When we work with our B2B clients, a huge chunk of the time is spent on strategizing and creating content designed to help us engage with our target audience. We used to recommend traditional lead magnet tactics to turn content into B2B sales – to capture new leads we would generate a teaser for that content, get it in front of that target audience, and hope that they will share their contact information in exchange for the rest. Or we would deliver the content to existing contacts via email and social media, and rely on fluctuations in site traffic data to measure impact.

But people have gotten extremely reluctant to share their contact information while they are in early consideration phases, and increased site traffic alone doesn’t provide the ROI that B2B marketing requires. These issues combine to create a lot of frustration around spending a ton of time and resources on making really good, valuable pieces of content, and then just not seeing it turn into any tangible results in terms of leads or sales.

Lately, however, we’ve taken a couple new approaches to getting value out of site content. In this blog post, we’ll delve into two essential strategies that can transform your content into a lead-generating machine:

• Identifying anonymous site visitors
• Tracking site actions from known visitors

Unmasking the Anonymous: The Power of Visitor Identification

The number one objective we are almost always tasked with by our B2B clients is to help them find and attract new business. Great content can be a great way to do this – as long as you can identify who is engaging with it. Historically this was done by gating content and requiring the user to choose to give their contact information to get it, but now there are new solutions that can capture information from a far greater percentage of site visitors. 

Powerful tools like Leadfeeder and Snitcher can lift the veil of anonymity, revealing the companies associated with the users that are visiting your site but not submitting any contact information.

• Leadfeeder: This tool integrates with your Google Analytics data to identify businesses that visit your website. It provides valuable insights into their industry, size, and location.
• Snitcher: Similar to Leadfeeder, Snitcher uncovers the identity of anonymous visitors and even offers additional features like lead scoring and email alerts.

This data is invaluable to a sales team – it can be used to both identify new opportunities, and prioritize existing leads by noting when users from their organization are visiting the site.

Tracking the Known: CRM Integration for Actionable Insights

In addition to identifying anonymous site visitors, you want to make sure you are tracking the actions of key visitors that you have already identified on your website. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platforms like Kissmetrics and Hubspot enable you to monitor how known leads interact with your content.

Key benefits of CRM integration include:

• Lead scoring: Assign points to leads based on their actions (e.g., downloading a white paper, visiting a pricing page). This helps you identify hot leads ready for sales outreach.
• Behavior-triggered emails: Set up automated email campaigns based on specific actions. For example, send a follow-up email to a lead who abandoned their shopping cart.
• Personalized content: Deliver targeted content based on a lead’s interests and past behavior, increasing engagement and conversion rates

In the competitive B2B landscape, generating leads from content requires more than just publishing. By leveraging visitor identification tools like Leadfeeder or Snitcher and integrating your website with a CRM like Kissmetrics or Hubspot, you can gain valuable insights into your audience and their behavior. Leverage both of these tactics, and you’ll never waste time on content that doesn’t convert again.