For a company that specializes in cloud products and services, how can you generate leads that will turn into revenues?
Lead generation is always a constant challenge every business faces. But as with every problem, there is always a solution at hand as well. Cloud services are no exception. As always, there are many ways to B2B lead generation, but for today we want to focus on the use of multi-channel lead generation tactics for cloud services.
Multi-channel lead generation is not as difficult or complicated as it may seem and it’s undeniable that it also is the future of B2B marketing. Read on to learn about multi-channel lead generation for your cloud products and services.
Objectives
First things first. You cannot just dive right in head first without clarifying your objectives first. Every company is different when it comes to this. There are two ways in measuring the success of your lead gen activity.
One is the sales-qualified leads (SQLs) which determines the number of probable clients that are ready to talk sales. Another is by the number and the total amount of deals closed, which is the simpler way to measure the success of your lead gen.
Stay somewhere in between to keep a balance. Your marketing should be evaluated by both your number of sales and also keep your lead generation up.
Email Marketing
One of the few online marketing channels that have stood the test of time. Hence why it takes the number one spot in a lead generation for cloud companies. Traditional newsletters and email marketing are still important and so is the ability to capture data on users. As cloud providers, do not overlook this important medium to generate leads.
Social Media
Of course, Social media is not just for liking funny cat videos or tweeting about what you ate today. Many businesses are taking advantage of this channel. By using this channel, just make sure that you just follow the general rule of thumb: build a loyal following, social media is a dialogue and not just a one-way street, and influence connections for content sharing.
As cloud service providers, take full advantage of this. Make sure you choose the right channels that will deem as the most effective for your clients and incorporate special cloud services that they can only find with you and nowhere else.
At the end of the days, it all boils down to having a perfectly healthy balance between your inbound and outbound. In keeping up this marketing strategy, it will do the trick in getting your message across as well as garner you more leads that way.
How to Generate Leads for Cloud Companies
How does lead generation work for cloud companies in general terms? Easy. There are two categories to this which are Inbound and Outbound.
Inbound leads
Perform keyword research and optimize your website for all the on-page factors like title, meta tags, keywords, image tags, etc., and off page link building. Other tools include Keyword Planner, Google Trends and Insight, Alexa.
Don’t forget your content marketing which includes blog post writing on your website and other social media platforms. Some tools to be used for this are BuzzSumo, PitchBox, Buffer, DrumUp.
Outbound leads
There are many software solutions that are available today to help you find leads from LinkedIn, and many more.
The catch is that manually generating tech leads can be quite a time consuming and hectic. This is why most companies opt to use better and faster alternatives like outsourcing the services of a B2B lead generation company. But hey, if you have the extra time, money and patience to generate leads in-house, then knock yourselves out.
Cloud Computing trends in 2019
A rapidly growing technology is Cloud Computing and many companies and businesses are adopting its digital transformation. The cloud tech services market is projected to grow by 17.3% in 2019, and by 2022, 90% of organizations will be using cloud services, according to Gartner report.
That being said, there are quite a few new Cloud Computing trends to look forward to this 2019.
Hybrid & Multi-Cloud Solutions
The dominant business model in the future is going to be the Hybrid Cloud. A simple public cloud cannot be a good fit for all types of solutions as well as shifting everything onto it can be a difficult task due to certain requirements. To make things easier, The Hybrid Cloud model will offer transition solutions that merge your current on-premises infrastructure with open cloud & private cloud services. So, while you are being effective and flexible, your organization will be able to shift to The Cloud technology at their own pace.
No Server Needed
2019 is the year where Serverless Computing becomes more and more popular. Not that it wasn’t before, of course. But with our advancing technology, it sure is gaining more popularity. Your customers won’t have to shell out money or rent services, neither do they need to configure them. Thanks to the Cloud for being responsible for providing the platform, it’s configuration, and a wide range of helpful tools used for designing applications, and working data.
Artificial Intelligence Platforms
AI platforms support a faster, more effective, and more efficient way to work together with data scientists and other team members. In addition, AI platforms can help reduce the costs in various ways, such as turning simple tasks into automated ones, preventing duplication of efforts, and taking over some expensive labor tasks like copying or extraction of data.
Cloud Security
One of the most – if not, the most important aspect of technology. Thankfully, it upgrades and improves with each year. With cloud computing, security is a very serious consideration. 2019 introduces the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in which security concerns have risen and are an essential thing to monitor. Since many businesses are shifting to cloud computing, and oftentimes without serious consideration of its security compliance protocols, the GDPR will be of utmost importance this year.
Welcome 5G and Improved Internet Services
We can all agree that there is nothing more irritating that slow internet connection. Especially when working with data that are being generated and stored on cloud-based platforms. As the number increases, so does the need for higher and better internet connection. Thankfully, internet providers are always working and striving to find ways of improving the quality of their services. Taking it a step further, network providers are also working on developing the 5G network
