Inbound marketing has come a long way since HubSpot’s CEO coined the term back in 2005.

Today, in many circles, inbound marketing is not even called “inbound marketing.”

It’s just marketing.

Yes, traditional and outbound techniques are still used, but few highly successful organizations today are using them extensively. They are almost always combined with an inbound play.

Since inbound marketing is so broad and all-encompassing, it’s little surprise that the world of inbound marketing tools is a little overwhelming, to say the least.

I mean, we researched this article to bring you the best of the best, and we still came up with a “brief” list of 27 tools.

To help you choose the best software solutions for your tech stack, we’ve divided up our list into different categories, starting with content production, the backbone of most inbound marketing campaigns.

Inbound Marketing Tools For Content Production 

Content marketing and inbound marketing are so deeply intertwined they might as well be synonyms.

They aren’t, but here’s the thing:

Inbound doesn’t really work without content. 

You need content for social media posts, email marketing campaigns, webinars, and even to attract visitors to your site via SEO.

Naturally, the list of content-related inbound marketing software solutions is longer than all others. We’ve got 10 for you.

1. ClickUp 

(Image Source)

ClickUp is a project management software solution.

It’s where you'll orchestrate all of your content workflows, communicate and collaborate with freelance content creators, and maintain and manage content calendars.

In part three of our “Building A Content Factory” series, Developing Content Operations, we dove into blog writing workflows and how to use a solution like ClickUp—or an alternative like monday.com, Asana, or Trello—to manage content creation.

Automation is a standout feature for ClickUp.

You can automate tasks like the creation of task checklists, program routing rules, and create automatic notifications when a given action takes place.

2. Positional 

Positional is a toolset for SEO and content teams.

It's similar to alternatives like Surfer and Clearscope in that you can use it to optimize content for search engines.

We use Positional for that exact purpose (it's probably part of why you found this article), but it also has a few other cool features, such as keyword research and clustering functionality, as well as an AI content detector.

One of our favorite features is Positional’s Content Analytics. This allows you to see user heatmaps to understand where readers are navigating away from your content, as well as core metrics like bounce rates.

3. Semrush 

(Image Source)

Semrush is another SEO suite, though it's more commonly used for the research and competitive monitoring aspects of SEO content creation.

It's one of the big three in this space, sharing the limelight with Ahrefs and Moz.

We like Semrush because of its Keyword Magic Tool.

You plug in a keyword idea and it spits out a bunch of related keywords that people are actually searching for, along with data on monthly traffic and keyword ranking difficulty.

This is a solid feature for finding new keywords to add to your SEO content calendar.

4. Canva 

(Image Source)

Canva is an online graphic design tool.

This was a real game-changer a few years back. Before Canva, you had to shell out hundreds of dollars for something like Photoshop.

Canva is much more usable and way more affordable—they even have a solid and genuinely usable free version.

You—or your content creators—can use Canva to create custom images, graphs, cover images, and infographics, either for your written content like blogs or for social media posts.

Canva also has a bunch of pre-designed templates, taking design work off of your plate and making it easy to create professional-looking images without having a professional designer on board.

5. Grammarly 

(Image Source)

Grammarly is the most well-known of all spelling and grammar checkers.

What a lot of people don’t know, however, is that Grammarly is much more powerful than that.

Yes, it will tell you if you spelled something from or formulated a sentence with bad grammar. But it can also provide recommendations for making content more concise or otherwise more readable.

It can identify tone of voice, mood, and attitude, helping you stay in line with brand guidelines.

Grammarly also has a ton of integrations, so you can use it directly within content creation tools like Google Docs or Notion or on social media platforms like X and Facebook.

6. Letterdrop 

Letterdrop is another tool we use for our own inbound marketing efforts. We use it for two things:

1. Content management
2. Social amplification 

In Letterdrop, you can draft a new piece of content (or copy it in from Google Docs), do some search optimization and internal linking, and publish it directly to your CMS (if you’re on Webflow).

Where things get really cool is Letterdrop’s automated social amplification feature.

Every piece of content we publish gets automatically shared on LinkedIn, and we can also have our team like and comment on posts without having to actually jump on the social media platform.

7. Riverside

(Image Source)

Riverside is a remote podcast recording tool.

We use it to capture video and podcast content when we’re speaking with subject matter experts over video.

Riverside offers really high-quality audio and video recording functionality, as well as some cool additional features like:

• AI social clip creation
• Transcriptions
• Captions
• Show notes

It also has a built-in editing suite, though we use Capcut for video editing.

8. Capcut  

(Image Source)

Capcut is our preferred all-in-one video editor.

Once we’ve recorded a podcast or webinar with Riverside, we upload it into Capcut for fast and free video editing.

Capcut has a ton of AI editing features such as video upscaling, to improve detail and resolution in your video content.

Then, there’s the standard functionality like filters, transitions, and auto-captions.

9. Vidyo.ai  

(Image Source)

Vidyo.ai is a super helpful AI-powered solution for turning long-form videos into shorter-form clips for repurposing across social.

For example, we use it to throw in a podcast episode or webinar, then ask it to spit out clips that we can use to accompany a post on LinkedIn promoting the full video.

Vidyo.ai has a few other cool features to help amplify your video marketing, as well:

• SEO optimized captions
• Direct posting to social
• Animated subtitles
• Virality prediction score 

10. Wistia 

(Image Source)

Wistia is a video hosting platform.

It allows you to host videos on your own site rather than having to use a third-party solution like YouTube or Vimeo.

Those platforms have their own benefit in that they can help your videos get found. But you’re also at the mercy of their algorithms and community guidelines.

For that reason, we post on both YouTube and host videos on our own website using Wistia.

Some of the other unique features that Wistia offers include:

• SEO optimization functionality
• The ability to add CTAs to videos and sync that to your CRM
• Interactivity tools like annotated links
• A dedicated content management system for storing, searching, and finding video content 

Inbound Marketing Tools For Social Media Marketing 

Beyond the creation of the actual content you’ll publish on social media—be it video, imagery, written word, or a combination thereof—you'll need some form of software to manage the whole campaign.

This includes aspects of social media management such as audience creation, topic ideation, and reporting and analytics.

Here are our three favorite inbound social media tools.

11. Buffer 

(Image Source)

Buffer bills itself as a social media toolkit for small businesses.

It’s priced accordingly—you can get started for just $6 a month—and offers a decent selection of features that SMBs and even mid-market organizations can use to make social a part of their inbound marketing strategy.

Some of our favorite Buffer features include:

• A content publishing calendar
• AI post generation
• Automatic video content distribution to multiple channels 
• Deep social media reporting and analytics suite 
• Customized landing pages with pre-built templates 

12. Hootsuite 

(Image Source)

Hootsuite is another social media scheduling and marketing suite.

What makes Hootsuite a better option (particularly for larger companies) is:

• A single inbox for answering all social media questions and queries 
• A larger range of integrations with other inbound marketing tools
• Advertising capabilities across Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn
• An AI-powered hashtag generator  

13. BuzzSumo 

(Image Source)

BuzzSumo is a unique tool in the social media space.

It's a social media monitoring tool that allows you to track mentions across various media channels, handle crises, respond to customers quickly, and reshare UGC (user-generated content).

Beyond that, BuzzSumo can be used to find unique new ideas for inbound marketing campaigns.

You can dig into what’s trending across different platforms and demographics, find real questions to answer in your social and blog content, get tips on how to promote and distribute your content for maximum engagement and dive into competitor activities.

BuzzSumo also has an influencer marketing suite, so you can find the right influencer for your next campaign based on real performance results.

Inbound Marketing Tools For Email Marketing 

Email is a key channel for inbound marketing campaigns.

Many inbound lead generation efforts—things like gated webinars, ebooks, and guides—funnel prospects into an email cadence.

Here are our two favorite inbound marketing software tools for managing email campaigns that convert.

14. Mailchimp 

(Image Source)

Mailchimp is pretty much the name in email marketing.

Yes, there are a ton of other great email marketing tools, but Mailchimp has been around for a while now and has expanded beyond simple email marketing automation.

They’re now offering features like:

• Branded content creation
• Customizable website landing pages
• Social media publishing and engagement
• Audience management and segmentation 

15. ActiveCampaign 

(Image Source)

ActiveCampaign, like Mailchimp, used to just be an email automation platform.

That’s still their core competency, but ActiveCampaign has a number of other cool features for inbound marketing.

They’ve got sales automation (like lead scoring and routing), a CRM, website visitor and event tracking, and even e-commerce integrations and features like:

• Cross-selling emails and automated abandoned cart reminders
• Personalized coupons and discounts
• An e-commerce reporting and analytics suite 

Inbound Marketing Tools For Reporting, Analytics, and Optimization 

Without solid analytics tools to report on the effectiveness of your campaigns, you won’t know what to invest more in, and you’ll probably just be spinning your wheels.

These three reporting tools, whether used separately or as an analytics tech stack, will be your perfect partner for optimizing inbound marketing efforts.

16. Google Analytics  

(Image Source)

Google Analytics is the defacto analytics tool.

The biggest win is that it's entirely free (though there is a more advanced paid version called Google Analytics 360).

Also, being Google, it obviously has great data related to organic search and PPC ad performance and integrates perfectly with other Google tools like Google Search Console (GSC).

With Google Analytics, you can map user journeys on your site, understand what’s driving traffic and what content is converting, and build automated marketing reports.

17. Hotjar 

(Image Source)

Hotjar is a website heat mapping and behavioral analytics solution.

Bit of a mouthful, but what this really means is that Hotjar helps you see what people are doing on your website so you can further optimize.

Heatmaps show you how people navigate and click on your web pages—helpful for UX and design improvements—and screen recordings allow you to actually see how users interact with specific pages, even if they aren’t clicking on anything.

Hotjar also has some survey and interview tools for gathering explicit feedback from users and a ton of useful integrations with the likes of Jira, HubSpot, and Unbounce. 

18. Optimizely

(Image Source)

Optimizely is a website optimization solution.

This is built primarily around A/B testing, so you can try out different approaches and see what converts best.

However, Optimizely is a lot more complex than that, offering features like:

• Website personalization (ideal for account-based marketing campaigns)
• AI-generated content recommendations
• Content distribution functionality 

Inbound Marketing Tools For Marketing Automation 

Inbound marketing campaigns generally work best at scale, and scale brings with it repetition.

To take some (or a lot) of that draining and repetitive manual work off of your plate, you’ll want to add a marketing automation tool to your inbound marketing tech stack.

19. HubSpot 

(Image Source)

HubSpot is the granddaddy of inbound marketing tools. 

The brand pretty much invented the term inbound marketing, and having been around for years now, it’s little surprise that they run the whole gamut from a free CRM to a deep suite for customer service and support.

Where HubSpot really excels, though, is in marketing automation for the SMB.

You can get in for free or on a relatively cheap monthly plan and start automating emails, website chat, sales playbooks, and more.  It can also be integrated with revenue intelligence platforms for better sales insights and related forecasts.

You can even build and run your site on HubSpot for a single-supplier solution.

20. Pardot 

(Image Source)

Pardot is somewhat of a legacy tool, dating back to 2007, but it's still super widely used.

This is in part because Pardot got acquired by Salesforce back in 2013, making it the de facto marketing automation solution for Salesforce-centric teams.

Aside from the obviously tight integration with Salesforce, Pardot boasts features like:

• Multi-channel marketing campaigns
• Email marketing
• Audience segmentation
• Forms for capturing warm leads 

21. AdRoll 

(Image Source)

AdRoll is an ad-focused digital marketing automation solution.

While ads themselves aren’t typically considered an inbound marketing tactic, they are often used to supplement inbound campaigns, particularly when retargeting prospects who’ve already landed on your site. So we’ll allow it here.

AdRolls offers ad buying and automation across display, video, and social media. It can run brand-focused ads or acquisition-focused retargeting ads and integrates neatly with popular e-commerce platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce.

Inbound Marketing Tools For Website Engagement 

Many inbound marketing efforts, from social media engagement to blog content, are designed to drive potential customers over to your website.

What happens then?

You use one of these three website engagement solutions to capture attention, start a conversation, answer customer questions and objections, and capture a warm lead (or close a deal directly!)

22. Warmly 

(Image Source)

Warmly—that’s us, by the way—is an account-based orchestration platform.

Revenue orchestration is all about surround-sounding prospects with timely, personalized, intent-based content and communications across all channels, from website chat to email to LinkedIn.

We've thrown our hat in the ring amongst three other website engagement solutions (Drift, Zommo, and Intercom) because we, too, offer conversational website chat.

But here’s where our solution is different:

Our chat is human-led and AI-augmented, meaning your prospects aren’t engaging with a simple “if-then” chat workflow. 

The AI engine knows exactly who it’s talking to (because the prospect is deanonymized and their data enriched through Warmly) and what level of interest they have expressed (via third-party intent data from Bombora).

The chatbot then caters the conversation to those exact needs.

And, once it's time for a rep to take over—because the prospect has demonstrated a given level of intent—the salesperson gets an automated notification via Slack and can jump into the chat live. They can even turn it into a live video call without having the prospect leave the site.

Learn more about Warmly, the signal-based revenue orchestration platform.

23. Drift 

(Image Source)

Drift is one of the most widely used chat solutions for lead generation. What Drift does in comparison to its many competitors is play the numbers game.

Drift is a pre-programmed chatbot, and they’ve started implementing a few AI features, too. 

It's not a human-led tool. It's much more about high-volume traffic plays, where a small percentage of the traffic you pull to your site can be enough to feed your sales team.

At that, though, it's really good.

It also provides sales teams with engagement history and lead scores so they know who to prioritize and provides insight into audience makeups.

24. Intercom 

(Image Source)

Intercom is similar to Drift in that it offers a chat solution.

But while Drift hits the marketing use case, Intercom is much more focused on customer support service.

For that reason, you’ll also find features like:

• A unified inbox for managing helpdesk tickets
• An AI summary of long customer complaints
• A self-serve content repository for helping clients resolve their own issues 
• Automated workflows for support ticket management 

25. Kommo

(‎Image Source)

Kommo is a messenger-based CRM that offers an interactive website chat button. Equipped with an AI chatbot that responds to messages automatically, it gives customers a conversational experience. 

This tool is a good option for leading customers to direct messages such as Live Chat and WhatsApp, especially when customers feel personally unconnected with the business.

With a website chat button, customers no longer juggle between communication channels to get virtual assistance. Along with it, Kommo provides features like: 

• A unified box for managing messages from a lot of communication channels.
• Lead cards to give information about customers.
• Templates to make engaging personalized messages.
• Sales pipeline for organizing lead cards.

Inbound Marketing Tools For Lead Routing 

All of those inbound efforts have to lead somewhere.

For most companies, the output of inbound marketing campaigns is to generate leads—prospects who’ve expressed some level of interest in your brand, product, or service.

To make those warm inbound leads make it to the right sales rep, install one of these two lead routing solutions.

26. Chili Piper

(Image Source)

Chili Piper is the defacto inbound lead routing tool.

Essentially, once a new lead comes in from one of your various inbound marketing activities, Chili Piper figures out which salesperson the lead should go to based on the likes of territory mapping, availability, deal size, company vertical, or any other factor you plug into its automation recipes.

27. LeanData 

(Image Source)

LeanData started off as a CRM orchestration too, primarily for Salesforce.

It allowed sales teams to plug in a bunch of “if this, then that” automation and to clean up their CRM, remove duplicate data, and refresh outdated account information.

Recently, they rebranded a little and expanded their offer.

Now, LeanData is more about CRM orchestration for the revenue team whose goal is to increase sales velocity.

So, we’re starting to see features come through like:

• Lead matching and routing
• Integrations with data providers like 6sense and sales enablement tools like Outreach
• Improved user access control

Warmly: The ultimate tool for reaping the fruits of inbound marketing campaigns 

We’ve just covered 27 of the best inbound marketing software tools you can use to deliver high-quality warm leads to your sales team.

All of them have one thing in common:

They’re just tools.

Tools are only as good as how you use them, meaning your processes and workflows need to be set up in a way that can leverage all of that hard work.

Many inbound marketing teams fall over at this part. They build great engines for generating demand but don’t really do any demand capture.

That’s where Warmly comes in, with features like:

• Website visitor deanonymization
• Data enrichment 
• AI-powered emails and LinkedIn outreach
• Live AI or human-led chat
• Routing and alerts  

Want to see just how big of an impact Warmly can make?

Learn how D2D Experts drove $80k in revenue in their first 12 days using Warmly.

For centuries, salespeople have cast a wide net, then worked to convince individuals to exchange money for goods and services. Unfortunately, the one-to-one model no longer works for B2B SaaS in 2024.

According to a 2023 report by Gartner, "the average enterprise B2B buying group consists of 5 to 11 stakeholders" representing "an average of 5 distinct business functions." That means instead of selling to one person, a sales rep has to convince half a dozen people to sign off.

Salespeople focused on closing specific leads are missing the forest for the trees. Account-based selling is both the opposite of—and the solution to—traditional sales strategies.

What is Account-Based Selling?

Account-based selling is inseparable from account based marketing. They both represent a shift from casting a wide net for any fish that will bite, to focusing on a few specific value accounts that require more specialized tools and strategies to capture. Marketing and sales teams need to work closely to identify the accounts and create a personalized experience for each of the stakeholders on the buying committee. Instead of one-to-one, it's team-to-team.

Key Differences Between Account-Based Selling and Traditional Sales Strategies

While the traditional sales strategy was finding a single lead who has sway over buying decisions, account-based selling takes a more holistic view of the entire purchasing committee. It's not about getting any prospective customer to 100%. Account-based sales teams suss out all the stakeholders involved and try to get everyone engaged and on board at the same time.

Benefits of Account-Based Selling for B2B Sales

The Ehrenberg-Bass Institute estimates that only 5% of customers are "in the market" for new services at any given time. This estimate is based on corporations changing their bank or law firm every five years on average. i.e. 20% of customers are in market per year, or 5% a quarter. The figure is likely lower for B2B SaaS where the average contract length is shorter and churn rate is higher.

If most of your ICP isn't in the market right now, carpet-bombing all prospects indiscriminately is a waste of resources.

Account-based selling is about understanding where prospects are in the buyer's journey and positioning your product so you already have a foot in the door when the prospect goes to open it.

While it can increase customer acquisition costs, it often pays off in higher ROI, customer lifetime value and revenue potential. It also means that sales reps are not wasting time cold calling. Instead, they are investing their time in long-term customer relationships and increasing the conversion rate.

Implementing Account-Based Selling in B2B Sales

‎Account-based selling is inseparable from account based marketing. The entire revenue operation has to be aligned at every stage from identify to close. The ABS team works together to identify the ideal client profile and narrow down the target list. The marketing team gathers account intelligence and figures out where customers are in the buyer journey. Account-based sellers are ready to engage at the moment that prospects come in market. Customer success is also primed to give the prospect the same level of personalized attention at onboarding, ensuring a smooth sales cycle from start to finish.

A. Identifying High-Value Target Accounts and Key Stakeholders

There are a lot of ways to figure out an initial target account list. The first step of account selection is putting together an ideal client profile. Ideally, you will be looking for larger high-value accounts that will bring enough revenue to justify the high-touch focus.

You may also look at accounts that serve other company goals. Do you want to land a Fortune 500 company for the social proof? Are you looking to break into an industry, or work with a company that will allow you to expand to connected subsidiaries?

Putting together a target account list is part-art, part-science. You should use all the data at your disposal, including firmographics, technographics (what else is in your customer tech stack), behavioral data and intent signals for current customers and closed won deals. You can also analyze closed lost deals for what went wrong.

Once you have your target account list, you have to figure out how the target companies makes purchasing decisions, and who are the stakeholders involved. If you typically sell to the same customer profile, there's a good chance the buying committee will look roughly the same as your target companies. Reviewing past deals is one way to get a framework for all the stakeholders involved.

B. Creating Personalized and Targeted Marketing Campaigns

The idea of account-based selling is to surround-sound all the decision makers of an account with the right message, at the right time, through all the right channels.

That might mean:

• Publish personalized content on blogs, LinkedIn, and social media geared toward their unique needs.
• Putting together case studies from existing customers similar in size and business model to strategic accounts.
• Connecting a stakeholder at a prospect company with the person in the same role at a current customer account.
• Hosting webinars or workshops geared to your ideal customer profile or target audience.
• Individualized phone and email messaging for specific stakeholders.

It's important to define all the different buyer personas in your target accounts. A VP of Marketing will have different priorities, job objectives and KPIs to hit than the VP of Sales. The more you can tailor your content to the role, or the individual, the higher the chance your outreach will resonate. This alignment on messaging starts with marketing, all the way down to the AE and Customer Success.

‎The goal of account based marketing is making sure your product is in the running when the target company identifies a need your product can fill. The account-based selling team's job is then a multi-threaded, omni-channel approach to get all the stakeholders to buy in.

C. Leveraging Technology and Data for Effective Account-Based Selling

Once the target companies are funneled in with ABM, Warmly's sales teams uses third-party intent data to find out who is currently in market and reconciles that information with contact databases. Our SDRs then send personalized outreach and feeds stakeholders into automated email or LinkedIn sequences. The sequences drive prospects to the website, where our Warmly chat bot can engage users, and pull in human salespeople for the warmest leads.

The success of account-based selling hinges on putting all the technological puzzle pieces together to get an accurate image of the target company, then using what you learn to close the sale.

For example, Warmly might find out from a conversation with one of our "champions" at a prospect company that there is another stakeholder we haven't targeted—but who has veto power. That person is added to our account plans.

Warmly's software alerts our salespeople in real-time when someone on our VIP list is visiting our website. A sales rep can then engage with the target stakeholder at the moment they are thinking about us, and tailor their messaging based on what we know about them. If the software has identified that user as the CFO, we can offer testimony from the CFO of a customer company. The next time this stakeholder attends a round-table meeting about whether to buy our product, this highly tailored and impactful interaction will be top of mind.

StackOptmise put together a comprehensive list of the sales tech landscape.

D. Mutual Action Plan

With the ubiquity of account-based selling also comes specialized tools to make the process easier. Instead of closing deals on a massive email chain that includes every stakeholder, sellers can use a tool like Aligned to pull together collateral and documents in a single workplace. The platform offers full visibility, so buyers and sellers can see who has looked at what. It also informs sellers which stakeholders haven't engaged—i.e. what leads need to be warmed.

Transforming B2B Sales Strategies with Account-Based Selling

Evolution of Customer-led Growth

As a buyer, would you rather talk to a salesperson that may have their own agenda (e.g. to grow their commission), or an existing customer who is already using the product and has no incentive to lie?

At Warmly, we often let our customers speak for us through Deeto.ai. It helps our sales teams identify customers with similar firmographics to the target company and makes it easy to reach out for a referral. Having the prospect jump on a call with the customer is especially powerful. The prospect gets hyper-specific testimony from someone with a similar job title at a similar company—which really drives home your product's usefulness.

‎The Importance of Timing for Increasing Conversion Rates

The number one factor in ABS is figuring out everyone who needs to be sold on your product. The second is using all the tools in your arsenal to capitalize on opportunities to connect with those stakeholders. Timing and being able to respond quickly plays a huge part. Just being a subject matter expert in the right place at the right time can sometimes make the deal. Often, it is not about having the best product on the market, but creating a better, more personalized, seamless and timely experience for prospective customers. Another company may be able to solve their problem too, but you were able to get there first.

Building Long-Term Relationships with Key Accounts for Enhanced Customer Loyalty

Account-based selling does not end when the contract is signed. Everything you learned about the account can continue through ongoing customer relationship management. For example, if you know who the detractors were in the initial buying process, nurturing those contacts can help you get their business again at renewal time. Account-based feedback can also go back into developing other features and use cases that fit the account's needs—which can lead to upselling.

Overcoming Challenges in Account-Based Selling

Addressing Resource Limitations and Scalability Issues

Account-based selling works best for large contracts that justify the extended, high-touch sales cycle. It's also difficult to implement for early-stage companies that may not have achieved product-market fit, or don't have a clear picture of their ideal customers.

However, gathering as much account intelligence as possible helps minimize the risk your company will invest in a personalized sales approach for the wrong company.

Predictive analytics can help companies parse data for clues about what accounts to target.

You can also save yourself several steps by using a signal-based revenue orchestration platform like Warmly that brings together intent data, behavioral signals, analytics and visitor identification—along with automated chat/email/LinkedIn sequences.

Then once those leads have converted into calls, you can use tools like Fathom, Spiky.ai, Gong, or Attention to analyze call transcriptions to understand the health of your deals, where deals are being blocked, and how best to handle objections.

Managing Complex Sales Cycles and Multiple Stakeholders

The ABS strategy works well with complex sales cycles or product needs, because your revenue team is taking the time to really understand the account's unique needs and challenges. Having a well-rounded team is crucial to make this successful. An account planning team should include sales reps, sales development representatives, marketers, and customer support. This enables them to understand each of the buying personas, tailor their messaging to the individual, and give the prospect the best possible experience throughout the sales cycle.

Measuring and Tracking the Success of Account-Based Selling Efforts

Given the investment of resources that goes into each account, you ideally want to build long-term relationships that will pay off in revenue over time. Good metrics for gauging the value of account based selling are average contract value (ACV), customer lifetime value (LTV), average deal size and customer retention. Account engagement scores and progression rate can also help marketing teams gauge effectiveness.

Conclusion

At it's core, account-based selling is about giving all the stakeholders in the buying committee the best possible experience at the time that the company could be interested in buying. It's an extremely effective B2B sales strategy that focuses resources on key accounts when they are in market. However, it involves commitment and collaboration across the entire firm, from marketing to customer success and account management.

With the traditional, lead-focused sales process, deals can easily be scuttled if your main contact changes jobs or goes on leave—which is especially dangerous with a long sales cycle. For companies with an ICP that can sustain it, account based selling is a relatively low-risk selling strategy that can generate bigger deals, higher conversion rates, and long-lasting customer loyalty.

Traditional sales funnels simply aren’t effective anymore. Here’s why B2B sales must embrace the Account Based Marketing (ABM) funnel. 

The days of traditional B2B sales funnels are almost over. With so many more products on the market today than there were 10 years ago, selling has become a more complex process for sales and marketing teams—and buying more difficult for customers.

For years, it’s been about lead generation: casting a wide net for the maximum amount of potential leads, in the hope that at least a few of them will eventually convert. 

That doesn’t work anymore. Particularly not for B2B business selling.

We’re talking about a market where B2B buyers spend 50% of their time researching solutions independently, both online and offline—and just 17% of their time meeting with sales reps.

With more conversations happening offline, and more buyers influenced by external factors, it’s getting more and more challenging for B2B marketers and sales teams to be a part of the selling journey. 

And that’s where the Account Based Marketing funnel comes in. 

What is Account Based Marketing (ABM)?

Whereas lead generation focuses on building a huge base of potential leads, then refining them, ABM harnesses technology like a marketing automation platform and sales/marketing collaboration to target a specific account and increase the likelihood of conversion. 

Primarily, ABM relies on B2B sellers being able to strategically identify their target market and thus the corresponding key accounts that will be a focus for marketing and sales work.

ABM works because it instinctively acknowledges that buyers aren’t just visiting your company website to make a decision. According to a Gartner study, B2B buyers actually value third-party interactions—such as word-of-mouth advice, online reviews, and other third-party content—1.4x more than online supplier interactions. 

The Benefits of ABM

There’s no hiding it: ABM is a huge undertaking. Close collaboration between sales and marketing leaders might be alien to most companies, and without agreement on key accounts to target, your efforts at ABM can fall at the first hurdle.

However, there’s more than enough evidence to prove that tackling ABM is a worthwhile challenge. 

Focuses Resources On the Accounts That Matter

Traditional lead generation has no other expectation than to simply send a bunch of MQLs through to a sales team. Not only does this gives sales the difficult job of selling to people who really aren’t ready yet, but it’s also a tremendous waste of marketing resources. 

Meanwhile, an effective ABM strategy ensures that the accounts that your sales and marketing team focus on are really the ones that are going to buy in the end. 

It might be less of an impressive lead pay-off (what are one or two leads compared to thousands?) but with a target account list, your budget is inevitably going towards higher-quality leads.  

Develops Foundations for Stronger Customer Relationships

When does a lead become a customer? That’s not a trick question—but the answer is very different for lead gen versus ABM.

Within a traditional sales funnel, your lead stays a lead right up until the moment of purchase. Boom, they’ve graduated from lead to customer.

An ABM program, meanwhile, doesn’t make such a concrete distinction between leads and customers. Instead, every lead is named an account from the beginning. 

As a result, each account is treated as if they were a customer from the first moment of discovery, with personalized sales and marketing efforts designed to build a relationship before purchase. 

ABM Increases ROI

In the world of data-backed marketing, this is really the only benefit that matters. And maybe it’s against all logic: more leads should mean higher ROI, right? Not exactly. 

Research conducted by ABM Leadership Alliance and ITSMA found that 76% of marketers saw a higher ROI with an ABM marketing strategy than any other. 

In another study, almost 9 in 10 organizations reported that accounts supported by ABM achieved higher ROI than those without ABM support.

How Relevant Are Traditional Sales Funnels B2B Marketing Today?

The traditional image of the sales funnel as an upside-down triangle is a stubborn one. It’s one of the first things that beginner marketers and sales teams are introduced to—and yet, it doesn’t quite work today, particularly if you want to harness the benefits of an ABM campaign.

For starters, the traditional funnel assumes that the B2B buying journey is linear—as demonstrated by HubSpot’s diagram below. Customers are dragged into the top of the funnel using effective demand creation and inbound marketing strategies (building awareness through social media presence, videos, or blogs), and they progress down through each stage. Before you know it, they’re buyers.

(Image Source)

Unfortunately, this model doesn’t reflect the true reality of a B2B buyer’s journey, which is oftentimes far more non-linear and wayward. 

The traditional funnel would have you believe that you can guide a customer through distinct stages until they’re ready to buy. In reality, that’s no longer the case.

In today’s sales cycles, buyers might revisit each stage of the funnel more than once, and even interact with other suppliers simultaneously. It’s not a case of identifying a MQL and then passing them onto sales to bring home the sale; it’s far more unpredictable.  

(Image Source)

In fact, much of the B2B cycle happens without your company ever being involved at all. According to research from Harvard Business Review, B2B customers are on average 57% of the way through the buying process before they even engage with your sales reps. 

The offline nature of the B2B sales cycle also means that tracking customers is more difficult. It’s impossible to see the conversations that your customers are having at their workplace, at networking events, or informally on sites like Twitter or Reddit. 

All of this precipitates a new way of thinking about the traditional sales funnel, in light of changing B2B buyer cycles. 

How to Develop an Effective Account Based Marketing Funnel 

Fundamentally, the ABM funnel is:

• Non-linear,
• More difficult to track,
• Engaged with sales and marketing simultaneously.

With that in mind, we like to think of the ABM funnel as more of an incubator than a funnel. Rather than a 2D funnel, the ABM funnel is a complex, 3D system, in which multiple elements (for example, inbound and outbound marketing, content creation, field marketing) interact to produce the preferred outcome: conversion. 

Crucially, within the ABM funnel, marketing and sales strategies don’t work alone, but in tandem with each other (for this reason, many companies are abandoning sales and marketing departments altogether, in favor of a ‘go-to-market’ department or equivalent.)

To make this incubator work, though, you have to feed it the right energy. And that starts with your key account selection.

Creating the Right Target Accounts List 

39% of B2B marketers say that choosing which accounts to target is the biggest challenge of developing an effective ABM strategy. So many organizations ignore this step, or, even worse, do it badly.

The Serviceable Addressable Market (SAM) is the foundation of any effective ABM funnel. But you can’t just add anyone who’s ever visited your site or signed up to a sales demo to your SAM. 

An effective ABM funnel relies on those target accounts being the right fit for your company. 

Evaluating fit acco‎unts requires analysis of key variables including the demographics of your existing customers, a breakdown of how profitable they are (if you can get this data), and whether they are going to have the problem you're solving. 

To start evaluating fit, pull up your current customer list and filter to show only those customers with 100% net revenue retention. B2B expert Scott Martinis describes this segment as a 'retainable addressable market': the proportion of your existing market who is willing to buy from you again and again.

The most effective way of finding best fit accounts is to search for organizations similar to those in your retainable addressable market - people who want to continue buying from you. So, build a lookalike segment based on this portion of your existing customer list, and you've got a list of key accounts to start targeting.

As well as segmenting existing repeat customers and building a lookalike list, sales teams can look at closed won deals to find best fit accounts. Focus on the different variables that make up that customer: the size of the company, geography, what the team looks like, how many sales reps they have. 

Equally, closed lost deals can also provide insight into the companies who don’t need your product, which could be for reasons that you can capitalize on (for example, if they’ve recently closed with a competitor for a specific length contract.)

Once you’ve established the key accounts that you want to target with your ABM strategy, you have to pair fit with intent. 

Determining Intent

Sales teams are well aware that the B2B buying process takes time. There are multiple stages and often multiple key decision makers. But contrary to that, the buying window is actually very small. If you miss that window, you might not get another chance to sell. 

Intent is often more difficult to scope than fit, especially as it requires almost constant buying behavior tracking. But you don’t want to waste time on prospects that simply aren’t ready to convert. 

There are some crucial factors that will help you identify intent, most of which will require third-party data. For example, you can use ABM tools like 6sense and Bombora to explore key accounts’ recent keyword searches, ad engagement, and recent website visits. 

Integrating first-party data like website visits, email responses, webinar sign-ups, and sales rep engagement, can help you build a bigger picture of key account intent, and understand the right time for your sales teams to reach out. 

Building Brand Awareness 

Because the ABM funnel is non-linear, the process of creating your TAL and analyzing intent has to co-occur with brand awareness work. It’s all well and good identifying key accounts, but if they’re not aware of you, then you’re not going to be able to effectively sell to them anyway.

Demand generation is key if you want to get your company in front of your key accounts. By creating educational content around specific pain points and investing in personal branding for your key company leaders, you can ensure that you’re the company they think of when they need a solution. 

Remember, 60% of B2B buyers end up choosing the brand they thought of at the beginning of their search.

Your brand awareness must be both far-reaching and strategic. You want to build a general awareness among your market as well as target relevant content to the right people at the right time. 

Conducting Creative Campaigns

Your TAL, intent insights, and demand generation work all work together to create targeted campaigns with one goal: converting those accounts that are ready to buy. 

There’s really no limit to the kinds of campaigns you can run once you’ve identified a key account. To give one example, data cloud company Snowflake partners with Sendoso to build key account loyalty through gift programs. The organization also runs strategic, one-day events with key accounts to generate interest and build relationships. 

(Image Source)

But you don’t have to go that far if your budget doesn’t allow it. Targeted social content, referral programs, gifts, email campaigns: there are plenty of ways to develop your key accounts into customers, and your strategy will be informed by your brand.

TL;DR

• Create your TAL.
• Look for intent signals.
• Build brand awareness alongside.
• Create strategic campaigns that convert.  

Top Tips for Optimizing Your ABM Funnel

Now that you know how to build the foundations of an ABM funnel, it’s time to look at how to optimize. A great way of thinking about ABM is as precisely the opposite of a copy-and-paste marketing campaign. As Hillary Carpio, head of ABM at Snowflake says,

“The key to success in ABM is you have to build a program that suits the need of your business.” 

The strength of your resources and your unique goals will inform how you conduct an ABM strategy. 

1. Understand that demand capture and demand creation go hand-in-hand.

Educating key accounts doesn’t happen overnight. Building effective brand awareness requires long-term digital marketing campaigns, and a rejection of traditional cold sales tactics. 

At the same time, demand creation is useless without demand capture. Both of these elements must work together to warm up your key accounts, and that’s where ABM software comes in. 

Effective ABM software can reduce the risk of you making assumptions about accounts, resulting in relevant demand creation and personalized campaigns. 

2. Prevent data silos.

Coordinating a successful ABM strategy inevitably involves a lot of different software—intent tracking, email marketing, CRM, web analytics. And because your marketing and sales team are effectively working in tandem on your ABM, all of that data has to be available for multiple stakeholders to view.

Better decision making will happen when your entire team has access to the right data. If you’re not on the same page on your ABM strategy, you’re setting yourself up to fail. 

3. Find tools to help you react instantly. 

In an ideal world, you want to engage with your target account when you know their intent to buy is there. However, in the real world, that can be challenging. 

Using ABM tools like Warmly can help you react instantly when your key accounts are active on your website and showing intent, helping you convert faster. 

Our AI chatbot can proactively chat with target accounts when they’re on your website, educating them and even booking meetings. And when an account really needs a helping hand from a human SDR, Warmly AI can loop them into the conversation.

Warmly's success in social selling has played a crucial role in propelling our brand's growth and lead generation strategy. Focused mainly on LinkedIn, our social selling endeavors have proven highly effective, contributing significantly to both lead acquisition and scheduled meetings. Take a look at the lead volume that we bring in from LinkedIn alone: 

We’re not alone in our social selling success. The strategy:

• Gives sales professionals 45% more sales opportunities
• Makes sales professionals 51% more likely to hit their sales quotas
• Helps sales professionals outsell 78% of their peers

In today’s social media centric world, social selling isn't merely an option; it's a smart and increasingly necessary way for sales teams and marketing professionals to connect with customers via the platforms they use the most. Consider — over 5 billion people are using social media today, and that number is steadily rising. 

We are here to help you embrace the power of social selling for enhanced results in the digital era. We’re covering: 

• What Is Social Selling?
• Best Practices, Social Selling Tips, and Tricks
• What Is Social Selling the Inbound Way?

Let’s dive in. 

What is Social Selling? 

Diverging from traditional sales methods, social selling places a premium on dynamic and personalized interactions across social media profiles. This approach goes beyond transactional sales, which might feel pushy and forced. Instead, social selling strategy concentrates on meaningful relationships and understanding audience needs and preferences. The goal is to establish a robust online presence, foster trust, and cultivate genuine connections to enhance sales opportunities. 

Key Elements of Social Selling

While social selling tactics differ, they share fundamental commonalities: 

Dynamic Interactions

Engage with prospects through real-time conversations on platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.

Personalized Engagement

Tailor content and interactions to cater to the specific preferences and interests of your audience.

Audience Understanding

Utilize social media insights to comprehend the needs and behaviors of your target audience.

Building Trust

Establish credibility by sharing valuable insights, industry knowledge, and addressing customer queries.

Creating Connections

Actively connect with potential customers, industry influencers, and peers to expand your network.

The Growing Popularity of Social Selling

Social selling is already a linchpin strategy for top sales reps:

• Leveraging social selling streamlines the process of obtaining referrals within LinkedIn networks, a strategy employed by 74% of sales professionals for prospecting and acquiring new leads.
• The effectiveness of individuals in establishing a professional brand on LinkedIn is measured by the Social Selling Index (SSI). High-performing salespeople who leverage the SSI consistently outperform their peers who are less inclined to embrace social media in their sales strategies.
• Social media plays a pivotal role in the sales landscape, with high-performing salespeople being 12% more likely to incorporate these platforms into their strategies, showcasing the integral role of social selling in enhancing overall sales performance.
• Approximately 56% of sales professionals actively integrate social media platforms into their sales efforts, underscoring the crucial function of social media in identifying and engaging potential prospects.
• In 2022, a significant 31% of sellers successfully closed deals surpassing half a million dollars without relying on face-to-face meetings. Deals influenced by LinkedIn's Sales Navigator were notably 209% larger compared to those not impacted by this influential social selling tool.
• According to LinkedIn research, a remarkable 90% of top sales professionals actively embrace social selling tools, illustrating the widespread recognition and adoption of social selling practices among successful sales experts.

The Intersection with Marketing

It’s not just sales professionals leaning into social selling. There is also a notable upward trend in marketers embracing social platforms. In the US alone a whopping $72.3 billion was spent advertising on social media networks in 2023. As of January 2023, Facebook was the most utilized platform among marketers (ranked first amongst 89 percent of global marketers). Instagram and LinkedIn followed closely, while TikTok was utilized by one-quarter of marketers for advertising. 86 percent of industry professionals noted increased exposure as the primary benefit of leveraging social media in marketing, with 76 percent emphasizing the significance of enhanced traffic.

Best Practices, Social Selling Tips, and Tricks

Top-performing salespeople are social sellers, prioritizing cultivating quality connections over a high quantity of unknown leads. 76% of these high achievers consistently research their prospects before initiating contact, emphasizing the importance of a personalized and informed approach. So how do you emulate these kinds of tactics within your own sales team?

LinkedIn stands as a powerful platform for effective social selling strategies. Therefore, Understanding the intricacies of the LinkedIn algorithm and employing best practices that align with its dynamics is essential for successful social selling. The algorithm rewards content that sparks engagement and keeps users on the platform, making it crucial to create compelling and shareable posts:

Here are some of our favorite best practices, tips, and tricks for working with the algorithm to optimize your LinkedIn activity for social selling:

Improve your SSI

Enter the LinkedIn Social Selling Index (SSI). The SSI measures one's effectiveness in utilizing LinkedIn for social selling, assessing key factors such as establishing a professional brand, finding the right people, engaging with insights, and building strong relationships. A high SSI indicates a robust social selling presence, emphasizing the importance of crafting a compelling profile, connecting with relevant prospects, sharing valuable content, and actively engaging with the LinkedIn community.

• Optimize Your Profile: Ensure your LinkedIn profile is complete, highlighting your skills, experiences, and a professional photo as your profile picture. Craft a compelling headline and summary that showcase your expertise.
• Connect Strategically: Expand your network with relevant connections. Connect with colleagues, clients, and industry professionals to enhance your visibility and reach on the platform.
• Share Valuable Original Content: Regularly post and share content that aligns with your industry and interests. Providing insights, articles, and updates showcases your expertise and engages your network.
• Engage Actively: Comment on, like, and share posts from your network. Engaging with others' content demonstrates your interest and involvement in industry discussions.
• Request Recommendations: Seek recommendations from colleagues and clients to build credibility. Positive testimonials enhance your professional reputation and contribute to a higher SSI.

Be Strategic with your Posting Habits

Strategic posting on LinkedIn involves choosing the right time and creating a memorable personal brand. To optimize your posting habits, identify peak times when your audience is active. Aim for mornings or early afternoons when professionals often browse LinkedIn. 

Remember:

• Timing is everything: Leverage analytics tools to identify when your LinkedIn connections are most. Then, time your LinkedIn post to correspond with heavy online traffic.
• Consistency is key: Ensure consistent use of your chosen moniker across your LinkedIn profile, posts, and interactions.
• Be #strategic: Implement a tactical use of relevant hashtags to increase the discoverability of your posts within specific professional communities or trending topics.
• Lean into your network: Actively engage with your network by participating in discussions, responding to comments, and sharing insights. This builds rapport and strengthens your professional connections.

Craft Quality Content That Resonates with the Audience 

Crafting quality content is pivotal for effective social selling. Focus on delivering what your audience wants, whether it's humor, valuable insights, or revealing personal anecdotes. Incorporate storytelling techniques to make your content relatable and engaging, as people naturally connect with stories. 

Establish a regular posting schedule to maintain a strong online presence. Plan your content in advance, utilize scheduling tools, and stay attuned to trending topics to keep your posts relevant and compelling.

Try sharing:

• Industry Insights: Share your perspective on current trends, challenges, or emerging technologies within your industry.
• Expert Advice: Offer valuable tips, tricks, or insights related to your expertise. Position yourself as an authority in your field.
• Behind-the-Scenes: Provide a glimpse into your work life or company culture. Humanize your brand by sharing behind-the-scenes content.
• Interactive Content: Pose questions, conduct polls, or host quizzes to encourage audience interaction and gather feedback.
• Educational Content: Create informative content that educates your audience on relevant topics or addresses common industry misconceptions.
• Event Highlights: Share highlights from industry events, conferences, or webinars you've attended. This establishes you as an active participant in your field.
• Thought-Provoking Questions: Pose thought-provoking questions to stimulate discussions and engage your audience in meaningful, relevant conversations.

Be Memorable

Crafting a memorable moniker adds a distinctive touch to your personal brand. Create a title that reflects your personality or professional strengths. Memorable monikers, such as "Click Through King" or "Sales Khaleesi," create a unique and intriguing identity that lingers in the audience's memory. 

For example:

Or

This initial interest often leads to increased profile visits. Not only does this provide an opportunity to showcase expertise, build brand recognition, and establish connections within the professional community, but it also creates opportunities for profile visitors to become inbound leads by clicking through to your website (more on this later).

Lightning Strike Posts 

Lightning strike posts are impactful and attention-grabbing announcements or content shared on social platforms, particularly LinkedIn, with the goal of quickly generating widespread engagement. 

These posts have the potential to go viral, increasing visibility and driving profile visits. By leveraging the heightened exposure gained from such posts, individuals can channel the increased traffic towards their profiles, subsequently encouraging visits to their websites. 

Take a look at a lightning strike post from our CEO Maximus Greenwald about a Warmly milestone: 

To create effective lightning strike posts, individuals can consider:

• Series A funding announcements
• Major product launches
• Groundbreaking industry insights
• Recognition or awards received
• Top achievements or milestones
• Participation in influential events or collaborations
• Exclusive behind-the-scenes content
• Trending or controversial topics within the industry

Engage with Influencers 

Engaging with influencers can significantly amplify your social selling efforts. Influencers hold sway over a substantial audience, and their endorsement can enhance your visibility and credibility. To foster engagement with influencers:

• Identify Key Influencers: Research and identify influencers in your industry who align with your brand.
• Post Thoughtful Comments: Instead of generic comments, provide thoughtful and insightful contributions to the influencers' posts. 
• Engage in Personalized Outreach: Send personalized messages expressing appreciation for their content and highlighting specific aspects you find valuable.
• Audience-Centric Content: Tailor your content to address the interests and pain points of the influencer's audience.
• Collaborative Content: Propose collaboration ideas, such as co-authored articles, joint webinars, or interviews, to create content together.
• Tag Influencers: When relevant, tag influencers in your posts to increase the chances of them noticing and engaging with your content.
• Regular Engagement: Consistently engage with influencers' content by sharing, commenting, and reacting to their updates.
• Social Listening: Monitor their conversations, respond to their queries, and actively participate in discussions related to your industry.

Pro-tip: Comment early on viral posts

Engaging with influencer posts early on by commenting strategically positions your input at the top of the comment section, garnering increased visibility. When influencers' posts gain traction, your comment becomes more likely to be seen by a broader audience, contributing to heightened profile views. This visibility boost is crucial as users perusing popular posts are more inclined to explore your profile, thereby driving potential connections, increasing network reach, and enhancing overall profile visibility on LinkedIn.

What Is Social Selling the Inbound Way?

Social selling isn’t the only highly effective approach to the modern customer profile. In contrast to traditional sales methods, inbound selling is a customer-centric and less intrusive strategy. Inbound selling focuses on attracting and engaging potential customers through content and interactions that align with their interests and needs.

The similarities between the two strategies make them symbiotic, and there’s a natural path from social selling into inbound lead status.

Tactically, the transition from engagement via social selling into an inbound lead can look like this:

• Engagement on Social Media Profiles: Social sellers initiate personalized engagement on platforms like LinkedIn, responding to comments, messages, and participating in industry discussions.
• Compelling Content: By sharing valuable and tailored content, social sellers capture the lead's interest. This content addresses the lead's needs and concerns, making them more likely to explore further.
• Curiosity Sparked: The engaging interactions and compelling content pique the lead's curiosity, prompting them to seek more information about the brand and its offerings.
• Visit to LinkedIn Profiles: Intrigued by the social media engagement, the lead navigates to the LinkedIn profiles of the individuals involved, seeking insights into the people behind the brand.
• LinkedIn to Website Transition: Social sellers strategically guide the lead from LinkedIn profiles to the company's website, where they can find detailed information, product/service offerings, and additional resources.
• Conversion Opportunities: Once on the website, there is an opportunity for that person’s information to be captured, therefore converting them into an inbound lead.

Social Selling the Inbound Way with Warmly

Warmly provides a comprehensive set of features to help companies capture inbound leads driven to their website through social selling efforts. Here's how Warmly can contribute to this process:

Access The Best Data

Utilize native integrations or add your API key to de-anonymize and enrich visitor data.

Automatically reveal the stage of a visitor's buyer journey when they explore your website.

Contextually Aware

Connect your CRM to automatically gather and understand relevant context around the prospect. Enhance personalized conversations with inbound website visitors through automated context assimilation.

Autonomous Chat

Warmly's AI initiates personalized sales conversations on your rep's behalf with site visitors meeting segment filter conditions. Engage in real-time with potential leads, providing immediate assistance and information.

Automatic Follow Up

Automatically enroll high-intent inbound visitors into personalized follow-up sequences using popular platforms like Outreach, SalesLoft, or LinkedIn. Nuture leads on auto-pilot, ensuring consistent engagement with your brand.

Sync Data To CRM

Break down data siloes by centralizing data in your CRM. Automatically create or update CRM records with enriched information, engagement insights, and buyer intent data.

By integrating Warmly into your social selling strategy, companies can convert more qualified accounts visiting their site. The platform enables proactive engagement, efficient qualification, and seamless conversion of warm inbound leads. This streamlined process not only captures leads effectively but also enhances the overall efficiency of turning website visitors into meaningful connections.

Conclusion

In today's digital world, where more than 5 billion people use social media, the importance of social selling is clear. Whether you're in sales or marketing, adding social selling to your strategy isn't just a choice; it's a practical and necessary step.

As you start engaging in social sales, we encourage you to share your experiences, challenges, and successes. Social selling is a changing field that requires continuous learning. Join discussions, share your thoughts, and help shape the evolving world of social selling. Your input is crucial for collaborative exploration in the digital age of sales and marketing.

Cheers to building meaningful connections and unlocking business potential through the strategic use of social selling!

Web analytics have existed almost as long as the internet. Even in the early 90s, anyone who cared could look up their website's server logs and get the IP addresses of anyone who visited.

The ability to read those jumbled numbers as people has come far, even in the last few years. Some website visitor identification software like Warmly now claims to identify up to 65% of anonymous website traffic.

What is the point of website visitor de-anonymization?

Website traffic is an incredibly rich source of information for B2B companies. Knowing who is coming to your site or looking at the pricing page lets sales teams know who is already interested in their product and streamlines the process of finding qualified leads.

For marketers, knowing what website visitors are reading and where they came from can tell the team if campaigns are driving visitors from the right ICP.

If prospects are already on your website, it’s also a naturally good time to engage with them, which can further increase conversion rates across your funnel.

Tools and Techniques for Identifying Anonymous Website Visitors

When a company is on your site, there are a couple of different ways of getting information about them.

IP location is the most common way of identifying broad stats such as the probable company. Visitor intelligence companies can then get a more complete profile of contact-level information through forms, outbound emails, logins, and chat.

Forms

When anonymous users fill out a form with their contact information, the site can attach a cookie that associates that email address (a unique identifier) with the browser. The website will then be able to tell when that same browser returns. To comply with GDPR, the user must give opt-in consent to be tracked by cookies (e.g. by checking a box).

Outbound Emails

When a sales team sends an outbound email with links, they can set a query parameter that hashes a unique identifier connected to the prospect's email address. This query parameter passes that information through to the website, which can then use cookie information to link the person to their activity.

Logins

When web visitors sign in with a third party like Google, Microsoft, or Facebook, the verification service passes the person's email onto the website. Both the website and the third party can also attach cookies to track activity.

When anonymous users make a request on a website, such as logging in, the site also gets the user's IP address, which, combined with email and cookie information, helps with visitor identification.

Chats

When unique visitors use the live chat on a company's website, the person or machine behind it may ask for emails or contact information. This data can then be attached to cookies, browsers, and other digital locations to form a more complete profile of unique visitors.

IP Location

Before remote work, it was easy for visitor identification software to use firmographic data and IP location to guess what company was visiting. For example, the algorithm might know where Amazon is headquartered and where the servers are located and safely assume what IP addresses belong to Amazon. Now, with so many users working remotely, IP location is most useful in combination with other data points and methodologies.

How Visitor Identification Tools Work to Identify Anonymous Visitors

Unless the user has given their explicit permission to be identified, contact-level information will be the result of a probabilistic waterfall. Most website visitor identification software is based on running data points through this waterfall to reconcile them and spit out the algorithm's best guess of who the visitor may be.

For example, a customer logging into Facebook from a certain IP address and then visiting a different website from the same IP address gives the company a strong guess that these individuals are likely the same person.

There are also data aggregator companies that integrate with different platforms that tell them in real time when someone uses one of those services. They can then pair that login information with other engagement data to determine the IP address most closely associated with a user. This can be incredibly accurate to find employees working remotely. The aggregator can also strip away the PII and compliantly sell that data to other companies.

Ethical Considerations for Anonymous Website Visitor Identification

‎Laws like Europe's GDPR prevent companies from getting personally identifiable information (PII) unless the person has explicitly opted into sharing that information.

Visitor intelligence companies can collect contact-level anonymous visitor identification, but they are only able to share company-level information. Some companies are skirting the laws by revealing some detailed information, such as the division where the visitor works or their job title. However, that can be considered PII in some jurisdictions.

Identifying Contact vs. Company (Protecting PII)

Personally identifying information is not uniformly defined in the United States. The Privacy Act, which regulates how PII can used by federal agencies, notes that PPI "is not anchored to any single category of information or technology. Rather, it requires a case-by-case assessment of the specific risk that an individual can be identified."

For European users, the GDPR protects any information that relates to a living person "who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person."

Since the GDPR applies only to natural persons, not companies, most anonymous visitor identification companies will provide company-level information by collecting some form of outbound emails, logins, and chats and then stripping away the PII.

How can companies access this data?

The most common way of getting the data for website visitor identification is by buying it from vendors. Some service agreements include clauses that allow the provider to collect information through third-party cookies and sell that data to other companies.

CRMs like HubSpot allow users to turn on link-tracking on forms and outbound emails. Similar to the visitor "hit counters" of the 1990s, companies can also put a discrete pixel on the website that lets you know when somebody comes through from a website link and cookies them.

Interestingly, some visitor intelligence companies are able to read natively in HubSpot cookies. For example, if you use Warmly and HubSpot together, your Warmly dashboard can use the cookies HubSpot has already added to the prospect's browsers to identify them without the need to send out additional outbound emails to get that information.

What is the difference between IP vs. Cookie vs. Browser Fingerprinting?

There are a few broad categories for gathering data that feed into the algorithms and waterfall processes that can then spit out a probable guess for anonymous users. The three main types are IP addresses, cookies, and browser fingerprinting.

Internet Protocol (IP) Addresses

Internet Protocol addresses are unique strings of numbers that identify the device you use to connect to the internet and the general area from which it is connected. It can be used with other firmographic information, such as where a company is headquartered, to triangulate who might be visiting your website.

Cookies

Internet cookies (also known as HTTP cookies) are small pieces of data saved by your browser that identifies you to websites. The technology has been around since 1994. They enable many of the features we expect from websites. Session cookies keep track of what you put in your online shopping cart and are generally considered "necessary" cookies. A "persistent" cookie might help websites remember user settings such as language preference.

When you log into a website and check the box to "Remember me on this computer," you consent to the website using a first-party cookie to keep you logged in. While first-party cookies are limited to one website, third-party cookies can track your browsing history around the web.

In order to be compliant with the GDPR and California's CCPA, websites have to offer people a chance to opt out of non-essential cookies. Google began testing restricting third-party cookies for a subset (1%) of Chrome users in January 2024 and plans to phase them out by default completely by the middle of the year.

Contact-level cookie tracking will always be more accurate than IP address because a single IP can be used by an entire company or all the employees sharing the public Wi-Fi network at a WeWork.

Browser Fingerprinting

Browser fingerprinting is a method of tracking that involves taking basic essential information about your computer and remembering that unique combination of features as a "fingerprint" of an individual.

Device fingerprinting is incredibly accurate. A study by the Electronic Frontier Foundation found that 83.6% of browsers had a unique fingerprint. In browsers that enabled Java or Adobe Flash, it was 94.2%. In a recent study, researchers trying to de-anonymize cybercriminals who use the antitracking browser Tor found their "proposed Tor anonymous traffic recognition method achieves 94.37% accuracy."

What is the future of visitor de-anonymization?

There's been a big push in the last two decades towards data privacy and ownership. The GDPR and ePrivacy Directive regulate how websites are allowed to track users in the European Union, disclose their activity, and ask for consent. However, most regulations surround the use of internet cookies. Browser fingerprinting remains largely unregulated, especially since it uses publicly available information. The industry shows signs of moving in this direction in a post-cookie world—which seems imminent.

Google Chrome accounts for 63.56% of internet browsers worldwide and 52.31% of browsers in the United States, followed by competitors Safari, Microsoft Edge, and Firefox, which already block third-party cookies by default. Google's plan to phase out third-party cookies by mid-2024 will take significant air out of the market for cookie tracking.

In addition to browser fingerprinting, marketers are experimenting with grouping people into cohorts of similar interests or demographics in order to gather information free of PII. Google is already promoting the Federated Learning of Cohorts (FloC) as an alternative tracking mechanism.

Conclusion

The last few decades have been a dance between B2B intelligence companies and privacy regulation, both by the government (GDPR, California Consumer Privacy Act) and the market (e.g. browsers like Tor, Apple's ATT protocol on iPhones).

As the market moves away from third-party cookies, B2B go-to-market teams have to find new ways of identifying anonymous website visitors to boost conversion rates, supported by a growing industry of website visitor identification software and methodologies.

Website Visitor Tracking with Warmly

‎Our website visitor tracking software and deanonymization tools enable B2B teams to identify 15% of contacts and 65% of the companies that visit your website. These tools are just one part of our signal-based revenue orchestration software that helps GTM teams make smarter decisions on lead qualifying and sales strategy.

Interested in seeing how you can streamline B2B lead generation with web traffic deanonymization, intent signals, and automated sales outreach?

You can start using Warmly for free today. Or, book a demo with a sales rep to get additional insights on making Warmly work for your team.

Clearbit is one of the biggest and most respected names out there when it comes to quality B2B data.

But like most companies that make it to the top, it isn’t exactly what it used to be.

Clearbit came up primarily as an API that you could plug into your existing tech stack to access high-quality contact data.

Now, they’re part of the HubSpot suite (or at least will be once the acquisition and integration process is complete).

If you’re on HubSpot, this is great news.

If you’re not, and you’re using some other CRM (Salesforce, for example), then you’re likely to find that Clearbit isn’t your ideal solution going forward, and it's time to start looking for an alternative.

This article will help you through that exact process. We’re going to dive into eight powerful Clearbit competitors that you can use to fuel your omnichannel sales and marketing playbook.

Top 8 Clearbit Competitors and Alternatives 

1. ZoomInfo 

(Image Source)

ZoomInfo is one of the most widely used and all-encompassing GTM software solutions.

Not only do they compete with Clearbit in terms of contact data and sales intelligence, but they also have advertising, lead routing, and website chat functionality.

Why Choose ZoomInfo Over Clearbit?

The main reason to choose ZoomInfo is its breadth.

Of all of the Clearbit alternatives covered here, ZoomInfo does the most.

For example, if you’re already using ZoomInfo’s MarketingOS for account-based ads or web form enrichment, it makes sense to add on their contact data module.

This limits the number of vendors you’re paying but also means there is no need to sort any integrations since everything comes from the same supplier.

Main Drawbacks of ZoomInfo

ZoomInfo’s breadth is also its biggest weakness.

First, solutions that offer such scale are almost always expensive, and ZoomInfo is no exception. You’ll be paying six figures for a full ABM stack.

The other major drawback is a lack of focus.

ZoomInfo has primarily expanded its service offering through acquisitions. They aren’t really focused on building a best-in-class product. 

Rather, their goal appears to be to continue increasing ACV through the acquisition of new bolt-on features that they can then upsell to existing customers.

ZoomInfo Pricing 

ZoomInfo doesn’t advertise pricing, but we know from conversations with customers who’ve moved over to Warmly that you’ll pay at least $40k annually for workflows and $100k+ for a full GTM tech stack.

2. Demandbase 

(Image Source)

Demandbase is the grandfather of the ABM space. They, like ZoomInfo, have a broad offering.

Why Choose Demandbase Over Clearbit?

Demandbase’s big strength is buying committee identification. 

In the world of B2B sales, you’re often dealing with more than one stakeholder and decision maker.

The person interacting with your content may or may not be one of them. Demandbase helps you uncover the rest and enriches your existing data with a solid contact database.

Compared to Clearbit, it's a more robust tool with much more workflow functionality, making it more suitable for account-based marketing and sales sequences.

Main Drawbacks of Demandbase

Demandbase, like the other full-stack ABM solutions, is expensive. 

It’s a little cheaper than ZoomInfo but more expensive than Clearbit. Then again, you’re getting more products for your money.

Advertising functionality isn’t as strong with Demandbase. 

They came up on account intelligence and bolted on advertising through an acquisition later. Their ad offering is fine, but there are better solutions for this, such as 6sense.

They also rely heavily on bidstream data for buying intent signals, which is generally not as reliable as other sources (we use Bombora’s intent data, for example).

Demandbase Pricing

Pricing for Demandbase is built on a per-customer basis.

Anecdotally, however, we can say that Demandbase is generally cheaper (but less robust and user-friendly) than 6sense and ZoomInfo, though you’ll still be paying into the high five figures.

3. Apollo.io 

(Image Source)

Apollo.io is another big name in the contact data category.

They came up on best-in-class data and have been growing quickly while expanding their offering toward an all-in-one solution.

In my opinion, they’re a seriously good contender, at least for email data.

Why Choose Apollo.io Over Clearbit?

Apollo.io has a lot of functionality to offer.

They’ve got best-in-class data, have some prospecting and engagement functionality, and website intent enrichment.

A few years back, Apollo.io was just a data solution—and one of the best in the field. Recently, they’ve grown super quickly and have become somewhat of a ZoomInfo (but more user-friendly).

A unique feature for Apollo.io is AI email writing, which you can use to respond to more basic prospect communications. This can significantly increase your response speed, helping your reps resolve objections while improving your speed to lead.

Main Drawbacks of Apollo.io

While Apollo.io has moved beyond just data and into sequencing, their sequencing functionality isn’t as good as, say, Outreach or SalesLoft (best-in-class tools for sales engagement).

Intent data isn’t as good as 6sense or Bombora, and B2B phone data is better from ZoomInfo or Seamless.AI.

B2B email contact data is where Apollo.io excels.

Apollo.io Pricing

Apollo.io is refreshingly upfront with its pricing model (which is probably a big part of why they’ve grown so quickly).

You’ll pay $49 per user per month for their Basic plan, or up that to $79 a month for the Professional plan with higher credit limits.

They also have a usable free plan, and you can get started without talking to a sales rep (another growth lever).

4. 6sense 

(Image Source)

6sense is another ABM platform with a seriously strong data offering.

In fact, they’re one of the data sources we use here at Warmly to power our account-based orchestration platform.

Why Choose 6sense Over Clearbit?

6sense runs the gamut from account intelligence to B2B advertising, helping ABM teams reap the full benefits of an account-based marketing motion.

Account intelligence, though, is 6sense’s biggest strength.

The idea here is that 6sense provides insights into how prospects interact with competitor websites to give a better idea of the level of intent shown and where they are in the buying funnel.

They also have one of the best advertising offerings in the market, with their own demand-side platform (DSP) empowering personalized ads for an omnichannel approach.

Main Drawbacks of 6sense

You’ve probably already gathered that 6sense is expensive. For end-to-end orchestration, you’re looking at $120k+.

As such, 6sense is more focused on the enterprise market, meaning it's not really a suitable solution for SMEs or startup sales.

It also requires a lot of time and resources at the implementation stage. Again, fine for larger organizations; not so much for the small business.

6sense Pricing

6sense builds custom packages based on your specific needs, but budget for at least $100k a year for a full ABM setup.

5. Lusha 

(Image Source)

Lusha was a big name in the B2B data space a few years back, though they seem to have fallen off the map a little bit since they raised their Series B back in 2021 and started moving upmarket.

Why Choose Lusha Over Clearbit?

Reports are that, compared to Clearbit, Lusha is a lot easier to use and much easier to set up. 

They, too, have been expanding their offering outside of data and now have some prospecting, enrichment, and intelligence functionality.

One cool feature that Lusha offers—and Warmly does, too—is job change alerts. If a stakeholder at a current customer jumps ship, you’ll be notified and can use that relationship as a warm lead of sorts and open up a conversation.

Main Drawbacks of Lusha

Like Clearbit, Lusha is more about the data side of the equation than actual sales execution. 

If your problem with Clearbit is that it doesn’t give you any playbooks to actually do anything with the data, then Lusha probably isn’t your solution.

Lusha Pricing

Lusha has a free plan, but it's seriously limited and best thought of as a trial.

From there, you’ll pay $29 per user per month and upward.

6. Seamless.AI 

(Image Source)

Seamless.AI is one of the best sales tools and data providers out there.

We use it ourselves. The data is some of the best around, and pricing is pretty reasonable.

Why Choose Seamless.AI Over Clearbit?

Seamless.AI has been around since 2014, and just about everyone in the space reports that their data is incredibly accurate.

For phone numbers, they’re unbeatable and certainly a great alternative to Apollo.io.

Their standout feature, though, is Autopilot. It’s an automated list-building solution to help feed an outbound sales pipeline.

Main Drawbacks of Seamless.AI

The biggest drawback of Seamless.AI is that they don’t have an API. They’re kind of behind on the “integrate with everyone” thing that is becoming an industry standard.

This makes them quite limited for anyone looking to create their own bespoke tech stack.

For example, you can’t integrate Seamless.AI with Clay, Warmly, or Coupler to unify data sources and automate sales workflows off of.

Seamless.AI Pricing

Seamless.AI doesn’t outwardly advertise pricing, but we know as customers that they are seriously affordable.

They also offer a (limited) free plan for those who want to give it a spin first.

7. Cognism 

(Image Source)

Cognism is another solid solution for phone numbers, particularly B2B numbers.

Why Choose Cognism Over Clearbit?

Cognism is kind of like Apollo.io, except they’re based in Europe.

So, if you’re looking for an all-in-one solution as an alternative to Clearbit, but Apollo.io doesn’t work for you because you’re targeting European companies, Cognism is probably a good option.

Main Drawbacks of Cognism

Some customers report minor usability issues with Cognism, along with a few complaints about data accuracy.

They also don’t offer a free plan or even appear to provide a free trial.

Cognism Pricing

No pricing information at all is available for Cognism. You have to fill in a form and speak to a sales rep.

8. Warmly 

The biggest problem with Clearbit (other than their recent HubSpot acquisition eliminating them as a possibility for non-HubSpot users) is that they don’t do anything beyond data.

Clearbit was really built for the developer-heavy GTM team who have their own sales engagement tech stack in play and the resources to deeply integrate a data provider like Clearbit.

This has long put Clearbit out of the running for most SMEs, who not only don’t have the dev resource but also aren’t able to afford to stitch together a number of different tools.

Warmly—our account-based orchestration solution—is designed to change that.

Why Warmly Is The Ideal Clearbit Alternative

Warmly is not a data provider.

We pull best-in-class contact data from the likes of Clearbit and 6sense, then supplement that with buyer intent data from Bombora.

But that’s just the beginning.

Website visitor identification helps you deanonymize traffic, attribute visitors to demand generation campaigns, and launch sales cadences to interested parties.

From there, all of your prospect data is enriched, helping you identifying the right people at the right time, and launch AI-driven personalized outreach across email and LinkedIn.

(Image Source)

Plus, an AI chatbot handles on-site customer engagement, until the right level of intent is demonstrated and an automated notification in Slack triggers a sales rep to take over the conversation.

Of course, all of this is deeply integrated with your existing tech stack.

(Image Source)

Why Warmly Might Not Be A Good Fit For You

We built Warmly specifically to help small and medium-sized businesses execute account-based sales and marketing playbooks, without the need for typical ABM budgets, tech stacks, or resourcing.

Our approach is, in our opinion, the perfect balance between artificial intelligence’s speed and scale and the personalized human touch.

We are, however, AI first, meaning established enterprise organizations with large GTM teams who want to run a human-centric motion might not find the right value in Warmly, and may be better off with a solution like ZoomInfo, 6sense, or Demandbase.

Additionally, since we aren’t focused on the enterprise market, there are a few features and integrations that we don’t currently offer that such organizations would typically look for.

Warmly Pricing

Pricing for Warmly is simple (we, too, are tired of GTM software companies hiding pricing behind a sales rep).

You’ll pay $850 a month (billed annually) for our standard Business plan. 

That works out to about $10k a year, which is around one tenth of what you’ll pay for something like ZoomInfo or Demandbase.

Comparing to Clearbit is a little harder, because their pricing model is complex.

Clearbit charges for a certain number of “credits” each month, which you use for the various activities Clearbit offers. For example, a “Sales Alert” costs two credits, and enriching a CRM record costs one.

(Image Source)

Considering 1,000 credits cost $275 under the Growth plan, you’ll likely be paying somewhere in the neighborhood of $5,000 for 25,000 credits, which is the number of warm leads revealed and enriched per month you can access on our $850 a month plan.

If you need more than that, we also offer a custom pricing tier. Or, you can get started for free today, without talking to a sales rep.

(Image Source)

Why consider an alternative to Clearbit? 

Clearbit has long been one of the best data providers in the game.

But data has been commoditized, and there are now many solutions with better data (6sense, for example) that also offer sales engagement functionality.

Clearbit has never pursued this area, meaning you’ve always had to connect it to an existing tech stack, making it more of a developer-focused tool.

Recently, they were acquired by HubSpot, which is a double-edged sword.

For HubSpot users, this is great. It means you get your CRM enriched (once the integration process is through) and connect Clearbits data to a software tool that can actually execute playbooks.

For anyone using any other CRM (95% of the market), this essentially means Clearbit is no longer a viable solution. 

While, right now, Clearbit still integrates with CRMs like Salesforce, logic dictates that they’ll neglect such connections in favor of improving the Clearbit>HubSpot link.

Warmly: The Clearbit alternative for SMBs 

Clearbit has long been one of the biggest and brightest names in the world of B2B data.

But as data has become a commodity, and sales teams are looking for more integrated tools that can not only provide contact and intent data, but execute playbooks based on that information.

Their acquisition by HubSpot could well change all of that for Clearbit, but it does mean that anyone working in Salesforce or any other CRM is eventually going to run into problems.

Warmly, our account-based orchestration suite, is the perfect partner for SMB sales motions and a great alternative to Clearbit.

We pull data from best-in-class sources (Clearbit is just one of them), enrich contact details with third-party buying intent data, and help you run automated and AI-driven outreach sequences.

Discover how Inbox Pirates, just 4 weeks after implementing our free plan, closed a 4-figure deal using Warmly.

How many people are visiting your website each month?

Most marketers can answer that without a lot of trouble. You jump into Google Analytics or Google Search Console (or basically any other website analytics tool), and it's likely to be one of your top reports.

But what about this one:

Who are the people visiting your website each month?

That, for many, results in a question mark.

That’s also what visitor identification software is designed to answer. 

Being such a valuable asset, it's of little surprise that the market for visitor identification software is teeming with options.

Which one is best for your use case?

That’s what we’re going to help you find out with our guide to the top 11 visitor identification software solutions for identifying prospects and capturing warm leads.

What Is Visitor Identification Software And What Is It For? 

Visitor identification software tells you who is browsing your website, when they’re doing it, and what pages they’re looking at.

The degree of precision with which a given software platform can achieve this goal varies. The “What content are they engaging with?” question isn’t so difficult. Uncovering the exact person who is on your site is a little harder.

It's not a perfect science, but there are ways for you to improve your visitor identification.

For instance, with Warmly enabled on your website, you’ll be able to uncover 15% of contacts that visit your site and 60% of companies. That’s without you doing anything.

If you start sending outbound emails with Warmly with a bit of tracking code embedded, you’ll be able to identify even more.

11 Best Visitor Identification Software Platforms 

1. Dealfront (formerly Leadfeeder) 

(Image Source)

Dealfront is a European-based go-to-market platform, perhaps better known by its previous name: Leadfeeder.

In fact, Leadfeeder was acquired by investment firm Great Hill Partners, who also acquired Echobot, merging the two solutions into Dealfront.

Leadfeeder brought the website visitor intelligence side of the equation, while Echobot’s sales intelligence, prospecting tools, and CRM integrations round out the suite.

Why Dealfront (formerly Leadfeeder) Is A Good Option

Dealfront is popular in Europe, which makes sense, given they’re based there.

Basically, it looks like they’re trying to create the ZoomInfo (more on them later) of Europe. All of their contact data is in the EU, and even commentary from leadership is pretty ambitious:

“We want to be the biggest in Europe….It’s going to take a few years, but I think we’re succeeding…We have long had customers all over the world.  After the merger, we will be able to offer something that no one else can.”

Unique(ish) in the market is that Dealfront offers a free tier rather than a trial, though it comes with some severe limitations:

• You can only seed data from the last seven days
• A maximum of 100 identified companies monthly

Where Dealfront (formerly Leadfeeder) Falls Short

It’s tough to predict what’s going to happen from here on out.

Mergers like this occasionally produce market-leading whales. More often, they lead to a halt in innovation and just another clumsy product in an already busy market.

We’ll wait and see, but here’s what we can say in terms of cons right now:

• Website deanonymization is very limited, with no timelines or further information other than “this company visited.”
• Company data isn’t as good as market leaders like 6sense

Dealfront (formerly Leadfeeder) Pricing

As of writing, Dealfront’s pricing model is still broken down into the two tools.

For Leadfeeder, it's either the not-that-usable free plan, or the paid plan at €139 a month. For their “Sales Intelligence” stack (so, Echobot), pricing is custom-built.

2. Lead Forensics 

(Image Source)

Lead Forensics is another point solution for website visitor identification. Starting up back in 2009, they seem to have been around the longest.

Why Lead Forensics Is A Good Option

Lead Forensics is a well-known name in the visitor identification software space, mostly because they’ve been around so long.

They’re London-based, so data across Europe and the UK is a strength compared to US-based solutions, but that’s about it.

Where Lead Forensics Falls Short

The fact that Lead Forensics is a legacy platform tends to work against it more than it does for it.

In sales conversations at Warmly, we’ve heard a lot of complaints about Lead Forensics’ data quality being poor and not super detailed.

Their integrations aren’t up to scratch, and it appears they aren’t really innovating.

Also, being a tool that dates back to 2009, the UI feels a little clunky and dated.

Lead Forensics Pricing

Lead Forensics has two tiers (Essential and Automate) but doesn’t share any details about what they cost—common among legacy tools.

3. Clearbit 

(Image Source)

Clearbit is one of the most well-respected names in contact data and intelligence.

They were recently acquired by HubSpot, which is a bit of a game-changer for Clearbit (for good and for bad).

Why Clearbit Is A Good Option

Clearbit does a lot more than just website visitor identification; they’re also a best-in-class sales intelligence platform and have seriously good contact enrichment.

They also have a fantastic prospecting tool for identifying buying committees.

What’s most intriguing about Cleabrit right now is that they were recently acquired by HubSpot.

If you’re a HubSpot user, this is great news. It means you pretty much get your CRM enriched (once the whole acquisition and integration process is complete).

But it does have a downside.

Where Clearbit Falls Short

Using Clearbit now pretty much requires you to use the HubSpot CRM.

For example, as soon as you sign up for a free trial, it asks you to integrate your HubSpot account. This is a huge departure from where Clearbit came from, which was essentially just an API for data access.

If you’re using any other CRM, then Clearbit is unlikely to be a valid contender for you into the future.

The other big drawback with Clearbit as a standalone tool is that it lacks strong out-of-the-box playbooks for sales workflows. It’s always been a developed-focused tool, which you can then plug into your existing enablement and engagement tools.

This might change with the HubSpot acquisition, however.

Clearbit Pricing

Clearbit has a really basic free plan and charges between $50 and $275 a month, depending on the number of “credits” you need.

4. Leadinfo 

(Image Source)

Leadinfo is another visitor identification tool undergoing a lot of changes.

They were recently acquired by team.blue, who describe themselves as “an ecosystem of successful brands working together across regions to provide customers with everything they need to succeed online.”

Take from that what you will.

The “ecosystem” has been steadily gobbling similar companies:

• Leadinfo acquired intent-based sales engagement platform Leadcamp to expand lead engagement functionality 
• WebProspector.de was added to the mix to expand the company’s integrations to well-known tools like Slack, Salesforce, and SalesLoft

This is clearly a space that’s undergoing a lot of consolidation right now. Point solutions that only deanonymize traffic are no longer sufficient; companies need engagement features and intent data as well.

Why Leadinfo Is A Good Option

The truth is that Leadinfo doesn’t look all that different from the Leadfeeder component of Dealfront.

They’re Europe-based, offer basic visitor identification, and have been recently acquired, which brings with it the rocky territory of having to stitch multiple tools together.

Pricing is super transparent, which is a nice change in this vertical.

Where Leadinfo Falls Short

As of writing, Leadinfo doesn’t do much other than simple website deanonymization.

That might change with the merges in play, but right now, customers are still left with the problem of what exactly to do with the information they’ve gained.

Leadinfo Pricing

Leadinfo offers transparent pricing and operates on a usage-based model.

This is great for smaller organizations, who’ll pay €49 per month for 100 website visitors. But it does mean that your costs scale quickly as you do. At 10,000 visitors, you’ll be paying €499 monthly.

5. VisitorQueue 

(Image Source)

VisitorQueue is a somewhat unique solution here in that it’s focused more on the marketing than the sales use case.

Why VisitorQueue Is A Good Option

VisitorQueue has two main cards to play:

1. Website visitor identification
2. Website personalization

The second one is what makes them unique in this space: you can personalize website content based on demographic information (once you’ve identified the visitor, of course).

Other pros include a decent number of integrations for building a connected tech stack and decent visitor data that’s more granular than solutions like Leadinfo or Dealfront.

Where VisitorQueue Falls Short

Being marketing-focused, VisitorQueue isn’t the ideal solution for the sales team.

It doesn’t offer any sales automation or engagement functionality. You’ll have to stitch it together with a sales engagement solution like SalesLoft or Outreach.

VisitorQueue Pricing

VisitorQueue pricing is complex but transparent.

You pay based on the number of monthly visitors you’d like to deanonymize (from $31 to $239 a month), then add $159 a month if you want website personalization functionality as well.

6. Snitcher 

(Image Source)

Snitcher is another website visitor identification software solution based out of Europe.

The unique difference with this tool is that it is primarily used by agencies who want to identify website traffic on behalf of their clients to attribute traffic growth to marketing campaigns.

Why Snitcher Is A Good Option

Snitcher is quite affordable, starting at just $39 a month. They have a usage-based model, so you pay based on the number of visitors you identify.

They also offer an IP to Company API, so you can just use Snitcher as the data source for your self-built tool.

Where Snitcher Falls Short

Like many of the visitor identification tools mentioned on this list, Snitcher doesn’t offer any data enrichment, third-party buyer intent data, or sales workflows and playbooks.

Snitcher Pricing

Pricing starts at $39 a month for up to 100 company identifications and scales up from there based on usage.

7. Happierleads 

(Image Source)

Happierleads offers four products:

1. Reveal - Visitor identification
2. Prospector - Contact database
3. Engage - Email and LinkedIn outreach
4. Enrich - An API for contact data enrichment 

Interestingly, it's also available as a white-labeled tool built for the agile B2B marketing and sales team.

Why Happierleads Is A Good Option

The unique thing about Happierleads is that they appear to offer LinkedIn sequencing.

I say appear because they say they do, but don’t really offer any insight into how they do it.

For example, Warmly offers LinkedIn sequencing as part of our sales outreach functionality, and that’s sequenced through our partner Salesflow.

Beyond that, they’re another option for website visitor identification but don’t really offer anything unique in that regard.

Where Happierleads Falls Short

The biggest issue that appears with Happierleads is that their database is quite small, at just 180M contacts and 70M.

Best-in-class tools have contact databases in the billions.

They are an English company, so it's likely to be Europe or just UK-focused data. 

In any case, the database is limited for teams past a certain size, though Happierleads appears to be targeting the SME market anyway. 

For example, they don’t have any integrations and seem eager for you to use their own engagement platform rather than integrate with a point solution. 

They’re missing the AI chat functionality to round out sales engagement.

Happierleads Pricing

Happierleads is relatively cost-effective, with pricing starting at $120 a month.

8. Factors 

(Image Source)

Factors is a solid website visitor-tracking software with some unique revenue attribution functionality.

Why Factors Is A Good Option

Factors is built for the marketing team.

You start out with optimizing ads and learning about the customer journey. Factors also offers some solid reporting and marketing campaign attribution.

Marketing intelligence and contact data come from Clearbit, so it’s best-in-class, and they also have some seriously good integrations (such as G2 and 6sense).

Where Factors Falls Short

Being focused on the marketing use case, Factors isn’t ideal for sales teams.

For example, they don't have sales engagement functionality like email outreach.

Factors Pricing

Factors has a fairly usable free plan (actually free, not a trial), with more well-equipped paid options starting at $149 per month.

9. ZoomInfo 

(Image Source)

ZoomInfo is a beast in the account-based marketing space. Anonymous website visitor identification is just one arrow in their very stocked quiver.

Why ZoomInfo Is A Good Option

ZoomInfo is a full-stack GTM solution.

They’ve got visitor identification, intent data, marketing and sales ops features, and even a talent outreach and hiring suite.

The short answer to why ZoomInfo is a good option for visitor identification is this:

You’re already using ZoomInfo for something else.

Beyond that, it's not really a place to begin, and it’s certainly not suitable for startup sales plays or most small businesses.

Where ZoomInfo Falls Short

Aside from the fact that ZoomInfo is by far the most expensive tool on this list, a big drawback is that the buyer identification doesn’t actually tell you the exact person unless they’ve clicked a form or other link you’ve sent them.

Other solutions—Warmly, for instance—can help you identify exact site visitors without using previously-installed tracking code.

ZoomInfo Pricing

ZoomInfo creates custom pricing packages, which is pretty much the standard for such large tools.

What we do know is that most companies are paying at least $40k to set up workflows in ZoomInfo, with many annual bills digging into six figures.

10. Albacross 

(Image Source)

Albacross is yet another European visitor recognition solution. It does well at that, but not a lot else.

Why Albacross Is A Good Option

Albacross is a very widely-used tool for capturing warm leads. Many of our own customers have come over from Albacross.

Their integrations are good on the CRM front (HubSpot, Salesforce, etc.), but they don’t connect with outreach tools, which is a challenge for sales teams.

They also have a unique LinkedIn ads integration, and partner with Bombora (like Warmly) to enhance visitor identification with buyer intent data.

Where Albacross Falls Short

The biggest complaint we hear about Albacross is that their filtering isn’t as good.

For example, when Inbox Pirates approached Warmly to solve visitor identification, they found that Albacross would tell them someone visited from a company like Apple when it simply wasn’t true.

Beyond that, reports are that their data isn’t as robust as other solutions, and the big issue is that there is no SDR layer with sales outreach functionality. 

You can uncover who is on your website (with varying accuracy), but where do you go from there?

Albacross Pricing

Pricing for Albacross begins at €139 per month.

11. Warmly 

Warmly (yours truly) is a unique solution in this space.

Yes, we do visitor identification, but that’s only the beginning.

We believe that point solutions like Albracross and Leadfeeder don’t provide enough value to modern GTM teams. They tell you who is visiting your site but don’t give you much in the way of what to do with that information.

Warmly changes that.

Why Warmly Is The Ideal Visitor Identification Software Platform

Let me walk you through a typical workflow using Warmly, to help you understand the difference between us and other alternatives discussed here:

• A prospect from a target account lands on your website and is automatically anonymized using Warmly
• Contact data enrichment from best-in-class sources like 6sense and Clearbit, as well as third-party buyer intent data from Bombora tell you the makeup of your target account, who is involved in buying, and what intent signals they’re showing
• All of this data, along with insights into what content the visitor is engaging with, is synced back to your CRM and sales engagement stack
• The prospect is added to email and LinkedIn outreach sequences, tailored and personalized based on the data you’ve gathered
• AI chat on your website takes care of instant visitor engagement. When buying intent looks hot, a sales rep is notified via Slack integration and can take over the chat and even instigate a live video call.

Naturally, Warmly integrates with all of the tools you’re already using to execute sales playbooks.

(Image Source)

Why Warmly Might Not Be A Good Fit For You

At Warmly, we’re creating a new category: 

Account-based orchestration.

It’s about surround-sounding a prospect using an omnichannel approach, driven heavily by AI and automation and best-in-class contact and intent data.

(Image Source)

The key is that account-based orchestration is accessible to the SME, who typically doesn’t have the budget for all-out account-based marketing plays.

Which brings us to our drawback. 

Since we serve the SME market, we aren’t yet fully supporting the enterprise market with some of the features and integrations they’d ask for.

Warmly Pricing

Warmly offers 3 different plans:

(Image Source)

The majority of our customers are on the Business plan at $850 a month (billed annually). 

However, we know that many SMEs just want to get up and running. That’s why we built a seriously usable free tier.

You can get started with a free account right now without having to speak to a sales rep, so you can dive in and start seeing revenue growth immediately. 

Get started for free here.

In the ever-evolving digital marketing landscape, content marketing and SEO marriage emerge not as a mere partnership but as a harmonious symphony. It's a strategic alliance that blends the artistry of content creation with the analytical precision of search engine optimization.

In this article, we'll talk about the partnership between content marketing and SEO to understand how these two work together to help businesses grow.

Understanding Content Marketing

Content marketing is a strategic digital marketing approach that involves creating, distributing, and promoting valuable, relevant, and consistent content to a specific audience. 

The primary goal of content marketing is to attract, engage, and retain a target audience. Below are the critical goals of content marketing:

Building Brand Awareness - By consistently delivering valuable content, businesses can enhance their brand recognition and establish a distinctive identity in the minds of consumers.

Establishing Authority and Credibility - Creating high-quality content contributes to establishing authority and credibility, fostering trust among the audience, and making the brand a go-to source for information.

Engaging and Educating Audiences - By providing content that is not only interesting but also informative or entertaining, businesses can capture and maintain their audience's attention.

Nurturing Customer Relationships - Regularly delivering valuable content keeps the brand at the forefront of the audience's mind, fostering loyalty and turning one-time customers into repeat customers and advocates.

Content marketing is a long-term strategy that revolves around storytelling, building a brand narrative, and creating a positive customer experience. It is intricately connected with other elements of digital marketing, such as search engine optimization (SEO), working synergistically to achieve broader marketing goals and drive sustained business growth.

What is Search Engine Optimization?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a digital marketing strategy aimed at improving the visibility and ranking of a website in the organic (non-paid) search results of search engines. It is an ongoing process that requires continuous monitoring, adaptation, and optimization.

One of the key components of SEO is content creation and optimization. Create high-quality content that is relevant to your audience. If you produce valuable content that satisfies your user intent, people are more inclined to link to your material, which will help your website rank higher in search engine results. You can optimize your content using keywords in your title tag, meta description, and content for search engines.

How Does SEO and Content Marketing Benefit from Each Other?

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and content marketing are highly complementary, each playing a crucial role in enhancing the effectiveness of the other. Combining SEO and content marketing leads to a holistic digital marketing strategy. Here's how each benefits from the other:

How to Craft SEO-Optimized Content

Creating SEO-optimized content involves a strategic approach that considers both the needs of search engines and the preferences of your target audience. Here's a step-by-step guide to help you create content that is well-optimized for search engines:

Keyword Research

Start by conducting thorough keyword research to identify relevant terms and phrases. Use tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Ahrefs to discover keywords that align with your content and have a reasonable search volume.

Understand User Intent

Analyze the intent behind the keywords. Consider whether users seek information, products, reviews, or solutions. Tailor your content to meet your target audience's specific needs and expectations.

Create a Compelling Title Tag and Meta Description

Craft a compelling title tag and meta description that includes your target keyword. Keep it concise (title around 60 characters and meta description within 155-160 characters ) and make it engaging to encourage clicks.

Optimize Heading Tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.)

Use clear and descriptive heading tags to structure your content. Include your target keywords in relevant headings to signal the hierarchy and topic relevance to search engines.

Craft High-Quality, Informative Content

Develop content that is comprehensive, valuable, and addresses the needs of your audience. Google rewards content that satisfies user queries effectively. Aim for longer-form content when appropriate, but prioritize quality over quantity.

Internal Linking

Include internal links to relevant pages within your website. This helps search engines understand your content's structure and improves users' navigation. Many internal linking tools, like LinkStorm, can help you. Use them to find broken links, identify opportunities for improvement, and optimize your site's internal linking structure. 

Optimize URL Structure

Create clean and descriptive URLs. Include your target keyword when relevant. Avoid using complex or lengthy URLs, as simplicity is preferred.

External Linking

Incorporate external links to authoritative sources when relevant. This adds credibility to your content. Ensure that the external links enhance the overall value of your content.

Regular Content Updates

Regularly update and refresh your content. Search engines favor fresh and current information. Add new insights, statistics, or relevant updates to maintain the relevance of your content over time.

2023 was a year of partnerships in website visitor tracking software. Leadfeader completed its merger with Echobot to form a new GTM platform called Dealfront. Factors.ai partnered with ABM platform 6sense, and CRM platform Hubspot ended the year by acquiring Clearbit.

Before its acquisition, Leadfeeder was a market-leading B2B lead generation software that deanonymized website traffic. The company merged with sales intelligence platform Echobot to form a complete GTM platform called Dealfront, focused on the European market.

With Leadfeeder doubling down on Europe, North American customers may wonder what their best options are for visitor intelligence in 2024.

Here is our round-up of the best Leadfeeder Competitors & Alternatives for Visitor Intelligence in 2024.

7 Leadfeeder Competitors & Alternatives for Maximum Lead Generation in 2024

• Clearbit (acquired by Hubspot) – Best for Budget Users
• ZoomInfo – Best for Mobile Numbers and Enterprise ICPs
• Factors – Best for Marketers
• Albacross – Best for EU Alternatives to Leadfeeder
• LeadMagic – Best for Middle Market
• Koala (getkoala.com) – Best for Beginners
• Warmly – Best for AI Sales Orchestration

Clearbit – Best for Developers & Budget Users

‎Clearbit was recently acquired by Hubspot. As of now, it’s marketed as Clearbit by HubSpot and remains available as a separate service.

The company has over 400K users and enriches more than 500 million records monthly. Clearbit’s de-anonymization platform is called Reveal. It does not do contact-level identification, but has a function called Capture that adds contact information for key decision makers in an integrated CRM. It also offers Data Enrichment that uses machine learning and QA to find context on companies and contacts.

Strengths of Clearbit

Clearbit has long been the de facto choice for developers who work with GTM teams. They are the most API-developer friendly.

Clearbit pairs well with marketing automation software. It integrates with HubSpot, Salesforce, Segment, Marketo, Pardot and Slack. HubSpot users have been able to use Clearbit as an app since 2019. Hubspot has indicated that it plans to integrate it natively through HubSpot’s CRM platform. As of now, Clearbit is still available as a standalone product.

Clearbit’s pricing structure has credit-based system which allows budget-minded teams to just pay for the features they need as they need it. It’s also rated highly for being easy to use and set up, as well as the quality of support.

Weaknesses of Clearbit

If you use Salesforce or any type of CRM other than Hubspot, there is some risk of your service being disrupted depending on changes the company makes going forward.

The main complaint for Clearbit users is pricing, which is not as upfront as Leadfeeder. Clearbit not have any unlimited plan. Customers pay for their usage, which can quickly add up at 2 credit per sales alert and even charges for CSV exports. There are also some features Clearbit does not yet track, such as contact-level website identification, Video tracking, File Download tracking, and Form tracking.

Clearbit Pricing

‎Clearbit has a different pricing structure than its competitors. The free level gives 25 credits a month, which can be spent on features like Sales Alerts (2 credits), CSV exports (1 credit per unique record) and Form Shortening (2 credits). Growth plans cost $50-275 for 125-1,000 credits per month. Companies that need more than that can contact their sales team for a custom arrangement. Clearbit is best for companies with a handful of very specific needs and would rather not pay a lot monthly for features they won’t use.

ZoomInfo – Best for Mobile Numbers and Enterprise ICPs

‎Compared to Leadfeeder, ZoomInfo has a much more involved setup plan and is significantly more expensive than its peers. While it has enjoyed a reputation of having the cleanest data, its high-end price structure is increasingly hard to justify with so many cheaper competitors coming up in the sales intelligence space.

Strengths of ZoomInfo

‎The ZoomInfo SalesOS platform claims to have the largest B2B database with more than 174 million verified emails and a relatively impressive 70 million direct dial numbers. For reference, Dealfront’s ICP-based targeting covers roughly 90 million contacts from 30 million (European) companies. ZoomInfo has a comprehensive data set with strong confidence and can be especially granular for some specializations. It does best with middle-market and enterprise-sized companies.

ZoomInfo started with contact identification and moved into other areas, like website ID, third-party intent data, and chatbot. This is likely because as a public company, they need to constantly increase their net retention revenue (NRR) and introducing new features is the best way to do that. Unfortunately, it’s swelled into a very big (read: expensive) bundled package.

In addition to SalesOS, their RevOS operating system also includes MarketingOS, OperationsOS, DaaS, and TalentOS, which may be helpful for customers who want an all-in-one solution. Given it’s white-glove sales process, ZoomInfo also offers the ability for more personalization than other LeadFeeder alternatives on this list.

Weaknesses of ZoomInfo

ZoomInfo is easily the most expensive LeadFeeder alternative starting at $15,000/year for 3 seats. Their contract also requires that you delete all the data if you stop using them, so you will have to start all over with a new company if you switch over.

ZoomInfo is not useful for tracking companies smaller than 100 people. They also have a reputation for suing former customers who continue using data sets after they have stopped renewing their contracts.

ZoomInfo is not especially remarkable at website identification, which makes sense as it is not their bread and butter. Similar to Clearbit, ZoomInfo’s contact-level identification data comes through acquisitions. However, the service is integrated into everything else, so if a company comes to the website, ZoomInfo can simply pull up the contacts of all the buyers who work there. In this case, their extensive data set covers a hole in their data, but it will cost you.

ZoomInfo benefits from name recognition, which is a double-edged sword as they also have more exposure to lawsuits. Unlike many of its competitors, it is publicly traded which may limit its ability to move quickly. The multiplatform approach may also be a weakness as it spreads their customer care and product investment in multiple directions.

ZoomInfo Pricing

Pricing is only available by contacting the ZoomInfo pricing team. However, word on the street is that plans start at $15K a year.

‎ZoomInfo requires users to sign up and request pricing, but plans usually start at $15,000 a year for 3 seats. There appears to be no self-service option, which is fine if you prefer a high-touch sales process.

Factors – Best for Marketers

Factors started as a marketing and attributions product, a side of which is account intelligence. Their focus is figuring out which campaigns or content is bringing in the high-intent accounts and pushing it back into the marketing sequence.

There is, however, significant overlap in use for salespeople. Factors can offer context such as what channels the accounts are coming from, what the journey is for the account, and provide statistics. They can identify what campaigns and pages convert better.

Strengths of Factors

Factors has direct integration with 12 tools and softwares including HubSpot, Salesforce, 6Sense, Clearbit and Leadsquared. You can also connect to Webhooks like Make.com or Zapier to access other tools and integrations.

Factors has also recently partnered with Clearbit, which strengthens both company’s data sets. They are GDPR-compliant on principle, which can spare it from some of the roadblocks ZoomInfo has faced when going public. Factors also has an AI-powered feature called “Explain” that offers insights and root cause analysis.

Weaknesses of Factors

Factors is a “privacy-first, GDPR compliant solution” which means they only provide IP-to-company data and not individual website visitors, phone numbers, or mail IDs unless that user has filled out a contact form with that information.

Given its priority on privacy, Factors is more focused on understanding funnel conversions. Their website analytics tools track ad performance and users' journeys as they move through pages. It is an excellent tool for marketers who need analytics, but not as much for sales people and orchestration. They also do not have any automation for prospecting, unlike competitors Koala or Warmly.

Many users also complain about data export features, which does not currently allow sharing individual reports, customizing data formats, or even specific data fields. This may not be ideal if you intend to integrate Factors.ai with other systems.

They also do not have chat bot features and have not indicated they will move into the space, which may be a consideration for sales people who want more of an orchestration platform.

Factors Pricing

‎Factors has a free tier that allows up to 100 identified accounts and 5K visitors monthly. They have three tiers of paid accounts. The lowest paid plan is $149/month, allowing up to 500 identified accounts and 10K visitors. The Growth and Professional levels allow 5K and 10K unique accounts per month, respectively. Any needs greater than that requires contacting them for a quote.

Albacross – Best for EU Leadfeeder Alternative

Albacross is a top LeadFeeder alternative in the European market.

‎Albacross is an E.U.-based service that focuses on first-party intent data, which includes tracking account engagement such as the pages users visits and how long they spend there. It claims to have built the "largest proprietary IP-to-company mapping database globally" with "tens of thousands of users." For customers targeting the European market, Albacross is a great alternative to LeadFeeder.

Strengths of Albacross

Albacross claims their "database maps 3+ billion events monthly" and that internal tests show an identification rate "1.7x higher than most intent data platforms" according to their website.

Like Factors, Albacross is GDPR-compliant, which is a requirement for working with companies in Europe, where it is based.

Albacross offers native integration for HubSpot, and third-party integration with Salesforce, Google Sheets, Mailchimp, Intercom, HubSpot, Mailshake, lemlist, Slack, and Zapier. Their API had 100% uptime in 2022. Like many competitors, Albacross is working with AI and machine learning to refine their data accuracy.

Their tracking method uses a custom script while LeadFeeder uses Google Analytics, which is not specificially designed for lead generation. Albacross also keeps a lead history of up to 90 days compared to 30 days with LeadFeeder.

Weaknesses of Albacross

Albacross lacks options for automating the sales process. It also has relatively few and inefficient integrations with other tools. It does connect to Salesforce, but only via a third-party. API integrations are also only available on the higher-level Growth plans.

Like Leadfeeder, Albacross is based in the EU and better at segmenting for European ABM campaigns, which may not be ideal for North American ICPs.

Albacross also does not offer a free tier. Their lowest paid tier costs $79/month and offers what many of its competitors offer for free. If you want to identify more than 100 companies a month, you will also have to talk to their Sales team to put together a Growth plan.

Albacross Pricing

‎Unlike many of its competitors, Albacross does not have a free tier. However, it does offer a 14-day free trial. It’s basic tier costs $79/month and allows up to 100 unique accounts, which is equivalent to the free tier of both Leadfeeder and Factors.ai.

LeadMagic – Best for Middle Market

‎LeadMagic was started in 2022, and already has a good reputation for first-party intent data as a B2B lead generation tool. It is often compared to the Clearbit Reveal tool, but with a monthly plan that can yield significant savings with high usage.

Strengths of LeadMagic

LeadMagic has an API that works with Segment or Google Analytics, which makes it a good API developor-friendly option for companies that need more usage than they can get with Clearbit. They also claim to be "only Visitor Identification Software that will let you own our data" which means, unlike ZoomInfo, you won't get a cease-and-desist after cancelling your subscription for using any lists they generated.

Weaknesses of LeadMagic

LeadMagic can be integrated with your CRM, but only through Zapier. Their pricing is per seat, so costs can add up if you have a large sales team.

LeadMagic Pricing

Like Clearbit, ‎LeadMagic has usage-based pricing starting at $69 for up to 100 leads. However, they also offer unlimited premium plans starting at $139/month on an annual basis or $169 month-to-month. If your company is identifying more than 400 unique companies a month, you would save money by adopting either the monthly or annual plan.

Koala – Best for Beginners

‎Like Warmly, Koala offers a freemium product for small companies. The founders were the former Chief Product Officer and Head of Engineering at customer data platform Segment who wanted to apply the principles of Segment to lead generation on a website.

Koala is extremely PLG-driven. They have very little web presence (not even a G2 review profile) other than their website, though they do post frequently to their changelog. Their website also does not allow you to book a demo. Instead, they lean into the freemium model and prompt users to upgrade to the Team level in the program.

Strengths of Koala

Koala is known for having a very clean and UI. They do a good job of filtering and identifying visitors, which syncs easily back to your CRM. It hooks easily up to sales engagement software, so users can automate messaging via email. Koala also has some innovative features including real-time Slack alerts. Koala has a forgiving price structure, which makes it a great place to start playing around with a strategy for visitor intelligence and lead generation.

Weaknesses of Koala

Koala appears focused solely on visitor identification. They do not provide customer intent or job change tracking. While Koala is working on some cool features such as Outreach integration, they lack some splashier features such as chat bots or LinkedIn messaging automation. Koala also does not use third-party vendors for data enrichment, so they are not able to identify as many prospects at the contact level as some of its competitors.

Koala Pricing

Koala has a very forgiving price structure that is aimed at product-led growth. The free level gives 3 seats and allows users to see up to 250 identified accounts and 10,000 events monthly. The Team level starts at a relatively inexpensive $175/month and allows users to see up to 1,000 accounts and 500,000 events. If you need more than 3 seats, you will have to contact the sales team for a Business level plan.

Warmly – Best for AI Sales Orchestration

Warmly's AI Sales Orchestration comes with many innovative features that you may not need or be ready to integrate into your workflow.

‎Warmly is an AI sales orchestration platform that includes website identification. The company has been around for 5 years, but is a relative newcomer to visitor intelligence after a pivot in 2023. Warmly's use of third-party OMB partnerships allows it to identify a market-leading 65% of website traffic.

It's partners include 6Sense and Clearbit for enrichment data, though we may see the company move towards developing some of that internally. As of now, the partnerships seem symbiotic. 6Sense is the default enterprise service provider for intent data, but there is substantial market share in SMB and middle-market for Warmly to grow. In fact, 94.4% of Warmly’s reviews on G2 Crowd is from Small-Businesses compared to Leadfeeder’s 75.9%.

Warmly appears to be competing most closely with Koala for the SMB and middle-market customers. However, Warmly does have the advantage of an AI chat bot feature which puts them in the arena with Qualified and Drift. This makes Warmly an excellent alternative for non-Enterprise companies that want that sales channel, but are not big enough to use Qualified or Drift.

Strengths of Warmly

Warmly's use of third-party OMB partnerships allows it to identify nearly 65% of website traffic, just edging out Factors. It is also positioned to capture down-market clients for Qualified, Drift, and 6Sense, which is reflected in their symbiotic partnership with the latter.

Their AI sales orchestration platform has features sales customers may like, including automated LinkedIn and ChatBot messaging. They are also available to non-Enterprise clients with a generous free-level and a flat monthly subscription that will cover most customer needs.

Weaknesses of Warmly

While Warmly currently leads the market in identifying website traffic, it's accuracy depends on OMB partnerships for enrichment data that may change or go away—particularly with HubSpot's recent purchase of Clearbit.

Warmly's lowest paid level is also significantly more than all of the competitors in this list except ZoomInfo. This is somewhat made up for by a generous free-level that will allow most customers to try the software.

Some users complain it can do a better job of filtering out bots and noise from website traffic, though customers can currently set alerts to only let salespeople know when a visitor is within their ICP.

Warmly is also very much focused on signal-based sales orchestration and may not be a good fit for people who have very simple website identification needs or are not ready to/interested in automating their sales process.

Warmly Pricing

Warmly is one of the pricier LeadFeeder competitors, but its website intelligence is built into a full-scale AI sales orchestration platform.

‎Like Koala, Warmly offers a freemium model. The free level allows users to identify 500 leads/month, which is 5x more than Leadfeeder or Factors, and twice as much as Koala. For $850/month, users can go up to 25,000 leads a month, which should be plenty for most SMB/middle-market customers until they need to upgrade to a custom Enterprise plan.

LeadFeeder Competitor Pricing Chart

‎

‎Conclusion of Best LeadFeeder Alternative

A. Summary of Leadfeeder's Advantages

With the acquisition by DealFront, LeadFeeder now covers more than 66 million companies around the world, including 30 million companies and 83 million contacts in Europe. LeadFeeder (now DealFront)'s focus on Europe gives it a significant advantage to alternatives based in other regions.

B. Pros & Cons of Leadfeeder Competitors & Alternatives

If you are not in Europe or selling to European customers, you will not be able to take full advantage of LeadFeeder (Now DealFront)'s extensive database.

There are many competitors, including newer entrants like Warmly and LeadMagic, in the North American market that offers a interesting mix of features that may matter to sales teams, such as Outlook integration, automated LinkedIn messaging, chat bots, and more.

C. Final Recommendation for Best LeadFeeder Alternative

The best Leedfeeder alternative depends on your B2B data needs. SMBs who are new to website intelligence may prefer a slimmed-down plan like Clearbit or Koala. Sales and marketing teams that work closely together may be interested in website tracking with a marketing focus, such as Fathom. For companies looking to jump with two feet into AI may be interested in a sales orchestration package like Warmly.

It wasn’t all that long ago that account-based marketing was a fairly obscure approach practiced only by enterprise sales teams targeting whales at other equally large companies.

Today, account-based marketing (ABM) is a widely accepted practice and one that’s used not only by enterprise-level companies but also by mid-sized and small businesses alike.

The thing with ABM is that it's not exactly something you can just tip a toe in like you can with something like digital advertising or outbound email.

To be successful with account-based marketing, you need to go all in, which means you’ll need buy-in from every stakeholder on your leadership time.

And, naturally, they’ll all ask the same thing before signing off:

What are the benefits of account-based marketing?

That’s the exact question we are going to answer in this guide, diving deep into the six important and tangible benefits of running an ABM playbook:

• 1. Aligns sales and marketing toward a common goal 
• 2. Allows for a more focused use of resources 
• 3. Creates a more customer-centric experience
• 4. Opens up a world of personalization 
• 5. Can lead to shorter sales cycles 
• 6. Sets you up for long-term customer relationships 
• Account-based orchestration: Moving beyond ABM 

1. Aligns sales and marketing toward a common goal 

The tension between sales and marketing teams is a thing of legend.

It's kind of weird when you think about it. Both teams are, in the end, working toward the goal of closing more customers.

There really shouldn’t be any turbulence here. 

But there often is, and that generally comes from a disconnection between the two teams that work in siloes and only on part of the problem.

The sales and marketing problem

Marketing works to attract new prospects to the company and capture leads. Sales then takes those leads and tries to convert them into customers.

And that’s where the issue emerges.

Sales blames marketing for poor quality leads. Marketing blames sales for not doing enough with the leads they’ve generated.

But with an account-based marketing approach, this divide disappears.

The ABM solution

In ABM, you choose the accounts you go after. There is no “lead generation” in the traditional sense, as you define from the get-go who your target audience is going to be.

Then, sales and marketing must collaborate to attract and close deals. There is no “marketing to sales handoff.”

In the early stages of an ABM playbook, marketing might run personalized digital ads, while sales executes outreach via email and LinkedIn. 

Further down the sales funnel, the sales team might be engaging in demos and presentations while marketing supplements with additional educational email content.

Members from each team work in parallel rather than in series, and they work together toward the same goal: closing target accounts.

In fact, the alignment between sales and marketing that ABM brings is so strong that some organizations forgo the distinction altogether and merge the two departments into one GTM (go-to market) team:

(Image Source)

2. Allows for a more focused use of resources 

One of the biggest problems with the traditional marketing model is that your use of resources is relatively unfocused.

Sure, you have a defined target audience and ICPs (ideal customer profiles) that you’re going after. But the truth is that beyond that, your “targeting” is incredibly broad.

Most of the people your ad campaigns, emails, and content marketing efforts get in front of aren’t in the market to buy right now, even if they fit your customer persona.

Worse, you don’t even know if you’re getting in front of the decision-maker.

Consider, for example, a prospect coming across a blog post you’ve written and then promoted on social media.

That prospect signs up for a sales demo—great news, a warm lead.

But after going through the whole presentation, your salesperson learns that they don’t actually have the authority to buy, and so the whole process needs to happen again with the decision-maker.

Account-based marketing flips this on its head.

Finding KDMs from day one

You know who the key decision makers (KDMs) are in a given organization because you’ve used a tool like Warmly or Demandbase to pull account-level data and build a list of multiple stakeholders that might be involved in the deal. 

Then, your ABM efforts (be they personalized marketing outreach via LinkedIn InMail or a series of ads via your marketing automation platform) go out to those prospects specifically.

All of this means that every dollar you spend on account-based marketing strategies is incredibly focused and spent only on the specific accounts that you want to start a conversation with.

3. Opens up a world of personalization 

One of the biggest benefits of ABM campaigns as a B2B marketing strategy is that you can run incredibly personalized campaigns.

We’re not talking about using the prospect’s name in your email campaigns here.

We’re talking:

• Using advanced marketing tools to deliver personalized ads across multiple platforms
• Target multiple stakeholders at the same time with a personalized and role-based email copy
• Using unconventional tactics like direct mail and personalized gifting to attract attention

Here’s an extreme example to illustrate my point.

When software design firm Intridea targeted Ogilvy as a key account in their account-based marketing campaign, they went as far as uncovering the daily commute of the decision-maker at their soon-to-be new customer and ran a custom billboard on the side of the street.

(Image Source)

4. Creates a more customer-centric experience 

A well-executed ABM approach almost always leads to an enhanced customer experience when compared with a traditional marketing playbook.

In the traditional marketing approach, every customer sees the same marketing programs and tactics.

Sure, the content they see might be tailored to their current stage in the customer journey, but it's very rarely personalized to them specifically.

But an ABM experience is all about that specific customer and is customized to individual accounts.

As a prospect, all of the content you engage with is personalized to your company and even to you and your role. 

And when you speak to a member of the sales team, they aren’t giving you a blank slate templated pitch. They know who you are, and what success means for you in your role and at your company, and will deliver a tailored pitch that speaks exactly to those needs.

It also blends seamlessly with an omnichannel approach, where you’re targeting multiple stakeholders in the buying committee with the right messaging at the right time via the right channel.

That's critical because these days, there are more stakeholders than ever before, so the complexity of the deal has increased exponentially.

You need solutions that give you signals as to who’s hot and warm in the committee and when they are thinking about you to know when and how to engage.

This customer-centric approach ultimately leads to more effective campaigns that close faster. Speaking of which… 

5. Can lead to shorter sales cycles 

Many advocates of an ABM process claim that it has helped them achieve a shorter sales cycle.

(Image Source)

This is going to be true in many cases, though we should be careful to say that there are a number of different variables here.

The target audience you’re going after has a huge impact. 

Enterprise companies (who are more commonly the target of ABM campaigns) close slower than mid-sized organizations, as they often have large and elaborate buying committees.

Your sales process itself also has some cards to play here, as do the specific account-based marketing activities you choose to engage in.

On the whole, however, if you:

1. Define your ideal customer profile correctly
2. Build realistic account lists with accurate account data
3. Supplement that with third-party buying intent data
4. Execute well-timed and personalized ABM tactics that speak to ICP needs

You should see shorter sales cycles from ABM compared to what you would otherwise see from a non-account-based approach. 

6. Sets you up for long-term customer relationships 

Perhaps the most important of the six account-based marketing benefits discussed here is the fact that you’re building stronger relationships than you would be with a traditional motion.

In a traditional marketing model, a given prospect isn’t considered a customer until you actually close the deal. Up until then, they’re just a lead.

This inevitably frames all discussions up until contracting as sales conversations. 

An ABM motion, on the other hand, doesn’t really use the lead/customer division; they’re considered an account from the beginning.

And because all of your marketing and sales activities are personalized to that specific account, you’re essentially using that as the starting point of your relationship-building efforts.

This relationship is then transferred over to the customer success manager (or key accounts manager, depending on your chosen nomenclature). Their job is to nurture and grow the customer relationship rather than create it, which ultimately has a positive impact on customer retention rates.

This distinction is why many account-based marketing teams choose to take a land-and-expand approach.

The land and expand model

The idea with land-and-expand is that your initial sales efforts aren’t about closing the biggest deal possible. They’re just about getting a foot in the door.

You might sell your lowest-value product or most commonly used feature and narrow in on that to get a relationship established and a deal closed.

Then, your CSM looks for opportunities to upsell to a more robust plan or cross-sell additional features as the relationship flourishes, the trust your client has for you grows, and they begin to see value from using your product.

This is a fantastic tactic to add to your startup sales playbook, as it means you can get a door opened with just a single product or even an MVP and expand revenue from there.

Account-based orchestration: Moving beyond ABM 

Account-based marketing clearly offers a number of important benefits.

Most importantly, being a personalized approach, a successful ABM strategy ultimately leads to higher ROI and stronger customer relationships than a traditional marketing motion.

While we’re fans of ABM programs in general—as compared to a more traditional alternative—we also believe there’s a better way, one which we call account-based orchestration.

Account-based orchestration takes an ABM campaign to the next level and encompasses a more holistic approach that aligns both marketing and sales efforts. 

(Image Source)

It incorporates various technologies (many of which are ABM tools), data-driven insights, and a heavy dose of AI and automation to execute at scale without needing a huge team.

Read more: The Rise of Account-Based Orchestration in the Age of AI and Automation.

We built Warmly to help small and medium-sized organizations access account-based orchestration on an SME budget, combining the best of advanced AI and best-in-class data with well-timed human intervention.

With Warmly, you can:

• Deanonyomize site traffic to know exactly who is on your site and what content they’re engaging with 
• Add identified prospects to an automated omnichannel outreach sequence on LinkedIn and email
• Capture immediate intent with an AI-led chatbot
• Get notifications via Slack when it is time for a sales rep to jump in and take over the chat

What’s best about Warmly?

You can get started for free, right now, without speaking to a sales rep or getting thrown into a sales funnel. 

Get set up with Warmly today, and start seeing ROI in minutes.

Learn how Behavioral Signals tripled their enterprise sales pipeline in just one month using Warmly:

How Behavioral Signals sourced $7M in enterprise pipeline since using Warmly.

The main difference between demand generation and lead generation lies in their scope and focus within the marketing funnel.

While demand generation sets the stage by creating interest in your product and raising brand awareness, lead generation follows up by capturing and converting that interest into sales opportunities. 

As such, they’re both critical components of an efficient marketing strategy.

So, when it comes to demand generation vs lead generation, it’s fair to say you need both, as the success of your lead generation greatly depends on the quality and efficiency of your demand generation.

In this article, we’ll explain the key differences between demand generation and lead generation, helping you determine when to apply which process to get the best results.

If you’re not a big fan of reading, here’s a quick breakdown of key takeaways. ⤵️

TL;DR

• Demand generation is geared toward raising brand awareness and generating demand and interest in a company’s offering. 
• Lead generation focuses on identifying and capturing prospects who have already shown interest in your offering and nurturing them into conversion.
• As such, demand generation and lead generation differ in terms of:
• Scope & goals.
• Target audience they’re aimed at.
• Key activities they encompass.
• Funnel stage they operate in.
• Metrics by which they’re measured.
• Startups and newcomers to the market should focus on demand generation to establish a presence and educate them. In contrast, more established businesses should focus on lead generation to convert existing demand into sales.

What is the difference between lead generation vs demand generation?

When discussing demand generation vs lead generation, there are several key differences to consider.

Scope & goals

The first big difference between demand generation and lead generation lies in their scope and objectives.

Demand generation campaigns have a much broader approach that encompasses a wide range of sales and marketing processes because they focus on:

1. Creating a market for your offering by educating the public about the pain point you solve.
2. Raising brand awareness by:

• Producing quality content that shows how your product solves a particular issue.
• Using social media platforms to reach and engage with a broader audience and build rapport.
• Optimizing online presence to ensure your product appears at the top of search results when prospective customers research topics related to your product.

A lead generation strategy, on the other hand, takes a more focused approach geared toward:

1. Identifying and capturing potential prospects.
2. Moving them from awareness or mild interest to active brand engagement and readiness to convert.
3. Scoring and qualifying leads lets marketers recognize and prioritize those most likely to convert.

Demand generation is a longer-term process that takes more time to generate tangible results.

Insightful social media posts, like this one on LinkedIn from our CEO, Max Greenwald is a great example of demand gen in action:

In contrast, lead generation is a shorter process that targets a specific audience group (i.e., qualified leads) and aims to achieve immediate results.

Target audience

The next difference to remember when designing lead and demand generation strategies is the target audience.

Demand generation campaigns are geared toward much wider audiences that include:

1. Companies and individuals who are not actively looking for a solution right now could benefit from your offering at some point (i.e., businesses and stakeholders that match your ICP).
2. Companies and individuals who are aware of a certain problem to an extent but haven’t yet started actively searching for a solution.
3. Individuals and companies in the earliest stage of their buyer’s journey have identified a problem and begun gathering relevant information and exploring their options.

Conversely, lead generation campaigns focus on more specific audiences, i.e., companies and individuals who have already shown some level of interest or intent in the company’s offerings, such as:

1. Website visitors, especially those visiting high-intent pages (pricing, specific features, demo page, etc.) or recurring visitors that repeatedly return to your website.
2. Content engagers, including people who have downloaded your guides, case studies, etc., or have attended your webinars and similar events.
3. Email and newsletter subscribers.
4. Social media followers.
5. Individuals who have engaged with your email or social media campaigns (e.g., clicked through marketing emails, commented on social media posts, etc.).

Due to this difference, demand and lead generation also differ in terms of activities that marketing teams take.

Activities

Since it’s designed to create awareness, educate the market, and build interest in a company’s products or services, B2B demand generation includes tactics like: 

• Content marketing, including various free resources, such as blogs, case studies, whitepapers, guides, etc., with the aim of establishing your brand as an industry thought leader.
• Social media marketing builds brand awareness and drives traffic to your website by posting engaging content, interacting with followers, running targeted ads, and more.
• SEO helps create a strong online presence and improve your company’s visibility in search engine results, making it easier for potential customers to come across your offering when searching for relevant information. 

Effective lead generation consists of tactics designated for capturing contact information from potential customers and qualifying them for sales follow-up, including:

• Gated content enables you to collect relevant lead information by offering leads valuable resources in exchange for their contact information.
• Creating high-converting landing pages designed to spark visitors’ interest and compel them to fill out web forms or book a demo or a meeting.
• Email campaigns that help nurture and engage leads with personalized emails tailored to their needs, behavior, level of interest, etc.
• Calls to action (CTAs) that guide qualified leads toward completing an action aligned with the stage of their buyer’s journey (e.g., an action that captures contact information or urges them to sign up for a free trial or book a demo, etc.).

4. Funnel stage

Another crucial difference between demand generation and lead generation is the funnel stage at which B2B marketing teams undertake them.

Due to its nature and objectives, demand generation operates at the top and middle of the marketing funnel - the awareness and interest stages.

On the other hand, lead generation campaigns cover the middle and bottom of the sales funnel - the consideration and conversion stages.

5. Metrics

Different KPIs and metrics measure the success and efficiency of demand generation and lead generation.

To determine how well your demand generation strategy is performing, you should monitor:

• Website traffic is a primary indicator of how well your demand-generation efforts are driving awareness and attracting interest. You should especially keep an eye out for:
• Visitors that fit into your ICP.
• Returning visitors.
• Visitors that spend more time on high-intent pages.  
• Engagement rates help you evaluate how compelling and relevant your content (e.g., blogs, social media posts, etc.) is to your target audience based on whether and how they interact with it (likes, comments, shares, subscriptions, etc.). 
• Brand awareness measures how familiar your target audience is with your brand and how easily they recognize it. You can assess it through surveys or by tracking the frequency and sentiment of online brand mentions.
• Content consumption that tracks how your content is consumed and engaged with across channels, providing insight into what topics and content types perform well and which need to be improved.

At the same time, lead generation is measured by tracking:

• The number of generated leads monitors the total number of leads collected through various lead generation channels and activities.
• Conversion rates measure the percentage of leads who complete a desired action, such as filling out a form or signing up for a demo.
• Cost per lead calculates the average cost of generating a single lead, helping you assess the financial efficiency and sustainability of your lead generation efforts.
• Lead quality, which evaluates how likely leads are to convert into paying customers by measuring their intent level, ICP fit, etc.

When should we focus on demand gen vs lead gen?

Choosing between demand generation and lead generation depends on your business's current needs, market conditions, product development stage, and overall market presence. 

Lead generation, on the other hand, is better suited for the middle and bottom of the sales funnel. It focuses on companies and individuals that have already shown interest in your product or are highly likely to be interested in it based on certain ICP attributes.

As such, lead generation can be more beneficial for businesses that have already generated sufficient demand and interest in their offering and are now looking to monetize it.

Here’s a helpful guide on when to focus on each. ⤵️

Focus on demand generation when:

1. Launching a new product or entering a new market - It’s essential to build awareness when you’re at an early stage with your product, educating your target audience about your brand, the problems it solves, and the general value it brings to the table.
2. You need to create or improve brand awareness - Demand generation can help establish your brand’s position and enhance brand visibility, especially if you’re in a highly competitive industry that requires an efficient way to cut through the noise.
3. Educating the market—If your product is highly innovative, complex, or tackles a niche issue, educating your potential audience on all the benefits it can bring them can go a long way.

Focus on lead generation when:

1. You already have an established market presence - Lead generation is more beneficial for businesses with a clearly defined market and a known brand, as it allows for capturing and nurturing qualified leads from an audience already aware of your product and possibly interested.
2. You want to nurture existing interest - If you already have an audience of individuals or companies interested in your offering, apply lead generation tactics to nurture those leads and guide them to conversion.

Pro tip: You can also use lead generation tactics to attract and convert your competitors’ audience. If a certain market segment is interested in your competitors’ offering, chances are they are a good fit for you, too. Therefore, it’s always a good idea to keep an eye on the competition’s performance and monitor leads’ buyer intent across digital channels.

1. You’re looking to optimize marketing spend - Lead conversion focuses on specific, high-ROI goals, enabling you to achieve ROI and measure it more accurately than with demand generation.

Keep in mind, though, that the key to success lies in striking the right balance between the two. You can’t expect your lead generation to succeed if you haven’t adequately prepared the market for your offering.

A combination of demand and lead generation strategies is critical for the best results, especially for startups that have yet to establish their brand presence.

You can best understand this through a practical example.

Case study

VioletX, a fast-scaling startup in the virtual CISO space, applied both demand generation and lead generation in its journey, enabling it to experience a 400% growth year after year.

It relied on Warmly, a signal-based revenue orchestration platform, to help them tackle various segments of demand generation and lead generation, including:

• Website traffic tracking enabled VioletX to determine whether its website is attracting its intended audience or if its messaging and awareness-raising strategies need improvement.

• Data-driven website redesign - Using insights Warmly provided, VioletX’s team enhanced its website and landing pages, making them better suited for its audience and their needs.
• Understanding website intent - Warmly allowed VioletX’s team to gauge which website visitors were most likely to convert based on how they interacted with their web pages, content, chatbots, etc.
• Gaining insight into third-party buying intent - Warmly tracks visitors’ buying intent across levels, including the topics they research on the web, visits to competitors’ pages, interactions with their ads, etc., enabling VioletX to get a complete picture of a lead’s readiness to convert.
• Streamlining communication - VioletX’s sales team was able to reach out to the hottest leads while their interest was at its peak, thanks to Warmly’s automated and live engagement features. It was also enabled to nurture qualified leads who weren’t ready to convert yet by including them in personalized outreach sequences.

Refresher

Although the aim of this article isn’t to define lead generation and demand generation, a small reminder of what each strategy entails can’t hurt, helping you better understand their nuances and use cases.

What is demand generation?

Simply put, demand generation is a marketing process that creates awareness and interest in a company's products or services. 

It consists of a broad set of activities designed to reach and engage potential customers at the top and middle stages of the marketing funnel, from initial brand awareness to generating interest and engagement. 

What is lead generation?

Lead generation is a more focused marketing process designed to identify and nur

ture potential customers for a business's products and services. 

It involves specific activities geared toward capturing prospects' interest and converting them into leads who have provided their contact information, allowing sales teams to take over and design personalized sales strategies.

Wrapping up

Understanding the differences between lead generation and demand generation - including different methods they employ, specific goals, and ways of measuring their impact - is essential when deciding which strategy to apply.

However, to get the best possible results, you should use both approaches, depending on your brand’s size, online presence, target market, and business objectives.

Hopefully, this guide helped you decide when to use demand generation vs. lead generation and which tactics to use for each.

Good luck!

If you need a tool that can help you generate demand, capture qualified leads, and convert them, Warmly might be the best choice.

Book a live demo with our team and find out what Warmly can do for you today.

Cold outbound is a staple in the B2B sales community.

But it comes with an inherent problem:

Nobody you’re speaking to knows a thing about you, your brand, your product, or what you can do for them. And you don’t even know—until you speak to them—whether there’s a real use case for what you’re selling.

There’s a better solution: B2B demand generation.

Demand generation flips the model on its head, so that when your sales reps do get to speaking with a customer, the demand is already. 

They know who you are, trust what you’re saying, and have already determined (at least preliminarily) that they need what you sell.

This article serves as your ultimate guide to B2B demand generation.

We’ll begin by getting on the same page regarding what demand gen is (and isn’t), explore why it's a more valuable approach to revenue growth in the long term, and then dive into 6 steps to build your own B2B demand generation strategy.

What is B2B Demand Generation? 

B2B demand generation is a revenue growth strategy (that is, it's across both sales and marketing).

Its principal goal is to build demand for your product or services. By demand, we mean that prospects:

1. Know about your brand
2. See you as an industry expert and trusted advisor
3. Understand—to an extent—how your product can help them
4. Show some interest in purchasing or at least learning more

When you adopt a B2B demand gen approach, you position your company as a media brand, producing and distributing high-quality content across various disciplines and channels.

Trust is core to demand generation. 

The marketing efforts your company engages in are no longer exclusively promotional. You’re not just pitching ads and outbound email campaigns.

You’re creating educational content that provides prescriptive and actionable advice that your target audience finds valuable. 

You cover top-of-funnel topics that capture the attention of customers who aren’t in the market, right down to bottom-of-funnel topics like choosing between you and your competitors.

Then, you capture that demand by being present on the channels where in-market buyers are active. For this reason, B2B demand generation is often divided into two components.

B2B Demand Creation

Demand creation encompasses all of the activities you engage in to expand your brand presence and get in front of new eyeballs.

This is mostly content creation, publishing, and distribution, meaning B2B demand creation overlaps quite significantly with the practice of content marketing.

The principle goal here is to educate the 95% of your total addressable market (TAM) who aren’t in the market to buy right now, but could have a use case for your product.

B2B Demand Capture

Demand capture is about capitalizing on the demand you’ve created and turning that into prospects in your sales funnel.

Some content approaches (such as targeting bottom-of-funnel keywords in your SEO strategy and content plan) fit within the demand capture paradigm, but you’ll also include advertising tactics such as PPC ads to target high-intent buyers.

The principle goal of demand capture is to convert the 5% of your TAM that is in the market into paying customers.

Lead Generation vs. Demand Generation 

Lead generation is typically pitted against demand generation as the “traditional” alternative.

In a lead generation-focused approach, marketing’s goal is to create as many leads as possible, with little attention to how qualified or interested that lead actually is.

Sure, some brands separate leads into different categories (PQL/MQL/SQL is a common division) to designate different levels of buying intent. But the focus is always on the number of leads generated for a given category, and that’s what marketers are measured on.

Demand generation differs in that it's about quality over quantity (though more is still better). Quality, in this case, is used as a synonym for “high buying intent.”

The goal of demand gen isn’t to capture as many leads as possible. It's to ensure that the leads that are captured are as warm as possible. That is, they are warm to your brand, maybe even to the sales reps they’re talking to, and have demonstrated buying intent for your product.

This doesn’t mean that the idea of B2B lead generation efforts should be thrown out entirely, however. Sales reps still need new prospects at the top of the funnel to keep their pipeline moving. 

But lead gen should happen within the context of demand generation and is better thought of as demand capture.

Inbound vs. Outbound Demand Generation 

B2B demand generation marketing activities can fall into both inbound and outbound camps.

While some marketing teams may have a preference for one or the other (inbound marketing tactics tend to align nicely with the idea of building a media brand), your demand generation program can 100% include a combination of both.

Under the inbound umbrella, B2B marketers can use classic strategies like:

• A blog content strategy, including distribution and content syndication efforts
• Social media marketing tactics like regularly posting and engaging with posts from similar brands in your vertical
• Podcasts (your own or appearances on existing shows)
• Attending live events such as trade shows 

On the other hand, traditional marketing campaigns that fit under the outbound umbrella can also be a valid part of a successful B2B demand gen strategy, such as:

• Cold calling
• Outbound email marketing campaigns 
• The purchasing of intent data
• Direct mail

Why Invest In A B2B Demand Gen Strategy? 

Investing in demand generation (and prioritizing it over other revenue strategies) delivers three important benefits:

1. Greater positive brand affiliation: Your efforts are largely focused on educating the market and providing helpful advice, thereby positioning your brand as a trusted thought leader.
2. Warmer leads: Because you’re active in the industry and communicating with the 95% of your TAM who aren’t in the market, you’re more likely to be top-of-mind when prospects enter the buying cycle, making your sales process faster and driving conversion rates up.
3. Long-term organic customer acquisition: After a couple of years of investing in different demand generation strategies, you’ll essentially be able to turn off all paid B2B marketing activities, and you’ll still see solid revenue acquisition as a result of those up-front efforts.

How To Build A B2B Demand Generation Strategy 

More important than deciding between different B2B demand generation tactics is getting your strategy aligned.

In the following six steps, we’ll walk you through how to design a successful demand generation strategy, as well as cover the most important channels and tactics for attracting B2B buyers.

1. Develop Positioning and Messaging 

Your first critical step is to work on how you position your brand within the market and the messaging you’ll use to communicate your unique point of difference.

This messaging will flow through every aspect of your B2B demand generation campaign, which is why it needs to happen first.

Let’s use ourselves as an example.

Warmly competes broadly in the account-based marketing and sales space. 

But we’re unique in that we serve the SMB market, are AI-first, and offer a crawl-walk-run approach that allows customers to get set up and start seeing results within minutes.

This messaging is present across all channels, from our home page:

To blog posts about Demandbase competitors:

To webinars our GTM participates in and then shares on LinkedIn:

Wynter, a B2B message testing platform, shares some great advice on this in their article How positioning and messaging build your go-to-market (GTM) strategy.

It’s worth reading in full, but here’s the quick five-step checklist for making sure your messaging is on point:

1. ​​Clarity: Does your audience get it?
2. Relevance: Does it help them solve [key issue]?
3. Value: Does it make the [key issue] urgent?
4. Differentiation: Does it give them a reason to choose you over competitors?
5. Friction: Have you removed all possible objections and addressed potential doubts?

2. Design A Content Production Plan 

This next step is the big one. 

Alongside developing and marketing a product, you’re also going to be building a media brand.

What this means is that you’re going to be producing, publishing, and distributing a ton of content across a variety of content types, including

• Blogs
• Videos (such as how-tos and webinars)
• Podcasts (your own as well as appearances on others')_
• Guides
• Templates 
• Case studies 

GTM analytics tool HockeyStack is the king of this. Their media brand, “The Flow” is literally like Netflix for B2B.

The most effective demand-generation efforts are content-heavy. It’s so important to great demand gen that we developed a five-part series on building a content factory to help you produce and publish at scale.

Check out the first installment here: Building A Content Factory (Part 1 of 5).

From there comes distribution (aka content syndication).

3. Get Active On Social 

Without a doubt, your best channel for content distribution is social media.

Obviously, the specific platform you choose to use will depend on where your audience is active, though, in the B2B context, this is most likely to be LinkedIn and X.

At Warmly, we’re all in on LinkedIn.

Our entire leadership team posts multiple times a day. We share each others’ posts, tag each other in our own, and leverage the audience of our brand partners to maximize reach.

Then, we repurpose the content we’re already creating, optimizing it to be appropriate for the channel.

For example, our Head of Sales Keegan Otter recently published this article: 4 Powerful Omnichannel Sales & Marketing Examples

(Image Source)

Then, he edited the video down to a brief 9-minute walkthrough and shared it with his LinkedIn audience:

4. Build Out Relevant Email Campaigns 

Email is a no-brainer channel used in everything from startup sales playbooks to enterprise marketing campaigns.

While email has a place in the context of B2B demand generation, you’ll want to avoid being overly promotional. 

Instead, use email as a way to distribute thought leadership, promote helpful free tools, share best practices, and ultimately connect with ideal customers at target accounts.

Here’s a solid example from Clearbit (shared in their walkthrough on how they run targeted demand gen):

This email nails two things:

1. Contextual content recommendation (you read that, how about this)
2. Shows you how the product works rather than selling it (our tool told us this about you)

5. Create Meaningful Brand Partnerships 

Building long-term partnerships with other relevant brands is a crucial component of a solid B2B demand generation program.

Here’s how it works:

You identify brands that are in your broad space but aren’t direct competitors. For us, that’s tools like Salesflow, Sendspark, and Letterdrop.

These are all solutions that are broadly in the GTM industry, meaning they share similar kinds of customers to us but aren’t directly competing for the same share of wallet.

We can then collaborate on content, promote each other's thought leadership posts, and borrow from each other’s brand awareness, equity, and social capital to build demand for our own product.

We’ve already covered a couple of examples above where this happened. 

In step one (Develop Positioning and Messaging), I called out a webinar I appeared on, collaborating with Bethany Stachenfeld of Sendspark.

In step three (Get Active On Social), the video that Keegan shared on LinkedIn included a brief snippet on how we actually use Sendspark in our own GTM motion.

We even have a case study on Sendspark’s website, which details how we use the platform as part of our account-based orchestration process.

(Image Source)

Hockeystack provides another great example of how meaningful brand partnerships can be used as part of a B2B demand gen approach.

This video series called The Loop sees Hockeystack partner with experts from Cognism (a B2B data platform. 

Here, Hockeystack benefits not only from the expert-level content published on their site, but borrows some of the positive brand affiliations Cognism has built and transfers it over to their own brand.

6. Optimize Your Site For Demand Capture 

Don’t forget the second half of B2B demand gen: demand capture.

You’ve spent all this time, money, and effort on building a media brand to develop trust with customers and build demand for your product, now it's time to see some ROI from it.

Here’s how:

1. Deanonyomize site traffic with a tool like Warmly to understand who exactly is on your site and what pages they’re engaging with
2. Integrate best-in-class third-party intent data to enable personalized sales outreach
3. Use AI sales chatbots to engage with site visitors and notify sales reps via Slack to get involved when the prospect is hot
4. Launch complex pricing plans that dynamically adjust to the visitor using tools like Wingback.

Want to dive deeper into how to engage with prospects to capture demand? Check out part three of our warm leads manifesto here.

Capture Demand With Warmly 

The most successful B2B demand generation campaigns will be those built on a solid foundation of ICP-focused content.

Nailing your messaging and customer targeting, then going all in on content production and distribution will help position your brand as a thought leader and develop positive brand associations so that when a prospect is ready to buy, you’ll be top of mind.

Then its all about demand capture. That’s where Warmly, the account-based orchestration platform, comes in.

With Warmly, you can deanonymize site visitors, track engagement behavior, enrich account data with best-in-class firmographic and intent data, and engage visitors with an AI-led conversational chat solution.

Want to start seeing results in a matter of minutes?

Check out how Kandji booked two qualified meetings in just 8 minutes using Warmly.