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If you’ve ever found yourself thinking, “We need more leads,” then it might be time to re-evaluate your approach to sales.
Prospecting is more than just a task for the sales team. It’s a highly valuable tool that you should be incorporating into your digital marketing strategy.
If you’re in marketing, you might be thinking: “Is this really my problem?”. The secret is: yes, it is.
Usually, prospecting gets left to the sales team, while lead generation is marketing’s responsibility. But if you really want to maximize your campaigns, then prospecting needs to be a collaborative effort.
According to HubSpot, 40% of salespeople find prospecting to be the most challenging aspect of the sales process, expressing a stronger preference for closing deals and qualifying prospects. This presents an opportunity for marketing teams to leverage intelligent prospecting tools and create an additional lead generation channel.
Inbound marketing revolves around the creation of informative and captivating content that attracts prospects to your business. It leverages tools such as blogs, ebooks, and webinars to entice more visitors to your website and encourage newsletter signups.
On the other hand, outbound marketing focuses on delivering messages directly to prospects. It encompasses strategies like email outreach, telemarketing, and banner advertising, all aimed at proactively reaching out to potential customers.
When it comes to enhancing your digital marketing strategy, there are several types of prospecting activities that you can consider implementing. These activities can help you expand your reach, engage with potential customers, and ultimately drive conversions.
Here at Outbase, we know the power of email – it’s at the forefront of what we do. And if executed correctly, email marketing yields double the return on investment compared to cold calling.
It’s a proven fact that most B2B marketers prefer to be contacted via email over any other channel. Phone calls, while they might get your prospect’s attention, might not always be welcome. They can be a big disturbance during a busy day, whereas an email is much less invasive. So if you’re aiming to enhance your lead generation, email prospecting is undeniably the most cost-effective and low-risk channel available.
Another less invasive option is reaching out on social media – and LinkedIn is the perfect platform for this. In fact, salespeople who incorporate social media into their process outsell those who don’t by a significant margin—78%.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator can be a great tool for finding and reaching out to prospects, but you don’t necessarily need it to utilize LinkedIn. There are many ways to discover new prospects, such as engaging with individuals who follow your company page, perusing profiles of interested parties, or interacting with your posts. Also, relevant groups offer opportunities to contribute value, enhance brand visibility, and identify potential prospects.
Virtual events are here to stay. As the hybrid working model gains popularity among professionals, virtual events and online webinars have become a convenient solution for integrating networking and professional development into their busy work lives. And it also means businesses can avoid the expensive overhead costs associated with hosting in-person events.
Putting on an event or webinar can be a great cost-effective solution for building brand awareness and reaching prospective clients. And events like webinars can be recorded and repurposed on your website as valuable content.
If you’re not up for the challenge of hosting your own event, you can always find relevant webinars and podcasts to guest star on. And that’s just what we did. Check our Chief Innovation Officer, Rob Harlow, on the Grow Your B2B SaaS podcast.
How can marketing and sales collaborate effectively to achieve successful prospecting? The answer lies in ensuring that your sales team is equipped with a diverse range of tools.
In B2B, buyers typically conduct about 70% of their purchasing research before even considering reaching out to a salesperson. By creating valuable inbound content such as blogs, ebooks, and infographics that directly address your prospects’ challenges, you can attract their attention and provide your representatives with the knowledge and insights needed to secure that crucial pitch.
To further engage visitors, you can utilize gated content for your more substantial and valuable resources, enticing them to provide their email addresses. This approach enables your sales team to establish a warm list of prospects to initiate outreach efforts.
Teamwork makes the dream work!
A simple and effective way to integrate prospecting into your marketing strategy is to use a tool like Outbase.
Outbase uses automation to make prospecting easier than ever – and with access to personalized email templates and 37 personalization tools (plus the option to make your own), writing successful prospecting emails is taken care of.
Setting up a campaign can be done in just five minutes 👇 .
Want to know more? Sign up today.
