Have you hopped on these B2B lead generation trends?

This article is brought to you by Studios, Tech in Asia’s advertising arm that connects brands with Asia’s tech community through the power of storytelling.

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Lead generation is the lifeblood of any business. Yet in a crowded Southeast Asian tech environment, it’s challenging to raise brand awareness, much less generate leads that can contribute to sales.

So how exactly can you attract quality leads for your business in 2021? Let’s take a look at the latest lead generation trends that you can consider hopping on.

1. Content marketing is best for B2B lead generation

In a study conducted by Databox, 60% of B2B marketers chose content marketing as the channel they rely on most for lead generation. This is not surprising, as B2B’s primary currency is trust. If you want your brand to come to mind when customers are ready to make a purchase decision, you’ve got to do what needs to be done: create valuable content that your customers can rely on.

Content marketing is like a blue-chip stock; it may be discouraging to see little to no growth in the beginning, but it’ll pay great dividends in the long run. Many marketers vouch that the content they created years ago continue to generate a consistent stream of paying customers, making content marketing the best long-term investment for any business. All you need is kickass content and a little bit of patience.

That said, you need to have the right content strategy in order to attract the right leads. Here’s what you can do:

• Develop a detailed profile of your ideal buyer persona. Aim to answer: What type of buyer is this persona? What are they most interested in learning? What questions to do they have?
• Relevance is key. Do keyword research and study tech publications or competitors in your niche to see what content is hot and delivering results.
• Deliver value without hard-selling. When crafting each article, video, infographic, or newsletter, always focus on how you can help your target audience instead of touting your product.
• Building backlinks. This is one of the most important steps in making sure that your content gets seen and prioritized by search engines. Each backlink indicates a vote of confidence from one site to another, so start partnering with relevant sites or try guest posting.

2. Video content marketing works in SEA

Let’s look at some numbers.

Data from internet company Aberdeen Group shows that video marketers get 66% more qualified leads per year. Cisco predicts by 2022, 82% of all internet traffic will be dedicated to video content. Meanwhile, Hubspot says that 81% of businesses use video as a marketing tool.

These statistics speak for themselves: Video marketing is on the rise to become one of the most effective channels in B2B lead generation. This is especially true in Southeast Asia, a mobile-first region where local users are genuine video enthusiasts eager to watch content from brands. In Thailand, for example, 72% of users watch online videos compared to only 45% and 40% in the United States and United Kingdom, respectively.

When it comes to B2B lead generation, videos can be used to boost brand credibility, demonstrate a product, showcase client testimonials, and more. Don’t be a faceless corporation – with videos, you can put a face and voice to your business and build rapport with potential customers, which is crucial to generating quality leads. Here’s an example:

Video is no longer the future; it’s already here as an excellent tool for building trust and authority. Here are some video ideas for you to consider:

• Showcase your brand and what makes it special through a brand awareness video. But don’t just do a boring corporate video. Be creative – this could be in the form of a product demo, client testimonial, or even an origins story.
• Repurpose your existing content into videos and upload them onto YouTube, which is the world’s second-largest search engine and is unmatched in its ability to maintain user attention. (Am I the only one who always get sucked into the YouTube rabbit hole?) One example is to edit your webinar recordings into more focused, bite-sized videos and link your gated content in the description box.
• Make a behind the scenes video giving a sneak peek into the backstage operations of your business. This kind of exclusive content makes customers feel included in your brand while also raising interest in your product.
• If you don’t have the resources to make you own videos, you can also work with media outlets who have both the talent and network to elevate your brand.

Tech in Asia, for example, has created multiple targeted and engaging videos for companies who want to reach the tech audience in Southeast Asia. Want to see how we can help elevate your brand? View our media kit below:

3. Chatbots are the new in

I’m sure you already know the power of chatbots, especially in dealing with FAQs. But have you considered using it as part of your lead generation strategy?

Forbes predicts that in 2021, “successful brands will use chatbots and AI for more than customer service”. Indeed, conversational marketing through the use of chatbots is a fast-growing trend and one of the most powerful tools for B2B tech marketers. Through the use of artificial intelligence (AI), chatbots enables brands to generate realistic responses to customers within seconds.

This is especially game-changing for lead generation where every minute counts. People get bored so easily nowadays. According to the Harvard Business Review, companies risk losing leads forever if they don’t respond to them in five minutes or less. Despite that, “86% of all companies weren’t using chat or messaging tools to assist them in hitting that coveted five-minute mark.”

Using chatbots can not only help to deliver personalized responses to your customers in real time and capture leads more easily, it also automates part of the sales conversation process, saving you and your sales team tons of time.

Here’s what you can do:

• Draft out your customer’s journey and pinpoint which parts you can automate or improve on. Is your chatbot answering commonly asked questions, qualifying leads, or even getting their attention in the first place?
• Consider creating a bot on Facebook Messenger as a trial run. If it works, you can consider enlisting a chatbot provider to implement and scale one for your own platform.
• However, chatbots should not be used for the sake of it. They can improve conversion rates only if you build one that intentionally removes the key barriers.

4. Get featured in popular podcasts

Are you an avid podcast listener? Whether you like ’em or not, the popularity of podcasts have been skyrocketing, with the number of listeners expected to reach 125 million in 2022. In Southeast Asia, the rising popularity of smartphones has been fueling the growth of podcasts.

Podcast audiences are also known to be more knowledge-thirsty and have high purchase intent, making the platform the next big opportunity for B2B tech marketers.

But does this mean that you should start your own podcast? No, not really, especially if you do not have the necessary resources to sustain it and build a loyal following. The smarter way is to work with established media outlets by speaking as a guest or sponsoring certain sessions. You’ll instantly appear as a thought leader in a topic, as long as you deliver the value that you promise.

Tech in Asia, for instance, has partnered with many tech brands in its popular podcast series. Check out this session on how cloud kitchens work, sponsored by cloud computing company DigitalOcean.

So what should you do?

• Short-list popular podcasts in your niche and choose one that is aligned with your business in terms of target audience and topics covered.
• Deliver value and show how your product can help the audience solve their problem when you speak as a guest.
• Make sure to have a clear and compelling call to action for the audience, such as a coupon code or free consultation.

Joint effort between companies and publishers

B2B lead generation caters to a narrow market: a company’s decision makers. This means that you need to be sharp with your choice of channels and audience targeting.

But not every company has the resources to write their own articles, host their own events, or make their own videos. In that case, working with a media partner who has a similar but bigger audience than you could help you break through the noise and reach and convert your desired customers.

If your organization wants to reach the tech and startup community in Southeast Asia, Tech in Asia has the storytelling tools and loyal audience base to help you reach your goals. You can get in touch with us here or view our media kit below.