Marketing strategies like email marketing, content marketing, and so on are the most important components when you talk about “marketing” but the main question arises who are you targeting with these strategies? If you don’t have an audience in mind before going about your marketing strategy then that’s the thing you should be doing immediately. Begin with planning the whole marketing strategy and in case you have one, take the first step of conquering your sales by defining your target audience. Dig deep into that target list and build your lead list.

Your potential lead list is probably one of the most essential assets of your entire marketing campaign. From earning permission and joining the opt-in list, to segmenting your audience all comes only after you build a B2B lead list. But how will you build this list? All said and done, here are some of the best techniques to build better lead lists and benefits of having these lead lists.

Benefits of having better lead lists

Since more companies are realizing the benefits of using digital marketing for increasing sales, there is now a growing demand for reliable lead lists. These lists can help companies to uplift their sales within a very short time and come up with results that even the costliest promotional campaigns cannot deliver. You are still confused? Here are some benefits of having a better lead list:

1. The lead lists are very useful for every business as it decreases the time required to track down the contact details of prospective clients.
2. Better data helps the marketing department to focus on the sales cycle times.
3. Accurate lead data can allow a company to uplift the efficiency of a marketing program for the best results. 
4. Lead lists help a company to promote the business to the maximum number of target customers in an efficient manner in a minimal time period. 

Best techniques to build better lead lists

• LinkedIn Sales Navigator
  With almost 600 million users, LinkedIn has evolved as one of the most valuable professional platforms to connect. Though you could use this platform for networking and social selling, LinkedIn helps you create your lead list. It provides you with an opportunity to use smart tools that allow you to shrink your search with filters that determine your target market and perfect customer persona. You can further segment this list and prioritize the qualified leads based on your business goals, leading to a higher number of conversions. If you want to use this platform to your utmost advantage, here are the tips you need to keep in mind:

1. Save leads and prospect user accounts
   Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator to save the contacts you recognize or build relations with potential businesses in your pipeline. It will then custom-tailor your news feed to show these leads, making it easier and smoother for you to observe the accounts for upgrades that might affect the sales cycle.
2. Set smart triggers
   Saving the leads will help you stock the accounts, but to ensure that you don’t miss an essential update, set up some triggers. This will help you follow up on a lead or do the required changes to your pipeline on time. For instance, one of the leads from your list joins a new role at a new company. So, you’ll need to recondition your contact list you were prospecting in the first place.
3. Narrow down the search
   With millions of users on LinkedIn, managing a search on general demographics of your target market will only result in an enormous number of accounts to prospect into. Thus, you should make use of the Sales Navigator filters to taper down your search and find more targeted leads. For instance, you’re trying to reach out to the sales head of a company that has a team of at least 200 people and is based in the UK. Putting in this data along with other filters can help you reach the right prospect account in no time. Pro tip – Always save the custom search you made for one segment of your target audience.
4. Save time with Sales Spotlight
   The top bar of your search results page is the Sales Spotlight. It condenses the number of accounts found by filters added by you. The catch here is that clicking on these spotlight summaries narrows down their search. This will save your time and efforts. Scanning through the different lead and prospect accounts, you can create notes and add tags to the accounts, so you remember everything you want.
5. Re-engage old leads with bluebird search
   A bluebird search refers to leads that were earlier your company’s clients, but have now moved to new designations. Using the ‘past not current’ filter, you can look for these accounts by just typing in the company’s name they were at before. This helps to contact and re-associate with those previous account holders who might be inclined to remit you in their current company roles.
6. View similar leads
   Once you find a perfect potential user, use the ‘view similar’ feature. This tool will automatically colonize your search results with users of similar backgrounds, titles, and other filters, at different companies. This helps you grow your search while building your lead lists.
7. Identify warm leads with TeamLink
   Today sales are all about building relationships. The first step towards building relationships is warm introductions. The TeamLink feature helps you find accounts that you have a second-degree connection with. Instead of trying to reach out directly to prospects, you could prefer this common connection to start an introduction.
8. Send contextual InMail
   Once you have a list of leads you want to contact, begin the chat by dropping them an InMail, LinkedIn’s email or direct message feature. This will help you to get the prospect’s attention instantly. You should begin by reviewing the profile of the lead and generating some interaction between you two. For instance, you can like their recent updates so you’ll have something to refer to in your message.
9. Optimize your profile
   While Sales Navigator does all the groundwork for you, the actual conversion of lead is all on you. Thus, consistently optimizing your profile will enhance your efficiency and effectiveness of your efforts in building a prospecting list. Remember to integrate the LinkedIn Sales Navigator with your CRM to keep your pipeline up-to-date.

• Use social media to build a lead list
  In addition to sharing your content on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms, you can build your potential list from your connections and their network on these platforms. Begin by spying on your competitors’, followers, and by joining social groups that they’re also part of. Use this data to either contact users who have shown delight in what your competitors offer, or engage with them using social selling. Social Selling is referred to as adding value before pitching your product. In a nutshell, communicating to offer value is most essential before trying to focus an actual sale. You can also run ads on these platforms to reach your target audience.
• Leverage smart tools to build a lead list
  Just like how you encourage your marketing with smart automation tools, you can take these tools on your stride to build and strengthen your lead list as well. With these softwares, you can identify leads based on various parameters like their roles, industries, company size, and so on. The best part about such tools and software is that they merge effortlessly with your existing CRM, meaning you don’t have to think about manually managing your lead list and keeping it up-to-date. The best idea is to have a team of potential experts who can evaluate the leads or generate qualified leads for you. Once qualified, these experts will help you set up the next steps with your leads while they’re warm, driving a higher number of conversions. 
• Start networking
  Prospecting is all about networking and building connections. Once you know who the decision-maker is, it’s time to contact them. You can try connecting with the decision-maker via LinkedIn or any other social media platform for that matter.

Apart from social media platforms, think of other ways you might be able to start a conversation with your leads. Research about the important points you would touch upon so that the leads turn into your permanent clients.

• Use an email marketing tool
  The market is overburdened with multiple email marketing tools to make your prospect building experience comfortable, smooth, and easy. These email marketing tools collect all the information regarding your potential leads and allow you to transfer the prospect list to many other database platforms. Most of the email marketing tools allow sending multiple email campaigns at one time.
• Leverage smart tools to build a lead list
  You can build and strengthen your lead list, the same way you encourage your marketing with smart automation tools. With certain software, you can identify leads based on various parameters. For instance, you could identify by their roles, industries, and so on. The best part about such tools and software is that they merge effortlessly with your existing CRM, meaning you don’t have to think about manually managing your lead list up-to-date keep your lead list up-to-date.
• Build an ideal customer profile
  Ideal customer’s profile helps you to target only potential leads that are the best match for your company and the leads that are most likely to convert into customers. Once you create an Ideal Customer Profile, you can nullify the possibility of wasting your efforts and time running after the unfruitful leads and prospects. Here are some essential aspects that are needed 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
• The age group of your prospects
• The gender that you are targeting
• Challenges faced by the prospective
• Goals your prospects have

Now you can begin with building your ideal customer profile, keeping all these aspects in mind. 

• Seek help from lead researchers
  Defining your target market is not an easy job. It requires a lot of time and effort. Updating it based on market changes, finding potential accounts that match your personas, and converting prospects into leads is a struggle in itself. That’s why seeking out help from experts is not a bad option. You can seek help with qualified lead research from companies like FunnL. FunnL today is the fastest-growing company and has generated more than 10,000 leads for about 100 companies. As your reliable expert team, FunnL should be able to visualize your product in the hands of the same accounts as you do, or else you’ll fail and end up losing your valuable time and money and building a non-converting list.

Better ‘Lead lists’ will help you extract the maximum from all your other marketing efforts. Building a lead list is an ongoing process. You need to constantly update your list, and make sure these are qualified leads. Furthermore, this acts as a first step towards organizing a sales qualified meeting. Once you have a lead list with a higher number of qualified leads, you can use them to engage and build relationships with potential clients and gather important data to boost your marketing campaigns intended for lead generation. If you are still thinking where to begin with, start from building your own lead lists.