What is Outbound Lead Generation, and Why is it So Important?
Outbound lead generation describes the process of using outbound marketing strategies to push out their messages to prospective customers or a specific target audience.
It often involves such strategies as trade shows, email blasts, and cold phone calls.
Outbound lead generation, in essence, involves pushing out marketing messages via different platforms to a target audience without them asking for it or expressing interest in your offer.
Unlike inbound lead generation campaigns, outbound lead generation requires a great deal of effort and perseverance. A lead, on the other hand, is someone who has expressed interest in what you're selling but is yet to make any purchase.
If you want to make your outbound efforts count in 2022, you must be willing to engage the right outbound lead generation tactics in your marketing campaigns. In this post, I'll show you why your marketing and sales team needs to build effective outbound lead generation strategies.
Difference Between Inbound Lead Generation and Outbound Lead Generation
The significant difference between inbound and outbound lead gen strategies is that outbound marketing generates leads by focusing on reaching potential customers where they are with awareness campaigns. Inbound marketing strategies use an organic approach to attract leads.
This is the most popular marketing strategy today. It focuses on putting out great content related to customer needs and waiting for the customers to reach out.
With outbound strategies, you target the customer first, but inbound lead generation brings the prospects to search you out.
Outbound lead generation gives you complete control over the lead generation process, but with inbound lead gen, you wait for the prospects to trickle in.
You create the ideal customer profile for outbound lead strategies and target them instead of attracting just any inbound leads.
Outbound leads are generated by cold calling, direct emails, targeted ads, etc. Inbound leads are generated using SEO, content marketing, blogs, Marketing qualified lead (MQL), etc.
Why Outbound Lead Generation Is Important for Your Business
Build Brand Awareness Quickly
Inbound marketing tactics focus on organic growth, and that approach can be very practical, provided you keep at it until the results begin to show. However, they may not always be the best marketing or lead generation strategies for businesses looking to convert leads immediately.
With the right outbound strategy, you don't have to wait for organic growth or for leads to come to you. You can go out there and meet them where they are. That's why it is called "interruption marketing." We have billboard ads still running today because outbound lead gen still works.
Businesses can also focus on generating leads through social media, PPC advertising, cold calling, email newsletters with valuable content, tradeshows and important industry events, email blasts with irresistible offers or discounts, running promotional campaigns, etc. These tactics can help you generate quality leads and grow your outbound sales number.
Collapses the Length of Your Sales Cycle
Inbound leads take anywhere between 4-10 months before they start coming in. If you want instant results, where your sales funnel has qualified leads, you need to pick up the phone and make those cold calls, compose and send those emails and make them really salesy, and get more resilient with your outbound lead generation campaigns.
Instead of waiting for months, you combine your inbound lead generation efforts with your outbound strategies to win over more potential customers in a short time. But it would help if you were strategic about who you target so you don't waste your efforts. Inbound and outbound strategies can always be run side by side to make the sales process faster.
Test and Reach New Markets
Outbound marketing also allows businesses to get their brand in front of new markets that might not have heard about their services and products.
The sales process in outbound lead generation can be more demanding than inbound marketing, but it allows you to reach a broader range of prospects.
For example, your sales team might have to make hundreds of cold calls daily before closing a few deals. You might need to supercharge your email and social marketing campaign with automation tools.
Your marketing team might be doing great work putting out great content for your audience, but that content might not produce leads if the right people are not seeing them.
Have you considered that there might be people who need your product or service but do not have the time or habit of reading online content?
Your content marketing effort can help you reach more of your target audience when combined with the right outbound tactics. Also, with real-time analytics, your team can track which methods work and which ones aren't working.
Actively Build Exposure With a Personal Touch
Just because inbound marketing is the rave of the moment and effective does not mean that the outbound lead generation process is now outdated and ineffective.
Your outbound lead generation efforts are directed towards actively building exposure, which drives more new leads through your sales pipeline instead of waiting for prospects to come to find you.
But as you do this, you'll realize that it is also an interactive approach since the outbound sales team typically seeks a one-on-one engagement with each new lead.
When people are looking for human interactions with sales and marketing teams, you can be sure that a lot of people will appreciate cold calls and emails.
A study conducted by Discover Org showed that 75% of executives are willing to make an appointment or attend an event based on a cold call or cold email alone.
Inbound and Outbound Lead Generation Strategies Combined
According to the Act-On study on Inbound vs. Outbound Campaign, most marketers use a combination of both tactics. Inbound and outbound lead generation tactics are like two halves of a whole.
The study showed that about 85% of respondents use a combination of inbound and outbound marketing methods for generating leads, regardless of which gives them the best results.
Nobody was all-in on either inbound marketing or outbound campaigns.
From all indications, outbound lead generation works best together with inbound marketing. Operating as two parts of a whole, each lead generation approach can complement the other where it might be lacking.
This also gives you a chance to A/B test your outbound lead gen strategies and stick to the ones that drive the best results. The same applies to your inbound strategy.
How Marketing and Sales Teams Drive the Outbound Lead Generation Strategy
While the sales and marketing teams work hand-in-hand to improve the result of your outbound campaign, the two groups have different functions.
The outbound marketing team facilitates the outbound marketing process using various outbound marketing strategies designed to generate new leads. The team typically includes:
Campaign marketers: They run campaigns through various channels, such as direct mail, print, TV, radio, email newsletter, discovery phone call, catalogs, etc.
Performance marketers: They manage paid advertising campaigns on social media and search engines, as well as brand marketing.
On the other hand, the outbound sales team uses effective outbound sales strategies to close outbound leads and improve customer retention rates.
The outbound sales reps connect with potential customers using outbound lead gen strategies, such as direct mail, product demos, and cold calling to guide the potential customers through the sales process until they purchase.
The sales team's goal is to get new leads to become paying customers.
Effective Outbound Lead Generation Strategies
Lead generation is the process of reaching out and attracting people who have shown interest in your business and can be nurtured into potential customers instead of waiting for them to reach out to you.
No doubt, this does not come easy. But there are many effective strategies for outbound lead generation that will bring you more clients than inbound lead generation—one thing to keep in mind is that you only want qualified leads.
A qualified lead is a lead that is more likely to become a customer than other leads. Here are eleven proven strategies to help you generate outbound leads.
#1 LinkedIn Messaging
LinkedIn is a powerful platform with over 575 million users, making it a goldmine for outbound lead generation.
You can use LinkedIn to connect with potential leads and customers in your target market by sending them personal messages.
The key to success with LinkedIn messaging is ensuring your message comes across as human and not like a sales pitch.
An excellent way to do this is to start the conversation by complimenting something on their profile or recent blog post and then asking a question that will begin a conversation.
For example, you can say something like, "I read your blog post on XYZ, and I found it very interesting. I have a question about XYZ. I'd love to hear your thoughts."
When you reach out to someone on LinkedIn, it's crucial to understand what you want to achieve from the conversation.
Do you want to set up a meeting? Get an introduction to someone else in their network?
Whatever it is, make sure you state your intention upfront, so there are no misunderstandings further down the road.
Lastly, it is imperative to have a quality profile that is built to convert your ideal client. More on how to write a great LinkedIn summary.
#2 Personalized Email Outreach
Email outreach is another effective outbound lead generation method.
The key to success with email outreach is personalization. It would