Hypersegmentation Vs. Bulk Leads: The Truth About Lead Generation In 2024
What is your lead generation strategy? Often it was a matter of buying a list of names, after which sales representatives approached the people on this list via cold calling. With the development of technology, the development of lead generation methods also came into play. Yay you, as this saves a lot of work! And a lot of calls to people who aren’t really waiting for you (we’ve all been there).
In 2023, we saw a huge growth in how to generate qualified leads in the best possible way. Spoiler alert: technology, automation, and personalization go hand in hand within lead generation. And we’ll explain exactly how.
In this blog, we’ll explain what a lead is, how lead generation is effectively used, and what the 4 trends in lead generation for 2024 are.
Generating Leads
Lead generation is arousing the interest of potential customers with the aim of increasing revenue. This is an essential part of a sales process. You can obtain leads in many different ways. Social media, paid ads, a landing page; you can even buy leads in bulk! LinkedIn is a particularly interesting place for B2B companies to find leads. You can almost certainly find your target audience there. LinkedIn is currently the largest professional platform, and therefore a good place for B2B companies when it comes to scaling business and finding new prospects.
What is a lead
(According to our lead generators at Leadblocks)
Leads are people who may be interested in your product or service. By using lead generation, you approach these potential customers earlier in the buyer’s journey, giving you more time to build a connection, show more of yourself, and broadcast more content that addresses their questions.
Different lead generation techniques
Lead generation has two different categories: outbound and inbound lead generation.
Outbound lead generation focuses on actively approaching prospects. This is done in the form of cold calling, email marketing, advertising (paid ads), and direct mail.
It can be an effective way to quickly generate new leads and reach a large audience. The disadvantage of outbound lead generation is that some tactics are not always as well received as others. It’s essential to find the right balance between the number of calls made and emails sent versus the quality of the leads you have generated. You do this to continue to ensure the quality and ROI of your lead generation campaigns.
By using lead generation, you approach potential customers earlier in the buyer’s journey, giving you more time to build a connection, show more of yourself, and broadcast more content that addresses their questions.
Inbound lead generation focuses on potential customers through relevant content. Think of blog posts, social media marketing, and eBooks. The idea here is that as a company, by sharing valuable content, you’re positioning yourself as a thought leader in your field. If someone is interested in a product or service you sell, you can offer them valuable information to make the purchasing process easier for them. In inbound lead generation, you need to share content for a long period to excel in this area. It takes a lot of time. But, the leads that come in based on inbound strategies are much warmer than those from outbound campaigns.
5 lead generation trends for 2024
1. Personalized outreach with buyer intent data
Buyer intent data is data that gives you insight into where people (and companies) are in the purchasing process. This data is collected through their online behavior and ‘intent’ signals. By using this data, you can present your offer to your ideal customer at the exact moment.
Intent data can be obtained through the search behavior of your ideal customer. For example:
- When they read specific articles on your website.
- When they compare products and read reviews.
- How often they visit your website and how often they return.
- The number of downloads of white papers, case studies, and eBooks.
- A high level of engagement (the number of emails they open, website clicks, time spent on your website).
The more of these points you collect, the stronger the ‘intent’ signal. To put it more simply: intent data tells you exactly when a lead is actively searching online before making a purchasing decision.
A common disadvantage of collecting intent data is that you need a lot of online traction. This is mainly interesting for large companies and less attractive for SMBs.
2. Better collaboration between sales and marketing
One of the biggest revenue killers is a poor connection between your sales and marketing teams.
In fact, SuperOffice saw a 34% growth in revenue simply by improving collaboration between the sales and marketing teams.
Great! But what does that have to do with lead generation?
Well… Virtually everything. According to HubSpot’s latest research, 43% of all sales reps need better lead supply from their marketing team.
Better collaboration starts with better communication, using the same metrics, and trying to understand each other. At Leadblocks, we are the link between sales and marketing, making sure that your leads are well presented. This is actually the pain point of most lead generation projects. For example, it takes sales too much time to follow up on a lead, or they are not always able to provide feedback. The result of this is that marketing tactics remain the same, and therefore encounter the same problems.
In 50% of all lead generation projects, we see that a small change in execution can make a big difference.
Once you have these two teams together, you will see that your lead generation process will run smoother. And this results in happier customers and higher revenue!
3. Hyper-segmentation and Customer Centric Marketing (CCM)
Customer Centric Marketing is another marketing tactic. But it’s not actually that new. Companies like Zappos have been using this for years.
CCM simply means focusing on the customer. With CCM, you carefully examine the needs of your customers and tailor your approach accordingly. This is certainly nothing new, but it has been getting more attention in recent years.
The reason? Strong competition and a large online world. Consumers see between 4,000 and 10,000 ads daily! Try to stand out in that.
Better collaboration starts with better communication, using the same metrics, and trying to understand each other. At Leadblocks, we are the link between sales and marketing, making sure that your leads are well presented.
But what impact does CCM have on lead generation?
Instead of targeting everyone, with CCM you only target specific leads that you expect to convert. No more bulk purchases. In 2024, it’s all about hyper-segmentation. Hyper-segmentation helps you zoom in on a specific customer segment. Use audience segmentation to offer exactly what certain customers need based on data.
Companies that focus on customer needs will consequently focus more on the right leads, rather than bulk purchases. Personalizing sales outreach is more important than ever. This way, you can be truly relevant to your prospect.
4. Automation is crucial – but personalized
Previously, there was roughly a fixed formula for lead generation. Offer a white paper or another one-pager that can be downloaded for free, create an email funnel, and send the best leads you get from it to the sales team.
In 2023, the automation industry had a revenue of $5.4 billion. Initially, automation was an awkward, robotic process. Thanks to AI and machine learning, automation has become much more user-friendly, and more importantly, more human.
A few examples of automation tools that will become important in the lead generation landscape:
- Chatbots: AI-powered chatbots can answer questions, share links, and even qualify leads based on questions they can ask prospects.
- Tool integrations: Updating your CRM manually is almost a thing of the past. By using different integrations, you can connect your lead generation tool to your CRM, which can push them directly to the right sales rep.
- Leads nurturing: Automation can make it easier to nurture leads through drip campaigns and retargeting strategies.
5. Spray and pray is a thing of the past
Perhaps you’ve heard of it before. Spray and pray is like targeting your audience with a shotgun instead of a sniper. The shotgun disperses all ammunition over a wide field, and if you’re lucky, it hits part of your target. The sniper, on the other hand, works differently, focusing only on the target, hitting it right in the middle.
Unless your company is drowning in endless cash flow, it’s important to be targeted in your sales and marketing projects. Sending your message to everyone you can find in the hope that they become a new customer no longer works in this day and age.
Are you (without knowing it) still practicing spray and pray marketing? These are the three signs of Spray & Pray marketing:
- Not working in a targeted manner
The first sign of spray and pray marketing is not working in a targeted manner. For example, a company may start a campaign without really having a clear picture of who their target audience is. As a result, they often attract the group they want to attract more broadly, hoping that this will also bring in more potential customers. With a broad and diverse audience, the chances are high that you will get low engagement and marketing ROI. And that’s not what you want!
- Lack of consistent content
Another sign of spray and pray marketing is the lack of consistent dissemination of content such as emails, social media posts, or other campaigns. This is because, once again, no targeted strategy has been developed, resulting in your campaigns being all over the place. This also means that you don’t convey a consistent message as a brand, causing potential customers not to understand your brand and look for an alternative.
- No clear goals and metrics
One of the most important things in a sales and/or marketing campaign is clear goals and metrics to measure how successful a campaign has been. These are not used in spray and pray. And that’s a shame! By setting clear goals, you can later measure what has worked and what hasn’t, and where you can improve.
Conclusion
In 2023, we saw a huge growth in how to generate qualified leads in the best possible way. Technology, automation, and personalization go hand in hand. Bulk purchases or spray and pray no longer work. The future of lead generation consists of precise targeting, personalized messages, automation tools for more efficient work, and bringing together sales and marketing.
Do you want to work on your sales strategy? Schedule a free demo with Laura or Lore and let’s see how we can achieve your sales goals together!
—
Lees de blog in het Engels
