B2B Lead Generation Online: 3 Examples of Successful Campaigns

Using your unique knowledge, expertise, or product quality to generate more high-quality leads? The unique added value of a brand is not always easy to convey online. Many companies only truly stand out when you delve deeper into the subject. But how do you get customers to that point? In this article, we explain how B2B lead generation works in practice using 3 examples from industry and business services.

The big promise of Online Marketing is lead generation; acquiring new leads (and thus revenue) through the online channel. For a long time, this was quite easy because in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. If your brand had a good website, new customers would quickly come to you. If you also paid some attention to SEO – online findability – you probably even ranked at the top of Google. Potential customers would call themselves to make an appointment.

But nowadays, everyone has a (decent) website and many entrepreneurs have invested in good findability. Just search for accountant, machine factory, or project developer, and you’ll get dozens of companies that can serve you. Can you rank high enough on that list and convince the customer to get in touch?

Ranking well on Google often requires months of effort. In this article, we therefore discuss another path to online marketing success based on 3 practical examples: How to deploy a lead generation campaign to target, convince, and convert people effectively. The cases cover the following aspects:

• Content marketing: articles
• Whitepaper creation
• LinkedIn Advertising

Lead Generation Articles for Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ

Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ is an iconic Amsterdam concert venue with a large hall and various other spaces perfect for progressive, groundbreaking music. But exactly what makes this venue perfect for concerts also makes it a unique location for business events. Together with the business rental team, Merkelijkheid started creating articles for every stage of the customer journey.

For example, we wrote articles about online and hybrid events and the unique possibilities of the building. This allows potential customers to quickly get an idea of the opportunities and possibilities. These were placed on a special landing page for business events and then promoted both organically and via LinkedIn Advertising to a very specific target audience.

Because the consumer activities of ’t Muziekgebouw always dominated, there was a great opportunity to use LinkedIn exclusively as a communication channel for business rentals. This has significantly increased visibility and with it the number of inquiries.

B2B Lead Generation and Conversion in High-Tech Industry

NTS is a leading tier-1 system supplier of complex opto-mechatronic systems and mechanical modules for markets such as Semiconductor and Analytics. The knowledge of this brand keeps growing, and to raise awareness among both new and existing customers, they asked Merkelijkheid to help develop high-quality whitepapers. The goal? To start conversations about their wide range of high-tech solutions, knowledge of manufacturability, and series production capacity.

We interviewed technical specialists from NTS and wrote extensive, in-depth whitepapers on various topics such as digital printing and cleanliness. We make the difference by being able to talk to absolute technical specialists on the one hand and on the other hand, presenting their story in an appealing, more commercial way. We also provide photography, design, and layout of the documents where needed.

See an example on NTS’ digital printing page.

The first whitepapers we wrote for NTS immediately generated several very concrete leads and, perhaps even more importantly, convinced a technical specialist to join NTS. The subsequent whitepapers are also used successfully both internally and externally, and we continuously work on expanding the portfolio.

LinkedIn Lead Generation Campaign

Eventfabriek organizes both live and online events for prominent brands at home and abroad from the iconic A’DAM Tower. The brand was active in online events even before the pandemic but saw great opportunities when the world shut down. They asked Merkelijkheid to help generate leads.

Through LinkedIn Advertising, we reached the target audience of Event and Marketing professionals with several targeted campaigns. The first campaigns focused on brand awareness, followed by a website traffic campaign, and finally a lead generation campaign. This build-up ensured that the target audience knew the name Eventfabriek and had even visited the website before seeing the lead generation campaign. This approach helps maximize the results from the advertising budget and campaign.

The result is not only the 77 leads and 38 contact moments generated by the campaign but also the 4 articles and the whitepaper we produced. These also represent clear SEO value, and later the campaign can be relaunched at significantly lower costs. We discuss this case extensively in our portfolio.

Online Lead Generation in B2B

An online lead generation campaign in B2B stands or falls with the right approach. Insight into the customer journey, keyword research, target audience, and knowledge of your product or service are essential for building an efficient, successful campaign. These elements come together in the content; this is the way to convince your target audience of your expertise or product quality and then convert them.

Finally, sales can also engage much more purposefully with these leads. Because potential customers have already been introduced to your product or service, you can delve much deeper into their needs and objections during a conversation. In practice, we see a much higher success rate with leads who come into contact with brands through this approach.

Merkelijkheid supports companies in all aspects of lead generation. We conduct research together with your team, develop a plan, execute it, and report the results. You are in control and can steer towards results. Want to know more? We’d be happy to tell you more about the possibilities.