B2B lead generation is a vital goal for any company but particularly for growing startups that have yet to establish themselves.
If you can get other businesses interested in your product and/or services and provide a solution to their problems, there is a very good chance you will form a fruitful relationship, or at least net yourself some much-needed publicity. But how do you make the leap exactly?
Well, Content Marketing is a great place to start - blogging and some thought-out keyword research can set the wheels in motion.
While it may be tempting to dive into your blog and splurge your grand vision all over WordPress, carefully consider the topic of your blog and pick out a number of specific keywords to improve your visibility. Here, we'll explain how that can leverage your blog up the search engine rankings and attract a targeted audience.
In the simplest definition, a keyword is something that will draw users from a search engine to your blog. That's pretty straightforward, but much like rooting for England at the World Cup, the concept of keyword research is easy to pick up, albeit tough to commit. However, if you're keen on boosting your b2b lead generation then keyword research could be exactly what you need to make that happen on a more consistent basis.
Where to start?
Whether you do the research or not, you have likely (subconsciously) picked up on some keyword quirks just by browsing the internet every day. If you are on Youtube, you've probably seen videos go viral thanks to a few strategically placed words in their title. Those videos purposefully make use of "grabby" keywords or 'hooks' in order to engage people.
So how can this behaviour help your business's blog? Well, we can apply similar rules. In the example of the Youtube videos, we were dealing with keywords based on something users want to see. With your business, keywords should be minded towards what your clients need.
What does Jerry have to do with your B2B Lead Generation?
Well, let's look at Jerry. Jerry is a professional fitness trainer who wants to expand his business by selling corporate fitness services and employee wellness programs to businesses. Jerry currently has an educational fitness blog on his website. He decides to write a blog about the benefits of an employee wellness program on staff and their productivity. Jerry needs to come up with keywords people will search for, so they can find his blog online, and thus be exposed to his business.
To really nail his potential audience, Jerry needs to learn about both "short tail" and "long tail" keyword searches. Short tail, made up of no more than two words, often provides an extremely wide search. For example, if a user were to type "employee wellness program" into Google, they are likely to find millions of pages containing those words. That could return anything from the definition of such a program, where to buy one or how it can benefit a business.
In order to have a greater chance of being seen amongst the thousands of results, Jerry needs to be a bit more specific than that. This is where long-tail keywords are best utilised.
Tools like UberSuggest or Hubspot's keywords app can help Jerry find the perfect long-tail keywords for his blog post. The best way to visualise a long tail keyword is to think of a short tail with either prefixes, suffixes or both.
As an example, Jerry could take the short tail keyword, with high search volume "employee wellness program" and add the prefixes or suffixes. It could become 'Benefits of An Employee Wellness Program'. He could go even more niche if he wanted to and include a location, for example.
Keyword Research can sometimes be difficult, a balancing act between choosing keywords that are popular, but not too popular so as to get lost in millions of results. Striking the right balance (using keyword tools to help along the way) can ensure you and your business get noticed and succeed in B2B lead generation!
