Here’s How Surveys Can Increase B2B Lead Generation

What methods are you currently using for B2B lead generation?

Attracting companies to your products and services can be done in a number of ways. But some methods will work better than others.

How can you tell which strategies to continue using and which you should throw out? Analytics can give you a lot of insight into all of this. But what can be more telling is what you hear from your actual customers.

Surveys continue to be an ideal way to get into the mind of the end user. You can use them to learn all sorts of things. Like 50.4% of consumers use their personal smartphones to perform business tasks.

Why would that be important? It tells you that emailing your customers after work hours could still be effective. But then is email marketing still working for your audience? A simple survey asking the right questions could help get you those answers.

Once you find what works, you need to nurture the prospects you get through your B2B lead generation.

But before you can get to this point, you have to understand how surveys can drive B2B lead generation. Then how to create surveys that work. Hopefully, this guide will help.

Surveys Can Improve Your ROI

What is the number one reason you want to use surveys? It can boost B2B lead generation. And with that comes increased sales.

How? It helps give you an inside look into what your customers are thinking. Instead of wasting thousands, or even millions, on marketing efforts based on guesses, you can invest your efforts based on facts.

The responses you get from your surveys can help shape the messaging you create in the future. And you can start giving them exactly what they want.

It’s simple really – get rid of the guesswork by making surveys that can yield results for your campaigns.

But the trick is getting your B2B customers to take the time to complete your surveys.

It’s All About Your Approach

There are two different approaches you can take – the cold approach and warm approach. The one you choose will be determined by the lead – whether it’s hot or cold.

So if your B2B lead generation methods are working gathering warm leads, you can use the warm approach. In this case, you already have general information collected from the prospects, which was provided during the lead gen capture on your website or landing page.

The cold approach is similar to cold calling. You’re the one reaching out to them, instead of the other way around. Both can still work, but you’ll likely want to increase the amount of warm and hot prospects with your B2B lead generation.

So how can you improve that?

B2B Lead Generation Using Your Website

Most of the time, the website is doing most of the B2B lead generation for companies. This is where your traffic is being drawn to. And the same place where they’re prompted for their emails (in exchange for a subscription to a newsletter or free download).

Content marketing is necessary to help attract the right audience to your site. Links to your business blog (which should be on your website) can be placed on social media. And if your keyword game is strong, you should be ranking well on search engines.

Once you’ve captured emails from your pop up windows asking users to subscribe, you can begin the next phase of your marketing – surveys.

How to Use Surveys for B2B Lead Generation

Now, there are different ways you can get creative with your surveys. Here is a quick list of various ways you can make use of B2B surveys.

Identify Most Qualified Leads (or MQLs)

The sole purpose of B2B lead generation is to draw in prospects that actually have an interest in your product or service. This will save both you and the customer time.

Once someone signs up to your newsletter or downloads your freebie, you should follow up with them.

A quick survey is a great follow up message you can send because it catches them right when they show interest. Say in your email that you’re looking for their feedback to help make their experience with your company better.

This way, you’re making the prospect feel valued. And it’ll increase their chances of taking the time to answer the questions.

Some of the questions you want to ask include things like, “Are you in charge of the marketing budget in your firm?” and “How likely are you to purchase new marketing solutions within the next quarter?”

The questions should be direct, so you can gather important intel you can use to properly promote to them in the future.

Gather Testimonials

Knowing what your existing customers think of your brand and products is very important. And capturing their thoughts and feelings is one way to help win the trust of prospects.

There’s nothing like social proof – even B2B customers are looking for it. Hearing positive feedback from customers that have had the full experience of your brand can help win them over.
So if you can get your customers to vouch for your brand and promote your product, then prospects are more likely to convert.

In your survey to existing customers, ask questions like, “How likely are you to refer our company to a friend or colleague?” and “How satisfied are you with our product or service?”

Save the responses as testimonials to be placed on your website and on marketing collateral. Also, if you’re getting negative feedback, don’t ignore it. Try to resolve the problem with them right away.

Offer a Customized Brand Experience

Both B2B and B2C customers like to have a personalized experience with brands. The more you know about your prospects, the more likely you can pull this off.

On that note, it’s important to nurture your leads right off the bat, whether they’re ready to purchase or not. This way, you can begin establishing a relationship and learning all you can about them.

This will in turn, help you deliver a customized brand experience. But to get to this point, you have to make regular contact with your customers with content they’ll find value in.

Then when you send your survey, you can ask them questions about their approach to certain trends in the industry. Afterward, you can write content based on the answers you receive from your customers.

You can also focus on questions that are a bit more personal, such as their salary range. To make customers more comfortable with revealing such details, you can make it an anonymous poll.

Some like to include a graph to show users where others fall in the salary range (or whatever else you’re measuring).

Hone Your Content Strategy and Nurturing Programs

Hopefully, your B2B lead generation strategy consists of driving hot leads to your sales team and the not-so-hot leads to your nurture program.

If not, you need to segment your leads, so they are being given the proper attention. Then your nurture program should also be segmented based on the preferences of the leads. You should have enough information to determine the content type, topics and buying stage of each group.

And if you don’t, this is where surveys come into play. Some of the questions you can ask include, “How do you stay updated on current industry trends?” and “What technology-related topics do you want to learn more about?”

If the group you’re surveying isn’t that far yet and needs a little hand-holding. For example, you can say something like “Let us help you decide…” or “See what your peers are up to…”

The survey can also ask questions to better acquaint yourselves, such as “How happy are you at your job?” and “What’s your salary?” These can also help drive curiosity about their peers enough to get them to participate.

While you’re learning more about your participants, you’re also gathering important data you can use to create an infographic or report.

Best of all, you should be using this information to drive forward your nurturing programs. And ensure the leads you’re getting are funneled into appropriate streams equipped with engaging, convincing and educational content.

Learn Pain Points and Offer Solutions

So you’ve already gotten your content in order with relevant and engaging topics. But what’s still keeping them from converting into customers?

You can convert your leads better when you know how to hit the right buttons. And what better way to do this than through your content? But if you have yet to learn these pressure points, you can use surveys.

Promise to offer a better service or product if they offer their feedback in your survey. Even better, you can give participants something in return. For example, a % off their next purchase or a free coffee.

However, if your budget is low, you can offer participants a chance to win a gift card or prize.

Now, for the questions you should ask to learn of their pain points could be something like “List the top 3 challenges you face in your job” and “What are you trying to accomplish?”

After finding out your prospects’ largest pain points, you can develop marketing content that empowers your sales team.

Fine-Tuning Your Surveys

Now, it’s time to fine-tune your surveys, so they yield the best results possible. You don’t want to get carried away with asking too many questions. After all, you don’t want to make it feel like a test. At best, it should feel like a fun quiz.

You also want to ensure you use the right language. Ask questions that are direct, clear and concise. Don’t make the questions biased or misleading. This is especially important if you plan to use the data gathered in a white paper.

Ultimately Boost Satisfaction and Referrals

The great thing about surveys is it helps to give you a closer look at what you’re doing right and wrong. It arms you with the knowledge needed to really please your customers. And when your customers are happy, they like to talk.

Social media, blog comments, and forums are where customers share their experiences with brands. This type of social proof is today’s version of word of mouth. Other B2B customers may view these comments and become interested in your products and services.

So in a sense, these ratings and reviews act as direct referrals to your business.

But you don’t want to stop here. Although you have improved your ability to give your customers a great experience, you want to ensure you continue to do so.

For this, you can ask the Net Promoter Score (or NPS) question. NPS is the global standard for keeping track of customer loyalty.

For example, you ask your customer how likely they are to recommend your product or service to a friend or co-worker. You can also set it up so that certain follow-up questions are triggered based on their answers.

If you’re getting negative feedback, then group these individuals into a segment to reestablish your relationship. You can have your customer success team contact them and work on improving their experience.

Applying What You’ve Learned to Your B2B Lead Generation Strategy

Hopefully, this quick guide gave you enough insight to get you started with taking surveys and boosting your B2B lead generation.

Remember, keep your surveys short and the questions concise, unbiased and non-misleading.

Start your surveys off letting the customer or prospect know you want to know what they think to improve their experience. And that the survey will only take a few minutes. As a rule of thumb, try to keep your survey five minutes or less.

If you need help putting together surveys or improving your B2B lead generation, you can always consult with the experts at Five Channels.

We specialize in everything to do with digital marketing, such as social media marketing, PPC marketing, email marketing, SEO and web development.

Contact us today to learn more about our services and how we can help improve your B2B lead generation.