Lead Generation for Technology Companies — Strategies and Tactics

That's good news for technology companies looking to grow, but it also means a lot of competition. 

So how do you stand out? 

You could take a page from Mint Mobile and create goofy ads on social media 

Or spend upwards of $5 million on a Super Bowl ad. 

Or, you could focus on tried and true methods for finding potential customers by focusing on lead generation.  

How does lead generation for technology companies work?

For technology companies, lead generation is about more than just throwing a net to catch as many potential customers as possible. 

Rather, you want to focus on finding quality leads with a high lifetime value. That means educating your audience about your offer, how it can benefit them, and why your solution is the best choice. 

Depending on your sector, that might mean: 

• Publishing informative content 

• Sharing demos and training on Youtube 

• Speaking at in-person events 

Technology also changes fast, which means your lead generation strategy must be able to adapt when new tech is released, or customer needs change. 

11 steps to set up a lead generation strategy for your tech company 

There are an estimated 1.35 million technology startups worldwide. This means your technology company is one in a million—and not in a good way. 

All that competition means getting lead generation right is crucial to long-term growth. Targeting the right leads also prevents wasting resources (like ad spend) on leads that won't covert. 

So, how do you build a B2B lead generation strategy? 

1. Outline your goals for lead generation 

Before you create a landing page, launch an ad, or start writing that ebook, it's important to get clear on your goals for lead generation. 

These goals should align with your overall business objectives. You'll also want to make sure sales and marketing are in alignment about what makes a good lead. 

Use SMART goals so you can measure the impact over time. 

For example, do you want to generate more leads? Leads for a specific product? How qualified do leads need to be? 

The more specific your goals are, the easier it will be to create a lead generation strategy. 

2. Adapt your lead generation efforts to your target audience

Not all lead generation strategies work for all audiences. For example, a B2B SaaS company will use a different approach than a B2C tech company. 

Before creating your lead gen strategy, ask questions like who are my customers? What do they want? What pain points do they have? 

You may have several buyer personas if you offer multiple products, so adjust your strategy by persona.  

3. Leverage intent data 

Intent data refers to actions users take (either on your website or on the internet) that indicate they're ready to buy. It's a signal users send out that says, "I'm ready to spend money!" 

The actual actions vary by audience and industry. 

For example, if someone searches for a "lead generation tool" on G2 (a software review site), there's a good chance they're looking to buy something like what we offer here at Leadfeeder. 

Those leads are much more valuable than someone who just visits our website. Maybe they thought our last tweet was funny or looking for a job. 

Find intent data on your website to understand which leads are most valuable to your organization. 

4. Use videos to explain complex topics 

How complicated is your technology? 

Whether you sell software to enterprise sales teams or ed-tech to homeschooling families, there's a good chance your audience doesn't fully understand what your product or service does or the benefits it offers. 

(If they did, they'd have converted already!) 

Video makes it easier to show how your technology works and explains complex topics.  

We use this strategy at Leadfeeder to show users how to use our tool and answer frequently asked questions: 

There's another (even better) reason to use videos—if the topics you cover are detailed, more qualified leads are the ones most likely to watch them. 

You can then track video views and reach out to those companies or retarget them on other platforms. 

5. Don't rely on just gated content 

Content gating is one of the most common lead generation strategies for technology companies. 

You create a content marketing strategy, build out your content, create a landing page, then ask leads for contact information in exchange for downloading your ebook, white paper, or template. 

Once you have their email address, you use email marketing to turn them into potential buyers. 

Gated content can be valuable, but it's not the only way to generate leads from content. 

Creating valuable ungated content in addition to gated content establishes your company as a thought leader and builds trust —a valuable step in the conversion process. 

It also improves SEO optimization by helping your site rank for important keywords in your industry. 

(Plus, B2B companies can use Leafeeder to track page views—even companies that visit your website but don't fill out a form. 😉)

6. Ask current customers for reviews 

Social proof is powerful. One study found that 88 percent of consumers trust user reviews just as much as personal recommendations.

While this might not sound like a lead generation strategy, it definitely can be.

Reviews from current customers build trust and increase inbound traffic to your website—and they can be the final push to turn an interested visitor into a potential customer. 

Create an automated email campaign asking for a review a week after conversion. This is when brand sentiment is likely to be high, which increases the chance of getting a positive review.

PS: Don't forget to ask your current customers for referrals. If they trust you, they'll be more than happy to tell you about other companies that could use your service or product.  

7. Offer free trials or freemium products

Offering free trials or freemium plans is an ideal lead generation strategy for SaaS companies for several reasons. 

First, you can reach more potential customers by overcoming obstacles to signing up. If it's free, there's no reason not to try it! 

It can also help you get genuine feedback about your software so you can make improvements. 

At Leadfeeder, we offer both a free trial of our full software and a freemium version that offers three days of data. This lets potential customers see what we can do before they spend money. 

8. Host webinars and virtual product demos

Webinars are an easy way to gather and qualify new leads. Sharing industry information helps build trust in your organization, and demos can help move already qualified leads through the sales funnel. 

They can also be pretty quick to organize. All you need is a landing page, camera, microphone, and someone on your team willing to walk through your software. 

Alternatively, take a blog post that ranks well in the search engines and use the content as talking points in the webinar. 

There's another reason webinars and demos are ideal for lead generation campaigns—if the information is valuable, you can add more form fields, which make it easier to get highly-qualified leads. 

9. Build interactive landing pages

Plain text and image landing pages are so 2010. 

Today, landing pages can include videos, interactive charts, graphs, and even appointment setting features. 

So, instead of sending leads to a boring landing page, use interactive elements to gather leads, set appointments, or just entertain. 

Netflix used this lead generation tactic by adding a television to their landing page that actually plays part of their new show Stranger Things: 

Including videos, interactive pricing models, and moving infographics can also help turn potential leads into potential customers. 

10. Collaborate with industry influencers 

Collaborating with industry influencers is a great way to grab the attention of your ideal customers. 

But you don't have to drop 10 million to have Drake talk about your software company. 

Instead, look for industry-specific influencers that your ideal customers trust. For example, a B2B SaaS company might work with a leading tech entrepreneur or philanthropist. 

An outbound sales company might partner with a popular sales leader, like the classic Zig Ziglar. 

Adjust your collaboration strategy to attract your ideal leads. That might mean hosting a webinar, asking them to interview on your podcast, or creating a collaborative piece of content. 

11. Use chatbots to answer questions and qualify leads 

This is one of the most resource and cost-effective B2B lead generation tactics because it's all automation. 

Customers want their questions answered immediately, but you have to sleep sometime! Adding a well-trained chatbot to your website makes it easy to answer questions and even qualify leads any time of the day or night. 

Your chatbot can share resources and answer frequently asked questions. 

Or, you can ask leads questions about their industry, needs, and pain points, then pass that information on to your salespeople who can reach out. 

It's useful for companies—and great for users, too. 

Hubspot uses this strategy by adding an unobtrusive chatbot to their website: 

Visitors can chat with an expert, start using their free tools, or take training—all at the click of a button. 

What is the best way for software companies to get leads? 

At this point, we've mostly covered strategies you can leverage to get more quality leads for your technology company. 

But what tools can you use? Here are six lead generation tools you can leverage to find high-quality leads. 

Linkedin outreach

Tired of cold calling? Try social selling instead. 

While cold calling is still a valid sales strategy, reaching out on LinkedIn can help generate high-quality leads for B2B tech companies. 

But, you have to get it right. 

Start by building out your profile and connecting with people in your industry. 

Take the time to build a relationship rather than pitching immediately. 

Instead, position yourself as a solid resource for your ideal customer and then reach out when the time is right. 

Don't bombard them with direct messages; ensure outreach is personalized to their needs.  

PPC campaigns 

Most B2B companies rely on content marketing and SEO to generate leads. But a great lead generation strategy should include paid outreach as well. 

Here's why: When you pay to reach your audience,  you can select exactly who you want to reach. Want to reach 45-year-old men in Denver with a master's degree in finance? You can do that. 

PPC campaigns (think Google Ads or Microsoft Ads) have a high ROI and can work much faster. In the ever-changing world of technology, reaching leads fast is a top priority. 

Another benefit of using paid campaigns is you can switch them on and off as needed. You may get tons of organic leads during the winter, so you turn your ads off and save ad budget for the slower summer months. 

Linkedin ads

LinkedIn ads allow you to get your company in front of your ideal customers fast by paying to show your content in their feeds. 

LinkedIn targeting makes it easy to reach the most qualified leads—and you can use lead generation ads specifically, which ask for contact information in the ad themselves. 

Pro tip: Leadfeeder customers can upload a list of site visits to LinkedIn and retarget leads that visit your website.

Lead gen companies

Lead generation companies are another option, especially for companies with limited internal resources. 

Rather than stretching your team thin, a lead generation service can do the heavy lifting for you. 

However, hiring a lead generation company can be costly, and it may take a while before they truly understand what high-quality leads look like for your organization. 

They may help shorten your sales cycle, which can be extremely valuable in B2B lead generation. 

Facebook ads

If you're in B2B, Facebook ads might not feel like an obvious place to find leads. But, like LinkedIn, they offer lead generation ads with built-in forms.

You can add custom questions, add a click-to-call option, or even use dynamic ads to adjust ad copy by the user. 

Facebook's lead gen ads also come pre-populated, so users just click send to sign up. 

Finally, Facebook has incredibly detailed targeting options which allow you to target precise profiles. 

For example, you can target someone who lives in a particular city, works at a specific company, or even likes certain television shows. 

And, like LinkedIn, you can upload lists to retarget leads who have already engaged with your brand on other platforms. 

Leadfeeder

Oh hey, that's us. 👋

There are plenty of ways to generate leads, but many technology companies aren't familiar with lead generation tools like Leadfeeder to identify when a company visits their website.

Here's how it works:

You install a small piece of code on your site. We track companies that come to your website based on their IP data. (This is public information, so no worries about privacy issues.)

We can also see what pages they visit, if they fill out a form or watch a video. Heck, we can tell you how long they visit a specific page and how many different people from that company come to your site.

Then, we enrich each company profile with information like their size, industry, and even the best contact at that company.

Using our custom feed filter, you'll be able to see when leads matching your ideal customer profile hit your website.

You can hand this detailed buyer intent data over to your sales team so they can personalize outreach or help your marketing team target their marketing campaigns.

Get started with lead generation for tech companies

Lead generation efforts take time to impact your bottom line. Test a few of the strategies above and measure your results. 

Are you generating more leads? More importantly, are they the high-quality leads you need to increase sales? If not, try adjusting your strategy or testing lead generation tools like Leadfeeder.

If lead generation campaigns aren't delivering, it might be time to try demand generation, which focuses on increasing demand for your product or service.