Industrial and Manufacturing Marketing Blog

B2B Lead Generation Using a Business Blog

In B2B lead generation, quantity versus quality is probably the biggest challenge faced by industrial marketers. In order to satisfy the demands of the C-suite, the marketing department usually provides easy-to-measure metrics like traffic, page views, time spent and number of leads captured. The focus here is definitely on quantity.

On the other hand, the sales team is probably complaining about the quality of B2B leads generated by your marketing team. They want better qualified and sales-ready leads. People in sales are not very interested in spending time nurturing suspects and prospects, that’s marketing’s job. And the tug-of-war between sales and marketing continues.

Business blogs for lead generation

Even though business blogging is not widely used in B2B marketing and especially in industrial marketing, it can be very effective as a tool for lead generation. A good business blog can drive a steady stream of pre-qualified leads that are as good as referrals.

HubSpot in their recent study of over 1,400 small- and medium-sized businesses, found that marketers with blogs generate 67% more leads. The chart below shows the difference between B2C and B2B companies.

Clearly B2B marketers can improve their lead generation efforts by using a business blog. It should be noted that we are talking about general B2B companies here and not specifically the industrial sector.

Size does matter in business blogs

The size of your business blog does have an impact on lead generation. Here we are defining size as the number of published articles on a business blog at a given point in time. HubSpot results indicate that median leads start to grow once 24-51 articles are written and published. Median leads were 77% higher among marketers with blogs of 52+ articles versus bloggers with 24 to 51 articles. The graph below shows the impact of number of blog articles on monthly leads.

Don’t put lead generation before traffic

Traffic is the lifeblood of any business blog or website. Don’t spend all your time and resources crafting lead generating offers (white papers, webinars, online demos etc.). First focus on driving a critical mass of interested traffic by making sure prospects can find your business blog.

How do you drive more traffic? By increasing the number of indexed pages in Google (Blog pages Google includes in its database of pages considered for ranking for specific keywords). For every 50 to 100 pages of indexed pages in Google, leads achieved double digit growth as seen in the chart below.

Optimizing (SEO) business blogs and lead generation

Instead of focusing on achieving top ten ranking in Google, your lead generation efforts will receive a bigger boost by growing the number of keywords ranking in Google’s top 100. Companies ranking in Google’s top 100 results for 26 to 51 keywords generated twice as many leads as compared to businesses ranking for 6 to 13 keywords. B2B marketers with 51+ keywords generated three times more leads than those with 6 to 13 keywords.

Making a business blog into a lead generating machine

Let’s apply all these findings into action items to turn your own business blog into a well-oiled, lead generating machine. Here are the key takeaways from the HubSpot study:

  • Build page volume: consider starting a business blog to quickly increase pages
  • Increase the number of blog pages indexed by Google by applying optimization techniques:
  • Create unique and interesting content frequently to build your base of regular readers
  • Use clear calls to action on all blog posts for tying your business blog to the company’s website
  • Offer compelling and educational content in order to capture qualified leads
  • Deploy social marketing features on your business blog to encourage sharing and increasing awareness

You can download the complete HubSpot study from here.

A business blog can be one of the most powerful tools in driving traffic and generating high-quality B2B leads. It is very common to find blogs receiving more traffic than a corporate site. The key is to tie the two together for boosting your lead generation efforts.

Do you have or need a lead generating business blog? Visit my company’s Web site to learn more about Boosting Your B2B Lead Generation ROI and Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Achinta Mitra

Achinta Mitra calls himself a “marketing engineer” because he combines his engineering education and an MBA with 36 years of practical industrial marketing experience. You want an expert with an insider’s knowledge and an outsider’s objectivity who can point you in the right direction immediately. That's Achinta. He is the Founder of Tiecas, Inc., an industrial marketing consultancy in Houston, Texas. Read Achinta's story here.
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Comments:

  1. A call to action isn’t something you see very often. Traffic is great for your website, but you need to direct visitors where to go next if you want them to get anything done.

    Thank you for posting. Excellent proof that corporate blogs are necessary.

  2. Thanks, Achinta, for the perfect explanation using a blog post is always proved to be beneficial in lead generation. Using a blog in lead generation also helps to get free publicity and a quality lead to companies.

    Best regards,

    Jason
    MarketJoy, Inc.

  3. Thanks for sharing this information about B2B lead generation, it is very helpful and interesting to read, great post…

  4. Hi Achinta Mitra, Your point resonated with me best. I think the best thing is, considering the human element to all business transactions.

  5. Great post, thanks for sharing.

  6. Great post. If I may, businesses also have the option of acquiring the services of professional telemarketers along with the pay per lead program.

  7. Great blog. I agree with you there. Every company should have a business blog, that is one way to share what their business is about. Blogs can also generate leads if done well.

  8. That’s really good thought for B2B marketing and especially in industrial marketing. I think such type of information should be available each week so that business blogger can get some focus on industrial market.

  9. WOW, this is truly an amazing idea to carry out Lead generation techniques through a business blog, thanks for sharing the post…

  10. thanks for sharing this information about B2B lead generation, it is very helpful and interesting to read, great post…

  11. This kind of information is very limited on internet. Nice to find the post related to my searching criteria. Your update will be appreciated by blog loving people.

  12. That makes a lot of sense but seemed hard to figure out how to accomplish. Thanks for laying it out.

  13. Wow. I knew blogging helped, but those numbers are pretty stunning.

    The call to action is something you don’t see very often. It’s great to get traffic to your website, but you have to tell them where to go next if you’re going to accomplish anything.

    Thanks for the post. Compelling evidence for the need for corporate blogging.

    • @matt,
      Thanks for your comments. You make a good point about adding explicit calls to action if you want to move the visitor along and ultimately convert him/her into a customer.

  14. Can’t argue against those stats. You’ve put forth very strong reasons for creating a business blog. I am forwarding your post to our VP of Sales & Marketing. May be he’ll finally agree to start one for our company.

    • @S. Cooper,
      Thanks for your comment. Good luck in getting your blog project approved.

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