The Best Lead Generations Platforms to consider in your MarTech stack:

The best lead generation platforms for you will depend on your specific business needs, budget, and target audience.

The best method of marketing B2B can vary depending on the industry, target audience and buying experience.

Lead Generation Platforms are critical Go-To-Market tools that marketing teams to effectively qualify and help sales convert to revenue.

Comparatively when marketing teams up with sales and collaborate on strategies to target and message, your sales velocity metrics will improve dramatically.

Here are some examples of tools and tactics that I’ve worked with and the pros and cons of those as I see them.

1. Marketing Automation Lead Generation Platforms

HubSpot: An all-in-one marketing, sales, and service platform that includes tools for lead generation, lead management, and analytics.

or

Marketo: helps with lead generation, lead nurturing, and analytics.

or

Pardot: helps with lead generation, lead nurturing, and analytics.

or

Eloqua: Sends marketing advertisements to mobile devices, email, video and search results pages.

2. CRM Platforms

Salesforce: A CRM platform that offers tools for lead management, sales force automation, and analytics.
or other CRM platforms like Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Oracles Netsuite, and Zoho.

Marketing & Sales Platforms

LinkedIn Sales Navigator: A powerful tool for prospecting and building relationships with key decision makers.

ZoomInfo: a tool that provides Business contact information and Company data for sales and marketing and is powered by Discovery.org

Clearbit: a tool that provides company and contact data for sales and marketing

Outreach: a sales engagement platform that automates email and phone campaigns, and tracks results.

Salesloft: it gives you the tools and reporting to drive higher inbound response and consistently execute your go-to-market message throughout the customer journey.

Leadfeeder: a tool that tracks company visit to a website and provides the data for sales and marketing

3. 3rd Party Paid Platforms

TechTarget Priority Engine: Priority Engine™ boosts sales and marketing success by providing direct access to real active buyers at in-market accounts.

Madison Logic: uses the world’s leading purchase intent data signals to help marketers accelerate the buyer’s journey and drive pipeline.

It’s important to have the right tools that support your buyers journey.

• What is the optimal experience look like for your prospective customers?
• Is it a free trial?
• Do they want to see pricing?
• Do they want to see a canned demo before they book their time for a custom demo?

Mapping out your sales funnels with the different objectives in mind can help as you research options to add or replace to your current mix.

Below is an example of some Lead Generation Platforms that is by no means exhaustive but the key tools that have proven to work in my experience are below.

Infographic of Lead Generation Platform Logo’s through in the different sales stages.

Top of Funnel [Cold Calling and Cold Lead Data Acquisition]

TechTarget Priority Engine:

Priority Engine + Content Syndication Lead Program is a proven third-party lead acquisition platform with top lead acquisition tools that provide account and buyer insights showing engaged signals are TechTarget’s priority engine with prospect downloads coupled with content syndication leads.

Pro: TechTarget own organic google search results in most categories, so buyers are getting to their site to educate themselves. If you aren’t a vendor playing in this space, your competitor is.
Also, if you need to build a database instead of paying for lists, this provides active buyers with quality data. It’s a great way to pay for leads that are interested in your topic and own that 1st party data which is key to building your prospect audience.

Con: This is a pay to play strategy, and it’s pricey and a competitive ecosystem. You to feed your content syndication with proven quality content assets, you need a lead nurture program set up to warm the cold leads and a sales team that is hunting and prospecting key accounts looking to do cold intro concurrently to marketing’s nurturing efforts.

Alternative: Madison Logic

ZoomInfo:

The paid version of ZoomInfo of this tool is helpful for both sales and marketing because it allows you to filter and short list ideal customer contact data with buying intent.

Pro: With the paid version, you can export the list to target against in your outreach campaign.

Con: But it’s just data with no buying intent, so it needs to be treated as a cold calling/cold email campaign or marketing outreach.

Alternative: 6sense Revenue AI

Paid/Organic Linkedin:

This platform is critical to build brand trust and value. It’s critical to influence buyers with valuable content, reinforcing your subject expertise. Superior Account Based, persona-based ad targeting to reach and educate your buyers where they are, get them to follow your company page and shower them with valuable information.

Pro: Connects you with your audience and provides you with a channel to showcase your expertise, helping with word-of-mouth marketing and growing your audience, readying them to buy or as influencers. Create matched audiences with other third parties, like G2 buyers visiting your page to re-target on Linkedin.

Con: You need Linkedin channel Brand Ambassadors that are experts and active on LinkedIn to authentically use this platform to connect and build relationships. It requires a solid content marketing strategy and resources to support the paid ads expensive and is competitive.

Alternative: Another paid social channel, possibly Reddit if you have a technical buyer and good video or third-party ABM platform like Demandbase Advertising

Middle of Funnel Tools [Reinforcing Trust and Need]

To convert MoFu leads, it’s important to leverage the right content here that’s deeper and more specific buyer so it’s a simple decision to just click to connect to talk to sales.

LinkedIn Retargeting or Demandbase Retargeting with a down funnel offer to book a demo or talk to an expert works well here or ungated content that’s not in your ToFu campaigns.

Intelligent Email tools like Outreach.io and Chilipiper offer superior ways to personalize, automate and engage through email and chat options really personalizing the experience.

Also some cool new Demo platforms like Walnut.io are really helping companies highlight their software.

I have seen exclusive website offers used well in chatbots like Drift or just website pop-ups like Sleeknote.

Bottom of Funnel Tools

Sales owns the conversion of these SQLs at this stage, working with the customer needs in order to pull in those deals.

Lets talk Lead Generation Platform Shop

If you have more questions on Lead Generation Platforms please reach out to connect with me, you can book sometime with me here.

Coach Kelly is a B2B SaaS Marketing Leader, Director of Demand Generation and Digital Marketing and a B2B Digital Coach, learn more about her background here.

Let us know what’s worked for you below in the comments, we’d love to learn from you.