Last Updated on March 22, 2021 by Drew Thomas Hendricks

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is a vital part of digital marketing for every business. However, there’s a surprisingly vast difference between business to business (B2B) and business to customer (B2C) SEO.

While business owners and marketers in the winery supply chain might assume that the goal of both forms of SEO is the same, it’s important to remember that the methodology is different. After all, with B2B SEO, content needs to be targeted to decision-makers in relevant winery businesses, which will require very different content as if they were writing for customers.

B2B marketing is an important part of the winery supply chain because it helps to keep money flowing throughout every part of the winery economy, helping every aspect to stay afloat and continue supporting each other.

Let’s take a look at an example.

Vineyard Nouveau is an up-and-coming vineyard in Southern California looking to specialize in organic wine that’s produced entirely in America. While they’re just starting to cultivate their grape crop, they’re starting to look for wine producers so they can begin formulating their first wines. The owner heads to a search engine and searches for “wine producers for independent vineyards in California”.

The first result they click on is a lead generation landing page for a Californian wine producer that offers a free eBook guide to the winery supply chain in return for an email address. So, they enter their email address to download the eBook and subscribe to the newsletter.

This is a standard example of a winery business using B2B SEO well. This article will go into the specifics of why this is a good example later, but for now, it’s important to bear in mind that B2B SEO vs. B2C SEO is significantly different, even though it may not appear that way on the surface.

Why is Having a B2B SEO Strategy Important?

Unless a wine business is completely self-sufficient, businesses in the winery supply chain will always need to purchase from and seek support from each other. However, as these different businesses reside across the globe, there’s no easy way of finding those businesses without search engines.

However, marketing to businesses is vastly different from marketing to customers. Unlike customers, who are almost always looking to make a purchase, decision-makers in businesses have a different goal. With B2B marketing, the searcher tends to be looking to solve a problem, find support, or even simply network with other businesses in their industry.

The Benefits of Having a B2B SEO Strategy

SEO is one of the most powerful aspects of marketing in the modern world, which is why almost every business is adopting an SEO strategy. Let’s have a look at how businesses in the winery supply chain will benefit from having a B2B SEO strategy.

B2B Customers are Already Using Search Engines to Find Other Businesses

Almost half of all B2B customers use search to find information about suppliers and solutions, and this is a number that’s only set to increase. Even when businesses factor in that the current pandemic is driving more business online, B2B SEO was already a vital part of marketing in the late 2010s. For businesses in the winery supply chain, a B2B SEO strategy makes it easier to find when their target audience is searching for suppliers and solutions, helping them stand out against the competition.

B2B SEO can Strengthen Brand Relationships

As mentioned before, one of the biggest challenges of B2B SEO is that businesses aren’t always searching with the intent to purchase. However, that’s not to say that building a relationship with these businesses isn’t valuable. In the winery supply chain, where multiple businesses are working together at the same time, having strong relationships between brands is vital to keep things running smoothly.

B2B SEO doesn’t just help businesses move decision-makers down the sales funnel, but it’s also a great tool for networking and showcasing the value that business brings outside of their products and services.

B2B SEO Generates Leads

Businesses working in the winery supply chain can often find it difficult to generate leads through traditional marketing channels, particularly during the current economic climate in which almost every business is cutting back their budgets.

However, B2B SEO is a great tool for generating leads through content marketing. As lead-generating strategies like content marketing and newsletters showcase a business’ value without asking for a purchase, it’s not only a good strategy to generate leads, but to nurture them in preparation for a better economic climate.

How to Build a Winery B2B SEO Strategy That Works

B2B SEO uses the same algorithm to rank as B2C marketing, so winery B2B SEO strategies need to take into account these different search motivations to rank. As with any kind of SEO strategy, B2B marketers need to build content around search terms that decision-makers are using, so they need to understand what markets they’re targeting first.

A big part of this is keyword research, particularly as B2B consumers will typically use long-tail keywords to find what they’re looking for. This article will dive into the difference between B2B and B2C keywords in the next section.

However, it’s worth understanding now that decision-makers will typically use search engines for more complex concerns, so content marketing needs to be geared towards addressing these keywords.

Plus, local SEO is a big consideration, particularly for certain aspects of the winery supply chain where attracting local businesses is key to their success. So, using keywords that will rank a business higher on a search engine results page (SERP) feature like Google Maps boxes is the hallmark of a great B2B SEO strategy that’s optimized for local search.

Most importantly, a great B2B SEO strategy relies on constant testing and monitoring of results. Many winery businesses consider SEO to be a “set and forget” marketing strategy, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. For an SEO strategy to be successful, it’s important for B2B marketers to continually monitor and adjust their approach.

How to Tell if a B2B SEO Strategy is Working

B2B marketers need to know what metrics to track with a B2B strategy. Not only that, they need to understand what movement in those metrics mean, and how they can use that knowledge to improve their strategy. Let’s take a look at some of the most commonly used SEO metrics and how they can show if an SEO strategy is working.

Bounce Rate

A low bounce rate means that fewer users are leaving a website on the same page they landed on. It’s a good sign that the user has had a good experience with the page and is looking for more information.

Organic Traffic by Landing Page

A good B2B SEO strategy will want users to land on certain pages depending on their search engine query. This metric tells B2B marketers which pages need improvement or if they’re meeting their goal.

Pages Per Session

A high number of pages per session can either indicate that the user is interested in what a business is saying or they’re unable to find what they’re looking for. The easiest way to determine this is by looking at the Behavior Flow in Google Analytics to see what pages they visited.

Referring Domains

A high number of referring domains means that there are more unique websites linking back to a website’s content. This is often seen by search engines as a sign that a website is trustworthy, helping to push a website up in the rankings.

Page Speed

The faster a page loads, the better experience a user will have. Faster page speeds will also reduce bounce rates and can potentially increase pages per session. It’s also a good indication that the website is search engine friendly on the back end.

Using a B2B Agency for SEO Strategy

Every kind of marketing strategy will be time-intensive, and B2B SEO is no exception to this rule. For winery businesses that don’t have an in-house marketing team or an employee skilled in SEO marketing, using a B2B agency to design and implement a winning B2B SEO strategy is often the best choice.

Because B2B SEO requires a different approach than the one that B2C marketers use, it’s important to find an agency that specializes in this different strategy. Not only that, but it’s always helpful to look for agencies that have experience in working with winery supply chain businesses, as these will have the industry knowledge that will help a B2B SEO strategy succeed.

Many winery businesses, and particularly smaller businesses in the winery supply chain, often consider hiring a B2B SEO agency to be outside of their budget. Thankfully, most B2B agencies offer budget-friendly packages to help out these smaller businesses. While this may not come with as much support as can be expected for businesses with bigger budgets, it’s a good step forward to take.

With that being said, not every B2B agency is created equally, and neither are their SEO strategies. So, here’s what to look out for in a good B2B agency.

Buyer Personas

While this article mentioned earlier that B2B users don’t always have purchasing at the forefront of their minds, building buyer personas is still vital to a successful SEO strategy.

It’s entirely common for businesses, and particularly those unfamiliar with marketing, to have vague ideas about what they’re looking for. However, a good B2B agency will be able to take those concepts and build buyer personas to use in their SEO strategy. This gives them greater targeting power, and also, a better understanding of what content and copy will work for those personas.

That’s not to say that businesses can’t benefit from building their buyer personas before consulting with a B2B agency, however. Hubspot’s free Make My Persona tool, as pictured above, can help business owners to better understand the decision-makers they’re trying to attract.

A great B2B agency will, however, help businesses with this process and fold it into their SEO strategy so it’ll have the greatest impact.

Unique SEO Strategies

Smaller winery businesses with a limited marketing budget are often tempted by agencies that promise cheap SEO. However, these agencies often use a cookie-cutter approach to B2B SEO, meaning that regardless of their needs as a business in the winery supply chain, their applied strategy will be exactly the same as all of the other agency’s clients.

While this can work to some extent, it’s not the most optimal way to approach B2B SEO strategies, and it can often end up costing businesses more in the long run. Some of these agencies even employ what’s known as ‘black hat’ practices, which if discovered, will lead to a business’ website being penalized by search engines.

When businesses are looking for a B2B SEO agency, they need to be aware of this and be prepared to ask the agency how they work with businesses to build an SEO strategy. Great agencies will always meet with their clients to determine their needs and goals before any strategy is put into place.

Local SEO Support

Great B2B agencies will also offer SEO strategies for local SEO, which is particularly important for small winery businesses that want to keep their costs down by working with local vendors. While general B2B SEO is a great way to attract and begin marketing to other businesses in the winery supply chain, local SEO can help businesses to network with other parts of the chain in their local area.

This offers a significant benefit in the winery supply chain because working with other local businesses can reduce shipping costs and wastage in transit. Not only that, but given that business owners often prefer to work face-to-face in the wine industry, successful local SEO can even promote greater creativity and collaboration with other winery businesses.

Dedicated Account Managers

Every good B2B SEO agency should offer dedicated account management for small winery businesses looking to improve their online presence. This is what sets these companies apart from cheaper, less reputable agencies, as it ensures that small businesses owners are involved with their B2B SEO strategy.

Having a dedicated account manager means that small business owners have a consistent point of contact if they have any questions or concerns about the service. It also means that small businesses can instantly adapt these SEO services if anything about their business, the industry, or the economy changes, giving them greater power to keep up with the winery industry.

B2B SEO vs. B2C SEO

As this article mentioned earlier, it’s easy to assume that B2B and B2C SEO are the same practice, just with different target audiences. And, to some degree, that’s not inaccurate. After all, both B2B and B2C relies on the same algorithms for content to rank on search engines, and the end goal of converting users into paying customers is the same.

However, there are some key differences between a B2C and B2B campaign in the winery industry that businesses in the winery supply chain need to understand.

User Intent

One of the biggest differences between B2B and B2C in the wine industry is user intent. Let’s take a look at a few examples.

B2C

In B2C SEO, the end goal of a user is typically to purchase wine or wine-drinking accessories. While there is the Buyer’s Journey to consider, the sales funnel used by a B2C company is typically a lot shorter because the problem that customers have is relatively simple. For instance, in the search above, the user intent is fairly clear.

The top two results are indeed ads, but they’re also well-optimized for this keyword. Plus, on top of that keyword, they also address other user problems, such as whether the delivery is free, whether there are any additives in the wine, and even if the user is expected to subscribe to the service.

B2B

In B2B SEO, user intent is often harder to gauge. Of course, business customers will still be looking to make a purchase eventually, but the sales funnel is significantly longer. B2B searches, therefore, aren’t always purchase-related. For example, in the screenshot above, the user may have a variety of user intents, like:

• Wanting to find a nearby wine bottling plant to cut down shipping costs
• Wanting to find a wine bottling plant close to their target market
• Wanting to see what services a wine bottling plant provides
• Comparing different bottling plants in their target area
• Getting an idea of how wine bottling facilities will fit in their business plan

Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as wanting to make a purchase. That’s why B2B SEO strategies need to account for a wider range of user intents.

Metrics and KPIs

In both B2B and B2C SEO campaigns, continuously monitoring metrics and making adjustments to optimize them is the key to successful SEO marketing. However, given that user intent and the end goal is different for these two forms of SEO, the metrics a B2B marketer needs to monitor will be different than with B2C.

With B2C SEO, business owners will want to optimize revenue and drive sales as their primary objective. And, because the sales funnel is typically shorter, that means that B2B SEO strategy needs to focus on more short-term metrics. KPIs like bounce rate, conversion rate, and time on page are all great for B2C.

However, with B2B, the sales funnel is significantly longer, so the focus has to be on generating high-quality leads before sales can even be considered. As B2B customers are less likely to make impulse purchases, particularly given that most B2B products and services are significantly more expensive, more work needs to go into generating and nurturing leads.

So, for B2B, the focus should be on backlinks, lead generation rates, and branded vs. non-branded keyword traffic. It’s also useful to keep an eye on things like Domain Authority and new referral links to map the relevance and authority of that website’s content.

Content

Content marketing is a key part of both B2C and B2B SEO campaigns, and to some degree, both B2C and B2B content marketing shares the same goals.

In both of these forms of SEO, content serves to generate leads, build links, and push users further down the sales funnel. That, however, is where the similarity ends.

In B2C SEO, content marketing is used to primarily push users towards a sale. Because B2C products and services are typically at a lower cost, there’s less risk for the consumer, so all content needs to do is give clear, relevant information. This should, ideally take them through all of the Buyer’s Journey stages and present the business’ solution as the best available one.

In comparison, B2B SEO needs to be more thorough and value-driven. While content should still aim to generate leads, this should be done through thought leadership content and specific information about the products or services the company offers. B2B content marketing should also give away value for free, which helps to establish the B2B marketer as a trustworthy source.

B2B SEO Tactics for Winery Supply Chain Businesses

Given that B2B SEO is a considerably different endeavour to B2C, businesses that are new to B2B SEO may be wondering what the best tactics are for generating business leads and improving their online presence.

Businesses in the winery supply chain have a surprising amount of opportunities in B2B SEO. Because the wine industry can be slow to uptake new technologies, this gives businesses that are ready to adapt the edge in the global marketplace.

So, let’s go over B2B SEO best practices, strategies, and tactics for businesses in the winery supply chain.

Technical SEO

Technical SEO, or back-end SEO, is one of the most powerful, yet underutilized, SEO tools available to winery supply chain businesses. Because technical SEO is embedded in a website’s code, it’s often neglected because business owners don’t think they have the knowledge or the skills to optimize it.

Technical SEO isn’t as complicated as many businesses think. Many modern website editors allow businesses to upgrade their technical SEO without needing to touch a single line of code.

A website with good technical SEO is, quite simply, one that’s easy for search engine crawlers to navigate and index. If a webpage can’t be accessed by a crawler, whether that’s through an inefficient website structure or it being disallowed by the robots.txt file, then that page won’t be indexed and thus won’t have any chance of ranking. In short, it doesn’t matter how good a website’s SEO is if the technical SEO is poor.

Here are the best ways to get a website’s technical SEO up to date.

Optimize URLs

It’s good practice to use the keywords a business is targeting in their URLs. However, website owners should also try to make these URLs as short as possible so they’re more targeted.

As an example, here are some URLs that are returned when a user searches for “the difference between pinot grigio and sauvignon blanc”.

This URL is returned on the first page of Google:

And this is from the second page of Google:

The first example is significantly clearer than the second, and so the user is more likely to click on that URL. This tells search engines that the website is more reputable, so it’ll get boosted in the rankings.

Website Structure

It’s a good rule of thumb to make sure that every page on a website is within three clicks of the homepage. This doesn’t just make a website easier to navigate for users, thereby increasing their time on the website, but it’s also easier for search engine bots to crawl.

So, it’s a good idea to use category pages to organize content. Here’s an example of this from Sommelier’s Choice Awards.

Optimize XML Sitemap

An XML sitemap lists all of the available pages on a website, and it’s used by search engine crawlers as a guide. Website owners should regularly check their XML sitemap to make sure all included pages have original content and there’s no duplicate content. To make this easier, website owners should also make sure their XML sitemap updates when their website does.

Improve Website Speed

Slow-loading websites often cause an increase in bounce rates due to poor user experience. Studies show that a slow website can even decrease how many pages a user visits in a session. To improve speed, website owners should make sure all website software is updated to the latest version, image sizes are optimized, and they use caching software to pre-load pages.

Use 404 Pages

When a user visits a website page that no longer exists, website owners need to make sure they see an optimized 404 page that makes it easy for them to return to the website they’re trying to visit. Great 404 pages also direct users to alternate pages or even have a search bar to help them find what they’re looking for. This helps to reduce bounce rates caused by broken links.

Here’s a great example from Market View Liquor.

Using Title Tags and Meta Descriptions

Title tags, which are used within a website’s HTML code, tell a search engine what the page is supposed to be about. Along similar lines, a meta description tag gives crawlers additional information, which is often displayed under a search result. This creates a search engine result that looks like this:

This additional information will tell crawlers what each page should be indexed for, and users will be able to see how these results relate to their search through bolded keywords. So, it’s not only helpful for webpage rankings, but also for improving traffic.

Content

Content marketing is the best way to create a successful B2B SEO strategy. However, that’s not to say that all content is created equally. Businesses in the winery supply chain must understand that, when it comes to content, quality matters more than quantity.

Let’s go over some of the best content strategies for B2B SEO.

Create Thought Leadership Content

As the B2B sales funnel is significantly longer than with B2C, winery businesses need to demonstrate their value through their content to build user trust. Establishing the business or business owner as a thought leader in their space is a great way to generate and nurture leads, and the best way to do that is to share their expertise with their audience.

Unlike with B2C SEO, B2B buyers want assurance that the company they’re purchasing from will best suit their needs. Given that B2B buyers typically make larger purchases, they need to be confident that their chosen solution is coming from people who are experts in their field.

This blog post from Orocommerce, a B2B eCommerce platform, is a great example of this. In this, the author discusses how wineries can grow their business by marketing to B2B businesses with their platform, and they include facts and statistics to back up their points. This positions them as an expert on B2B eCommerce, which helps to build trust and confidence in their brand.

Research Keyword Phrases for Buyer Personas

This article discussed the importance of buyer personas earlier, but business owners also need to know how to use them to create better content. The main reason why buyer personas are so powerful in marketing is that they help business owners and marketers to research the keyword phrases those people may use.

A one-size-fits-all approach rarely works in marketing, and least of all in B2B SEO. Understanding these personas allows businesses to market directly to them and customize their strategies around the decision-makers they’re trying to reach.

With B2B customers making primarily informational searches, this keyword research also helps business owners understand what content they need to create to attract and nurture those leads.

Here’s an example of one such informational search.

Looking at the results on the first page of Google, the websites are from the following industries:

• Real estate agents that sell agricultural land
• A speciality wine magazine
• The UK national body for winegrowers and producers
• A specialist vineyard real estate agent

All of these industries in the winery supply chain have an interest in generating and nurturing leads from people who are looking for information about purchasing a vineyard.

So, they’ve used that persona to understand that one problem these people face is a lack of information about the costs behind owning a vineyard. To solve this problem, they know that this persona will search online and try to find reputable sources that can help them with a cost breakdown. These businesses are therefore using content to help these personas with their problem without selling them the solution. After all, in this example, the available products are either land for a vineyard, which is a significant expense, or online courses in vineyard ownership. While the latter is more affordable, it can also be considered a waste of money if the potential lead decides not to go ahead with owning a vineyard.

Create Content for All Parts of the Sales Funnel

As discussed earlier, the B2B sales funnel is significantly longer than with B2C. That’s not to say that B2B customers will never make a purchase, but rather that they’ll spend more time considering that purchase than non-business customers.

With that in mind, businesses looking at generating and nurturing B2B leads should make sure to create plenty of informational content that addresses the pain points of their key personas. Above all else, B2B content needs to be useful and educational, and the reader needs to be able to apply those learnings to their life or business.

For example, let’s take a look at Future Wine Expo. This expo is a trade show for businesses in the winery trade to network with each other, meet new innovative companies that can improve their trade, and listen to speakers covering important topics to the wine industry. As a trade show, they’re clearly looking to build leads from a variety of personas, all of whom already either work with wine or own a wine supply chain business.

The end goal is to sell tickets, exhibition booths, and sponsorship slots. However, the biggest barrier to this for customers is whether they will find any information of value at this expo.

To address that pain point, Future Wine Expo has an extensive blog that covers a wide variety of topics, from news about the event to new technologies that could either present a challenge or an opportunity to the wine supply chain. Given that the expo has a general focus on how technology can enhance the wine industry, Future Wine Expo is positioning itself as a reliable source of information for B2B lead gen.

At the end of every blog post, there’s an image link to a document for exhibitors to register their interest in the expo. While this is a clear attempt to move B2B customers further down the sales funnel, it also serves to generate leads by collecting email addresses and information about potential customers.

This is a great example of how businesses in the wine industry can generate and nurture B2B leads by creating content that’s useful, valuable, and insightful. By positioning a business as the authority on a certain topic in the winery supply chain, they’re able to cultivate trust and respect with their customers.

B2B Lead Generation for the Winery Supply Chain

As covered earlier, a key goal of B2B SEO is to generate leads. There are three main types of B2B leads that business owners need to be aware of. To put them into context, let’s use the example of a wine bottling plant website.

Standard Leads

A standard lead is, quite simply, any user that visits a website. However, they don’t actively engage with that website past clicking through pages. They might be curious about a product or service, but they don’t take any action to fulfil that curiosity.

Example:

A user visits the wine bottling plant website. They land on the homepage, click through a few blog posts, and then leave the website.

Marketing-Qualified B2B Leads

Also known as MQLs, these are leads who are likely to convert to a paying customer and are engaged with a website’s content. MQLs are typically generated in the following ways:

• Signing up for a webinar or event
• Subscribing to a newsletter
• Downloading content from a business’s website

These leads typically aren’t ready to consider purchasing a product or service, but they are in the marketing pipeline.

Example:

A user visits the wine bottling plant website and lands on a landing page offering a free eBook in return for subscribing to the plant’s newsletter. So, they sign up and download the eBook. The wine bottling plant can now begin sending them relevant content based on the information that the user gave them. They are now an MQL.

Sales-Qualified B2B Leads

Also known as SQLs, these leads have progressed past being an MQL and are ready to hear more information about a business’s products or services. This can be expressed by the lead:

• Showing interest through a contact form
• Requesting a catalogue or demo
• Booking a meeting through the website

What makes B2B lead generation from B2C is that, in B2C, the number of SQLs typically outnumber MQLs. In B2B, the split tends to be even or weighted heavily towards MQLs.

Example:

The MQL from the previous section receives an email about a limited-time offer for small, independent vineyards, which applies to their business. In the email is a link to book a free consultation with someone from the wine bottling plant, which the user does. They are now an SQL.

Generating Qualified Leads

With B2B lead generation, the emphasis is on a user being a potential customer. That means that not everyone who visits a website will convert to qualified lead and, similarly, not every qualified lead will result in a sale.

The reason why qualified leads are so valuable is that they’ve already expressed interest in a business or its products and services. Again, that doesn’t mean that they’re inevitably going to make a purchase, but it does allow businesses to begin pushing them further down the pipeline.

B2B Lead Generation Tactics for the Wine Industry

As with everything in marketing, businesses need to understand who they’re marketing to for them to create a hard-hitting and successful B2B campaign. With that being said, there are some great tactics that businesses in the winery supply chain can use and adapt to almost every potential customer.

Create High-Value Lead Magnets

Every lead generation strategy needs a lead magnet, which is simply something that a potential lead sees as equal or greater value to their contact information. However, most companies don’t go beyond offering surface-level information, which can often result in a low MQL to SQL conversion.

B2B wine businesses need to offer a substantial resource as a lead magnet to generate leads and begin nurturing them towards becoming SQLs. For businesses in the winery supply chain, this could look like:

• A comprehensive eBook explaining how to market wines to different types of restaurants
• An in-depth look at different grape varieties and how to use them when fermenting wine
• A detailed case study about an independent winery and how they grew their business

Use Social Media

Social media is one of the most important marketing tools to a B2B wine company, but it’s important for business owners to know how to utilize it properly. Different types of content are more popular on different platforms, and different platforms also often attract different audiences.

YouTube, for example, is a vastly underutilized social media platform that’s great for B2B lead generation. Not only is it a great platform for hosting original content, but marketers can also use it to repurpose content that exists in another form. Here’s a great example of a business using YouTube for B2B wine marketing.

Build Social Proof with Case Study Content

Social proof is a powerful tool in lead generation, and it can often be the factor that turns a standard lead into an MQL. Depending on the business in question, this can take multiple different forms. However, there’s no social proof quite as impactful as case studies.

Thankfully, case studies are highly adaptable to almost every business. Even new businesses who may not have many customers can benefit from case studies focusing on themselves and their processes, as in this example of a wine crush services provider doubling their production while saving energy at the same time.

After all, a case study is simply long-form content that covers a case, a problem in that case, and how it was solved. Traditionally, this is usually from the perspective of a business and how they tackled a particular problem, but there’s nothing to say that winery supply chain businesses can’t contract a written case study about themselves.

For the most powerful social proof, however, winery businesses should publish case studies about the clients they’ve worked with and how they helped them to achieve a certain goal. Not only does this provide a great example of what the business can do, but it also shows that other businesses in the industry trust that company.

Not to mention that case studies can even be folded into lead magnets like free webinars, as with this example from Winery Industry Advisor. This is a stellar example of how a business can combine social proof and lead magnets to generate high-quality leads.

Offer Quick Solutions

This article mentioned earlier how lead magnets need to hold equal or greater value to a lead’s personal information. However, there’s also an argument to be made for using smaller downloads as a lead magnet.

When B2B users are conducting research, then it’s because they have a particular issue they want to solve or they’re looking for a new opportunity. B2B winery businesses can take advantage of that need by offering small downloadables without asking for a significant amount of personal information.

So, let’s say a business’s main lead magnet is a thoroughly researched eBook into how wineries can market to restaurants. To get this, a lead has to enter their first name, email address, their job title, and where they heard about the business. In terms of ‘friction’, or how many obstacles a lead is willing to jump to reach their goal, this is a relatively average amount for something of this value.

That same website could also offer an instantly downloadable sales plan template for selling wines to restaurants. But, instead of asking the lead to fill out the same form as before, all they ask for is an email address.

This way, the lead is still becoming an MQL, only through a different pipeline. This may mean that a business has to put more work in converting them to an SQL than with the higher-value lead magnet, but overall, it generates more leads in total.

Use Individual Landing Pages for Different Personas

Combining landing pages with ads or sponsored search engine results is a great way to generate B2B leads when done well. However, businesses in the winery supply chain can take this one step further by designing individual landing pages to appear on specific keyword searches depending on what their buyer persona research uncovered about their target audience.

In this example, the landing page is targeted towards wineries that sell to restaurants. The headline is clear about what problem the business is solving, and in the ‘Membership Type’ dropdown, users can see that this landing page applies to four different types of businesses. While this could be better optimized, it’s still a good landing page for generating leads and targeting multiple personas at once.

For business owners that are struggling with landing pages, a B2B lead generation agency can be a great option. These agencies are experts in generating B2B sales leads, and can often be worth more in B2B sales and time saved than they cost.