Sales Lead Generation

6 Ways to Easily Build Your Own B2B Prospect List

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Everyone talks a lot about content marketing strategy, email marketing mistakes, and so on. But the thing is – who are you targeting with all these strategies? Being able to build a b2b prospect list that will help you market your solution and close more sales is key.

You surely must have an audience in mind before you go about your multiple marketing strategies, right? If that’s not the case then you need to rethink your whole strategy roadmap immediately because you are doing it all wrong.

Here’s the deal: Your prospect list is probably one of the most important asset of your whole marketing campaign. From earning permission to joining the opt-in list, to segmenting your audience – all these are just a few reasons to build a B2B prospect list.

But here’s the catch – building your own B2B prospect list is hard. That said, with a few awesome tips, you will be well on your way to easy build a B2B prospect list.

1. Use LinkedIn to Build a Highly Targeted Prospect List

Before we discuss how to build a highly targeted B2B prospect list from LinkedIn, let’s see why LinkedIn should be our first choice.

According to this survey result, it was revealed that top sellers used LinkedIn 3X more than everyone else for building a highly targeted prospect list.

LinkedIn can help you to build a B2B prospect list very easily. Use this step by process to build a B2B prospect list that is highly targeted using LinkedIn:

Searching for prospects with filters – First and foremost, you want to search for your targeted audience by clicking on “Filter people by” option. Here, you will get plenty of filters to narrow down your search. For example, you can filter using the region of your audience, or their industry, the company they work for, and much more.

Ask for an introduction – There are two ways to move ahead. The first option could be to send a personal message to your prospect but for that, you would require a “premium” account on LinkedIn. There is another option – if your prospect is a 1st connection then you can ask your common contact to introduce you and equip them a bit about your work and the brand.

Members of the same group? Don’t hesitate to send a direct message if you and your prospect are members of the same group. You can even discern their interest, problems and requirements based on group activities. Even if you are not part of the same group, why not consider joining the same group as your prospect. It will also allow you to send a free direct message on LinkedIn.

2. Use An Email Marketing Tool

The market is inundated with multiple email marketing tools to make your prospect building experience super easy. These email marketing tools gather all the information regarding your prospects including their contact information. These email marketing tools even allow you to transfer the prospect list to various other database platforms.

Furthermore, most of the email marketing tools allow users to send out multiple emails at once. This makes the whole prospecting experience very easy and smooth.

3. Build An Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

Ideal customer helps you to target only prospects that are best suited to your company and the prospects that are most likely to turn into paying customers.

Once you create an Ideal Customer Profile, you can negate the chances of wasting your efforts and time chasing the unproductive leads and prospects.

Have a look at the important aspects that are required to create an ideal customer profile:

• The company’s size and the region.
• Whom should you approach in the company?
• Your prospect’s background
• Prospect’s previous payment routine
• Age group of your prospects
• Gender that you are targeting
• Challenges faced by the prospect
• Goals your prospects have

Now you can start building your ideal customer profile, keeping all these things in mind. Once you are done with your ICP, you can start prospecting based on your narrowed down list.

4. Start Networking

Prospecting is all about networking and building connections. You have made the ideal customer profile but who are you going to contact?

Now that you know who the decision maker is, it’s time to reach out to them. In our first point of discussion, we talked about LinkedIn and how it can be used for prospecting. Similarly, you can try connecting with the decision maker via LinkedIn or any other social media platform for that matter.

Apart from the medium – think of the ways you might be able to start a conversation with your leads. What are the important points you would touch upon so that the leads turn into permanent prospects. Now based on the response of each lead you can segment your prospect list even further.

For example, if you are receiving a cold response from one of your lead, the best thing to do is to cross out the lead from your prospect list. On the other hand, if someone is giving you an agreeable response, then you can include the lead in your prospect list to further compel them to turn into a paying, permanent customer.

5. Do Your Final Research

After all the final preparations and knowing your targeted prospect list, you can finally analyze the list and narrow it down a bit more. You might want to know everything you can about your prospects that you included in the prospect list. For example, it might turn out that you have added someone who is not as suitable as you had thought at first. In this case, you can cross out that name and save your time and efforts. You can start monitoring your prospects through social media platforms or using LinkedIn navigator.

So let out your inner spy and do the last minute trimmings of your prospect list based on your final research. The data and information you gather will be vital for segmenting your prospect list and turning your prospects into your permanent, paying customers.

Building your prospect list is extremely vital. Researching and going out of your way to connect with your target audience should never be an afterthought. You need detailed data and information on your prospects to actually come to a conclusion whether they are worth the time and effort.

Moreover, create a consistent strategy and schedule to decide which way to go when it comes to how to build a B2B prospect list. Once you are done building your list, you must further spend the time to connect with your target prospects and getting an edge over your competition.

6. Get Outside Help

List building involves a lot of self-analyzation, research, and thought. Doing this alone can be overwhelming.

Responsify helps B2B marketing and sales professionals build the quality lists they need.

Want to discuss strategies to build a B2B prospect list? You can schedule a free 1-on-1 list building strategy with one of our specialists here. We’re here to help!