7 Outbound Lead Generation Tactics to Fuel Inbound Teams

The debate between inbound vs outbound lead generation seems never-ending.

However, both share common goals: attract, influence, and generate good-fit opportunities.

Inbound and outbound are complimentary. When combined into one unified system, they provide advantages to each other and help improve the overall customer acquisition process.

For inbound-focused teams, outbound strategies can be used to generate more leads, accelerate sales cycles, increase win rates, and offer more control over pipeline quality.

Here are seven different ways to use outbound lead generation tactics to fuel inbound sales & marketing success.

1) Engage Inbound Deal Stakeholders with Outbound

B2B deals often require multiple decision-makers and stakeholders to close.

Sometimes a key decision-maker will convert inbound. However, it’s also very common for inbound leads without decision-making power to reach out in search of more information.

When an inbound lead comes through, it’s important to understand the person’s function within the organization and identify how they influence a potential deal.

If a lead goes cold or acts as a gatekeeper to a next step, there may be another person at the organization that can better move the conversation forward.

Outbound outreach can be used to engage other stakeholders involved in an inbound-sourced deal, increasing the chances that a sales team successfully connects and stays top-of-mind.

With visibility into the key decision-makers behind a deal, sales teams can be more strategic with inbound conversations and proactively keep the right stakeholders engaged.

2) Take Action on Inbound Triggers

Behavioral triggers are becoming a huge part of B2B sales & marketing.

Whether a deal comes inbound or outbound, the likelihood of it closing is ultimately decided by the buyer and their timing.

Sales teams use lead scoring techniques and inbound behaviors to gauge the value of their inbound leads. However, intelligence from inbound can also provide a way for sales teams to construct personalized outbound outreach.

Intent data, compelling events, technology usage, attending an event, or activities on a website can all be used to help a sales team connect with inbound leads in a targeted way.

3) Secure Backlinks & Guest Posts with Outbound Lead Generation

For inbound, marketing teams often focus on content, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and demand generation campaigns to develop a solid pipeline for sales.

One way to generate inbound leads is by sourcing traffic from other websites.

While backlinks and guest posts provide long-term benefits for SEO, they also create opportunities for qualified leads to find a company elsewhere and convert inbound.

Rather than waiting for content or SEO partnerships to come, teams can use outbound outreach to engage with ideal partners at scale about a potential collaboration.

With outbound, teams can target the right partners, consistently build new relationships, and create a network of backlinks to drive more relevant inbound traffic.

4) Grow Digital & Social Reach with Outbound

Social networks are a powerful way to connect with a target audience.

With access to millions of people and professionals, inbound teams can leverage social media like Facebook and LinkedIn to gain massive brand exposure and generate demand.

One way to maximize reach and increase virality on social is using outbound to drive a targeted audience to engage with a brand’s content.

When the company posts something valuable on social, teams can proactively reach out to their network to share the message, generate buzz around the content, and incentivize engagement.

With time, outbound outreach to boost social activity can help build a community of individuals willing to consistently promote a brand’s or team’s content as a partner.

5) Outbound Lead Generation for Events

Digital events are emerging as an effective way to generate demand and create opportunities.

Podcasts, webinars, roundtable discussions, expert panels, live shows, and contests are just a few of the many different activities bringing buyers and sellers together online.

Some brands have a big reputation and can fill every seat with little effort. However, many companies struggle to generate enough interested registrants for a consistent event calendar.

To maximize the impact of every digital event, use outbound marketing to proactively invite qualified leads to register and participate in upcoming events.

Not only does this help quickly fill up seats for an event, but it also provides teams the ability to engage registrants, qualify, and identify potential opportunities.

6) Use Outbound to Engage Past Inbound Leads

Not every lead will be in-market when they reach out.

While a qualified account may not be in-market for a solution now, it’s only a matter of time before the right companies eventually move into a buying position.

To maximize the success of an inbound program, it’s important to have a game plan in place for inbound leads that go cold, slip through the cracks, or get closed out as lost.

Outbound outreach is an effective way to re-engage old leads and revive lost opportunities.

If an inbound lead goes cold after submitting a form, then use follow-up sequencing to share value and generate interest in next steps.

If an inbound lead decided not to purchase last quarter due to other priorities, then create a lead nurturing campaign to influence thinking and stay top-of-mind.

6) Grow a Community or Newsletter Audience

Newsletter lists are a great source of inbound leads.

As brands grow and produce more content, they ideally begin cultivating an audience of followers, fans, or industry partners.

Many companies are even going beyond newsletters to instead provide a community experience for their audience, including forums, members-only websites, and exclusive events.

However, growing a community or newsletter audience is not easy to do organically. It can take months or even years of great content to create an initial tribe of followers.

With outbound outreach, marketing teams can recruit community members and newsletter participants at scale while maintaining control over who joins.

Not only does this accelerate list growth, but it also produces more targeted, higher-quality audiences than growing a list organically.

Conclusion

Many similarities exist between outbound and inbound lead generation strategies.

Together, they help create better sales experiences for prospects while providing teams with more control over the customer acquisition process.

With these seven different outbound tactics, sales & marketing teams can gain the advantages of outbound lead generation while doing more with inbound.