A Guide to B2B Lead Generation for Cybersecurity

Studies still claim that over half (approximately 68%) of B2B companies struggle with lead generation, including those in B2B lead generation for cybersecurity. Cybersecurity companies face challenges regarding lead generation because their audience can fall into both the B2B and B2C spectrums and because of the industry’s sensitive nature. Your customers need to know that they can trust you with their most valuable information and, in the B2B space, their customers’ private information. 

So, before diving into the best practices for B2B lead generation for cybersecurity companies, let’s talk about the basics.

What is B2B Lead Generation for Cybersecurity?

B2B lead generation for cybersecurity is the same as B2B lead generation for any other industry – it’s the process of acquiring leads for your company’s products or services. Attaining these leads and understanding their unique needs can be quite challenging, but once you’ve gained their trust and proven your ability to protect them and their assets, not only can they become more than loyal customers but also a community of advocates for your brand. 

What Sets B2B Cybersecurity Lead Generation Apart From B2C Lead Generation?

Customer needs vary significantly in B2C and B2B, meaning they each have their own unique pain points and motivations. For example, a B2C lead looking for cybersecurity wants to protect their personal information from being stolen while shopping online.

Alternatively, a B2B lead in cybersecurity is someone who is looking to protect their company’s sensitive information from cyber threats and any personal or identifying information they hold that belongs to their customers. This B2B lead could be a bank looking for a cybersecurity company to protect their customers’ sensitive data from hackers.

While the two concepts may seem the same, the level of risk and cost of losing data differ. The decision to purchase a cybersecurity solution to protect your business’s sensitive data is a serious one, and the cost of losing that data can be devastating to a business.

B2B customers need to know that your cybersecurity company is not just a “one-trick pony” that can only protect their data, but that you’re an expert in all areas of cybersecurity and will be there for them whenever they need you.

Common Challenges of B2B Lead Generation for Cybersecurity Companies

Yes – B2B lead generation for cybersecurity companies can be difficult because of the weight of the responsibility of protecting your customers’ sensitive data. Still, with the right B2B lead generation strategy in place, you can build your cybersecurity company into an industry leader. 

The best way to understand the challenges of B2B lead generation for cybersecurity companies is to address two frequently asked questions:

How Do You Find Leads for Cybersecurity Companies?

Cybersecurity companies need to start generating B2B leads by creating an effective lead generation strategy that considers the specific needs of their target customer groups. This strategy should include both digital and traditional marketing approaches.

For example, your lead generation strategy may involve using digital marketing tactics, like SEO, email campaigns, and social media advertising, to reach potential leads. Additionally, companies can use traditional marketing tactics, such as cold calling, trade shows, and networking, to reach potential customers.

Which is Better for B2B Lead Generation for Cybersecurity Companies: Organic Leads or Paid Leads?

Unfortunately, there’s no right or wrong answer. It all depends on your target audience and the resources you have to work with. While organic lead generation can give you long-term results and help you save money, paid lead generation allows you to get as many leads as you like and retarget leads. 

Effective B2B Lead Generation Tools for Cybersecurity Companies

When it comes time to determine the best approach for B2B lead generation for your cybersecurity company, several tools and strategies can help you generate quality leads. Again, it all comes down to your budget, the resources you have to work with, and your target audience.

With that in mind, here are a few of the most effective methods for B2B lead generation for those in cybersecurity: 

Social Media

Social media is an excellent platform for those interested in organic and paid leads because it allows you to connect with prospects and build a strong online presence. In fact, approximately 89% of B2B marketers say they use LinkedIn as part of their lead generation strategy, with 62% saying they find this platform most effective at generating leads, making it one of the top performers for organic B2B lead generation.

As for paid lead generation strategies, LinkedIn Ads are rated some of the most effective by marketers, with approximately 65% of B2B companies stating that they’ve generated a customer through LinkedIn paid ads. Research also shows that sponsored InMail has an opening rate of 52%, while message ads have a 40% conversion rate. 

Source: WebFX

AI and Machine Learning

While AI and machine learning have come a long way in recent years, they cannot automatically generate leads for you. You still have to do the manual work of understanding who your audience is and how to pull them in. These tools can only help you weed out bad leads, qualify leads, and nurture those identified as high-quality leads.  

These tools can help automate the lead generation process and deliver a more personalized experience for your leads, ultimately leading to higher conversion rates. Some excellent lead-nurturing AI tools can include automated responses to frequently asked questions and personalized content hubs that show your audience that you understand their needs and can deliver on your promises.

Here’s a great example of how Hushly’s AI-powered platform helps nurture leads looking for information on B2B marketing, lead generation, and cybersecurity:

Source: Hushly

Valuable Lead Magnets

Lead magnets are content pieces that offer a specific, high-value solution to your target audience. These are usually pieces of gated content such as ebooks, webinars, or whitepapers. The information in these pieces should be highly relevant to your audience’s needs and provide them with something they can’t find anywhere else. The goal is to draw their attention and prove that you have the knowledge to back up your claims and the tools and resources they’re looking for in a business solution. 

Source: Hushly

Free Trial Offers

Finally, if you’re looking for a sure-fire B2B lead generation tool that will show your audience that you have what they need, then you’ll want to consider offering a free trial of your service. Not only does this allow you to collect valuable information about your potential customers, but it also allows you to prove to them that you have what they need. 

Let Hushly Help You Succeed in Your B2B Lead Generation Efforts

B2B lead generation for cybersecurity companies can be tricky. However, with the right tools, resources, and strategies, you can successfully generate leads and establish relationships with your target audience.

Here at Hushly, we offer a variety of tools to B2B organizations that can help them connect with their target audience and build relationships with potential clients. Whether you’re looking for B2B lead generation tools, AI customer engagement tools, or a simple solution for demand capture – we’ve got you covered. 

Interested in what Hushly can do for you? Request your demo today.

The 7 Best Organic Website Traffic Sources You Should Use in 2022

You’ve spent the money on great content, the time and money to build a great website, and you are confident that your product will add value to anyone who chooses to buy it.

Yet you’re not generating leads like you think you should be. Or maybe your conversions remain stunted despite all of your best efforts. Your revenue isn’t growing, and you don’t see the ROI on your advertising that you think you should be.

If this describes your situation a little too well, it may be time to rethink your website traffic generation strategy.

You need eyeballs on your website, and high-quality products are the only way to convert leads reliably. If you aren’t getting it, no amount of content curation or website improvements is going to fix your problem.

So how can you generate lots of organic web traffic in 2022? We’ve put together today’s list as a rough guide to get you started.

1. SEO

Search engine traffic remains king.

A first-page google ranking is still the best way to drive organic traffic reliably to your site. The higher up on the list, the better.

Focus on optimizing your content for search engine traffic by working within the confines of what the search engine creators are looking for. This means avoiding the temptation to use black hat SEO techniques that could see your site penalized or even blacklisted by google.

Instead, we recommend following some simple SEO tips like these we compiled.

2. Capitalize on Websites That Rely on UGC

Many websites on the internet rely on users to generate all content. Examples include Reddit, Quora, and Yelp.

These websites are ideal for generating organic traffic because they come with pre-existing communities that enable you to focus on assimilating into and generating goodwill and leads.

Focus on Websites with High Domain Authority and Backlinks

These are the main metrics you should use to evaluate which websites to post to.

The best content collection sites rank for nearly everything. They have massive communities of users dedicated to all kinds of topics.

If your product or service appeals to a niche audience, there is no better place to try and generate traffic from.

Respect the Community

Websites like Reddit can create communities of folks with shared values. If you enter their space and start advertising a product no one’s ever heard of, you’re likely to be ignored or even receive backlash.

Instead of this approach, we recommend really trying to assimilate yourself into the community. Find out how to provide value in the form of a post of your own that is relevant to the site and its interests.

Once you’ve established a level of credibility and trust, users are far more likely to have a look at your product and website.

3. YouTube

YouTube fits the definition of the websites listed above but deserves special mention as one of the strongest marketing tools available in 2022. Consider that 88% of marketers plan to create YouTube videos as part of their marketing campaigns this year.

Video Performs Better in SEO

Dwell time is one of the metrics Google uses to adjust SERP results. As customers stay on your webpage to watch the full video, this naturally increases dwell time.

Video is Comprehensive

A video can accomplish the same job as a blog post and a social media campaign all at once. They are the fastest way to disseminate information about your product and services. This is why 86% of marketers know they’ve generated increased leads with video content.

Rank Instantly

You can rank #1 for search terms on YouTube right after posting the video. This is in contrast to Google rankings, which take a lot of time and consistent effort to climb reliably.

4. Content Management Platforms

While reviewing your web traffic, you may decide that marketing and managing your content is a challenge you’d rather trust someone else with.

In that case, we recommend hiring a professional content management platform like Hushly.

Hushly

Hushly has helped dozens of B2B sales and marketing teams increase conversions, boost sales and revenue, and create fantastic and memorable user experiences with our comprehensive platform.

We can do the same for you with our data-driven content management approach.

5. Email

Email marketing r one of the best ways to generate organic traffic. Emails are easy to both mass produce and personalize, allowing you to accomplish both casting a wide net and targeting specific customers.

Be Ready with Great Content

Email marketing is fantastic at getting customers to click through your website and see what you’re offering. However, they’ll quickly bounce somewhere else if they are met with a bad user experience or unappealing content.

We recommend that you have a solid collection of relevant and educational content before beginning any campaign that will drive traffic to your site. Without something to do there, visitors aren’t likely to come back.

6. Social Media

Social media is a growing and lucrative marketing resource.

There are several key advantages that social media platforms enjoy over other forms of marketing.

  • User-generated content reigns supreme.
  • Sharing is easy and encouraged.
  • Social media leads convert at a much higher rate.

Make Sure Content is Regular

Your social media strategy should determine how often you post. You don’t need to post social media content daily, as long as there is regular activity and a solid backlog of content for users to browse if they feel inclined to.

7. Guest Posting

Guest posting is the act of writing blogs or articles for other websites or publications.

This can drive traffic in a few ways.

Firstly, it’s an opportunity to expose yourself to a new audience. If your post is relevant to their audience and you post a legitimately interesting piece, you can easily convince interested readers to take a look at what else you’ve posted on your site.

Secondly, working with another publication can help establish a community between you both. This will make future guest posts or even mentions of you in their future posts come more naturally.

Thirdly, it’s a chance to get your name and image out there. Having a backlog of writing credits under various publications will improve your credibility and add some weight to your name.

Respect the publication

Similar to posting on UGC-focused websites, you need to understand the publication you’re writing for and why allowing you to guest post will also benefit them.

Attack from Multiple Angles

The key to generating lots of web traffic is to cast a wide net by tapping into many different resources. You have potential customers who might love your product on every conceivable platform. Start by finding the easiest and most reliable customers and expand from there.

With a comprehensive approach, you’re sure to see some increase in traffic. After that, your content’s job is to keep those customers around and convert them into sales.

If you’re interested in having Hushly generate your web traffic for you, request your demo today.

A Guide to Measuring Lead Quality

Measuring lead quality is an important step to boosting your sales conversion rates and simplifying the lives of your sales team.

An unqualified list of leads can be highly misleading. If most prospects in the stack are only kind of interested in what you’re selling, a salesperson could waste precious time tracking them down only to be met with disinterest.

A qualified stack of leads can avoid this problem by providing a natural sense of direction: determining in advance which leads are the most promising means the salesperson can properly prioritize their workload and target only the most likely sources of revenue.

Today’s guide will cover some advantages of a strong lead qualification program and detailed steps to implement lead quality measurement in your sales process.

What is Lead Quality?

Lead quality means the likelihood that a given prospect, or sales lead, will complete the sales process by making a purchase. Measuring lead quality allows sales teams to prioritize the highest quality leads—only those prospects most likely to buy the product.

In the first place, no lead is high quality if the prospect in question isn’t interested in or capable of buying your product. Hence knowing how likely they are to close before you contact them is an essential piece of information.

Likewise, you may want to know if your prospect could turn into a heavy stream of revenue down the line, so you could qualify leads based on their potential to grow using your product.

Knowing these two critical pieces of information immediately clarifies to your sales team who they should be targeting first and lets your lead generation operations know what kinds of leads are most valuable to track down.

The Advantages of Lead Qualification

Measuring lead quality will be the most significant benefit to your sales team, who will immediately be able to sort prospects into categories based on their interest in your product.

Sales teams who use lead qualification can avoid common time-wasting pitfalls like tracking down customers who aren’t interested in buying your product or trying to sell to someone who can’t afford it.

Most Leads Aren’t Very Good

Consider that only 25% of leads are high-quality enough to advance to sales.

If you’re distributing leads evenly with no scoring system, that’s 75% of your sales team’s efforts in vain, with no guarantee they’ll find the 25% who want to buy the product before those prospects move on and lose interest.

Segment Your Customers

An experienced sales team can tell which products are suitable for specific buyers and tailor a sales experience to that need.

Qualifying leads based on their industry or interests and then targeting prospects with relevant information can help you create a world-class end-to-end buying experience for each customer.

Maximize Revenue

As mentioned above, most of your generated leads won’t be high-quality enough for the sales team to convert. This isn’t necessarily something to be seen as a failure by either demand generation or your sales force: instead, it’s just a simple reality that you can’t close every deal or make every sale.

Instead of looking at poor leads or lost sales, it’s more important and lucrative to focus on the completed sales and those of a high enough quality to convert quickly.

This shift in perspective comes with a renewed focus on maximizing positive-revenue operations: spending most of your time tracking down only the best leads will naturally increase revenue compared to randomly tracking down leads without regard to their readiness to do business.

Factors to Consider When Qualifying Leads

The most crucial factor to consider is what kind of prospect your company sells to most: is it the prospect who closes quickly with small-ish purchases so you can move on to the next? Or is a more significant number of prospects with constant revenue streams the bread and butter your company needs?

Beginning with simple and broad-natured questions like these will help narrow down the number of factors you want to look at.

The BANT System is a tried-and-true way to start if you don’t already have a lead quality program.

The BANT System

BANT is a lead qualification acronym initially developed at IBM. BANT stands for:

  • Budget: You’ll need to know your prospect’s budgetary concerns. For example, maybe your prospect’s revenue is seasonal, and they won’t have the cash to make purchases until a certain month of the year. Alternatively, your prospect might never be able to afford your product because they don’t make enough revenue. Both pieces of information should affect their lead score.
  • Authority: Is buying your product something that will need to be approved by someone other than the prospect? If so, who else needs to be involved? Will this advance or delay the process of sales? From the authority angle, you can also try and predict what sorts of obstacles will present themselves from within your prospect’s organization. For example, they may need to justify this purchase to a higher-up before they can make it.
  • Need: Every prospect has unique pains and pressures that your product can relieve in slightly different ways. Rank needs based on what itch your company will scratch for a given prospect. The more serious the need, and the more directly you can address it, the higher the score should be.
  • Timeline: Time matters from the perspective of your salesperson who wants to close the deal as quickly as possible and from the prospect’s point of view. Your prospect may have an urgent problem that needs solving, boosting their lead score. Alternatively, they could be at the beginning of a long buying decision to evaluate many competing products.

How to Measure Lead Quality

Here are four general steps you should follow when measuring lead quality.

1. Determine Your Qualifying Questions

Your first step in crafting an excellent lead quality program is identifying which factors are most important to your company.

You can start by using your current best customers as an example. How did you target them, what are they satisfied with, and how else can you attract more buyers like them?

2. Look from Multiple Perspectives

Your sales team will have one opinion on qualifying your leads, while your demand generation team will have another.

Every relevant voice should have a seat at the table when crafting your lead quality program. This is important because it will ensure all parties are on the same page and give these departments a chance to speak up on important issues.

3. Measure Progress

Hushly’s advanced content engagement solutions include the ability to measure your conversion rates and provide complex data on what your most lucrative sales funnels ultimately are.

However, once you complete this step, make sure you’re keeping track of metrics that matter for your business. Use these to rethink your system as often as necessary.

4. Be Willing to Rethink Your System

Implementing a lead quality program will take work and some likely failures. The process won’t be perfect the first time you implement it. Be ready to identify the program’s weak points, listen to feedback from your employees, and make changes frequently where needed.

Start Qualifying Leads Now

The ability to sell your product to customers that need it is the core of what makes a business a business. A quality ranking program will help your sales team convert more sales in less time and help your demand generation team identify the most lucrative prospects.

Contact us today to see how Hushly can help you find and convert higher-quality leads today.

9 Lead Generation Tips for Cybersecurity Companies

Cybersecurity experts now’s your time to shine.

COVID-19 restrictions have forced businesses around the world to accelerate their digital transformations.

In many ways, businesses had to transform their operations in ways they’d never anticipated – like switching to remote work.

For many industries, remote business poses a huge security risk. Unregistered devices, email communication, remote logins, payment processing – almost every interaction poses a security risk.

One in five companies didn’t prioritize cybersecurity improvement during the pandemic either. Many paid a hefty price for it, too, because attacks have increased by 56%.

As a cybersecurity company, you have a huge opportunity to make your case and carve a niche in your market.

However, cybersecurity lead generation isn’t easy. You already face stiff competition in a market that’s tough to maneuver. Use these strategies and tips to solidify your online presence and build trust.

9 Strategies and Tips for Improving Cybersecurity Lead Generation and Quality

Cybersecurity lead generation hinges on establishing trust. Organizations already tend to neglect cybersecurity because they don’t believe it’s necessary until an attack strikes. Companies need to know you have their best interests in mind and aren’t just out to take their money.

1. It’s All About Demand Generation

Frankly, businesses don’t think they need cybersecurity. It’s no surprise that almost a third of IT professionals say their organization neglects proper safeguards.

Before even thinking of cybersecurity lead generation, focus on demand, and prospecting.

You have a unique opportunity in that cybersecurity is a frequent news topic. Every day you could run a Google search and find a news story about a cyberattack, ransomware, or malware to boost demand generation.

News stories covering attacks, what went wrong, the exploited loopholes, and solutions are perfect for your blog. Organize them by vertical or industry to encourage engagement.

2. Put a Heavy Emphasis on Educating Leads and Prospects

70% of IT workers say hackers have changed their tactics since the pandemic hit. Pandemic or not, hackers change their tactics all the time.

Leads and prospects need educational and engaging content.

Once you boost demand with current events and news stories, create cybersecurity lead generation content that heavily focuses on solutions. Give away your knowledge. Let organizations know what they can do to improve their security and prevent attacks.

3. Find Ways to Set Your Business Apart in Your Cyber Security Marketing Campaigns

Cybersecurity is a pretty saturated market, and new companies arise every day. Even if you’re capable of providing security services and software to every industry, you shouldn’t market to everyone.

Marketing to every sector forces you to create general content. Two-thirds of B2B buyers say companies give them way too much generic and useless content already.

Instead, analyze your competition and see which industries they target. Look for a few low-competition verticals to dive head-first into blogs, eBooks, videos, and other marketing content. This will help you develop your own cybersecurity target market.

4. Develop an Account-Based Marketing Strategy

Once you decide on a few key industries or verticals, you could take it a step further by implementing an account-based marketing strategy.

Try to figure out which security companies your target accounts already use and what you could do to win them over.

5. Case Studies are Your Best Friend

Relevancy is key in cybersecurity marketing material. Buyers need to read content that makes them think, “Hey, that could be me.” Case studies make your content hit close to home.

While you shouldn’t capitalize on a client’s hack to drive fear in your audience, you can clearly explain which loopholes hackers exploited (or could have exploited) and how your security products solved it.

6. Video and Multimedia are a Must

Cybersecurity isn’t always the most thrilling industry. However, it does offer a ton of potential.

Videos are necessary for boosting engagement and lead generation in your cybersecurity marketing material.

Get creative. Cisco ran a successful storytelling video marketing campaign that felt more like a Netflix series than a cybersecurity marketing campaign.

7. Build Connections with Email Marketing

Of course, social media is important too, but email offers the intimacy cybersecurity lead generation requires.

Personalized and conversational email marketing campaigns help you build a personal connection with your prospects and leads. Alert subscribers when a new hack occurs and what happened – especially if it’s in their industry.

The WordFence security plugin, for example, sends email updates explaining what happened during the latest attack and how to stay safe.

8. Digital Events and Webinars are Your Secret Weapon

Most buyers can’t convince their higherups to buy your product right away, but they might have more tools to do some convincing after a webinar.

Cybersecurity is a perfect industry for webinars because you have the expertise that can truly benefit people. People can participate in your digital event and use your tips or risk assessments right away. They’ll also walk away knowing their security limitations without signing up for your service.

9. Transparency is Key

Most people expect marketers to bend the truth. They might accept it for things like email marketing or sales, but they certainly won’t for cybersecurity.

“If they’re lying about this, what else could they be lying about?”

Transparency is critical. Don’t try to hide your flaws or limitations – make leads aware of them as needed and explain what you do when mistakes happen.

Power Your Cybersecurity Lead Generation and Boost Lead Quality with AI

AI-driven content engagement tools can help you build an account-based marketing strategy. An ABM strategy allows you to laser-focus on certain content niches so you can establish thought leadership and authority.

An AI engine adds hyper-personalization to your site – like Netflix or Spotify. When someone visits your page, AI can detect their intent, industry, or even company based on their behavior to offer personalized recommendations.

That’s why Check Point software started generating almost 93% more leads and improved lead quality by 54% after they implemented the Hushly AI content engagement tool.

Read the full case study to see how Hushly helped Check Point and can help you too!

AI and Marketing: How to Further Your Lead Generation

Regardless of industry, if you want your business to be successful, you need marketing and sales teams that perform. 

And teams that perform well bring one core thing to the table: leads. Without leads, you can kiss the idea of a successful business goodbye. The problem is generating leads in 2020 differs from lead generation a decade ago. 

Technological advancements have multiplied since the turn of the millennium, and now more than ever, it’s important for companies to take advantage of the tech available to help with day-to-day business processes like lead generation.

In the recent past (and still to this day), companies rely on methods like cold calling, direct mail campaigns, and in-person networking events to generate leads. When the internet became a must-have, the whole lead gen process changed. 

Now, marketers and salespeople had extended access through technological advancements to help them with lead generation. Cold emailing, digital content creation, and social media platforms became must-haves in addition to more traditional lead gen methods. But now none of the aforementioned “new technologies” are actually considered new anymore. For example, a social media presence is no longer an option; if your company isn’t online, you’re letting potential customers look past you and move toward your competition. 

The lead potential that social platforms and the internet bring are undeniable. That said, everyone’s using them now. To overtake your competitors, you need to implement new high-tech add-ons to your lead gen strategy. That’s where artificial intelligence comes in. 

Using AI to further lead generation 

Artificial intelligence isn’t “new” technology, but its prevalence in the business world is relatively new – and rapidly growing. We’re going to explore how AI functions as a tool for marketing and sales teams, and ultimately helps with the necessary task of lead generation for a business. 

AI technology has grown and developed so much since the 1950s, though the concept of artificial intelligence existed long before then. The main business use case for AI tech is obvious: automation. With general marketers’ roles being so multifaceted: writing, researching, conducting outreach, event planning, and more, automation is more than welcome in today’s business environment. Even with more specific offsets of general marketing, demand gen marketers are stretched thin, too. 

How is AI currently being used for lead generation purposes? 

Even if your demand gen team isn’t currently utilizing AI for lead gen purposes, perhaps a landing page sales funnel is more of your speed, there are other people out there who are. Let’s explore some real-life use cases of AI in lead gen in its current iteration. 

1. Identifying potential leads 

Finding leads on your own is a laborious process, so many companies put lead generation off unless and until their pipeline is close to “dry”. Identifying where a customer falls in the stages of awareness and targeting different awareness groups can prove tiresome. AI-powered solutions, however, can help identify new leads in a less labor-intensive way than that of a human. 

Data science and machine learning platforms can be used to mine customer data by combing through the internet looking for specific people, companies, or products that might have existing customer lists that can be used by your in-house sales/marketing teams as a jumping-off point of contact. There even are specific AI-based platforms that completely automate the lead development and generation process, ultimately resulting in new business relationships. 

2. Generating lead insights and data-based instincts 

Getting insight into your leads is one task that sales and marketers must do in order to properly, seamlessly engage. Instead of using a human instinct to draw conclusions or assumptions about leads, utilizing data to make informed insights is the way to go. In fact, your teams can develop lead profiles based on data points and factors, such as a lead’s online presence (i.e. social media, purchase history, most visited websites, and more). 

For instance, LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator allows users to search for people, companies, and types of experience to discover whether they are potential leads or not. Further, it allows you to segment based on territory and includes features like tagging and saving accounts of interest. Another tool of interest is Einstein, Salesforce’s CRM platform. Einstein provides automated lead scoring, which can help businesses learn about accounts or users that are most likely to convert. 

Lead scoring software is essential for helping your teams be successful. It saves the hassle of wasting time on leads who won’t convert and identifies leads who need more outreach, what kind of interactions your leads need, and how you can push them to convert. That way, you can nurture the leads who will likely bring you what you need: conversions. 

3. Providing personalized experiences to possible leads 

It isn’t surprising to hear that most people don’t trust salespeople. In the same vein, few people trust marketers, either. The campaigns seem tired, overdone, and impersonal, and the overarching message to users is “give us your money” or “buy our product,” which makes the whole experience not something anyone can look fondly upon. That doesn’t mean people don’t want to be sold to, but it does mean that people need more of an incentive than a campaign targeted to just anyone. 

People crave personalized experiences, and with how competitive the market is these days, you need to implement personalization to get your leads to convert. Gone are the days of mass phone calls with a messaging sheet for your salespeople to read off of. You also can’t rely on canned emails that follow a generic template that all people see right through. Research shows that 80 percent of people are likely to buy something if a brand offers a personalized experience. The same holds true for companies and lead generation. If you personalize your campaigns and messaging to your users, they will more likely turn into customers. 

But you might wonder how to achieve this and take your personalization to the next level. Content experience software utilizes AI to help companies personalize digital content. The purpose of content experience software is engaging an audience with thoughtful, curated content that is specific to types of users rather than a pool of leads as a whole. An example of this might be ads and written content that speak to a user’s interests or pain points, thus providing a value-add of sharable content they can take with them, rather than relying on “tried-and-true” calls and emails to do the job for you. 

4. Offering follow-up to prevent leads from going silent 

A huge missed opportunity for businesses is following up with their leads. In your personal life, you might avoid “double texting” someone as not to seem annoying, but in the professional world, follow-up is key for maintaining a full and abundant pipeline. Companies tend to become complacent if or when they have a multitude of leads, falsely assuming that their pipeline will never run dry. But that’s simply not the case. 

However, you can’t necessarily rely on your sales or marketing teams to have the bandwidth to follow-up with leads if they’re focusing their efforts on more obvious leads who seem closer to conversion. Instead, using AI sales assistants can fill the follow-up gap your teams are neglecting to close. 

These sales assistants use AI engagement tactics to follow-up with leads via email, live chat, and text messaging – a variety of ways to re-engage with different audiences. Plus, the messaging coming from these AI sales assistants is personalized, not canned, as mentioned above. The tools are crafted with natural language processing software, which can help AI to learn how to best communicate with specific leads, down to matching/reflecting the tone and type of messaging most comfortable per person. The more natural the conversation, the more likely potential customers will be open to re-engaging with your company, and the more comfortable they’ll be communicating with a member of your sales or marketing team after the first re-engagement via an AI-powered assistant. 

Don’t wait to integrate – start using AI today 

Artificial intelligence is no longer a “future” need or a nice-to-have; to move ahead of your competition, you should be using all available technology to boost business visibility. While AI-powered solutions aren’t the only way to connect with leads, they do help with streamlining lead communication and acquisition processes. 


If you’re worried about the cost or potential implications of artificial intelligence on your business, throw those fears to the side. AI opens channels of communication and brings peace of mind to your sales and marketing teams. If you’re not already using AI for your lead generation purposes, you’re falling behind your competition. As time progresses, more businesses will adopt AI as a standard inclusion in their lead generation strategy. Don’t get left behind.

How to Choose B2B Marketing Tools for Personalization

hushly blog

If you’re like most B2Bs, you know that personalization is critical for attracting leads and closing sales, but you aren’t sure which tools you need to complete the task.

Which B2B marketing tools are worth the money and which ones will just bloat your budget?

If a tool doesn’t help you collect and access relevant data – that’s a red flag.

If a tool doesn’t improve your relationship with leads – that’s a red flag.

Automation is supposed to make your life easier, not more frustrating.

Consider the tools below to create a user-friendly experience for your leads. Let your website do most of the work and leads will come flowing in.

6 Factors to Consider When Creating Your Stack of B2B Marketing Tools for Personalization

First things first, the most important B2B marketing tools in your arsenal are a mobile-friendly website and lead generation process.

According to Think with Google, B2B buyers spend up to three hours each day conducting research from their smartphones. By 2020, 70% of all business searches will happen on mobile devices.

If your website isn’t optimized for mobile browsing, you’re already losing money and you’ll be losing a lot more very soon.

Your buyers don’t only expect a mobile-friendly experience. They also expect a uniquely personalized experience. Consumer brands like Spotify, Facebook, and Netflix have created an individually personalized and on-demand environment that people have come to expect from brands.

Like expert analyst Brian Solis says, “Business buyers don’t go to work and forget what they do as humans. There’s a new normal that blurs the line between B2B and B2C. They just want things personalized.”

Use B2B marketing tools and strategies to make it happen.

1. First-Party Intent Data

First-party intent data is the fuel behind any successful account-based marketing campaign.

According to Marketing Profs, businesses that run ABM strategies driven 208% more revenue than those that don’t. The key to a successful ABM strategy is relevant, up to date, and accurate data.

Intent data is as close to real-time data as you can get. In the case of first-party intent data, it’s based on the information you’ve collected through a lead’s activity on your website so you can use it to create personalized campaigns immediately.

Personalized strategies based on intent data work because they put you in the mindset of the lead. Since you understand their place in the sales process and why they’re researching your website, you can create the most relevant content for them.

2. Retargeting Campaigns

There’s no way around it: relevant retargeting campaigns are some of your best B2B marketing tools. That is, of course, if you know how to run them properly.

As always, you need accurate data to make these campaigns work. Once you have that, you can target your leads through email and LinkedIn with personalized content.

LinkedIn is an excellent retargeting tool because the platform offers comprehensive audience insights. Not only that, but you can check out which URL a lead visited, plug it into the LinkedIn ad creator tool, and run a targeted ad for LinkedIn users who specifically visited that page.

See why accurate data is the lynchpin here?

3. Triggered Email Marketing Campaigns

Automated email campaigns are surprisingly easy to set up, yet highly personalized, and can deliver excellent results. Triggered campaigns tend to have an average open rate of over 45%.

Just log into your email service provider and create a new campaign. You’ll have the choice to set up an automated email here in most programs.

Look at your website now for some of your best content. Design unique emails that will go out after a lead visits each piece of content on your site.

4. Types of Content

Not every B2B lead wants to read whitepapers and tutorials. 65% want to hear podcasts from you while 49% want to learn about your company through video.

Don’t take an “if we build it, they will come” approach – create the kind of content your leads want.

If you’re running an ABM strategy, it’s more than worthwhile to do some research here. For example, the end-users of your product tend to prefer one type of content on certain subjects while top decision-makers prefer others.

At the end of the day, your personalization strategy runs on high-quality content and data, so these are the best B2B marketing tools at your disposal.

5. Adaptive Content Hubs

Now that you’ve started creating high-quality content, you need to put it all together in one – organized location.

That’s where an adaptive content hub comes into play.

An adaptive content hub is important for a few reasons.

First of all, your leads find it valuable because they’ll be able to educate themselves at their own pace, easily find the information they need on any device, and see that you care about their needs post-purchase.

However, an adaptive content hub is also useful to your personalization strategy because you can use it to collect information about your leads and utilize that data to fuel future campaigns.

For example, a visitor reads one piece of content. The algorithm will monitor what type of content they prefer and continue showing it to them. See how easy it is to collect information like this?

Source: Hushly

6. Exit Intent and Abandonment Strategies

At Hushly, we recommend everyone gets rid of forms completely.

Instead of bombarding users with a form as they try to exit your website, give them more content instead.

They’ll be more likely to stay because you’re actually providing them with something useful instead of asking them to do something for you.

Watch Your Lead Conversions Grow By 51%

At Hushly, we’re all about removing anything that interferes with the lead nurturing process. In most cases, that means getting rid of forms.

Your leads hate them and your marketers hate sifting through the inaccurate data.

Instead, upgrade your B2B marketing tools to include features like self-nurturing landing pages and adaptive content hubs. Back your data up with algorithm checks and human lead verification. From there, you’ll have the data you need to create relevant and valuable personalization strategies for your current and future leads.

Check out an adaptive content hub in action!

6 Crucial Mobile Marketing Automation Strategies for Lead Generation

Only smart B2B marketers seem to realize this right now, but a solid mobile strategy is critical for generating leads and driving sales today.

However, putting mobile marketing automation strategies into action is easier said than done in B2B.

While consumer brands can afford to play around with new tools and tactics, B2Bs don’t have the same luxury – lost leads can cost thousands or millions.

However, going into 2020, it’s important to implement the strategies below if you want to meet the expectations of your leads and boost revenue.

Start slow and always keep your buyers’ experience at the forefront.

Why Bother Caring About B2B Mobile Marketing Automation?

A mobile marketing strategy isn’t just “nice to have” in B2B anymore.

According to research from Think with Google, your buyers spend up to three hours every day conducting research from their smartphone. To top it off, by next year, 70% of all Google business searches will take place on mobile devices.

The question is: is your website prepared?

A truly mobile-friendly B2B website puts user experience above everything else. Your website and landing pages should have no hurdles between visitors accessing the information they came there to get.

To sweeten the deal, you can use mobile marketing automation strategies and tools to collect data and personalize every visitor’s experience.

Think personalization is reserved for the consumer sector? Think again. Salesforce data shows that 65% of businesses will consider switching brands if a vendor doesn’t try to personalize their content and communications.

Your buyers are younger than you think, and they’ve come to expect the same personalized on-demand experience from businesses that they get everywhere in the consumer sector.

6 Mobile Marketing Automation Strategies You Need for Lead Generation

Use the mobile marketing automation strategies below to create an experience that your buyers expect.

1. Mobile-Friendly Landing Pages Without Forms

The first step towards creating a mobile-friendly experience for leads is getting rid of forms.

That’s right – they must go.

Forms are holding you back. When someone arrives at your lead magnet or landing page, they aren’t happy to see a form.

When was the last time you tried to fill out a form on a mobile device? It’s not fun – even if you use Google’s auto-fill feature.

Instead, un-gate your best content and give your visitors a sample. Give them the opportunity to supply an email address if they want to download the whole piece.

Removing forms is excellent for keeping your data clean, too. When you stop forcing visitors to fill out a form to access content, only highly qualified leads will give you their email address. Otherwise, you’re stuck with data on a bunch of leads who will never convert, and this screws up your overall personalization strategy.

2. Self-Nurturing Landing Pages

Instead of forms, give your visitors what they came to your website for—valuable and relevant content.

A self-nurturing landing page brings the Netflix-style content bingeing features into the B2B world.

When your leads can learn at their own pace, a beautiful thing happens: they nurture themselves. By the time they finally give you their email address or contact you, they’re further along in the buying process.

In other words, your job becomes 10x easier.

3. Interactive and Dynamic Content

Hyperlinks aren’t great on mobile devices. Buttons are better but interactive and dynamic content is best.

You don’t necessarily need to gamify your website, but it’s an innovative idea to include some interactive elements like drag-and-drop features, drop-down menus, and clickable filters.

Behind the scenes, incorporate some mobile marketing automation AI to take notes of their actions on the page so you can collect data and supply personalized content on other platforms.

4. Adaptive Content Hubs

Most mobile-friendly websites still aren’t specifically designed for use with mobile devices.

A dynamic content hub is an important mobile marketing automation tool because it organizes your content in an easily accessible fashion.

Visitors arrive at your website because they want to learn about your industry and company. Some like blog posts, some like eBooks, 65% want podcasts, and 49% crave video.

An adaptive content hub organizes all your content in one place so visitors can easily find exactly what they want. Here’s where the adaptive and interactive part comes in: once they start consuming content, the algorithm takes over and continues showing them similar content.

Not only do they stay on your website longer, but you can also learn more about them.

Source: Hushly

5. Personalized Exit Intent Content

When you finish reading a blog post and motion your cursor to another browser tab, you’ve probably noticed that most websites throw a popup form in your face.

When you go form-less, you need to replace them with something.

At Hushly, we suggest using mobile marketing automation tools to give your visitors more of what they came to your website for in the first place: highly relevant content.

Instead of asking them to fill out a form when they want to run, use AI to offer them personalized content based on the content they’ve already consumed.

6. Clean and Current Data

62% of businesses say they’re working with data that’s up to 40% incorrect.

Bad data is a major problem holding businesses back because every mobile marketing automation strategy needs correct data to personalize content.

Using a combination of algorithms and human verification, you can make sure you’re only collecting leads from real people working for real businesses. Your data will always be correct.

Remove Forms and Watch Your Lead Conversions Grow

Moving into 2020, a truly mobile-friendly website and user-friendly experience means getting rid of your forms.

Instead of bombarding your leads with a form to collect data, let them nurture themselves at your own pace by consuming your content.

You can still collect data about the content they consume and use it to provide personalized content, you just won’t bother them with annoying forms. Don’t worry – they’ll give you their email address when they’re ready.

Are you curious about creating an abandonment strategy that doesn’t involve forms? Hushly has you covered. Learn more here.

The Real Secrets to Skyrocketing Your B2B Conversion Rate

hushly blog

You know the B2B buying cycle is long but why aren’t your leads ever converting into customers?

If you’ve spent most of your time generating leads without worrying about quality or vetting, there’s a good chance that your B2B conversion rate is suffering.

If so, now is a valuable time to take a step back and re-evaluate your acquisition process.

How are visitors arriving on your site? Where are you collecting email addresses? Are they engaging with your content?

Put yourself in the mindset of your visitors and everything will start falling into place.

Your Leads Need a Mobile-Friendly Experience

Your target B2B audience isn’t a bunch of boomers and generation Xers. Like it or not, you need to meet the needs of millennials and Generation Z.

As of 2015, Think with Google reported that 46% of all buyers were between the ages of 18 and 34. For B2B marketers, this means creating a user-centric experience with plenty of personalization.

Your buyers go home and workout with their fitness devices, order food through UberEATS, and binge endless streams of customized content on Netflix. Their expectations for these hyper-personalized algorithms don’t change when they come into work the next day.

Think with Google also recently reported that B2Bs spend between two and three hours each day researching brands on their mobile devices. Mobile activity influences roughly 40% of B2B revenue every year.

If that wasn’t enough, by next year, 70% of all B2B searches will take place on mobile devices.

If you want to improve your B2B conversion rate, it’s critical to create a mobile-friendly experience from start to finish. In other words, everything needs to be optimized for mobile from your web pages and blog down to your lead magnets and emails.

Source: Think with Google

7 Secrets to Improving Your B2B Conversion Rate

Now you know that improving your visitors’ mobile experience is critical to boosting your B2B conversion rate – but how can you put this into practical action?

Here are a few tips to start bringing your B2B marketing strategy and website into 2020.

1. Get Rid of Forms

Forms are holding you back. No one opens a blog post, sees a form and thinks “Oh great, I can’t wait to give another website my information just to read an article.”

The truth is, there’s absolutely no way to optimize forms for mobile devices – no matter how much you tweak your layout, change the order, and update fields – because it’s still a form.

Forms are clunky and they get in the way of leads consuming your content. Instead, give your visitors a sample of your content and ask them to provide an email address if they’d like to read the rest.

Source: Hushly

2. Create an Adaptive Content Hub

An adaptive content hub with content bingeing features can satisfy your buyer’s expectation for a Netflix-like experience and ultimately boost your B2B conversion rate.

When you get rid of forms, people will spend more time reading your content and educating themselves about your company.

Use an adaptive content hub to put all of your content together in one place:

  • Ebooks
  • Podcasts
  • Tutorials
  • Case studies
  • White papers
  • Videos

3. Give Away Your Best Content

You spend so much time and money creating amazing in-depth content for your visitors – why are you hiding it behind a form?

Instead, include your best content in your adaptive content hub.

Research shows that 78% of buyers consume between three and five pieces of content before talking to a sales team. Putting your best content on display is important for demonstrating the value of your company and the services you can provide.

4. Let Leads Nurture Themselves

The idea of self-nurturing follows into the points above.

You want to offer your visitors an experience that allows them to educate themselves about your company, industry, and the services you provide.

When you incorporate self-nurturing landing pages into your website, your B2B conversion rate will jump because leads will be further along in the sales funnel before they even reach out to your team.

5. Incorporate AI

AI and algorithms are the only way to make these features work.

When a visitor arrives at your website, an algorithm will monitor the types of content they consume in the content hub and continue offering them similar content.

Yes, AI can sound scary but it’s essential today if you want to provide the type of experience that your visitors expect.

6. Create the Content Your Audience Wants to Read

According to LinkedIn research, B2Bs aren’t out there reading white papers – 49% of them consume video during the buying process while 65% say they find podcasts valuable for learning about a brand.

It’s up to you to do your research and find out what type of content they want from you. If your B2B conversion rate is low, it may be because you’re not creating the right kind of content.

7. Only Collect High-Quality Leads

At Hushly, we use human verification to make sure our clients only receive the highest quality leads.

Collecting email addresses from everyone who visits your website doesn’t just waste resources and send you down rabbit holes, it also throws off your data.

Accurate data is at the heart of every successful personalization campaign. Sadly, over 60% of businesses say their data is either not current or correct. Using correct data to drive your personalized campaigns like email or LinkedIn retargeting is sure to make your B2B conversion rate jump.

Ditch Forms and Watch Your Leads Grow

We promise – you won’t miss forms, and neither will your leads. Getting rid of forms in favor of self-nurturing landing pages won’t only reduce your bounce rate, but it will also skyrocket your lead conversions by at least 51%.

When people aren’t bombarded with clunky forms, they’ll spend more time consuming your awesome content and educating themselves about how you can help them. When they’ve decided you’re a good fit, they’ll sign up.

See what it’s like to build a database of high-quality leads. Learn more about optimizing your lead magnets for conversions.

Every B2B Lead Generation Marketing Template Needs Personalization

Lead Generation Marketing Plan Template

Now’s an exciting time to be a B2B marketer.

B2C has already had its moment with personalized entertainment and shopping experiences for everything from meal kit delivery to pharmaceuticals.

We probably won’t see any more groundbreaking technology emerge from B2C for a while.

B2B, however, is ripe for innovation and new strategies.

Long gone are the days of cold calls and in-person meetings.

That’s not to say that face-to-face business is obsolete, but it’s far from the only way to reach your prospects.

Automation and data collection make it easy to reach your leads with personalized content at every stage of the sales funnel.

Sadly, many B2Bs lag their B2C colleagues in terms of putting these technologies into effective use.

As you develop a B2B lead generation marketing plan template, it’s crucial to include some personalization tactics. Your business needs it and your target audience expects it.

Why Does Your B2B Lead Generation Marketing Plan Template Need Personalization?

Your buyers expect a personalized experience.

Companies like Amazon and Facebook have set the stage for hyper-personalized curated content on an individual scale. You may think that doesn’t apply to B2B websites and marketing – but it definitely does.

Your buyers and target audience know personalization technology exists because it’s available in every consumer app on their phone. Their expectations don’t change once they get to work Monday morning.

73% of buyers say they want the same personalized experience that B2Cs supply and half say businesses are not meeting expectations. Meanwhile, 30% of B2B companies say they’re dabbling in personalization strategies

That leaves a huge gap with countless companies not supplying the type of experience their buyers look for.

Personalization and automation aren’t going anywhere. They’re more important in B2B today more than ever.

With your B2B lead generation marketing plan template, personalization can help you understand your leads and how to address their problems.

6 Personalization Strategies to Use in Your B2B Lead Generation Marketing Plan Template

Personalization involves much more than just using your lead’s first name in an email and creating retargeting ads. Use some of the strategies below to stay ahead of your competitors and meet buyer expectations.

1. Multi-Tier Segmentation

In B2B, your segments change a bit compared to B2C.

You could segment your audience based on which company a lead works for, their job role and salary level, how long they’ve worked for the company, their buying influence, and location (to nail down the best time of day).

However, you should also note how your leads like to consume content. Do they want video, blogs, podcasts, eBooks, email, or something else? For example, 49% of B2Bs watch videos during the buying process while 64% listen to podcasts and 76% enjoy infographics.

2. Drive Data from Personalized Content

Data can make or break your personalized lead generation marketing plan template.

For AI tools to learn anything about your audience and provide them with personalized content, it needs to consume data – and a lot of data.

You could start by creating personalized in-depth blog posts for different segments of your audience. From there, your AI tool would watch the visitors of those posts, take notes of which other pieces of content they visit, and continue learning about their behavior to provide similar content.

The more information you collect on leads, the more you can improve your AI personalization strategy for all potential prospects.

3. Adaptive Resource Centers

Here’s where you start putting AI learning and your hyper-personalized lead generation marketing plan template into action.

Think about all the valuable content you’ve created as part of your marketing strategy. Now imagine putting it all in one place where leads and current clients can access it.

With a resource center, you can divide your content into categories like eBooks, case studies, reports, and tutorials. However, instead of simply putting it together, you’d use AI-driven technology to adapt new selections for each visitor based on their unique data.

Here’s what an adaptive resource center looks like in action:

Adapted Resource Center

Source: Sage Intacct

4. Automated Content Bingeing

Selecting the types of content each visitor will like is just one part of the process.

You also must meet their expectation for endless streams of content that companies like Netflix provide.

Make no mistake, your buyers will appreciate removing dead-end landing pages. 78% of buyers say they consume at least three pieces of content from a vendor. Content bingeing allows your leads to self-nurture and educate themselves at their own pace.

By the time they’ve decided to provide their email address or reach out to you with questions, they’ll already have a solid idea of your company’s products or services and they’ll be further along in the sales funnel.

5. Triggered Email Journeys

Based on where your lead gave you their email address, you can create unique email campaigns that introduce them to your brand and how you can help.

Triggered campaigns go out at specific times based on actions a subscriber takes. Did they listen to a podcast about a specific topic? Send an automated email.

You’ll always be one step ahead.

6. Intelligent Retargeting

Retargeting is important through channels like email and LinkedIn but without personalized data, it’s not effective.

If you’re sending the same LinkedIn ad to everyone who ever visited a page on your website, that’s not personalized retargeting. Instead, use features like matched audiences to choose specific ULRs a lead visited to personalize your ads.

Take B2B Personalization to the Next Level

Hushly is specially designed to provide personalization on an individual scale using data you already have about your visitors and leads.

Through tools like content bingeing, adaptive content hubs, thorough lead verification, and more, you can reach your leads on a personal level and help them self-nurture. Not only will you generate more leads, but your leads will be much higher quality and further along in the buying cycle by the time they supply their email address.

Want to learn more about the benefits of using personalization in your B2B lead generation marketing plan template? We have an eBook for that! Check out the 5 Personalization Strategies that Dominate B2B and learn why they’re important.