So, you have a strategy to scale-up your business and now you’re looking to put practical plans in place to generate that level of growth.

Increased lead generation is the first step in any business development plan – fuelling growth or scale-up. In the case of scaling up, the processes you put in place need to be capable of attracting an ever-increasing audience, without the need for significantly expanded resource - rather than simply creating more processes.

To achieve this, there are a number of intelligent tactics which can be employed, and it all begins with understanding your current audience and sales funnel. Did you know that a recent study has shown that 83% of B2B marketers use content marketing to help achieve lead generation targets?

Analysing your customers

Creating buyer personas based on your ideal customers can create a wealth of information that will allow you to enhance your lead generation activities – including the best channels to utilise and what messages will resonate with your different audiences.

The key to effective lead generation is to continue to adapt and refine your strategy – regular research, review and analysis will allow you to draw conclusions; for instance, your ideal customer may be an avid use of LinkedIn but prefers to use Google searches (as 93% of B2B buyers do) or review sites to make decisions about products or services to purchase. The more potential leads you can funnel into the sale cycle, the more patterns will emerge and in turn better inform future strategic plans.

Polishing your lead generation strategy to deliver the best results goes hand in hand with reviewing and updating your lead nurturing strategy. Done correctly, the results can be powerful, with HubSpot research indicating that companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales than rivals who don’t, and manage to do so at a 33% lower cost.  

Lead generation strategy

Lead nurturing goes beyond a simple email content matrix, it requires a variety of tactics and a savvy automation strategy, incorporating social media, remarketing, engaging and dynamic content and, finally, direct sales outreach.

Timing plays a crucial role in lead nurturing. Leads are over 21 times more likely to become a solid sales prospect if they are contacted within five minutes as opposed to 30 minutes, although both are a vast improvement to the 42 hours companies were found to take (on average) according to research from Harvard University. A cardinal sin in lead generation is to allow the lead that you’ve worked so hard to capture to go cold before you’ve followed it up so move quickly.

Once again, adapting and refining is the key to your success – scaling up means having a fundamental understanding of what is working, why certain aspects won’t be a viable option, and how the strategy needs to adapt as the numbers build.

Effective lead generation and nurturing strategies are all about giving your prospects the most relevant content at the right time and in the right place. If you fully understand the needs and preferences of your customers, you can build an effective, sustainable strategy around them that will keep delivering results for your business.

To find out more about refining your lead generation and nurturing tactics, along with other key tactics for a successful scale-up strategy, download our latest eBook.