14+ Best B2B Marketing Lead Generation Ideas 2024

B2B lead generation in 2024 is highly competitive. So competitive, in fact, that B2B marketers need to get creative with their lead generation strategies.

If you're one of the 61% of B2B marketers who say generating high-quality leads is their biggest challenge, this blog is for you.

There are dozens of exciting ways to capture the interest of your potential new clients and pull them through your marketing funnel toward a sale.  

Here's a quick-fire list of 14 of the best B2B marketing lead generation ideas for you to use in 2024 - for all marketing budgets. 

Let's explore each of these B2B lead generation strategies in more detail below.

B2B Lead Generation: Setting Up For Success

Before we get into it, we'll start with the basics: setting your website up for success.

Remember, your website is your shop window, and it's one of the greatest B2B lead generation tools you have.

How can your website support your B2B lead generation activities?

• Make it easy for people to contact you. You need your website to make it easy for visitors to hit your 'contact us' button at any point. Plus, you should include plenty of other B2B lead generation options, like providing free downloads and encouraging newsletter sign-ups.
• Avoid too many CTAs. Compared to our first point, don't annoy your website visitors with too many CTAs (calls-to-action). Avoid overloading your website visitors with unnecessary pop-ups, invasive chatbots, and too many links.
• Make your website easy to navigate. Consider how easy it is to find the good stuff - how many pages are on your website? Is your website well structured with an easy-to-navigate design? For example, include a search bar function and FAQ sections so potential customers can quickly get to the pages and topics they need. 

We know it's not always straightforward to make changes to your website; it can take weeks or even months to get buy-in for a refresh. If that's the case for you, we recommend focusing on areas you can change, such as your campaign landing pages.

Ensure your landing pages have a strong CTA, a clean design, and testimonials to keep your prospects interested.

B2B Lead Generation Idea #1 - Content Syndication Lead Generation

One of the best B2B lead generation campaign ideas – and naturally, our favorite – is content syndication.

B2B content syndication services host your content, such as eBooks, whitepapers, case studies, or research reports on websites you do not own. Content syndication then promotes your content to relevant, highly targeted audiences to produce quality B2B leads.

Content syndication best practices involve working with a trustworthy and transparent supplier who will show you exactly where your content is hosted and how your leads are generated. A reputable content syndication supplier should also own the audiences they are promoting your content to generate 1st party data. They should never outsource your lead generation campaigns to unknown suppliers and 3rd parties.

Typically, content syndication platforms offer their services on a pre-agreed fixed cost-per-lead (CPL) basis, allowing you to budget confidently. A trustworthy supplier will also be able to provide you with a range of lead-generation services to enhance your results, depending on your objectives.

For example, you can opt for a Single Touch campaign at Headley Media, where leads are exposed to one piece of your syndicated content. Alternatively, you can go for campaigns designed to provide you with more information about your leads - exposing your new prospects to your brand multiple times. For example, by running a Nurture Track or SoftBANT lead generation campaign. 

Content syndication doesn't have to use written content: instructional videos or recorded webinars are also very popular. The important thing is that the content you're providing has to be helpful stuff worth prospects giving their business details for.

Content syndication lead generation from a trusted and transparent supplier really works, giving you a fully digital trail of your leads and allowing your leads to get to know you before you contact them. Take a look at some of our testimonials to see what other B2B marketing professionals think about content syndication.

To learn more about content syndication lead generation, explore our lead generation process for an example.

B2B Lead Generation Idea #2 - Localized Lead Generation

If you need to reach audiences in more than one country or region, marketing localization is vital if you want to be taken seriously. Localized lead generation includes running your campaigns in your target audience's local language and running your campaigns on country-specific websites. Taking localization seriously and adapting your campaigns to your audiences will help you resonate with those you need to reach in a more authentic and trusted way. 

If this sounds like something you need, but you're a bit stuck on where to start, a local language lead gen specialist will be able to help you translate your campaigns for you. For example, by translating your landing pages and emails, depending on the type of lead generation campaign you're running.

At Headley Media, our team specializes in local language lead generation, enabling us to help our clients better resonate with their target audiences locally or globally.

B2B Lead Generation Idea #3 - ABM Lead Generation Campaigns

Account-based marketing (ABM) lead generation is another great B2B lead generation strategy that helps you create more focused campaigns.

With ABM lead generation, you'll create campaigns using a target account list (TAL) and run campaigns that are only shown to your TAL.

Your ABM TAL comprises the companies and accounts you want to reach and the accounts you've identified as the most lucrative for your business to pursue.

Typically ABM lead generation is a collaborative effort between your Sales and Marketing team, whereby your Sales team helps you to identify the right target accounts to focus on, so it's important to ensure your Sales and Marketing teams are aligned. 

B2B Lead Generation Idea #4 - Use Intent Data Targeting

Intent data for lead generation is another effective way to enhance your B2B lead gen campaigns, providing you with more intelligence on each of your leads.

Buyer intent helps you understand the buying intent behind your prospects' research. Lead generation intent data works by engaging with your target audience when they (and their company) are actively researching topics that relate to products or solutions like yours.

For example, at Headley Media, every asset we host across our portfolio of 262 content library websites is tagged with content topic keywords. 

As our audiences engage with the content hosted across our websites, we tag their profile with these content topic keywords. We then progressively collect 1st party intelligence, which profiles our audiences over time, and scores their content behavior to help you understand the buying intent behind their research and content consumption.

To provide a better understanding of why someone is researching certain topics, we cross-reference our 1st party insights against industry 3rd party intent data to provide a clearer picture of each person's buying intent.

Our approach provides you with a 360-degree view of your ideal customers' behavior, giving you a great opportunity to enhance your B2B lead generation activities.

B2B Lead Generation Idea #5 - Use Audience Intelligence Strategies

You can also enhance your B2B lead generation campaigns with further audience intelligence strategies. 

For example, you could use your campaign's gated form to ask more questions, such as profiling questions, to get to know your audience better.

Or, you could use qualifying questions or BANT questions to understand more about your prospects' situation, such as their need for a solution like yours, their budget, and whether or not they're the decision-maker.

You can even use audience intelligence strategies to exclude people that don't fit your criteria, helping you generate more targeted and relevant leads.

B2B Lead Generation Idea #6 - Run Display Campaigns Alongside Your Lead Generation

B2B Display Advertising is a great way to keep your brand front of mind with your target audience. By combining your B2B lead generation campaigns with display advertising, you'll be able to capture the attention of your target audience across multiple channels. 

Displays ads combined with lead generation are a great way to create surround-sound messaging that helps you stand out against your competitors.

For example, our Headley Display campaigns work alongside any of our lead generation services to deliver a 360-approach to our clients' lead generation campaigns. 

B2B Lead Generation Idea #7 - Use the Buyer's Journey

The buyer's journey model can help you consider the best messaging and content for your B2B lead generation and lead nurturing campaigns.

How? Well, understanding where your potential prospects are on their path to becoming a customer will help you create content syndication and nurturing campaigns that resonate.

For more on this topic, explore our Buyer's Journey eBook, which looks at the different stages of the buyer's journey and what content is best to share at each stage. Plus, you'll discover the key questions to consider to help you select a piece that cuts through the noise and resonates with your target audience.

B2B Lead Generation Idea #8 - Create More Video Content

Get your subject experts and confident thought leaders in front of the camera and make some videos! Your videos no longer need to be polished or super-professional. People buy from people, so whether it's just one person talking to the camera about a hot industry topic or even a recording of a webinar, videos are great for lead generation. Plus, they're great for using in content syndication lead gen campaigns and sharing on social media.  

Don't worry if you don't have anyone willing to get in front of the camera – there are plenty of other lead generation ideas for B2B involving video. A recorded webinar or an instructional demo of a product are also examples of useful content. 

You could give a quick video a try on TikTok or Instagram Reels first -  which allows you to show a more playful side and can be filmed and edited relatively quickly. Lots of lead generation ideas for B2B marketers involve video. 

B2B Lead Generation Idea #9 - Use Employee Advocacy

If you've got someone senior in your business who's knowledgeable, personable, and comfortable in front of an audience, you'll find the lead generation opportunities stacking up like never before. 

Employee advocacy involves your colleagues - typically Sales, Marketing, and members of your Leadership team.

Try putting their name and photo as the byline on your marketing content, and help them build their social media profile through LinkedIn.  

Encourage them to add comments to industry stories and network with their peers, then catch them on video, get them to speak at industry events, or even host your own webinars.  

B2B Lead Generation Idea #10 - Make the Most of Trade Shows 

Trade shows are fantastic for lead generation. However, don't be a business that spends thousands on exhibiting but runs out of time to plan the stand's design or sends salespeople who won't make the most of it!

Give your Sales team training on how to engage visitors to turn them into leads, and put a unique gimmick on your stands - such as an interesting game or activity.

Plus, find out if there are any speaking opportunities for your resident thought leaders. For example, most trade shows have at least a couple of panel discussions you might be able to join, if not their own speaker session.  

B2B Lead Generation Idea #11 - Put A Free Tool On Your Website 

Adding a free tool to your website is another one of the best technology B2B lead generation strategies for you to try.

Why not use your own products to create a valuable tool for businesses that will keep them returning to your website?

For example, it could be something straightforward from your existing software package with an adjacent link to trial the entire product or get a live demo.

B2B Lead Generation Idea #12 - Social Media & Paid Search Advertising 

While LinkedIn is the B2B social media platform of choice, don't be too quick to write off the B2C platforms. With precise audience targeting, their ad options can be very effective for B2B lead generation campaigns.  

Some platforms, including Facebook, only really work well for businesses when you spend money: even if you've got a large following, Facebook might not prioritize your posts in your followers' feeds until you advertise. So it's worth trying.  

Google is, too. Even when you've honed your SEO to perfection, and you're the top organic result for your favored keyword, if all your competitors are above you in the search results because they're running paid adverts, you may lose leads. 

B2B Lead Generation Idea #13 - Use Live Chat

When done with your customer in mind, we love chatbots! Chatbots are easy for customers to use, reassuring to see, and can give your website a fun and friendly touch.  

If your website visitor were vaguely thinking about calling you for any reason, they'd be much more likely to use your live chat function – which gives you their details and turns them into a lead.  

You can set them up to appear on a specific part of your website, such as halfway down the homepage or on a landing page, allowing you to capture your lead at the most effective time.  

Chatbots are a fantastic way to turn website traffic into leads, and a great way to save time for your customer service team, too.  

B2B Lead Generation Idea #14 - Validate Your Leads 

Once your B2B leads have been generated, how do you know if they're high quality?

It's important to validate your leads to ensure the data you receive is accurate. Whether you generate your leads yourself or by working with a B2B lead generation specialist, you'll need to ensure the information you've got about each new prospect is up to date. Plus, you need to know your leads have directly consented to hear from you.

People's B2B contact details change regularly. A contact may move role or company or change their email address or contact number. And you don't want to wait until you send your first lead nurturing email to realize their email address is invalid or no longer exists.

By working with a trusted and transparent B2B lead gen specialist, you'll benefit from their expertise in data validation. Take a look at our Quality Lead Generation Checklist to find out what to look out for when working with an external lead gen supplier.

For example, at Headley Media, our reader journey takes each potential lead through a dual AI and manual validation process to authenticate each prospect's details before we deliver them to you.

For more B2B lead generation ideas, get your free copy of our ungated eBook.