Cloud Server Hosting page.
