Well put together B2B lists are invaluable for your organization. While they take time and effort to build, having a list you can instantly reference for potential prospects helps your business continue to scale.
Essentially, a B2B list filters out the noise and hassle of wide-reaching client acquisition efforts and allows you to hone in on your ideal customer. That way, you can inform your outbound marketing efforts and ensure a greater ROI. If you’re prospecting for clients, wouldn’t you rather be casting a net where your services are most needed? You’ll save both time and money on your marketing by targeting the businesses that have problems you can solve.
Even though building a tailored lead list takes some coordination, following these steps will help you streamline the process.
Identify Your Ideal Customer and Buyer Persona
Before you can begin reaching out to leads, you first have to build a list of potential clients who are ideal for your organization. Ideal Customer Profiles (ICP) and Buyer Personas (BP) are detailed descriptions of the companies that are most likely to become one of your customers. While your organization has presumably defined its ICP and BP before, it’s important to continuously reassess them as business scales and industry needs change.
How You Can Create an ICP and BP
If your organization wants to make its ICP and BP more detailed, first try looking at your contacts database. How do customers find you? What trends do you notice between these customers? Your current and past customers likely shared something (like the same problems).
Once you determine what your customer base has in common, you can better define which parts of your marketing funnel are working, how to nurture leads into buying customers, and better optimize your services. Another way you can do this is by interviewing your customers to hear what they like or dislike about what your organization offers.
Also, consider questions like:
- How large are your customers’ companies?
- What are their goals, challenges, and responsibilities?
- Can you identify their common objectives?
Identify Target Companies and Their Decision Makers
After you’ve built your Buyer Persona, you’ll have a clear idea of who is most likely to become a paying customer and what converts customers to your services. Your BP has become actionable data you can now use to begin looking for companies aligned with that data.
First, begin building a list of relevant companies. After you have your list, start researching your prospective companies for the decision makers and departments you’ll want to contact. These individuals should be people in the company who have a say in the way it operates.
To find contact information for your prospects, try looking into the company’s website or social media profile where it may be publicly available. Press releases and interviews can also be good sources for contact info.
Validate Your List’s Contact Details
As you’re compiling contact data for leads, you’ll likely come across outdated contact information. Take the extra step to validate the information on your list so that when you begin outreach efforts, you can be sure that your cold emails and pitches are actually reaching your prospects. You can also use this step to introduce your organization, ask qualifying questions, and let them know you’ll be in contact with them again in the future.
While building thorough B2B lists can be time-consuming, the more detailed you are with the list-building process, the more likely you are to generate new leads and close sales.
If you’d like to partner up with a digital marketing specialist, the KPI Network can help. Feel free to contact us at: contactus@thekpinetwork.com to learn more.
