Technology and software companies have long been told that if they build something great, then customers and business will just naturally come. By some combination of virality, word-of-mouth, and press mentions, people will find them, figure out exactly what they need, and sign-up - all while you’re asleep!

While that’s a nice idea, most executives find they may need a backup approach that’s a little more concrete and that they can explain to their employees and investors. By the time a company has hired it’s first salesperson (or preferably before), it’s important that they’ve begun to invest in a lead generation strategy for their business.

Getting Started with Lead Generation

For most technology companies, your online marketing strategy needs to be focused on lead generation. That gives your salespeople something to work with, and can lead to a very technically impressive marketing strategy, which is important for many technology companies. 

Many companies who realize this start out by investing in Pay Per Click (PPC) ads. That’s not a bad place to start, but it can also quickly drain a lot of resources if it’s not done well. If you’re promoting something that people are already looking for, like a CRM or accounting software, then you might have some success. But if your company is selling something new, then oftentimes people won’t know to search for it. 

Another common mistake people make with PPC ads is targeting people just at the point of conversion. It’s like trying to catch someone at the register at the supermarket - it can work sometimes, but if what you’re selling has some level of complexity, then you probably need to provide some level of customer education before they’re going to know enough to make an informed purchase. 

Where companies have a big opportunity for lead generation though is around content development and blogging. 

How Blogging Drives Lead Generation

Why blogging? Well before even diving into the technical reasons, it provides your company with an outlet to constantly be developing content for your prospects. Help them become aware of the problem your product solves with a series on the topic. Get them to consider the advantages of using what you sell. Convince them to learn more, and eventually raise their hands to talk to someone. Frequent blogging, done strategically, can provide a wealth of sales collateral that people will find online and educate themselves. 

Furthermore, it's a great source of content that can be driving people to become leads on your site. Showcasing your expertise in a blog can help to convince people to download an ebook or whitepaper from your site. It's a way to give people a taste of what they can expect from your company if they fill out a form to download something from you. 

Getting Found Online

So beyond just the basic reasons that blogging is important, it also is important for bringing people into the sales funnel and getting found online. Each page your produce is almost like a mini-funnel - it can pull in people searching for that topic and drive them towards a next step on your site. 

It also gives people a way to share something about your company on social networks. Not too many people are sharing the homepage of companies on Twitter or LinkedIn, but an article that explains how to do something or talks about an interesting topic can garner a lot of shares. Each person who shares it is bringing in traffic to your site, which can be a great source of highly qualified traffic.

Blogging is a pretty foundational step to building a great lead generation strategy for a technology company. Creating a blog that’s useful to people and that is actually read can be a powerful asset and can generate many leads for your company if done well.

Looking to get started with blogging? Download our ebook on generating leads through B2B blogging.