B2B marketing is a complex phenomenon. Long sales cycles, lead nurturing processes and an array of CRM tools can confuse you while scaling your business.

Some of the major challenges that B2B marketers face involve

• Qualifying potential leads and their contact information.
• Tracking leads effectively.
• Understanding the use of mobile in conversion paths.
• Quantifying leads from content marketing.

In a world where digital marketing is changing every day, B2B marketers need to be focused on the best tools that can drive results quickly.

Most SMB’s look for free tools before they give the paid version a shot. In this post, we have compiled some of the best free B2B lead generation tools which can help you with the following:

• Finding contact information.
• Using content for lead generation.
• Tracking and following up with leads.
• Creating high converting landing pages for lead generation.
• Managing social media for lead generation.

Let’s begin with it!

# 1 Hunter

Main Use: Finding email information from websites and social profiles.

Best For: Marketers who need to start one-on-one email conversations.

Pricing: Free for 150 requests per month. Then paid.

Hunter is a tool which easily helps you to scan email ids of your potential leads. You can either go to the website or install their Chrome browser extension.

It is a pretty simple tool to use. Once on the website, just click the extension button from the top and you would be able to see the emails associated with that domain.

Hunter is amazing with LinkedIn as well. While browsing through a profile of a potential lead, you can run the extension and find the email address easily.

Bonus point: The best point about Hunter is that it lets you know the confidence level associated with each email.

For example, the above email address is extracted with 91% confidence.

Our suggestion is to use email addresses which show up with more than 85% confidence in Hunter

#2 Answer Quora Questions

Main Use: Building your credibility by providing valuable answers.

Best For: Marketers who need to reach to a larger audience using their content.

Pricing: Free for life!

Quora is one of the biggest underdogs in B2B marketing. Your potential leads are looking for solutions all across the web.

One of the biggest platforms they use is Quora.

Answering questions on Quora where your target audience needs education is one of the best lead generation strategies.

Here is how I have been using this opportunity:

Under the stats section, you would be able to view what impact your answers have created.

Here is a view of my answers and their impact

I have invested in Quora for a while now. And the results are great! I receive a healthy flow of traffic every month and a bunch of business leads every week.

# 3 Instapage- Landing Page Tool

Main Use: Building high-conversion landing pages.

Best For: Marketers who need to distribute content/resources to add leads to the top of the funnel.

Pricing: Free for the first 30 days. Then package starts with $29 per month.

Instapage is an easy tool to build landing pages for free ( for the first 30 days).

B2B marketers can create eBooks, whitepapers and other resources using Instapage. They can then ask for contact information in return and nurture the leads further.

Here is how you can build and edit a landing page in Instapage

It’s fairly easy to get 25% or more conversion rates from Instapage’s landing pages.

# 4  Sumo Me- The email popup tool

Main Use: Improving email signups and adding people to your funnel.

Best For: Marketers who produce resources which can be exchanged in lieu of contact information.

Pricing: Free for life. Paid packages available for added features.

Sumo Me is a reliable tool when it comes to growing your email list. I have been personally using it for a long time now to promote my eBooks.

Here is a snapshot of the same

Sumo Me comes with a simple dashboard that integrates with your website. You can configure settings like when to show a popup, it’s content, connecting Sumo me with email service ( like MailChimp etc) and also A/B testing of the same.

#5 Hootsuite- social media scheduling

Main Use: Scheduling social media content and interacting in conversations.

Best For: Marketers who use social media extensively.

Pricing: Free for 3 social networks.

Hootsuite is a well known social media scheduling tool. You can schedule content in advance. However, I want to talk about finding business opportunities and interactions using Hootsuite.

If you understand what your potential leads might be sharing on social media, you can start conversations with them using Hootsuite.

For example, you can scan tweets where people are looking for digital services and interact with them accordingly.

Here is a snapshot that shows you how to do it:

We’ve compiled our favourite lead generation tools for you to take home. Get your free E-book today!

In A Nutshell

There are a ton of tools which can help you generate more leads. As a B2B business owner/ marketer, you need to understand

• Who your ideal customer is?
• Which digital platform do they use? Are they active on LinkedIn? Do they read blogs for educating themselves?
• How to attract them to the top of your funnel?
• How to take the lead nurturing process further?

These free tools will help you generate more leads which are qualitative in nature. I’d love to know what you think of them?

For more B2B tools, here’s a good post by Larry Kim – B2B Lead Generation Tools