Did you know that more than a third of B2B businesses struggle with finding high-quality leads?
According to a report by Ruler Analytics, 37% of businesses find generating quality leads as their biggest challenge.
However, just because other businesses are struggling does not mean that you have to as well!
In this blog, we’ll tell you about 20 B2B lead generation strategies that you can use to generate quality, high-conversion leads that will propel your business to new heights!
Before that, let’s take a closer look at the basics of B2B lead generation.
Understanding B2B Lead Generation
Despite its importance, lead generation is relatively simple to comprehend.
Here’s a brief overview of the basics of B2B lead generation to get you started on your journey to score leads.
What Is B2B Lead Generation?
B2B lead generation is the process of attracting and leading potential business-to-business prospects through the sales funnel to become paying clients.
It starts with identifying your target market, attracting ideal customers, and guiding and supporting them through each level of the sales funnel.
Each potential customer is called a lead. However, not all leads are the same.
What Are The Different Types Of B2B Leads?
B2B leads are generally classified in two ways: by their apparent interest in your business and by their position in the sales funnel.
Type of leads by interest:
- Cold leads
These are leads who have little to no knowledge & interest about your business.
For example, reaching out to someone on LinkedIn or cold email in an unrelated industry who has no connection to your brand.
- Warm leads
Cold leads become warm leads when they have shown some level of interest in your brand, such as visiting your website, subscribing to your newsletter, or downloading your whitepaper.
They are more likely to be open to communication from your sales representatives as compared to cold leads.
- Hot leads
These are leads that are actively learning about your business offering through demo requests or other forms of enquiries, and are closer to making a purchase decision.
They concurrently require both less resources to raise their interest and more resources to help them convert.
Type of leads by sales funnel position:
- Information Qualified Leads (IQLs)
IQLs are leads that have just entered your sales funnel.
In most cases, they are ones that have provided some contact information in exchange for some information or service, such as submitting an online form with their email address to access a blog.
- Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs)
MQLs are leads that fall into your ideal customer profile (ICP) who have shown an interest in your business or responded positively to your marketing efforts.
Examples of this include users who have followed your brand on social media, attended your webinars, or signed up for newsletters.
- Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs)
SQLs are leads that are near the end of their customer journey and are ready to make a purchase decision.
They are leads who have either actively expressed their interest by contacting your sales team or have performed activities indicating their willingness, such as requesting demos or signing up for a free trial.
What Are the Steps Involved In B2B Lead Generation?
Having an understanding of the different B2B sales funnel stages is necessary before choosing a B2B lead generation strategy.
Different approaches are required at each stage to effectively engage and nurture leads.
By Aligning lead generation strategy at each stage with the needs of prospects, you can maximize conversions and build long term relationships.
Though it is a continuous process, the steps involved in B2B lead generation can be generally explained as follows:
Step 1: Define your ideal customer
An ideal customer is a customer who not only has a demand for your offering but also has the ability to make a purchase or become a loyal customer.
For example, a SaaS company’s ICP can be a small organization with 0-100 employees, located in Europe, facing challenges with project management.
This customer is ideal because they have the need for software, decision makers to approve and budget to purchase.
Creating an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is generally considered the best way to solidify your concept of an ideal customer and help you strategize.
Step 2: Pick a B2B lead generation strategy
The goal of lead generation is to facilitate a sale, however at this stage, the goal is to create awareness and interest among potential customers.
whether through email outreach, content marketing or social media, the strategy chosen must resonate with potential customers and move them down the sales funnel.
Therefore, selecting a B2B lead generation strategy that aligns with the business goal and is suitable for your ICP is crucial.
Step 3: Qualify and nurture leads
Once a B2B lead generation strategy is chosen and implemented, it’s time to qualify the leads and nurture them to facilitate a conversion.
Assess leads for quality using lead scoring or qualification methods such as BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, Timing) to see if they’re ready to proceed to the next step.
Use personalized and automated emails to nurture leads through the sales funnel until they are ready to make a purchase.
Step 4: Seal the deal
B2B lead generation does not end when a lead is converted.
Once the lead is nurtured and qualified, the sales team is required not only to help customers finalize their purchases but also to build the foundations for a long-term partnership.
Step 5: Measure the success
Even if the ultimate goal of B2B lead generation is to generate a sale, it is equally important to be efficient in the process to maximize profits.
Use the following metrics to analyze the success of your B2B lead generation strategy and see where it can be improved:
Now that the basics are covered, let’s get on to how you can make your sales figures climb to new heights!
20 Best B2B Lead Generation Strategies To Use In 2025
1. Send Cold Emails
The tried-and-tested method of sending cold emails to ideal targets is one of the most effective B2B lead generation strategies available.
Considering the fact that 80% of B2B buyers prefer to be contacted by email, this shouldn’t come as a surprise.
One of the biggest advantages of sending cold emails is that it opens up a channel of communication you can use to send marketing resources and warm up the lead.
2. Use Newsletters
Newsletters are an effective means to maintain communication with potential leads without being obtrusive.
Though newsletters are primarily informational, it is a great method to improve brand retention as long as you follow proper anti-spam guidelines.
This also comes with the added benefit of establishing your brand as an industry expert, a definite advantage in the B2B market.
3. Update Email Signature
You can never know how you may come across a potential lead.
Ask every employee in your organization to embed a link to promotional content or a landing page in their email signature so you never miss a chance to capture a prospective customer.
You can also apply a similar strategy to online profiles and social media content.
4. Make Warm Calls
The adage “send cold emails, make warm calls” is one of the basic foundations of B2B lead generation strategies.
Once you have generated some interest through cold mail, a personal call to your lead can go a long way in warming them up for further outreach efforts.
A personal phone call will not only let your lead know that you care about their patronage but will also enable your sales representative to make a more convincing sales pitch.
5. List Your Company On Directories
The Yellow Pages may have gone out of vogue since the rise of the internet, but online directories have shown to be a more effective alternative.
Online directories are one of the most reputable sources that customers have access to, from which they can learn about your business.
Some online directories also serve as review aggregators, providing a legitimate channel for enhancing your brand perception.
Additionally, a link from an online directory can significantly enhance the reputation of your website and improve its search engine rankings.
6. Optimize For Search Engines
Search Engine Optimization is one of the most affordable B2B lead generation strategies a business can use.
There are many SEO best practices such as optimizing for AI Overview, keyword optimization, backlinking, etc. that you can follow to ensure that your website pops up in the search results when a potential customer searches for particular keywords.
Using an SEO tool, such as Ahrefs, Semrush, or UberSuggest, can go a long way in helping you optimize your website.
7. Improve Your UI/UX
Getting your leads to visit your website is not even half the battle.
Convincing them to stay long enough to learn about and engage with your business is even harder.
A straightforward and appealing user interface, along with an engaging and stress-free user experience, is essential for this.
This is also a great avenue to incorporate your brand elements, improve recall, and showcase your expertise through an engaging web design.
8. Set Up a Live Chat
A live chat is a relatively new addition to the world of website design.
However, its effectiveness is unquestionable.
It is essentially a bot that provides automated replies to queries made by visitors to your website.
There are also advanced chatbots that use AI to give responses and move them down the sales funnel.
9. Write Blogs
Blogs offer multiple benefits to your website and brand, such as:
- Improving search engine rankings for keywords related to your business.
- Generate awareness about your business.
- Bring repeat visitors and improve engagement.
- Establish industry expertise.
Apart from each blog being an opportunity to promote your offerings, these additional benefits can improve the effectiveness of your other B2B lead generation strategies.
10. Create White Papers
Expertise and authority are the hallmarks of a good business when it comes to B2B.
With whitepapers, you can not only showcase your expertise but also generate visitors to your website and expose them to your marketing efforts.
This combination can be incredibly effective in the right industries and towards the right target audience.
11. Use Case Studies
The use of case studies is an effective B2B lead generation strategy because of two main reasons:
- It tells your lead how a business can use your product or service to solve their problems.
- It displays a reliable example of a customer being satisfied by having a relationship with your brand, made even more impactful by quantifiable statistics.
12. Host Webinars
Webinars are another way to showcase your industry expertise.
The biggest advantage of using a webinar as a B2B lead generation strategy is its effectiveness in attracting potential leads, provided the topic is engaging and relevant.
Of course, using case studies of your clients and demos of your offerings can give an additional boost to your lead generation efforts.
13. Attend Live Events
Events and conferences have long been an effective way to make inroads into an industry and network with experts.
However, its effectiveness as a B2B lead generation strategy should not be forgotten.
These are events where it’s not only possible to make your sales pitch to others in the industry but also perform live demos of your offerings for interested parties.
14. Use Referrals
According to research by Harvard, 84% of B2B buyers start their purchase process with a referral, and referrals influence more than 90% of all B2B buying decisions.
By offering discounts or special benefits to your existing customers for referring your business to others, you can attract much higher-quality leads.
15. Use Social Media
A business may only use social media to market its offerings, but the decision-makers and professionals within the business will often scroll through social media platforms for personal reasons.
This makes them susceptible to your B2B lead generation strategies as long as you can create engaging content that is visible in their feed.
That means social media platforms, such as Facebook, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), etc., are just as effective as LinkedIn for raising awareness and engaging with your leads.
16. Join LinkedIn
LinkedIn is the largest professional network and a hub for industry experts, offering features specifically designed for professional use.
Some of these features, such as the Sales Navigator and Conversational Ads, are incredibly effective in the lead generation process at every stage of the sales funnel.
Similarly, groups on LinkedIn are an excellent platform for experts and professionals in an industry to share information and form connections.
17. Use Account-Based Marketing
Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is one of the B2B lead generation strategies with the highest chance of success.
This is because the majority of the lead generation efforts and resources are focused on specific high-value clients.
It includes targeted marketing to individual organizations, developing personalized content, and interacting with decision makers directly.
18. A/B Test Your Campaigns
A/B testing your campaigns, taglines, CTAs, and landing pages is one of the most effective B2B lead generation strategies to help you succeed.
Just because your leads fall into your ICP does not mean that they will react similarly to every prompt from your side all the time.
A/B testing enables you to make the most out of every decision you take as part of your B2B lead generation strategy.
19. Use a CRM
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is now a necessity for any business.
It can help you manage a large number of customers, automate responses, and track customer interaction, sales and support activities.
Some of the best CRM systems, such as Salesforce, HubSpot, Microsoft Dynamics 365, etc., offer numerous incredible features to make your lead generation efforts a breeze.
20. Try Out AI
Artificial intelligence is already a part of many other tools you use as part of your B2B lead generation strategy.
However, there are AI-powered tools that can accomplish much more than simple automation, such as Agentic AI that can initiate contact with prospects and even create and optimize online campaigns.
Tools such as Agentic AI are so effective at different stages of the sales funnel that you can reconfigure your entire AI-enhanced B2B marketing and lead generation strategy to be less resource-intensive.
Conclusion
There are innumerable B2B lead generation strategies available for you to use.
However, their effectiveness is entirely dependent on choosing the right strategy for the right lead at the right stage of their customer journey.
Choosing the ideal B2B lead generation strategy requires considerable expertise and extensive experience.
However, there are ways to tip the scales regardless of your experience.
To finish this blog off on a positive note, here are five actionable tips to maximize the effectiveness of your B2B lead generation strategy:
5 Actionable B2B Lead Generation Tips
- Treat your customers not as a business entity but as individuals who work for one and are susceptible to emotional appeal.
- Always be data-driven when choosing a B2B marketing strategy.
- Be aware that customer retention will always be more profitable than customer acquisition because of its higher rate of success and lower costs.
- Don’t fall behind on technology use, as your competition will not shy away from effective technology.
- B2B customers now expect a personalized approach, so that should be exactly what you should give them.
