Lead generation for small businesses comes with its own challenges. Finding B2B contact data for SMBs can have a few roadblocks.
To name a few, publicly available SMB data is very limited, SMBs are always evolving or changing under the radar, and the needs of SMB leads look much different from the needs of enterprise organizations.
But that doesn’t mean that you can avoid generating leads from small businesses. Small to mid-market businesses are the bread and butter of some industries.
According to a survey by the McKinsey Company, in some technology segments, such as telecom and electronic devices, SMBs spent more than the large-enterprise accounts that providers have historically pursued.
The good news is, there are still many opportunities to capture these smaller, more niche markets.
Don’t know where to start? Take it from others’ experiences.
Here, we’ve compiled a list of some crucial lessons learned by small business lead generation experts in the real world. There are so many approaches you can take to maximizing your sales pipeline and generating small business leads, but we’ve boiled it down to these 13 key lessons about small business lead generation.
1. Focus on the “why” behind prospects’ intent.
You hear the word “intent” tossed around a lot when doing lead gen for any industry.
The key thing that's missing from intent is the “why”. You can usually see if an SMB account is showing intent that they’re somewhere in the market for a solution like yours.
However, you don’t always know the reason why an account is showing intent.
Why did someone visit your website? Why did they search up a keyword that you rank for? Or why did they click on an ad from you?
When trying to understand why a small business account is showing intent you need to shift your mindset from simply focusing on what actions they took to digging deeper into the reasons behind their actions.
📘 Related: How to Use Intent Data for B2B Marketing
Reaching out to a small business lead who clicked on one of your ads and immediately asking them if they want a demo won’t cut it. There are probably tons of other competitors doing the same thing.
The key to cutting through the noise of competitors and really personalizing your outreach to SMB accounts is to focus on capturing key “signals” or “triggers” that show up before intent.
In other words, you need to not only know the actions the account took to show intent, but also the context and key indicating signals happening in the bigger picture.
Here are some examples of signals that tell you the “why” behind intent:
- Customer job changes
- Quick rise and fall in product usage
- New integration connected
- Sign up flow abandonment
- Keyword engagement
- Event attendance
- Website relaunch
- Product or feature launch
- Region expansion
The list of “why” signals behind intent can go on and on, but the key thing to remember for small business lead generation is that intent goes beyond a single action. Every action an account takes is not an isolated occurrence; everything happens in the context of a wider ecosystem of interconnected events, influences, or reasons.
Once you start keeping track of those less obvious signals, you can start reaching out to small business leads with more relevance and context.
🔎 Don’t want to do this manually? Take the guesswork out of tracking buyer intent and hidden signals of intent with Seamless.AI’s buyer intent data. With 12,000+ intent signals to choose from, the tool allows you to subscribe to relevant topics for automatic intent data and identify ready-to-buy accounts with the right context.
2. Don’t skimp on targeted content marketing and SEO.
“By creating detailed buyer personas and tailoring our content to address their pain points, we've been able to engage leads at various stages in the buyer's journey, significantly improving our conversion rates.”
- Adam Degraide, CEO of BamBamtastic and multi-exit entrepreneur
Generating SMB leads should be focused on building trust and providing value for prospects even before they decide to consider your market. It’s about creating a delightful experience and giving them value before a sales conversation even happens.
The best way to do that is through targeted content marketing and search engine optimization.
Most small business leads or prospects are always looking for free game, tips, guides and other resources. These items are the assets that keep them coming back to your platform as their trusted source of information for specific topics they’re interested in.
That’s where SEO comes in handy. Identifying the exact keywords and topics that are the most searched among your target SMB accounts helps you figure out what kind of content you can create to turn into irresistible small business lead magnets.
You don’t always need to target high-volume, high difficulty level keywords, especially if you’re first starting out with your SEO and content marketing efforts. Instead, you can start with “low-hanging fruit keywords”, or keywords that don’t have a lot of competitors ranking for it but still offer enough volume to drive quality traffic to your website.
Here’s an example of how SEO and content marketing tools has helped Ryan Esco, CMO of FireRock Marketing in doing small business lead generation:
“BuzzSumo allows us to analyze content performance across different platforms and discover trending topics within our niche. By capitalizing on these insights, we've developed targeted content that addresses current interests and pain points, leading to increased engagement and higher conversion rates. It’s this strategic alignment of content creation with customer interest that has facilitated our success in lead generation.”
SEO can be both complex and simple at the same time. We won’t dive too deep into how to do it step-by-step, but you can check out the Voices of Search podcast series for real-life examples and how to optimize large business directory pages and content can help boost conversions and sales goals in the long run.
3. Never underestimate the power of online communities.
This key lesson for generating SMB leads goes hand-in-hand with doing SEO and content marketing; it focuses on providing value directly to potential customers without coming off too “salesy”.
It’s pretty difficult to find publicly available data on small to midsize businesses (more on that later), but you can always rely on the internet to do some digging.
We don’t mean “digging” as in digging for just their firmographic data or contact details. We’re talking about a more qualitative approach where you find the spaces where your target small business leads are the most active and learn more about them there.
The best place to start engaging with SMB leads and actively social listening to hot topics among your target audience is online communities.
“Industry-specific online forums and social media groups. These platforms offer a goldmine of information and allow for direct interaction with potential leads. Engaging with these communities not only grants us valuable insights into our audience's needs and challenges but also positions our brand as an active member of the community, establishing trust and credibility. This hands-on approach has proven invaluable in generating high-quality leads that are often overlooked by more traditional methods.”
- Ryan Esco, CMO of FireRock Marketing
There are many different online community platforms where you might find potential leads, including:
- LinkedIn groups
- Medium publications
- Webinars
- Podcasts
- Reddit and other online discussion forums
You probably won’t find every niche audience on every platform, so it’s important to do some research on which platforms you should prioritize first.
If you’re targeting B2B small businesses, you might have better luck starting out with LinkedIn. There are countless active LinkedIn groups for almost any kind of business you can imagine.
“By utilizing LinkedIn's advanced search features and joining industry-specific groups, we were able to identify and connect with decision-makers within our target sectors. This direct approach, combined with personalized messaging that speaks to their specific needs and challenges, has been critical in generating high-quality leads that are more likely to convert.”
- Adam Degraide, CEO of BamBamtastic and multi-exit entrepreneur
The point of joining online communities is to be present and active in the spaces that your target customers are. Doing this helps you keep a pulse on the topics they’re interested in, directly engage with them through online discussions, and share new content with them from time to time.
4. Don't rely on traditional databases for small business leads.
You’ve probably heard about how great B2B contact databases are, but the reality for small business lead generation is that traditional databases don’t have enough small business data. Typical databases simply don’t cut it.
There’s a huge gap of small business firmographics and contact data for many reasons, including:
- Lack of public information on new or small businesses
- Difficulty of finding up-to-date data for small business contacts
- Lack of SMB contact data coverage in traditional contact databases
- Slow data refresh rates for new and upcoming small businesses
Small businesses are usually more difficult to target because of their niche nature. That’s why tools like Seamless.AI are instrumental in getting accurate, complete, and up-to-date contact data for small businesses.
Seamless.AI’s data coverage and depth of data is unmatched by other traditional contact databases.
Here’s a quick look at how Seamless.AI compares to traditional B2B contact databases in terms of data reach and coverage:
Seamless.AI’s data reach and coverage:
- 2.3 billion contact and company records to date
- 157 million+ companies
Rather than prioritizing large enterprise companies in a specific location and industry that are most widely coveted (like traditional databases), Seamless.AI’s algorithms don’t discriminate against the size or type of company you need information on.
Another point to consider is the timeliness of your small business leads’ data.
At Seamless.AI, we ditch the traditional database model to give your team access to freshly researched contacts in real-time so you don’t have to wait for typical databases to refresh their data every few months. Our company search tool instantly crawls multiple sources of data to get you fresh new insights.
5. Embrace AI-driven lead generation for small businesses.
According to Gong’s recent report on XYZ, sellers who use AI to inform their deals increase win rates by 26%, and sellers who use AI to guide their deals increase win rates by 35%.
The impact of AI on small business lead generation is threefold:
- Helps small businesses understand customer behavior to generate qualified leads
- Helps analyze and predict consumer trends to refine a more targeted SEO strategy
- Streamlines the process of finding leads at scale in support of traditional lead generation tactics
💼Case in point: In this Reddit thread about AI-driven lead generation tools, one commenter says:
“I own a coffee bean business and struggled to not only find local distributers but to also message them and keep tabs as to who was interested in stocking my coffee beans etc…[An AI tool helped] to filter distributors by location, size and shop type so my searches were super targeted…The ability to source my company relevant leads using their AI algorithm has been exponentially better than alternatives.”
While many people might have dividing opinions about using AI for doing lead generation for small businesses, one thing stands true: Lead generation is frustrating and time-consuming–for sales reps, recruiters, small business owners, and more.
With AI-driven lead generation tools like Seamless.AI, you’re able to take a more proactive and streamlined approach to finding niche, small business leads. A few ways that Seamless.AI uses AI to keep new and existing lead data up-to-date, accurate, and complete are:
- Data enrichment with a CRM, ATS, or CSV
- Tracking prospect job changes
- Data set confidence scoring and AI
Whether you’re on the fence about using AI or you have yet to experience using one, the truth of the matter is that teams who use a hybrid combination of AI lead generation tools and human involvement will scale much faster and more efficiently than teams who don’t.
📕 Related: Leveraging AI to Skyrocket Your Cold Call Close Rate
6. Develop your own internal research.
Not everyone has the bandwidth, resources, or time to do this, but this tip is especially important for generating small business leads.
Traditional B2B databases rarely offer nuanced insights or even have enough coverage of small business data to help organizations find the right small biz owners.
Of course, we recommend that you start using highly specialized prospecting tools like Seamless.AI’s real-time search engine for B2B contact data to find small business data that traditional databases don’t.
But let’s say you’re a small business looking for other small business leads, or a large company looking to target more niche, small to mid-sized markets, and onboarding another software tool isn’t the best option for you right now.
Do your own research. Conduct studies, participate in niche events, and keep track of your proprietary insights in a research repository. Democratized research has been a hot topic for the past few years and continues to be a viable option for many small businesses that don’t have the budget or resources to have a dedicated research team.
“We've invested time in developing our internal research, engaging directly with our audience through surveys, and participating in college events to gather insights. This direct engagement strategy has not only enhanced our lead generation efforts but also built stronger relationships with our target market, setting a foundation for long-term trust and loyalty.”
- Aleksey Salaz, Marketing Manager at Student Storage
You can always start with a lightweight touch to doing your own research.
Run surveys, go to events to speak with real potential customers, or set up polls to keep a pulse on your leads. Whichever method you choose to start with, one key thing to remember is to keep a record of all the insights you learn as you go.
7. Capture small business leads with real case studies.
Word-of-mouth marketing, customer testimonials, and reviews are the bread and butter of small businesses, whether you’re looking for them or you are a small business.
It makes sense; small businesses trust the opinions of their peers, people they know, and want to hear from real people about their personal experiences.
Especially if you’re targeting small B2B businesses, credibility is everything. The best way to gain credibility and gain trust with leads is through case studies–not just on your website, but specific case studies you can share with leads without them having to search for them.
Take it from Daivat Dholakia, VP of Operations at Essenvia:
“Since B2B buyers are data-driven and incredibly analytical, the best strategy for lead generation is promoting case studies. It's not enough to publish case studies on a website. They need to be shared with leads to help them make an informed decision. A good strategy to follow is being visual. We share a lot of different visuals of our product on our website so leads know exactly what they're being offered."
One great way to share case studies or testimonials with potential leads without actually sharing them is to leverage your existing customer base.
Let’s say you’re doing lead generation for a clothing manufacturer targeting small clothing brand businesses. Reach out to your existing customer base of small clothing brands and ask them for referrals. Naturally, you should provide an incentive for your existing customers to give you referrals i.e. waiving an invoice for each new paying customer referral or giving them an extra service for each new referral.
Customer referrals are a no-brainer because potential leads usually trust the opinions of people they know rather than blindly trusting a stranger’s word.
The key is to make it worthwhile for your existing customers to get you new customers without having to solely rely on case studies.
8. Social media is key to generating inbound leads from small businesses.
Of course, you still need a website. But social media holds a significant weight with small business prospects.
✨Lead generation for small businesses is all about demonstrable value.
Showing demonstrable value to SMBs means giving them a more detailed look at your company’s day-to-day wins and how you’re delivering value through bite-sized pieces of content on social media.
With social media, you can create content that tells your customer “Here’s what’s happening right now at our company and our product that you care about.” Especially if you create a social media presence that targets your dream customer profiles, social media algorithms will work in your favor to show your content to more potential leads that you might not have known about.
You can also leverage social media to do social selling and building your personal brand. This tactic is great for small businesses looking to get more organic exposure and also for companies looking to target other small business leads who want to connect with other industry thought leaders.
Here's how the Vlad Oleksiienko, VP of Growth at Reply.io, leveraged social media to generate leads for his AI B2B sales lead generation and automation tool:
"I turned to LinkedIn for social selling and building my personal brand. This strategy really paid off. Just six months in, I saw a 40% jump in connection requests, and more of them were from key folks in sales, entrepreneurship and SaaS industry — exactly who we were aiming to reach. By sharing what I know, including trends, helpful tools, templates and other practical content, I managed to get 50% more engagement on my posts and a lot of shares. It led to an increase in our marketing leads, but what’s even more important, it helped to establish connections with other industry leaders and make a lot of content together (webinars, conferences, white papers, blog articles) and find real supporters across our target audience and communicate with them directly."
9. Don’t forget about data privacy and compliance.
Data privacy and compliance isn’t a “nice-to-have”, it’s a necessity for any B2B company.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a small business that not many people know about, or if you’re a Fortune 500 company with a highly public profile. Complying with data privacy laws like GDPR and CCPA is something that doesn’t always come to mind when you think about doing lead generation for small businesses, but should always be a priority.
You should always ensure compliance with data protection regulations and respect prospects’ privacy and consent. Here are a few examples of what that looks like in action:
- Regularly updating your privacy policy
- Obtaining explicit informed consent from leads
- Providing clear and easy opt-out options within your platform
- Continually updating your data security and encryption
- Making prospect data anonymous or easy to delete if no longer needed
Don’t skimp on this. The best approach to handling data privacy or security issues is to regularly set and update guardrails for data protection compliance rather than being unprepared for a data privacy issue.
In short, be more proactive and less reactive.
10. Give before asking.
Lead generation for small businesses can be tricky; most small business owners are always busy and usually bombarded with 30+ other businesses pitching their services to them.
The key is to keep your outreach emails, messages, and calls concise and to the point within the first 30 seconds. You have such a short time frame to grab their attention, so the best way to approach this is to give before you ask.
In other words, don’t just ask them to check your website out or to hop on a long product demo call from the jump. Start your outreach with an incentive for the lead to continue the conversation with you, whether it’s through email, phone, or a social media message.
Give them information, a solution to a unique problem they’re experiencing, or a key statement that immediately grabs their attention (not a “clickbaity” statement, but more about an issue that you know they’ll care about!).
11. Flexibility and value is everything to small businesses.
Flexibility of pricing, integrations with their current toolstack, or the ability to only use what they need are all important for small businesses.
If you’re targeting small business prospects for your company, you need to understand what areas of concern your small business leads prioritize the most. Are they scared of “software tool lock-in” and need a flexible product to pick and choose the features or services that they need?
Or are they cautious of having to pay full price for an entire platform of products and features when they only need access to a select few services?
Whatever products or services you’re offering to small businesses, you need to know how to bend and adapt your offerings to their needs (within reasonable capacity, of course). After all, you’re supposedly pitching something that’s “perfect” for your dream customers.
Many small businesses out there operate on very limited budgets, resources, and bandwidth. Their focus (not all small businesses, but the general consensus) is usually on finding ways to scale and grow without too much overhead, AKA low cost, low risk investments.
If your tool might seem too expensive for SMBs, or there’s little flexibility in negotiating costs, shift the conversation from price to value. Focus on communicating the value of benefits your customers receive rather than talking price from the jump.
The best thing you can do is to keep an open mindset and approach small business leads with an offer that’s already tailored for their needs without them having to ask.
12. Collaborate with industry influencers.
If you’re a small business just starting to build your sales pipeline or looking to gain more credibility with small business prospects, start building relationships with industry influencers or experts.
When you align your brand with respected influencers or thought leaders in your target customers’ niche, you’re able to unlock access and get exposure to the influencers’ audience as well.
A more tangible example of doing this is finding a famous podcast in the same industry or niche as your target audience, and running sponsored ads for their podcast episodes in exchange for an exclusive discount or offer for their dedicated listeners.
Another example is doing webinar partnerships or collaboration. Reach out to industry experts and invite them to be a guest speaker for an online webinar you’re hosting. Whether they’re an influencer or a thought leader in the space, you’re more likely to gain some new leads with a well-known, respected authoritative figures.
Aligning your company with other well-known companies, events, and topics lends you credibility with your audience. Plus, you get access to partners’ customers who might also closely align with your ICPs.
13. Keep your CRM healthy and clean.
What does it mean to have a “healthy” and “clean” CRM?
A healthy CRM makes a world of a difference for small business lead generation.
Implementing a system to regularly update, maintain, and audit the data you have in your CRM helps you avoid data decay and deterioration, which is a common pain point of small business contact data.
🍲Think of maintaining your CRM like tending to a sauce reduction.
When you first start creating a sauce reduction, you’re focused on getting the right ingredients together. It’s the same when you first start building your contact lists for small businesses–you’re only looking to add the right people with the right profiles for a healthy sales pipeline.
The longer your sauce boils and reduces down, you need to regularly tend to the sauce to maintain the best flavors, scents, and texture for the mixture. The longer you hold onto data in your CRM, the more important it is for you to also maintain and update the data to make sure the data is accurate, up-to-date, and complete.
When you forget about the sauce reduction, you might end up with the wrong sauce mixture that’s evaporated all the wrong flavors out, or it might not turn out the way you planned. When you leave your CRM alone without any updates, you’re letting your data decay.
You don’t want a decayed CRM–let alone a failed sauce reduction.
Make sure that while you focus on generating small business leads, you’re also creating a strategy to maintain and manage existing leads in your pipeline. It’s all about maintaining revenue generation and efficiency, especially as costs for customer acquisition continue to rise.
David Bitton, Co-founder and CMO of Doorloop, says:
“Don't just focus on generating leads – manage them too. B2B sales and marketing professionals must pay attention to managing existing leads in their pipeline to maintain revenue generation sustainability and efficiency. This is especially critical for small businesses now as costs for customer acquisition rise. In general, it's still easier and more cost-efficient to nurture and subsequently convert an existing lead versus a completely new one.”
In other words, don’t just focus on finding new leads all the time. Build a system to help you maintain and nurture your existing data and contacts.
🌰In a nutshell…
Successfully generating small business leads is less about stretching your budget and resources thin to find the needle in a haystack. It’s more about getting creative with the resources that you have and finding ways to set yourself up on the path to scaling your sales pipeline over time.
If there are only a few things you take away from this list of tips for small business lead generation after scrolling through, remember this:
✨Hands-on community engagement and direct exposure to small business leads both online and in-person are key to overcoming the main pain points of small business lead generation.
And while contact data for SMBs are very limited, you can rely on tools like Seamless.AI to help you overcome this roadblock. With Seamless.AI, you can get immediate access to more data coverage on small to midsize businesses in real-time with our B2B contact data search engine.
📨 Don’t feel like this list is complete? Feel free to reach out to our content team at Seamless.AI via email at rachell.lee@seamless.leads.com with your best advice for successful lead generation for small businesses!
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