Growth Hacking Tools to increase B2B Sales
Get 50% more leads in just a few days! Doesn’t that sound just like what the doctor ordered?
And trust us, it’s possible – with growth hacking.
Today, we’re going to show you what growth hacking is, how you can growth hack your way to more B2B sales, and tools that can help you get the job done.
Let’s dive in!
1. What is growth hacking?
Growth hacking is one of the newest fields in marketing and sales.
In fact, growth hacking has found its place at the very intersection of both.
Instead of dealing primarily with marketing leads, and then leaving the rest for the sales team to handle, growth hacking aligns both marketing and sales around one true north metric:
Growth.
Growth hacking was popularized by early-stage startups like Facebook, AirBnB, and Slack.
They looked not to replace common marketing and sales methods completely, but supercharge them to make sure they constantly drive sales.
Suffice it to say, growth hacking requires a lot of creativity and out-of-the-box thinking.
For example, when Slack first launched, they were revolutionary for their growth hacking tactic: the freemium model.
It turned out to be a good idea.
They grew to over 500,000 daily active users in just a year.
B2B growth hacking with employee advocacy and content marketing
Similarly, a job board, Proven, didn’t increase their marketing costs.
Nope, one of the main benefits of growth hacking is the fact that it’s cost-effective.
Instead of paying for expensive PPC campaigns, they got new sign-ups through employee advocacy and content marketing.
Image Source: Hubspot
They got their employees to promote content that wasn’t performing well on social media (and messages shared by employees go 561% further than messages shared on brand-owned channels), and gamified it.
(Coincidentally, DrumUp also offers gamified employee advocacy.)
Soon enough, Proven’s search engine rankings improved significantly, bringing them a lot more traffic and customers.
Growth hacking is full of stories like these.
Facebook invited new users to sign up by telling them that “people were talking about them,” Hotmail added automatic email signatures, AirBnB used Craigslist…
But today, growth hacking is not just reserved for startups. And it has changed.
Every successful company in 2020 hacks its growth.
Image Source: Pexels
Growth hacking in 2020
Today, growth hacking is no longer a set of guerrilla tactics.
It’s strategic, and employed by corporations, big businesses, and small businesses alike.
As Hafsa Danguir explains:
Image Source: Medium
Source: H. Danguir
“Growth hacking is all about growing a huge audience in a short period with less money.”
When it comes to B2B, you can apply some of the standard concepts, as well as a few specific tactics:
- Automation
- Outreach
- Social selling
- Shortening your sales cycle
With growth hacking, you no longer have to spend weeks convincing your leads.
.
How?
With a little help from B2B growth hacking tools.
2. 7 growth hacking tools to increase your B2B sales: content marketing, social selling, and more
2.1. DrumUp: Content marketing as a service
One of the first tools on our list helps you automate and streamline content marketing.
We all know B2B leads conduct so much product research that sometimes, they can stay on the fence for ages. At the same time, content marketing is the best method for reaching and convincing your B2B leads.
Successful content marketing nips indecisiveness in the bud, and convinces your leads that your business is the perfect fit.
Image Source: DrumUp
DrumUp offers an all-in-one content marketing package with:
- Growth strategy calls
- Content for your website that attracts search engine traffic
- Social media posts
- Industry posts
- Employee advocacy
And more!
DrumUp All-in-One Content Marketing is a great way to hack your growth on multiple channels.
Instead of scattering your efforts, you can get everything done with a single tool.
You’ll be:
- Growing your audience on social media
- Attracting search engine traffic
- Amplifying your efforts with employee advocates
Image Source: Pexels
You’ll also get better results for less.
According to Content Marketing Institute’s research, 56% of B2B content marketers are constantly increasing their spending for content creation.
But with DrumUp, you won’t have to worry about inordinate costs.
At the same time, you’ll maximize the reach of every single content piece you publish.
Growth? Hacked!
2.2. Drift: Convert and capture with chat bots
Chat bots are one of the most important tools for B2B sales in 2020.
With 57% of businesses stating that chat bots deliver significant ROI with minimal investment, it’s pretty clear that they’re the growth hacking tool of this year.
Image Source: Kinstacdn
So, what happens with Drift’s chat bots?
A lead lands on your site and starts browsing. However, they have quite a few questions and objections (as all B2B leads do).
They can either get in touch with you via email, or leave your website.
(They usually leave.)
But with a chat bot in place, those leads will be engaged in a conversation, and free to pose their questions.
The chatbot will then give them the right resources for their unique needs.
Image Source: Kinstacdn
Some chat bots are even capable of qualifying leads for you. Your sales team would only have to handle qualified leads, and focus on closing the deal.
Finally, your chat bot can recognize VIP accounts, and make sure they receive appropriate attention.
In the end, you’re saving time, money, and maximizing the number of visitor-to-lead conversions.
Growth? Hacked!
2.3. Expandi: Automate social selling and hack your growth
Image Source: Expandi
Expandi is one of the rare few tools that allow you to automate your social selling on LinkedIn.
Since LinkedIn is notorious for forbidding any kind of automation, it can take a lot of manual work to get in touch with your B2B leads.
Fortunately, Expandi got their go-ahead.
This neat little tool allows you to find the most qualified leads through:
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator
- LinkedIn Posts
- Advanced search
Then, you can engage them with connection requests, messages, and more.
It’s 100% automated!
All you have to do is set the right filters, and choose what kind of messages you’d like them to receive.
From there, Expandi takes care of everything else.
And since social selling is definitely one of the best ways to get more B2B sales, we can say that, with Expandi…
Growth? Hacked!
2.4. BuzzSumo: The content of your marketing strategy
Image Source: BuzzSumo
The key to growth in 2020? Beating your competitors at their own game.
Save time managing your social media accounts
Are you still managing your social media accounts directly from Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn? Make your life easier by managing all your social media in one place, schedule posts, repeat posts, curate content and more. Try DrumUp now, it's free, forever.
That goes for pretty much anything, but SEO and content in particular.
What does BuzzSumo do?
It shows you the best performing pieces of content from your competitors, as well as the people and websites that have linked to it.
So when you get your DrumUp content, you can make a list of websites to pitch it to for backlinks.
Since BuzzSumo saves you hours you’d spend on researching influencers and websites to reach out to in hopes of getting backlinks (a must for SEO), we can say that…
Growth? Hacked!
2.5. Hotjar: improve your user experience
Image Source: Static-Cms
When you look at your website, it probably looks phenomenal. To you.
But can you really be sure if it’s working for your customers?
With Hotjar, you can.
Hotjar lets you see how your customers use your site.
You can watch live recordings of sessions to see where visitors click, where they stagger, and where they get frustrated because they can’t find something.
In the long term, it helps you significantly improve your UX and give your visitors everything they need to become customers.
Oh, and it also has quick, pop-up polls. You can ask your visitors what they think while they’re on your site.
If you’re just A/B testing your site, you’re still guessing what your customers might like. But Hotjar shows you what the situation is really like.
Growth? Hacked!
2.6. Vero: acquire and retain customers
Image Source: Getvero
The first step of growth hacking is customer acquisition. But the second is retention.
So once you’ve got a contact in your database, it’s important to understand what they need and send them the right messages.
Vero allows you to personalize and automate messaging based on your contact behavior (what they were doing on your site).
For example, a customer may have been looking at a new product category.
Knowing this, you can automatically queue an email offering them a demo, and explain how it would work for their company.
This allows you to personalize at scale, and make sure your customers become your brand advocates.
Growth? Hacked!
2.7. Xink: email wizardry
Image Source: Econsultancy
Remember how we mentioned that Hotmail hacked its growth by adding an email signature to their customers’ emails?
You can do something similar with Xink.
Xink allows you to create interactive and dynamic email signatures. Instead of just signing it with your name, you can include things like CTAs to download your marketing materials, and more.
Instead of having your leads just skim over your message, you’ll get them to make a micro commitment.
And after that, closing the deal is just a few messages away.
Growth? Hacked!
