Lead generation for technology companies is perhaps one of the most important tasks to do well. Sometimes it requires a bit of creativity to come up with new ways to generate leads when previous channels are exhausted or have stopped working. We asked 12 marketing experts for their best lead generation strategies for technology companies and here's what they came up with.
What is lead generation?
Lead generation is the process of capturing demand by collecting contact information from potential customers. Sales teams need leads that they can contact and learn more about their needs. You can generate leads from a variety of channels: website, social, events, and more.
Here's 12 tips for lead generation for technology companies:
Maximize lead generation with personalization
Your website is your only salesperson working 24/7 and 98% of your potential buyers already visit your website to learn more about your business. Website personalization helps you convert more leads when visitors find information on your website more relevant to them and their needs. A lot of businesses serve smaller customer segments so the website experience can always be made more relevant.
─ Teemu Raitaluoto, Markettailor
Define and activate your ICP
A well-defined ideal customer profile (ICP) is a game-changer for lead generation. Focusing on attracting your best-fit prospects prevents you from wasting time on leads that likely won't close or renew. Spending the time to define your ICP is well worth it when you activate it across your entire marketing funnel. Not only will you be able to bring in better leads, but can improve pipeline velocity for your sales team as well.
─ Alex Ross, Clearbit
Conduct seminars, workshops or webinars
One lead generation strategy for a technology company is to conduct seminars, workshops or webinars to educate attendees about the products or services the company offers. Attending these events can give attendees an opportunity to learn more about the products or services and sign up for a follow-up call or meeting with a company representative. Additionally, attendees can be added to the company's marketing email list and receive updates on upcoming events that they may be interested in attending.
─ Daniel Chen, Airgram
SEO for the win
SEO-friendly content helps tech companies connect with potential customers who are Googling about their specific topic. For example, a live streaming platform can create written informational blog posts to answer common questions about live streaming. Using relevant keywords in the content helps companies rank high enough on Google for the content to be found. Then those interested people who click on the link are directed to the company website and are made aware of the brand. Using this SEO technique is helpful if your tech company provides a service that the general public only needs to discover to consider buying it.
─ Ari Evans, Maestro
Blogging still works to create demand
Technology companies are usually split into two main categories: those who offer a service (or software) and those who offer physical products, like hardware. Both benefit from blogging about their products in a way that isn't obvious you're trying to sell something. One company that comes to mind is WP Rocket. They offer a caching plugin for Wordpress. What stands out to me is their blog, where they help people with tons of useful articles. They don't shy from mentioning direct competitors and they don't ask directly for you to buy their product. That's one of the reasons I'm their client.
─ Ionut-Alexandru Popa, JPG MEDIA SRL
Chatbots offer information as soon as possible
An effective lead generation strategy for technology companies is deploying chatbots to respond to sales inquiries with improved response rates. Chatbots help potential customers navigate their websites by offering help with simple queries and directing them to their About Us and Frequently Asked Questions pages. While not all visitors may interact with a chatbot, they enable tech businesses to retain customers who want to receive information as soon as possible and allow their sales teams to focus on more crucial business matters.
─ Nunzio Ross, Majesty Coffee
Simplify complex ideas with short-form video
Utilizing short videos to explain complex concepts is an ideal lead generation strategy for a technology company. As attention spans are shorter than ever, videos can be a helpful way to educate and grow your target audience. Additionally, short-form videos will boost your brand’s visibility and increase SEO. Especially because technology companies are working with advanced data, by simplifying ideas into a video format they will be easier to grasp for a wider audience.
─ Jorge Vivar, Mode
Ask for customer reviews
One of the most effective lead generation strategies for a tech company is to reach out to your satisfied customers and ask them to leave you a review. Your prospects are usually browsing review sites looking at competing products before committing to a purchase. Reviews convert prospects into leads because they show social proof, build trust, and make you stand out from your competition.
Authentic, recent reviews from real users will establish your reputation online and drive a steady stream of leads to your website. But don’t just rely on organic reviews though, contact your existing customers by email and encourage them to leave a review by offering them a discount. To decide which review sites you should target, look up your competitors and see which sites they are reviewed on. Make sure you respond to each review, whether they are positive or negative. And when you receive a glowing review, make sure you share it so that people know about the great work you’re doing.
─ Dean Kaplan, The Kaplan Group
Use Facebook ads for lead gen
Advertising on Facebook for lead generation must focus on return on investment (ROI). To maximize the return on ad spending against actual leads, we suggest the following tips:
If you want to advertise to business owners on Facebook, consider targeting live streams of local business conferences or industry seminars. You can also learn which devices are most compatible with your ads and which may be filtering them out altogether. The only exception to this is if you’re selling mobile accessories or apps that are intended for a given device. In this case, you’d only market your iOS app to Apple users. Finally, you can set up Facebook ads that target the browsers your customers are using. If they click the ad, you know that they’ll have a good experience with your website.
─ Brenton Thomas, Twibi Digital Marketing Agency
Offer a free trial
Your customers have a bewildering array of products and companies to choose from, and it can be equally confusing for them to know which is the best one for them. To help them with their decision, and hopefully generate plenty of new leads for your company, the offer of a free trial period may just swing their decision your way. Given the option of a free test run of your product, with extra features once they have upgraded, many customers will opt for staying with the tools they have come to know. Make sure you have an efficient helpdesk ready to assist them throughout their trial period and encourage the customers to use it for any queries. Once they can see for themselves the level of support available you already have your foot in the door.
─ Morgan Taylor, Sourcery
Create exclusive content for free
Identify a problem your company helps solve, and create a compilation of engaging content surrounding that. A SaaS company called Sticky.io provides a great example of this. They partnered with a blog website to release the Subscription Commerce Conversion Index every few months. This publication is available for free to readers who provide their email address. By providing a valuable piece of content that gives important industry-specific insights, people in your target audience will freely give their contact information.
─ Michael Green, Winona
Email marketing
Don’t overlook the power of email marketing as a great way to generate leads for technology companies. When website visitors provide their email address, you can start your email marketing and other digital marketing strategies. But before you can entice visitors to provide their contact details, you must first get their buy-in by creating high-quality, helpful, and interesting web content.
─ Lorraine Daisy Resuello, Connection Copilot
