Outbound lead generation has seen its rise, fall, and rise again. People say: “Outbound is dead!” — but hey! We know that isn’t true.
For B2B lead generation, outbound strategy and cold outreaches remain to be the most effective methods of prospecting. And it isn’t only alive. With over 32% of marketers claiming outbound to be their go-to lead generation strategy, outbound is thriving.
And if you’re reevaluating your B2B sales funnel, without incorporating outbound tactics, you're losing out on potential high-ticket clients. So, here’s everything you need to know about outbound lead generation and the most effective techniques that have worked for our amazing clientele.
Read on to know:
Top 5 outbound channels for lead generation
Why does your company NEED an outbound lead generation strategy?
5 tips to follow for a successful outbound lead generation strategy
But first…
Begin by collecting and assimilating data about your ideal prospects.
To get the maximum results from cold outreaches and outbound marketing strategies, you need to know exactly WHO your customers are. So, start by defining your target prospect persona, that’d help you cater to them through any cold outreach media.
And now… when you have it all set, here are:
The Best Outbound Lead Generation Channels
1. Cold Calling
This is super-relevant and super-effective for B2B lead generation. According to Hubspot, “if you’re working with a VP or members of C-suite, try giving them a call”, because 70% of senior-level executives prefer cold calling.
❌ However, the conversion ratios are reportedly low, because: “Hey! No targeting. And you or your product were not relevant to them.”
✅ The secret to cold calling success lies in: leveraging data points and knowing what your prospect needs.
So, vet your prospects before approaching them, qualify them based on relevance, and then hit them with your personalized sales pitch on the call for maximum conversion ratio.
2. Text & SMS.
If the prospect doesn’t pick up your call, we go old-school. We text! 😉
SMS marketing is alive though underrated. Over 65% of the total world population sends and receives SMS messages, yet 61% of businesses do not use this medium of cold outreach. Shockingly, SMS open rates are as high as 98%.
So, leverage this amazing outbound outreach method. But, not in an intruding manner. Make your SMSs short and hyper-relevant.
3. Direct (Physical) Mail
And if your prospects still don’t respond to your calls or texts… we go a step further and approach them DIRECTLY. Hey! Not literally an unannounced meeting, but more of getting your foot in their door… by sending them a *special delivery* 📦
Direct mail sounds like an ancient relic from the middle ages. Or at least that's what many marketers think it to be. And yes, it may be costly (compared to emails or cold calls), and difficult to scale. But, you know what?
Because physical mail is so scarce now, it can generate strong results for your business. The reason? Nobody sends physical mail anymore. So, your company could stand out by trying this cold outreach method.
Disclaimer: It works well when you want to engage specifically with an individual.
Research by Moz says close to 50% of the respondents were quite enthusiastic about receiving offers, coupons, and pamphlets in the physical mail, and considered it even more effective than social media, online content, or paid digital advertising.
And the best part? You can combine this with other digital outreach methods, like…
4. LinkedIn
We specifically said LinkedIn and not any other social media platform. The reason? Almost 80% of all leads found online stemmed from LinkedIn alone. If leveraged properly, LinkedIn is a goldmine for cold outreach. It is brimming with B2B decision-makers that are open to networking (and by extension, also selling).
Utilize advanced filters in LinkedIn Sales Navigator to narrow down the companies. Connect with your ideal prospects through a personalized connection request. Nurture the lead, build a relationship, provide value, and connect with them on a human level to forge a genuine association.
Easy to use, highly analytical, and quick — we totally recommend LinkedIn!
But… with the recent connection invite restrictions, businesses are in a quandary over their outbound lead generation strategies with LinkedIn.
Which is why our go-to method for effective outbound lead generation is…
5. Cold Email
Cold emailing has long been hailed as the holy grail of lead generation. And rightly so.
With over 3.9 billion email users, this is one of the easiest ways to initiate communication between you and your prospects with the highest RoI in the industry. For every dollar invested, you can expect a return of $42 with cold email outreaches.
And it’s unlimited. You can send any number of cold emails (though we recommend not sending over 200 emails per day, else you could be flagged as a spammer by the ISPs!)
With cold email, hit your prospect’s inbox directly and scale them to 1000s of people. The best part — all of this can be automated easily! Do we need to say more about cold emails being the best outbound lead generation strategy? 😎
At The Scalelab, we have achieved 92% open rates with our targeted, personalized cold email sequences.
Still not convinced about outbound lead generation? Well, here’s…
Why Your Business Needs Outbound Lead Generation Strategy?
While inbound strategies are good and absolutely necessary for any effective marketing strategy, outbound offers some unique advantages that are often overlooked by many businesses. These include:
Quicker & Faster!
Businesses want results and they want them fast. You could spend years administering a content and SEO strategy before they show any measurable results.
On the other hand, a quick strategized cold call or a cold email to your prospect can help you seal the deal almost immediately.
Offers Better Control on Lead Generation
Inbound strategies can possibly give you an unlimited supply of leads. While that sounds great in theory; in practice, it can clog up the pipeline and lead to a lot of time waste, because you may not get qualified prospects.
Outbound, on the other hand, enables you to control the pace of your lead generation. Not only can you give each prospect your individual attention, but also free up time for more pressing tasks.
Targeted, Quality Leads
With inbound leads, you have no control over who your audience is. Sure, you can tweak your SEO and SEM game to target the right people but there will always be external factors beyond your control (like paid clicks and requests from individuals, which are out of your scope).
However, with outbound, you get to pick the prospects whom you approach. In short, you work with the people that you choose and not the other way around.
Hyper-focused & Personalized
One of the key benefits of an effective outbound strategy is personalization. You can tailor your approach for every lead and every prospect you approach.
By customizing your outreach methods, you're not only selling but building a potential relationship with the client for the long term.
5 Key Tips To Follow For Successful Outbound Lead Generation
1. Leverage Data. Accurately.
Advanced targeting is one of the key benefits of outbound lead generation. But, targeting can only work if your buyer personas are accurate.
Collect every relevant detail of your prospect in your database, including age, demographics, job title, recent achievements, etc. Utilize this data for streamlining your lead generation strategies, be it cold call, delivery, or cold email.
2. Be Relevant & Updated.
Make sure that your data is updated to match your prospect’s current status. Imagine sending a cold email to an amazing lead and using her job title in that email, just to know she was promoted to a higher title 3 months ago? You wouldn’t want that 🙊
So, update your data sheet every 1-2 months. Be relevant with your offer and pitch the “exact” solution to the “exact” problem your prospect is facing right now. Don’t ramble.
3. Personalize Everything.
During cold outreaches, businesses tend to adopt a robotic approach and often forget that their prospects are humans. So, focus on forging a human-to-human (H2H) connection with your prospect. Do this with personalization.
Personalization enhances your prospect’s experience, lends recall value to your brand, and in turn, a higher conversion. Did you know using your prospect’s name in the cold email subject line yields 26% higher open rates?
We recommend using Lemlist as an emailing tool because you can also personalize your emails with pictures and much more.
4. Stand Out From The Crowd!
With the huge information overload, your prospects are facing an attention apocalypse. The “standard” way of doing things isn’t enough. It’s about being specific.
So, focus on grabbing your prospect’s attention right from the first impression. Be unique in your approach — be it cold email subject line, questions you ask during cold calls, or even messages you send.
5. Automate Manual Tasks.
Optimize your workflows, collection of data points, and cold outreaches with automation. Monitor every interaction with your prospect, quantify it, extract data — and do this automatically to be more efficient and faster in your lead generation process.
Tools like CaptainData help you automate processes like market analysis, extracting data of potential leads, sending automated LinkedIn connection requests, finding emails, etc.
Wrapping Up…
Outbound can be tedious and takes time. But, it is the only way to approach the people you know are a perfect fit for your product or service. It’s targeted, offers better control, and when executed properly, it gives guaranteed results.
If you're looking to acquire targeted customers quickly, employing outbound lead generation strategies is the best way to go. Emailing, cold calling, or even sending a direct delivery to your prospect’s offices can do wonders for your lead generation numbers.
Be persistent. And… we nearly forgot! When doing outbound lead generation or cold outreaches: Never Forget To Follow-up.
If you need any assistance with outbound lead generation strategies, just write to us at hello@thescalelab.io.
Happy Prospecting,
Team TSL