The Benefits of Starting Outbound Lead Generation Now

Even during summertime when vacations and slower business periods may occur, it's essential to discuss the advantages of outbound lead generation strategies and why considering it at this time can be highly beneficial.

Furthermore, as we reach the mid-year point, many of sales and marketing teams you may be reviewing your sales quotas and revenue plans. This presents an excellent opportunity to assess your strategies and identify any necessary changes, adjustments, or additions to help you achieve your goals for this calendar year or fiscal year.

Overview of Lead Generation Markets

At the beginning of 2023, many businesses felt anxious due to uncertain economic conditions in both European and North American markets. This led to numerous layoffs and reduced investments for a lot of companies.

However, there is a ray of hope. Ipsos Research Group indicates that businesses are responding by increasing their marketing budgets this year. Despite worries about the economic crisis, 60% of businesses reported raising their budgets compared to the previous year.

For most businesses, lead generation remains their top priority, closely followed by brand building, awareness, and demand generation. It's crucial to recognize that if you don't strengthen your outbound lead generation tools and efforts, your competitors will. Let's dive into the world of outbound lead generation tactics and explore its significance in today's business landscape.

When to Consider Outbound Lead Generation Strategies

In the world of lead generation, inbound methods are usually the most favored and effective. However, there are certain situations and conditions where outbound lead generation can be a valuable addition to your marketing portfolio.

1. Increased Competition: If you notice your competitors ramping up their marketing budgets and activities, especially in webinars and advertising, outbound lead generation can help you directly target your ideal customers.
2. Saturation of Inbound Channels: Sometimes, the marketing team might generate a high number of leads, but the sales team finds them unqualified for conversion. In such cases, outbound lead generation can provide more targeted and relevant leads that are easier to convert into paying customers.
3. Targeting Specific Customer Segments: A lot of B2B products are multi-role products, used by a wide range of industries. However, scaling inbound lead generation to these specific niche audiences proves challenging. In this case, targeting them with outbound is the way out.

4. Rapidly Changing Market Dynamics: If the market undergoes significant shifts due to regulation changes, technological advancements, or evolving consumer preferences, outbound efforts can be a reliable channel to adapt and respond quickly.
5. Expanding into New Geographic Markets: For rapid growth in new markets, inbound takes a lot of time to be scaled. Just for SEO, you'll see the first results in three to six months. Outbound lead generation can help you scale your current offering or reach out to new audiences to validate your product's fit for their needs.
6. Limited brand awareness of visibility. In scenarios where brand awareness is lacking, outbound outreach can be used to inform a larger audience about your product.

Inbound, Outbound, and ABM (Account-Based Marketing)

Typically, many teams experiment with lead generation techniques like inbound, outbound, or ABM. The main goal is to generate qualified leads that will eventually turn into revenue, but each approach has its unique characteristics.

Inbound requires a relatively low initial cost to start, making it budget-friendly. However, predicting the results can be challenging since it involves targeting a broader audience, making conversion rates less predictable.

On the other hand, ABM takes a direct and opposite approach. It focuses on specific accounts that are on your wish list or total addressable market. By generating interest within these accounts, the chances of conversion are higher, leading to a good return on investment (ROI).

Outbound falls somewhere in between. While it may require a higher initial cost than inbound in some cases, it can also yield a lower cost in other scenarios. The key advantage is that the ROI is high, and results can be achieved rapidly, bringing in leads and deals quickly, thus benefiting your marketing team.

These strategies can complement each other or work simultaneously, offering various benefits. However, outbound stands out for its effectiveness in bringing in quality leads promptly and producing favorable results.

Using Outbound Channels to Reach Your Desired Customers

This year, we conducted research with our prospects and clients, asking them about the internal channels they use to generate outbound leads within their teams. The results were not surprising, confirming that outbound emailing and social media outreach, particularly on LinkedIn, are the top two channels.

• Almost all the companies we talked to (98%) use outbound emails, and a large majority (90%) also use social media outreach.

• Cold calls remains a popular and effective approach, with 88% of companies utilizing it. It can be a valuable addition to your marketing mix, especially for specific regions or countries.

• Additionally, paid channels, like PPC (Pay-Per-Click) and search ads, make up 40% of the total.

Another aspect we like to explore is how these trends and channels are evolving.  Let's take phone calls. Cold calling used to be one of the top two methods in the past, and for certain markets and clients, it was even the number one choice. However, its popularity is declining due to changes in customer behavior, as more people are shifting towards digital channels. According to Gartner's predictions, by 2025, around 80% of all B2B interactions between companies and their clients or prospects will occur in digital channels. This is an essential thing to just keep in mind.

Common Concerns Starting Outbound Lead Generation

When we talk to companies, we often come across some common concerns that many face. We put three for today, along with possible solutions.

1. Higher Initial Costs: Launching outbound lead generation requires more investment vs running inbound marketing.
   A cost-effective alternative is to focus on email and social media, as they are active and affordable lead acquisition channels.
2. Difficulty in Evaluating ROI: Assessing ROI at the beginning of the process can be tricky.
   To overcome this, work on refining your ICP and narrow down your target audience. Testing and adjusting your targeting can help you find the right people for your outreach.
3. Lack of Verified Go-To-Market Plan for Outreach Cadence.
   Adding technology that can help you automate the regeneration campaign is also a big help, because it helps you to find your perfect cadence, to apply it to the cadence that converts and provide comprehensive analytics that is so much deserved by the managers and senior leadership.

From our experience, around 95% of companies start receiving sales accepted leads within the first four weeks after launching their outbound campaigns. This shows that it can quickly yield results, which many teams need, especially when building or boosting their own sales funnel and pipeline.

Remember, while achieving initial results is great and motivating, treating outbound lead generation as a consistent and ongoing process is essential. It's more like a marathon than a sprint. Consistency is key to obtaining predictable and sustainable results over time.

To make outbound lead generation a reliable and forecastable channel for sales process and revenue growth, it takes time and continuous effort. Leads will come, but you need to treat outreach as a flexible and adaptable process that you test, optimize, and refine for predictable success in the future.

What Makes Outreach Successful?

We are frequently asked about what makes outreach successful. In our opinion, there are a few essential factors that should be highlighted.

Successful outreach is a mix of your optimized ICP, the quality of your outreach, and how relevant your offering is to the industry.

Regarding the Outreach Quality, there are several important aspects to focus on:

The question of how many times to reach out to convert a lead into a customer, or what is the best sales cadence, is a common concern. The number of touches can vary based on your specific ICP. Smaller companies or SMBs with faster decision-making processes may convert leads more quickly, while larger organizations might take more time.

Research by Hubspot suggests that, on average, it takes 8 to 12 touch points to convert a lead into a customer. But remember, it's a process, and it might be different for your case. Some companies might require only 5 touch points, while others may need up to 20.

One thing we've noticed is that companies sometimes give up too quickly. They try a few messages or emails, and when they don't see immediate results, they stop. However, this doesn't mean their product isn't relevant or their ICP is wrong. It often just means they didn't try enough or build the right cadence for their specific ICP.

Both quantity and quality of interactions matter. Consistency is vital, and your outreach should be optimized for your specific product or service and tailored to your target audience. When looking at the quality of interactions, it's essential to pay attention to the earliest stages of the outbound process.

The Outbound Lead Generation Process

Before launching the campaign and focusing on how many touches are needed for conversion, it's crucial to prepare properly. There are four key stages:

Successful outreach is a mix of your optimized ICP, the quality of your outreach, and how relevant your offering is to the industry.

Regarding the Outreach Quality, there are several important aspects to focus on:

1. Optimizing Your ICP: Defining your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is essential to understand your target audience better.
2. Research and Data Enrichment: Gathering relevant data and enriching your customer information is vital for effective outreach.
3. Creating Content: Developing engaging and persuasive content, both in written and digital formats, helps in capturing the audience's interest.
4. Selecting Outreach Channels: Choosing the right channels for your outreach ensures you reach your target audience effectively.

While this may seem like a lot of work for your team, both in marketing and sales, technology can come to the rescue. Utilizing advanced technology can optimize and streamline each stage of the process, making it more manageable and efficient.

Toolset for an Outreach Campaign

In the market, there are several tools available, especially AI-powered ones, which are currently popular. These AI-powered tools can save you time and effort by handling tasks like content writing and data research. They offer benefits like hyper automation and digital scalability, making your outreach process more efficient.