Tech Lead Generation: The Top Ranking Channels Based on Recent Data

Choosing the right marketing channels is essential for today’s tech companies. This ensures you’re laser-focusing your efforts on reaching prospects in the right places which, in turn, helps drive a steady stream of qualified leads to your sales funnel. 

While using the appropriate channels can vary depending on whether you’re a B2B or B2C along with other factors, there are several industry-specific channels that tech companies can benefit from across the board. In this post, we’ll highlight the top-ranking channels for tech lead generation, citing recent data for further insights. 

Email Automation

Email marketing is, admittedly, one of the more old-fashioned forms of lead generation. That said, it can still have massive results when executed correctly, and 80% of tech marketers have noticed an increase in email engagement recently. One particular email marketing tactic we’ve had great success with is email automation which involves sending time or action triggered emails to subscribers with personalized, relevant information. 

Say, for example, a prospect downloads HubSpot’s Social Media Content Calendar Template. 

Although HubSpot offers a wide range of software, covering everything from sales and marketing to CMS and operations, this action would signify that the prospect is specifically interested in social media marketing. In turn, it would trigger a series of automated emails that target social media marketing which could include other templates or tools, free trials for their social media marketing software, or customer testimonials.

Email automation is effective for two main reasons. First, it gives you valuable insights into leads including who they are, what they want, and what their pain points are. As a result, this allows you to send out hyper-personalized emails where your approach is fully calculated which helps increase the open rate, click-through rate, and ultimately conversions. Second, it saves you time by automating much of the process. Rather than manually sending out emails and meticulously moving through workflows, actions are performed automatically at the exact right time.  

And the impact can be significant. Studies have found “triggered emails have a 70.5% higher open rate and 152% higher click-through rate than generic email newsletters.” Further, this results in a “451% increase in qualified leads, “ and these “nurtured leads, in turn, make purchases 47% larger than non-nurtured leads.” And in terms of productivity, email automation tools improve it by roughly 20%. 

When you combine the effectiveness of email automation for lead nurturing and boosting sales along with its ability to raise productivity, you can see how it can be a game-changer for tech lead generation. 

Relevant Content Offers

Traditional outbound marketing (which relies on interruptions to grab the attention of leads) has become increasingly less effective in recent years. Many prospects have learned to ignore overt marketing attempts and simply tune them out. Inbound marketing, however, which revolves around the idea that “people love to buy but hate to be sold to” focuses around drawing leads in by offering them valuable resources and information. 

And inbound marketing has proven to be a highly effective channel for reaching tech leads. Providing relevant content offers geared around their unique interests and taking an “educate, don’t sell” approach is an excellent way to build rapport, turning visitors into leads and leads into customers.

According to recent data:

• 82% of tech companies used content marketing in 2021
• 70% actively invest in it
• 24% plan on increasing their investment in it in the future
• Nearly 40% say it’s an integral part of their overall marketing strategy

While the specific forms of content that work best can vary from company to company and campaign to campaign, here are some consistently high performers based on engagement, the number of links they generate, and overall conversion rate. 

• Authority content
• Research reports
• How-to content
• Case studies
• Videos
• Ebooks
• Trending content
• Blogs

Note that tech marketers that have the most success also create content for leads at different stages of the buyer’s journey. At 3.7 Designs, for instance, we target leads at three key stages — awareness, consideration, and decision. 

And that’s important considering 80% of first-time visitors aren’t ready to have a sales discussion or buy. But capturing leads at different stages like this allows you to nurture them and gently nudge them toward a sale. 

SEO

Next, there’s SEO, a tech lead generation channel that 69% of companies invested in throughout 2021. SEO is a wide umbrella that consists of numerous components including:

• Keyword research
• Selecting keywords and content based on user intent
• On-page optimization
• Mobile optimization
• Technical SEO
• Internal and external linking
• Analytics 

While every tech company’s SEO campaign will look different, the results are usually impressive when done correctly. Nearly half (49%) of experts agree that organic search has the best ROI of any marketing channel. And given the number of searches performed on Google increased from 63,000 per second in 2016 to 81,000 per second in 2020, it’s clear that SEO is ideal for reaching a massive volume of leads and will only continue to grow in the future. 

The main problem tech companies run into is building their campaign to account for wide-ranging components (Google currently analyzes over 200 factors in their algorithm when ranking sites) and continually making adjustments as new trends unfold. 

But by developing a comprehensive strategy, and in many cases, partnering with an SEO expert, most brands have success with this channel and can consistently generate high-quality leads. 

Paid Ads

Finally, paid ads such as Google Ads, LinkedIn Ads, Facebook Ads, and Instagram Ads can serve tech companies well and are perfect for getting the ball rolling. “33% of marketers use paid advertising to increase their brand awareness,” and “68% stated that it’s ‘very important’ or ‘extremely important’ to their overall marketing strategy.”

One of the key benefits of this channel is the fast results. When you advertise your brand on a network like Google or LinkedIn, for example, your ads will immediately be displayed. Rather than building a campaign from the ground up (as required on other channels), you can start generating qualified leads almost instantly. 

Another advantage is that you gain access to a vast network of potential customers. Facebook currently has around 2.89 billion active monthly users and Google has over one billion. By displaying ads on them, you can tap into their user base without a lot of heavy lifting on your end. 

Besides that, there’s a solid ROI. While this can vary substantially and won’t usually be as high initially as it is later on as more data is accumulated, paid ads bring in a 200% ROI on average. So for every $1 you spend, you can expect to earn $2 in sales. 

How a Professional Partner Can Help

As we mentioned earlier, choosing the optimal channels can vary depending on whether you’re a B2B or B2C along with other factors. That combined with the fact that there’s an inherent learning curve to each of the channels we’ve outlined, many tech companies can benefit from partnering with a professional that can choose the best approach through research and discovery. 

The extensive experience of the 3.7 Designs Marketing team within the technology industry, coupled with our dedication and commitment to research, results in a personalized plan. This will not only meet but exceed your company’s goals. If you’re looking for guidance on how to approach the process and specifically want a partner that specializes in the tech industry, we’d love to help. 

Choosing the Right Channels for Tech Lead Generation

Let’s recap. There are a nearly infinite number of routes tech companies can go with lead generation. But to generate a large volume of highly qualified leads, you need an effective game plan and to select the right channels for reaching your target audience. As of early 2022, those channels are email automation, relevant content offers, SEO, and paid ads. Using these should serve as a solid foundation for tech brands across the board to help you gain traction and maximize your ROI.