I’m always being asked this question…“Joanne, which works best for B2B lead generation?” Email? Telemarketing? LinkedIn? Direct mail?
And I’m always asking AND answering it with another question…“What are you actually trying to achieve?”
I know…. Annoying isn’t it?
You ask me a perfectly straightforward question and I answer it with another one.
But there genuinely isn’t one outbound marketing channel that is ALWAYS the best.
If there was, we’d all use it and I’d have a much easier job!
The right channel depends on:
Who you’re trying to reach.
What you’re selling.
How much it costs.
How complicated it is.
Who makes the decision.
How quickly somebody is likely to buy.
And probably most importantly…
What you’re going to do AFTER that first contact.
Because one of the biggest mistakes I see isn’t businesses choosing the wrong marketing channel.
It’s expecting one marketing activity to do the whole job.
“We Tried Email. It Didn’t Work.”
I’ve heard this so many times.
So, out of curiosity, I normally start asking questions.
How many emails did you send?
“One.”
Right…
Did you follow it up?
“No.”
Did anybody ring the people who opened or clicked?
“No.”
Did you connect with them on LinkedIn?
“No.”
Did you send another email?
“No.”
So you sent one email to somebody who had probably never heard of you before…
They didn’t immediately buy…
And we’ve decided email marketing doesn’t work?
Arrgghh…
That’s not really a campaign.
That’s an email.
And exactly the same applies to most outbound marketing.
One phone call.
One LinkedIn message.
One letter.
One email.
Then nothing.
Customer acquisition needs a process.
So let’s look at the main outbound channels and where I think each one fits.
Email Marketing
I like email.
It’s relatively inexpensive.
You can reach a decent number of prospects.
You can test different messages.
You can track opens, clicks and replies.
And you can build a sequence rather than relying on one attempt.
But please don’t take that to mean:
Buy 50,000 email addresses and send everybody the same blooming email.
That’s not what I mean.
Good B2B email starts with the right audience.
Then the message needs to be relevant to that audience.
A Finance Director may have a completely different reason for buying your service than an Operations Director.
A company employing 500 people may have completely different problems from one employing 10.
And somebody whose business is expanding may be far more interested in what you sell today than they were six months ago.
Same company.
Same service.
Different timing.
Email works best, in my opinion, when it is targeted, relevant and part of a proper follow-up process.
Telemarketing
Now we’re onto something I have a LOT of opinions about!
Apparently cold calling is dead.
I’ve been hearing that for years.
Funny thing is…
The telephone keeps ringing.
Telemarketing gives you something an email can’t.
A conversation.
You can ask questions.
You can understand what’s happening within the business.
You can find out whether there’s a requirement.
You can deal with objections.
And sometimes you find out something incredibly useful:
They’re not interested.
That’s useful!
I’d rather know than spend the next six months sending somebody emails they don’t want.
But telemarketing is expensive if you get the targeting wrong.
If you’re paying a salesperson or telemarketer to spend hours calling businesses that were never likely to buy from you…
That’s a very expensive way of discovering you chose the wrong prospects.
Which is why the quality of the prospecting before the call matters so much.
LinkedIn can be brilliant for B2B.
You can see the person.
Understand their role.
See what’s happening in their business.
Follow what they’re talking about.
And start building some familiarity before having a sales conversation.
But…
Please don’t connect with somebody and immediately send them a three-paragraph sales pitch.
You wouldn’t walk into a networking event, shake somebody’s hand and immediately say:
“Hello, nice to meet you. Would you like to buy my services?”
Well…
I hope you wouldn’t.
LinkedIn works particularly well alongside other channels.
Perhaps they’ve received an email from you.
They then see you on LinkedIn.
They read something you’ve written.
Your name becomes familiar.
Then when somebody calls them…
You’re not necessarily a complete stranger anymore.
Direct Mail
Now this one gets overlooked.
Apparently everything has to be digital these days.
I’m not convinced.
Sometimes putting something physical on somebody’s desk can be incredibly effective.
Particularly if you’re targeting a relatively small, valuable group of prospects.
If you’re trying to win 100 businesses worth thousands of pounds each, spending a little more getting something worthwhile in front of them may make perfect sense.
Would I send an expensive direct mail pack to 50,000 vaguely targeted companies?
Probably not.
Would I consider sending something really good to 100 companies I genuinely wanted as customers?
Absolutely.
Again…
What are we trying to achieve?
So Which Channel Works Best?
Here’s my slightly irritating answer again…
It depends.
Sorry!
Sometimes I’d recommend email.
Sometimes telemarketing.
Sometimes direct mail.
Sometimes LinkedIn.
Sometimes I’d use several of them together.
And sometimes I’d tell somebody not to spend anything yet because they haven’t sorted out who they’re actually trying to target.
Because the channel isn’t always the problem.
You can have the best email sequence in the world…
Sent to the wrong people.
It won’t magically become a good campaign.
You can employ a fantastic telemarketer…
Give them rubbish prospects…
And then wonder why they aren’t booking appointments.
You can write brilliant LinkedIn messages…
To people who have absolutely no reason to buy from you.
The channel can’t fix poor targeting.
Before Choosing the Channel, Sort Out the Prospect
This is where I think B2B prospecting is changing.
Traditionally we’d identify prospects using things like:
Industry.
Location.
Company size.
Turnover.
Job title.
All still important.
But increasingly I’m interested in another question…
Why would this company want to talk to you NOW?
Perhaps they’re expanding.
Recruiting.
Opening another site.
Launching something.
Appointing somebody new.
Investing.
Changing direction.
Or showing another signal that makes what you sell particularly relevant.
That’s where Intelligent Prospecting comes in.
Rather than simply saying:
“Here are 5,000 businesses that fit your criteria. Off you go.”
We can start looking for:
The right company.
The right person.
The right reason.
The right time.
Now your email can be more relevant.
Your telephone opener can be better.
Your LinkedIn message has a reason behind it.
And your salesperson isn’t starting every conversation completely cold.
For me, that’s far more interesting than simply arguing about whether email beats telemarketing.
My Simple B2B Lead Generation Process
If I were spending my own money on outbound marketing tomorrow, this is the order I’d do it in.
1. Decide what I’m actually selling.
Sounds obvious.
You’d be surprised.
Be specific.
2. Identify my ideal customer.
Not “any business”.
Who genuinely has the problem I solve?
3. Identify the right decision-maker.
Who is likely to care about this problem?
4. Look for WHY NOW.
Is anything happening within those businesses that gives me a relevant reason to approach them?
5. Decide the message.
Why should they care?
Not why you’re wonderful.
Why is this relevant to THEM?
6. Choose the channel.
Email?
Telephone?
LinkedIn?
Direct mail?
Or a combination?
The channel comes AFTER the thinking.
7. Decide the follow-up BEFORE launching.
This is a big one.
Don’t send the first email and then start wondering what happens next.
Plan it.
Who follows up?
When?
How?
How many times?
What happens when somebody clicks?
What happens when somebody says “not now”?
8. Measure what actually matters.
Not just emails sent.
Not just calls made.
Not just LinkedIn connections.
Look at:
Conversations.
Replies.
Opportunities.
Appointments.
Quotes.
Sales.
And something I think gets forgotten…
How much time did we waste talking to businesses we shouldn’t have been talking to in the first place?
The Best Channel Is the One That Helps Start the Right Conversation
That’s probably my real answer.
Outbound marketing isn’t email versus telemarketing versus LinkedIn versus direct mail.
They’re tools.
The clever bit — actually, scrap clever… the sensible bit — is deciding which tool gives you the best chance of starting a relevant conversation with the people most likely to buy.
Then following it up properly.
Because buying data is easy.
Sending emails is easy.
Making calls is easy.
Finding businesses genuinely worth talking to…
Understanding WHY they might need you…
Getting the right message in front of the right person…
And actually following it through…
That’s customer acquisition.
So next time somebody asks me:
“Joanne, which outbound channel works best?”
I’ll probably still answer with…
“What are you actually trying to achieve?”
Sorry!…
Call Joanne on 0113 465 5555 if you want to talk through your customer acquisition strategy.
