Organic B2B Lead Generation with @TomShapiro #vcbuzz

When we talk about B2B marketing, we usually think of “outbound” tactics, i.e. salespeople hunting for potential leads and reaching out to them.

But there’s another powerful way to generate leads and scale lead generation: organic approach.

What is organic lead generation and how does it work?

***Add #VCBuzz chats to your calendar here.

***Please sign in here to follow the chat -> twchat.com/hashtag/vcbuzz

About Tom Shapiro

Tom Shapiro is branding and marketing strategist. He is CEO of @Stratabeat, a B2B marketing, branding and design agency.

Tom is author of “Rethink Your Marketing“

Questions we discussed

Q1 How did you become a digital marketer? Please share your career story!

After working at Panasonic in Japan as my first gig out of college, I returned to the U.S. and worked in marketing on the client side for a few years.

I built my first website while working there in 1994, several years before Google was founded. It was the dinosaur era of the web. It was exciting playing around with HTML back then, and just seeing what we could do. We grew 250% within 2 and a half years.

From there I was responsible for U.S. market entry for a UK software localization firm, including the website and all marketing. Tripled revenue for them.

Then I joined @iprospect. Became Director of Digital Strategy.

When I was there, @Forrester named the agency the Leader in Search in the U.S. twice. Helped the company skyrocket in growth, from 85 to 700+ employees within five years.

I then founded @Stratabeat, an B2B organic growth agency. Stratabeat focuses on B2B organic services such as SEO, content, ABM, websites, etc.

A1 I also wrote the book “Rethink Your Marketing”, available on Amazon. My new book, Rethink Lead Generation, will be published in January. You can learn more about it here: https://t.co/4UsxatXHLg #vcbuzz
— Tom Shapiro (@TomShapiro) December 21, 2021

Q2 What is organic B2B lead generation and what does it entail?

Organic B2B lead generation is the act of generating new leads through owned and earned measures. (In other words, you don’t pay to play. You simply earn their attention through natural visibility and authentic engagement.)

In other words, no advertising, no paid search, no paid media, no sponsorships, etc. Nothing paid!

It’s lead gen where you cut through the noise and build trust with the audience naturally. No payments to an ad platform involved. You earn visibility by showing value, not with the highest bid.

#VCBuzz A2.

Organic B2B Lead Gen is as it sounds,
naturally acquiring leads and conversions – across various channels.

The keys are:
1) It’s InBound
2) It’s not “directly” paid for*

(* = That’s not quite the same as “free” :D)

>>>
— Lyndon NA (Darth Autocrat) (@darth_na) December 21, 2021

Organic lead generation can include SEO, content development, content marketing, ABM, PR, social marketing, conversion optimization, etc.

Our approach to organic lead generation at Stratabeat is largely focused on SEO-driven marketing. However, with that said, I believe that CREATIVITY is key. Creativity is underappreciated, yet drives the greatest results.

A2: Organic also requires *time*, especially in B2B. That means there has to be a solid strategy, starting with positioning, in place. #vcbuzz
— Don Dingee (@don_dingee) December 21, 2021

We never use the word “free”. We prefer to think of it as something you earn. Typically with a lot of hard work involved.

#VCBuzz A2.3

It requires “investment” – time/effort, research, publishing and promotion.

Thus it’s not free – and can be “expensive” – but,
unlike most Paid channels – it’s often got a long-life.
Content on your site/3rd party sites/3rd party platforms tends to hang around 😀
— Lyndon NA (Darth Autocrat) (@darth_na) December 21, 2021

I wrote this yesterday on Twitter, but will repeat it here. Creativity underscores all business progress. It simply cannot be commoditized. It’s what sparks the greatest growth. It’s the most sustainable competitive advantage.

This entails

– Content development & marketing
– PR
– Social media marketing
– Direct mailer campaigns #vcbuzz
— Asangi (@asangi_j) December 21, 2021

Q3 Keeping longer buying journeys and larger decision making units, how does organic SEO different in B2B vs B2C?

Organic lead gen for B2B is different from B2C in various ways. One way is mentioned in the question presented – larger buying teams. You need messaging and content that speaks to each member of the decision-making team.

A3: One big difference in SEO for B2B is the buyer(s) are almost never, ever ready to buy at the exact moment you’re ready to publish content. Your best hits will likely come from content discovered months, maybe years after publication. #vcbuzz
— Don Dingee (@don_dingee) December 21, 2021

For example, there may be various influencers on the team, but also a technical buyer, business buyer, executive sponsor, ultimate financial buyer. You don’t necessarily need content for every type of buyer in every situation, but the more coverage you have the better.

With different buyers, you may need different types of content. A financial buyer would appreciate an ROI or TCO tool. A technical buyer is going to be more interested in any technical requirements or integration details.

#VCBuzz A3.2

Consider buying computers.

For B2C – it’s a moderate risk and value purchase.
They will often do some research, and spend some time before deciding on a supplier and convert.

For B2B – the risk/value may increase due to performance requirements and quantity,

>>>
— Lyndon NA (Darth Autocrat) (@darth_na) December 21, 2021

A business buyer is going to focus on business results, so case studies and testimonials may be important. A tactician is going to want to know about features and learning more about the topic – they likely want to be be seen as an “expert”.

A useful thing to keep in mind is that when someone is working at a company, they are always thinking, “Will this help me advance in my job and career? Or will this get me fired?” Most people in business are risk averse.

#VCBuzz A3.4

So instead of thinking of it as B2C and B2B,
it may help to thing of it as B2C and B2RP.
(Really Paranoid :D)

You must handle objections, provide answers to all the questions, and be seen to be more informative/useful and approachable than competitors!
— Lyndon NA (Darth Autocrat) (@darth_na) December 21, 2021

Q4 To get things rolling right away, what is a fairly quick way to start generating organic leads without putting your reputation at stake?

With organic lead gen for B2B, I feel the focus should be on the long-game. There are no silver bullets. There’s nothing that’s going to get you 1,000 leads this afternoon if you’re just starting out. However, there are certain strategic things you can do…

#VCBuzz A4.2

Much like B2C – you want to be Where the audiences/prospects are.
This may mean things like prospect Trade/Industry sites, events etc.

You can also look at industry Q&A/Community sites,
and start providing help/insights and gaining trust/recognition.

>>>
— Lyndon NA (Darth Autocrat) (@darth_na) December 21, 2021

If you’re looking to secure leads a bit faster, consider online events. We started with a new client who had no CRM database and helped them get 100 attendees for an executive briefing within 8 weeks.

Useful events to consider: executive briefings, live streams, webinars, etc. are ways to expedite the lead gen process. Consider these are short-term measures. But you also should build longer-term, evergreen measures.

#VCBuzz A4.4

Looking at Who benefits, and How is important.
Though you may be targeting Companies,
it’s the People that matter.
Being seen to understand the pains/problems that individuals have, and show expertise/knowledge that makes their life easier goes a long way!

>>>
— Lyndon NA (Darth Autocrat) (@darth_na) December 21, 2021

Ranking in Google takes a lot of hard work, and it’s all about providing superior content, value, and experiences. That takes time. But the good news is that once you earn Google’s trust and start ranking on page one, it’s a case of a rising tide lifts all boats.

In other words, when your SEO is strong, your success can be accelerated as you focus on related topics and broaden your focus.

One way to try to gain quicker results is through creative PR. What’s something that’s newsworthy and timely that is so creative that the media would eat it up and provide amazing (immediate) coverage for you?

#VCBuzz A4.6

There’s also Association and Leveraging Up.
Getting your content on established and trusted 3rd party sites (guest posts, round-ups, round-robins etc.).

Joining online podcasts, chats etc. can also raise awareness, increase recognition etc.

>>>
— Lyndon NA (Darth Autocrat) (@darth_na) December 21, 2021

Think of what Larry Kim did with the Facebook IPO years ago. He packaged a study of Facebook Ads vs. Google Ads and sent out headlines that Facebook Ads weren’t worth it. The result? 10,000 media mentions.

Answering the question of “quicker” ways to conduct organic B2B lead gen, you can target the long-tail and questions in SEO as opposed to targeting head terms… The longer the tail or the more granular the question you answer, the faster you’re likely to gain traction for the target query in Google.

A4: About to sound heretical, but … I don’t worry about search volume when starting out, I worry about having compelling content for a set of long-tail terms aligned with positioning that I can own and use to build out the content pillars. #vcbuzz
— Don Dingee (@don_dingee) December 21, 2021

Q5 What are your favorite lead generation tools?

Some of our favorite lead generation tools! First, let’s start with IP detection. We LOVE Leadfeeder and Lead Forensics.

With IP detection, you can see the companies and organizations on your website, see what they are interested in, and then conduct outreach accordingly. I check out IP detection data every morning. It’s the first thing I do everyday. IP detection is a fantastic way to generate leads even from those who visit your site but never complete a form or otherwise hand over their email address while on your site.

#VCBuzz A5.

I’m a big fan of :
* Search Engines
* Social Platforms
* Q&A Sites/Communities

I’m also a fan of Referral schemes and Word of Mouth!

If you can find a channel your prospect frequent, and get in-front of them, consistently, it works.
— Lyndon NA (Darth Autocrat) (@darth_na) December 21, 2021

Mouseflow is amazingly useful for behavioral intelligence. If you’re relying on only Google Analytics or other similar analytics package, you’re missing out on a great deal of audience insight. Mouseflow (or Hotjar, FullStory, Decibel, or other behavioral intelligence tool) is great, in that you uncover the digital body language of your site visitors.

Behavioral intelligence tools use things like heat mapping, click mapping, attention mapping, and scroll mapping to see what’s working on the page and what’s not. They provide you with a birds-eye view of the pages with the most friction in your site. Yes, the behavioral intelligence tools are out of this world. We LOVE them!

A5: I like Microsoft clarity which is wonderful tool for user recordings. #vcbuzz
— Hiren vaghela (@hirendream) December 21, 2021

For SEO and Content, we use Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, Thruuu, Clearscope, MarketMuse, Yoast, SparkToro, among a few others. For SEO reporting, Accuranker, Google Data Studio, and really any other dashboard software (e.g., DashThis, etc.).

I would strongly recommend that if you haven’t tried AI-based optimization tools like Clearscope and MarketMuse, that you try them. We find them to be highly effective for SEO.

For content, there are a number of additional tools we like, as well. For content marketing, BuzzSumo, SparkToro, and Ahrefs Content Explorer, for example.

The audience intelligence you can extract from SparkToro is really interesting. For example, if you’re researching a topic, you can uncover the most popular YouTube channels, podcasts, media, influencers, etc. Then, dive deep into each of these for deeper insights.