Outbound sales in most B2B companies often focus on volume. Out of the thousands of ICP leads that you may have, only a tiny fraction converts into customers. This means that a lot of time and effort is spent in going after leads that may not match your ideal customer profile (ICP) or may be ICP leads who are not ready to buy now.
To avoid unnecessarily going after these leads, and to optimize your outbound sales efforts, it is essential to have a list of targeted leads that your sales development representatives (SDRs) can prioritize and reach out to. Targeted lead generation involves breaking down the broader market into smaller segments that are more relevant to your business and running your demand generation campaigns for these high-value leads.
What are targeted leads?
Targeted leads are those leads that exactly match your ICP, are more likely to become your customers in the immediate or near future, have the intent to buy your product or one similar to yours. Targeted leads are usually a very small section of the entire lead list which could include leads that don’t match your ICP, leads that are your ICP but are not interested in buying now, or leads that have no intent to buy a tool like yours at all.
Targeted lead generation is the process of refining your B2B lead generation process to identify leads that are more likely to convert, and building a lead list with high-potential leads that you can spearfish.
It is important to generate targeted leads because it ensures that sales teams can:
- Spearfish leads that have high potential to convert
- Reduce deal cycles by going after leads that have intent to buy
- Improve conversion rates by targeting high-value ICP leads
- Lower risks of churn by working with relevant leads
- Ensure you don’t lose precious leads to competitors.
Tips for effective targeted lead generation
Running large-scale demand generation programs and marketing campaigns can bring in a high volume of leads in quick time. You might tick the check boxes of generating leads and compiling lead leads, but they serve no purpose and not all of them would be relevant to your business.
To ensure that you get the maximum ROI from your B2B lead generation efforts, here are a few things you can do:
Clearly define your ideal customer profile (ICP)
The first step to generating targeted leads is being absolutely clear on what a targeted lead looks like. This starts with defining your ICP and buyer personas. While it might be tempting to use broad filters to narrow your target market, generating truly targeted leads requires precise segmentation of your Total Addressable Market (TAM) and focusing on your ICP.
Here’s an easy-to-follow guide on defining your ICP.
Once your ICP is defined, all your efforts can be focused on reaching this group of leads.
Segment leads based on signals such as demographics, social insight
Once the ICP has been defined, the leads can further be categorized and segmented based on different signals and data.
This helps you create an even more targeted list and streamlines your outreach process.
For example, Highperformr enables you to group leads by signals such as demographics, location, or job title. Segmentation is at the heart of Highperformr, making it easy to find leads, create targeted segments, enrich them with additional signals, and prioritize outreach based on insights.
Use data to inform your lead generation approach
Generating targeted leads requires a deeper understanding of your prospects to ensure they match your ICP. This requires you to have a lot more data about the lead than just their name and contact information. You need to enrich your leads with signals such as social intent, firmographic data, and social insights. Whether you’re using AI lead generation or traditional methods, your strategy should be built on data and signals, so as to ensure that your CRM is filled with leads that have a higher chance of converting.
Personalize communication
Personalization is critical for any outbound lead generation effort. Generic, bulk emails or messages won’t deliver results. To attract high-value leads, you need to tailor your communication to their specific needs and interests.
All your marketing campaigns, such as email marketing, ads, or other campaigns, should be as personalized as possible to capture your audience’s attention and generate relevant leads.
Tap multiple channels for outreach
Once you segment and narrow down your target audience segments, it is important to double down on the segments to generate as many targeted leads as possible. Ensure that your B2B lead generation strategy includes multiple outreach channels such as social media, paid marketing campaigns, organic leadgen programs, inbound marketing, compiling leads from third-party sources, AI lead generation programs, etc. to ensure that you target leads across all touch points.
Use social media for leadgen and social prospecting
Social media remains an underrated and underutilized lead generation channel. By focusing on leadgen, you can build an account book with highly targeted leads. Using Highperformr, you can identify and analyze your social media audience, use social signals to better understand your target audience, and find high-value ICP leads who’ve shown intent by engaging with you or your competitors.
By tapping into social media for lead generation and prospecting, you’ll uncover high-potential leads that might otherwise be missed.
8 strategies for finding targeted leads
Use LinkedIn to connect with decision-makers - Social media, unlike websites, allow you to identify your audience and share content targeting your ICP. By posting consistently on social media, you’ll be able to cultivate an audience of relevant contacts, identify your targeted leads from this audience, and nurture relationships with them.
Enrich lead data for better insights - Most B2B businesses restrict their enrichment to email ids and phone numbers, but building a list of targeted leads requires you to go deeper. You need to enrich leads with social signals, intent data, and other insight that help you filter and prioritize your leads better.
Segment leads into niche groups - The spray-and-pray approach many outbound sales teams take isn’t efficient. Spearfishing leads with precision ensures more effective outreach and higher conversion rates. Segmenting your leads into niche groups allows you to personalize your outreach, tailor pitches or demos, and increase response rates. Highperformr makes it simple to generate targeted leads, segment and group them, enrich leads with social signals and insights, and use this data for precision outreach.
Participate actively in online communities - Lead generation is no longer something restricted to third-party database anymore and isn’t something that only the demand generation team manages. Thanks to social media and employee advocacy, every employee in an organization can bring leads to the table. For example, employees can use Highperformr’s social media AI Agent to easily create and publish posts on social media, cultivate their own audience, and generate leads from their social audience. This is not just on LinkedIn but across social platforms, online communities, and groups such as Slack communities or WhatsApp groups/communities.
Optimize the timing of leadgen campaigns - B2B lead generation can be quite time-sensitive especially if you want targeted leads that are more likely to convert. Use social signals, intent data, engagement data, and insights from tools like Highperformr to identify targeted leads that are in the buying process and are more likely to respond to a pitch. For example, you can track job changes on Highperformr, and identify leads that have just taken up a new role and are keen on buying a new tool to improve their productivity.
Build a referral program to generate warm leads - Referrals are one of the best ways to find targeted leads because they often come with trust built in. Nurture relationships with customers, partners, and employees so you can have them refer others like them who might find value in a product like yours. This way, you can ensure that your new leads come from within the niche you have created and other ICP personas you have worked with.
Run targeted PPC ads for lead generation - Paid ads are an effective way to find targeted leads. You can craft and promote ads to focus on specific audiences that align with your ICP, and run campaigns with messaging that reflects their needs and resonates with them.
Use cold calling to directly engage leads - Cold calling is still one of the most direct ways to reach targeted leads when done thoughtfully. Combine it with insights from enriched lead data to personalize your pitch and address their pain points effectively. A well-timed, relevant call can often make all the difference in converting high-potential leads.
What are the benefits of targeted lead generation?
Increased conversion rates - Targeted leads are those that have already shown intent and are often further along in the buying process, so it is easier to close deals from targeted leads.
Higher return on investment (ROI) - Building a targeted lead list with leads more likely to convert ensures that you can close more deals in a shorter period of time, leading to fewer spends on resources and consequently higher ROI.
Reduced marketing costs - By focusing on a more relevant, niche segment, you can make sure your marketing efforts are also more precise, and cut any unnecessary costs involved in reaching out to leads who aren’t part of your target audience. White label marketing services can significantly enhance your service offerings without the need to build in-house capabilities.
Better customer relationships - When you generate targeted leads, you gain a deeper understanding of each contact. This helps build richer, more meaningful customer relationships as you can address their specific needs more effectively.
More effective use of resources - Targeted lead generation streamlines your process by eliminating unnecessary or low-impact activities upfront, and as a result, you use your resources more efficiently, focusing only on high-potential leads.
What are the challenges of generating targeted leads?
Targeted leads are super useful for businesses as they help improve efficiency and enable sales teams to close deals faster. We’ve also looked at some tactics that assist with targeted led generation. But building a list with highly-targeted leads comes with its set of challenges and hurdles. Here are a few you need to be aware of before investing in targeted lead generation programs:
Identifying the right target audience - One of the biggest challenges is identifying the exact audience that you want to target. Since targeted lead generation involves focusing efforts on a small segment rather than spreading efforts across a larger base, it is critical to be doubly sure about the segment you want to target. This is where defining your ICP clearly will help.
Maintaining accurate and up-to-date data - Working on targeted leads requires a well-enriched, up-to-date CRM that provides you with a host of signals and insights about leads. Outdated or incomplete information can lead to wasted outreach and missed opportunities.
High costs of acquisition - Targeted leads are more likely to convert and are more efficient, but acquiring them comes at a cost. The research, tools, and resources required to identify and engage these leads are not as affordable as other traditional lead generation techniques. However, tools like Highperformr enables you to find, segment, and enrich leads with multiple signals, offering you better ROI than other forms of lead generation.
Complexity of effective segmentation - Targeted lead generation involves carefully breaking your leads into smaller, niche groups, and this demands time and effort. Poor segmentation can lead to irrelevant outreach, reducing the chances of conversion.
Find targeted leads with Highperformr
Highperformr has been created on the premise that spearfishing is the right way to approach outbound sales , and that the spray-and-pray approach is no longer efficient. Segments form the core of Highperformr, and the product has been designed to make it easy and efficient to find and identify targeted leads, segment them and group them based on signals, enrich leads with social signals and insight to prioritize outreach, and nurture leads better to drive higher conversion rates. To learn more about how to use Highperformr to find and engage with targeted leads, schedule a demo with our AI lead generation expert today!
