Everything you need to know about B2B lead generation in marketing

Everything you need to know about B2B lead generation in marketing

Everything you need to know about
B2B lead generation in marketing

Everything you need to know about B2B lead generation in marketing

The B2B buying process has undergone numerous changes, making lead generation an essential challenge for businesses. Today, your website absolutely must be able to generate qualified leads. So, what exactly is a B2B lead, and how can you effectively implement a B2B lead generation strategy? We'll tell you everything below.

Article Summary

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How do we define a B2B lead in marketing?

In B2B marketing , a lead is comparable to a potential prospect who will later become a qualified lead and may eventually become a loyal customer. With the advancement of the digital world, the lead has become a potential sales opportunity. It can be defined as an individual or a company that an individual represents. Information about the lead is recorded on a contact form that contains the minimum contact details necessary for identification. In the B2B , this includes basic information such as first and last name, the company's social purpose, email address, and telephone number.

It's also important to emphasize that a lead isn't exclusively digital. It's the network that enables the rapid identification of potential leads, particularly in B2B. In 90% of B2B contexts, buyers begin their information search online. Web are no longer sufficient. You need to attract and maintain visitors' attention on your website to foster a long-term relationship. The ultimate goal of such an approach is to convert these visitors into customers by following the various successive steps of the conversion funnel found in inbound marketing.

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What exactly is a lead generation strategy?

Lead generation techniques involve leveraging various marketing tools, including web marketing, to capture the decision-maker's attention during their purchasing process. The lead generation process itself is quite simple. First, you need to attract the decision-maker's attention to your website. Then, you must encourage them to provide their contact information and any other details you deem necessary to validate them as a qualified lead, ready to make a purchase. The ultimate goal of this strategy is to provide salespeople with high-quality leads that can be converted into customers.

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So, how do you generate leads in B2B?

Overall, cold calling is the most well-known process for generating leads. However, this method, used for a long time, is no longer as effective as it once was. In fact, a prospect completes nearly 85% of the buying journey before contacting your salesperson. It is therefore crucial to act upstream to attract your potential buyers. So how can you generate leads to optimize the sale of your products and services? To achieve this, you will need to use new digital tools that can facilitate the acquisition of qualified leads.

The implementation of a content marketing method

To generate leads, we recommend implementing a content marketing strategy that provides valuable information to your target audience. Conduct thorough research, focusing on asking the right questions. Determine the needs your products and services address, the information your target audience is seeking, and identify their specific requirements. The content you offer should be compelling enough to establish you as a leading authority in your field. Alternatively, you can outsource these tasks to an agency.

Offer some of your expertise for free

Lead generation can also involve offering your expertise for free. By regularly providing relevant content, you increase both your visibility and your credibility. You can even consider sharing free advice or recommendations through various channels. For example, you can create content such as blog articles. White papers and even videos are also valuable resources. Utilizing multiple communication channels to reach your target audience is essential.

The proposal of documents that can be downloaded in exchange for data

If you want to generate qualified leads, you need to create content in exchange for data. This is a very attractive deal because it facilitates the collection of useful information about prospects or potential clients, while providing them with relevant information in return. This can be illustrated by a template, a guide, a white paper, and other methods that an agency can also use for better results. All methods are valid for sharing these documents. You can use anchor links on your blog, advertise on social media, or send emails to your database. In any case, you'll get a better return if you reach a wider audience.

The spread of content on social media

When creating relevant content, sharing on social media is essential. Indeed, in 2025, these communication tools cannot be taken lightly or ignored. However, your efforts shouldn't stop there. You must encourage your contacts and network, from friends and colleagues to colleagues, to share your content on the social networks they use. Therefore, you shouldn't overlook any platform. Nevertheless, LinkedIn should be given priority. If you work with an agency, you increase your chances due to their extensive address book and network.

Teach social selling to your sales team

Another key to generating leads is training your sales team in social selling. Wondering what that is? Social selling is an effective way to find new clients through social media. These platforms represent a considerable goldmine for marketing agencies and sales teams. Through social selling, your team can gather relevant information about prospects or potential clients, enabling you to send personalized emails.

Consider improving your organic search engine optimization (SEO)

Optimizing your search engine ranking is crucial if you want to generate leads. This means you'll need to position your website for high-value keywords. Tools like SEMrush and Google Keyword Planner can help with this.

Generating leads through paid acquisition campaigns

An excellent way to generate leads is through paid acquisition campaigns. In this regard, you can:

  • Get a promotion on Google by paying on a cost-per-click basis with Adwords;
  • Opt for advertising on LinkedIn with LinkedInAds;
  • Sending advertising messages to internet users who have visited your site with the aim of maintaining their interest (retargeting in other words);
  • The creation and use of a digital advertisement using an image or a video.

Optimize conversions on your website

It's important to consider the effectiveness of your calls to action (CTAs). This will encourage visitors to become leads. To increase your conversion rates, your CTAs must be strategically placed on your website.

Organizing events to increase your visibility

To make a lasting impression and motivate your prospects to take action, it's essential to delve deeper. In this regard, the ideal strategy is to organize events to maximize your visibility and engage your target audience. So, don't hesitate to choose between traditional in-person events or webinars. Webinars are essentially online seminars. With at least one event each month, you can be sure your brand awareness will grow rapidly.

The implementation of a lead nurturing method

To convince your target audience or contacts, a lead nurturing strategy can be employed. The goal of this strategy is to guide potential customers to the final purchase by increasing their readiness. The concept is easy to grasp, even if the implementation can be somewhat tedious. Indeed, it requires creating customized content for each target audience. This can be achieved by segmenting your database and developing marketing personas. Automated workflows will then prove invaluable in making your team's work less burdensome.

Opt for telephone prospecting using leads that have already been worked on

It's possible to generate leads through cold calling. How is this possible? Instead of contacting cold leads, call leads whose level of engagement has already been increased by your marketing team. For example, you can call a prospect who has downloaded a guide you've made available or someone who has visited your website repeatedly. A prospect with a high score in your marketing automation tool can also be contacted directly by your marketing team.

Leaning towards inbound marketing

Inbound marketing is a strategy that attracts customers to you instead of having to seek them out yourself. The success of inbound marketing is primarily based on creating content with high added value for your prospects or implementing effective SEO, along with the continuous promotion of your content. If you would like support in using these new tools, the ideal solution would be to turn to an inbound marketing agency. This agency can be your greatest asset for optimizing your leads and sales in the shortest possible time. It will be able to implement all the necessary steps to generate B2B leads.

Discovering the best lead generation levers in B2B

For both marketing and sales teams, lead generation remains a crucial challenge. Implementing a strategy that generates qualified leads guarantees frequent sales opportunities. However, understanding how to position yourself within the prospect's buying journey, from the initial research stage to the final purchase, is paramount. We'll give you an overview of the most effective B2B lead generation levers to achieve impressive sales performance.

  • LinkedIn

In 2019, over 16 million registered users, with nearly 10 million active users on average per month, were recorded on this social network. LinkedIn is, in fact, the leading professional social network in France and worldwide. Among the site's most notable features are the ability to search for jobs, post job offers, recommend training programs tailored to each profile, and access targeted advertising solutions as well as tools for generating business opportunities. Depending on your message, expectations, and goals, you can choose the ideal format to reach your audience while attracting the most promising prospects. For example, certain features allow you to improve conversion rates through the automatic completion of contact forms and the use of users' personal information. This vast array of formats further expands the possibilities of targeted advertising. This allows you to create advertisements while generating qualified leads, all within a short timeframe and with cost control.

  • SEO

Given that 90% of global search queries are conducted via Google and that 70% of internet users click on one of the top three results, ranking highly on Google becomes essential. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) aims to achieve multiple objectives, such as increasing quality traffic to your website; generating leads with high conversion potential; increasing your company's market share; ensuring sustainable traffic acquisition and improving return on investment; and contributing to brand recognition.

  • Webinar

A new wind is blowing through the webinar market. Today, authors who generate leads are showing much more interest in conferences often offered for free online. Webinars not only generate leads, but they also help you engage your community, enhance your brand image, and build relationships with your target audience.

  • Blogs and white papers

Consuming content is at the heart of consumer habits. Whether it's videos, audio, text, or other formats, the diversity and abundance of content have become a particular boon for generating leads in digital marketing. Creating, planning, and distributing exclusive content to reach a specific audience remain the most effective marketing tools for positioning yourself in your sector and building anticipation. The main levers for reaching your target audience or building an existing prospect base include blog articles, white papers, and podcasts. Content marketing will always prove its worth in educating your target audience, increasing visibility, and even enriching your CRM through lead scoring.

Marketing automation according to Magileads

MagiLeads' automation solution allows you to easily create automated scenarios to send personalized messages to your leads.

With automation, you know precisely how prospects interact with your content. You gather information about their behavior. This allows you to better qualify your leads.

Finally, with the lead scoring feature, you can automate the transmission of hot leads to sales teams to initiate initial sales contact at the right time.

Email marketing remains a top channel for sales prospecting. However, to maintain its effectiveness, it's now essential to refine the creation of sequences, message content, and results analysis. Adopting an email automation solution like Magileads will help you optimize your campaigns.

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