SEO Tactics For B2B Lead Gen

As a B2B company, you know you need to reach and convert more leads. However, as you may also know, B2B lead generation is much different than it is for B2C brands. When comparing B2B SEO services to B2C strategies, it’s almost like they are completely different marketing worlds.

So, if you’re used to hearing about standard search engine optimization (keyword research, customer personas, onsite vs. off-site SEO), you may be wondering if those tactics even work for B2B sales. The short answer is yes, but you have to take a vastly different approach to reach the outcomes you want. The short answer is that you need to dig deeper, but there’s more to it than that.

Thankfully, with the right insights and tips, you can start crushing B2B lead generation in no time (especially with advanced SEO strategies from the experts at CSP).

How to Target Like a Pro

If targeting B2C customers is like casting a net that’s a mile wide and an inch deep, targeting B2B customers is the opposite. Rather than trying to spread your message as far and wide as possible, it’s much better to target specific, qualified leads who are eager to convert. However, since the standard SEO landscape takes a more broad-stroke approach, it can be hard to know how to utilize search engine optimization for your needs. Here are some tricks:

Creating More Meaningful Personas

The primary purpose of a customer persona is so you can craft marketing materials to speak to a specific person, rather than an entire demographic. While the persona is representative of a wide group of people, it allows you to craft personal messaging that will resonate with your audience and spur engagement.

Personas are also important for B2B lead generation, but they should be far more detailed and in-depth. Rather than focusing on surface-level elements like gender, income, and family status, your personas should offer a comprehensive view of a high-quality lead. Asking questions can help you build this persona, such as:

• What is this person’s position within the business?
• What pain points does this person experience regularly?
• Who does this person report to? What are their pain points? Do they align?
• What objections are likely to come up within the sales process?
• What specific improvements will occur once your lead converts?
• What other options is your lead looking at to solve their problems?

As with any marketing strategy, the goal of B2B SEO services is to deliver the right message to the right person at the right time. However, because a B2B sales funnel often involves multiple decision-makers, you must create personas for everyone who may be involved with the process.

For example, your initial pitch may appeal to a low-level worker, but you must also create pitches for middle managers and executives within the company. Having these personas (and the corresponding marketing and sales materials) ready can help you move the company through the pipeline faster.

Specific Long-Tail Keywords for Better Results

All lead-generation strategies involve some level of keyword research. However, as a B2B brand, you don’t want keywords with broad appeal. Instead, you want to focus on keywords with a relatively high cost-per-click score. While this may seem counterintuitive at first, it makes sense once you break it down.

With standard lead generation, you may reach 100 people at first. Once you start qualifying these leads, you’ll whittle the number down until you only have two or three high-quality prospects that are ready to convert. Since this process involves reaching 100 people initially, you need a low CPC score.

With B2B lead generation, you don’t want to waste time with 100 leads if you know only two or three have the potential to convert. Instead, you want to generate a much smaller number of leads and try to move as many of them through the pipeline as possible. So, even though your CPC is higher, you’ll wind up getting a better ROI because more of your time and energy is spent on converting high-quality leads, not churn.

Long-tail keyword research can help you narrow your search and find better leads almost immediately. Plus, most of these keywords will likely have low competitor scores. You can use free tools from platforms like Moz or Ahrefs to see these scores and determine whether a keyword phrase is ripe with opportunity.

Building a Better Blog: Depth Over Breadth

One of the main challenges with modern B2B marketing is that buyers are much more likely to do their own research before reaching out to your company (around 77 percent of buyers do). On the one hand, this trend is beneficial for your business because leads are essentially qualifying themselves before connecting with your brand. On the other hand, waiting for an email or instant message is a bad business model that can lead to a shaky bottom line.

Fortunately, inbound marketing can help you be proactive without being too pushy. By providing in-depth, targeted information about a topic your target lead is interested in, you’re more likely to pull them in without involving a sales rep. You may already have a blog, but is it doing enough to move the needle?

Generally speaking, you don’t want to chase trends and be a follower. Instead, you want to position your brand as a thought leader and authority within your industry. The best way to do that is to create content that is both evergreen and topical that dives deep into a particular topic. Essentially, the goal is to become a resource for your leads so they’ll keep coming back for more until they’re ready to buy.

Even the layout of your blog should reflect this. The two best layout options are:

• Pillar/Cluster – A pillar post is long and covers a topic broadly. Cluster pages are designed to provide supplemental information about specific elements from the pillar page.
• Hub/Spoke – In this case, you have a hub page that connects to different related “spokes.” This option works well for SEO purposes and allows visitors to navigate to what they want more easily.

Mastering SEO Lead Generation

Knowing the tenets of B2B lead generation is one thing, but putting these insights into action is another. Unless you have the time, energy, and resources to invest in high-quality in-house B2B SEO services, you’ll always be struggling to keep up. Instead, take a more proactive approach and let the experts handle everything. CSP offers comprehensive lead generation assistance to help your brand find and retain more customers.

With the right B2B SEO services, you can stop waiting for opportunities to fall into your lap and start attracting them to your business. Contact us today to get started.