By The PhantomBuster TeamB2B lead generation powers your sales funnel by attracting potential clients and qualifying them as sales-ready leads.
This guide covers key strategies and tools to strengthen your lead generation approach.
Whether you want to target intent data, leverage automation, or refine social selling, you'll find actionable insights here to boost your pipeline and drive growth.
TL;DR
B2B lead generation identifies and attracts potential business clients, focusing on nurturing them from initial interest (MQL) to readiness for sales engagement (SQL).
B2B lead generation fuels a steady stream of high-potential leads, which helps marketing and sales teams grow revenue.
B2B lead generation relies on two core strategies—inbound, which attracts leads through valuable content, and outbound, which reaches out directly to prospects. Both methods are necessary for sustained growth.
It flows through three key stages—generating leads to fill the pipeline, enriching contact lists for more qualified leads, and starting targeted outreach efforts.
Best B2B lead generation strategies include:
Collecting competitor-engaged leads: Use LinkedIn tools to find prospects who interact with your competitors’ posts—these individuals already show interest in similar solutions.
Extracting LinkedIn event attendees: Target leads who attend industry-related LinkedIn events and are already interested in your field.
Enriching lead lists: Use LinkedIn scrapers to pull detailed contact info.
Implementing lead scoring with AI: Prioritize high-potential leads by scoring them based on their role, company size, and engagement level.
Personalizing outreach: Add context to messages by referencing specific details like job roles or recent LinkedIn activity so they feel more genuine.
Automating LinkedIn outreach: Set up automated connection requests and follow-ups on LinkedIn to keep your lead generation consistent.
Optimizing custom landing pages: Design targeted landing pages that align with specific campaigns to convert visitors into qualified leads.
Creating high-value lead magnets: Offer valuable resources like e-books or checklists to capture contact information from genuinely interested prospects.
Running workshops and webinars: Host sessions that engage leads deeply, build trust, and position your brand as an expert.
PhantomBuster is a great B2B lead generation tool. It lets you automate lead collection, enrich contacts with AI insights, and run personalized LinkedIn outreach to attract higher-quality leads efficiently.
What is B2B lead generation?
B2B lead generation is the process of identifying and attracting potential business clients interested in a company’s products or services.
Unlike B2C lead generation, which focuses on individual consumers, B2B lead generation targets other businesses and nurtures prospects until they’re ready to engage with the sales team.
In B2B lead generation, leads are often categorized as marketing-qualified leads (MQL) and sales-qualified leads (SQL).
MQLs show interest through marketing efforts like downloading content or signing up for a newsletter, while SQLs have engaged further and are considered ready for direct sales outreach.
Why is B2B lead generation important for sales and marketing teams?
B2B lead generation is essential for sales and marketing teams. It provides a steady flow of potential customers, driving revenue and maintaining growth.
It brings several benefits:
Customer targeting: Identifies high-potential leads, ensuring resources go toward the most promising prospects.
Content direction: Informs what content resonates with your target audience, refining outreach efforts.
Brand visibility: Increases market awareness, positioning your brand as a recognizable option for potential clients.
Sales pipeline efficiency: Elevates lead quality, making it easier to maintain a smooth, predictable pipeline.
Higher conversion rates: Focusing on well-qualified leads boosts the likelihood of successful sales interactions.
Revenue growth: A targeted lead generation strategy leads to a more predictable and scalable revenue path.
Types of B2B lead generation
B2B lead generation splits into two core strategies: inbound and outbound.
Inbound draws prospects to you through helpful resources, while outbound takes a proactive approach to reaching potential customers.
Together, these methods create a well-rounded strategy for sustained growth.
Inbound B2B lead generation
Inbound lead generation attracts leads through valuable content and resources aligned with their needs.
It lets potential clients discover your brand naturally. Key inbound methods include:
Content marketing: Blogs, guides, and articles that address industry challenges.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Capture leads via your website by ranking for relevant searches.
Webinars: Engage and educate prospects interactively.
Landing pages: Convert visitors into leads through targeted messaging and clear calls to action.
This approach builds trust, positions your brand as an industry expert, and creates lasting relationships with potential buyers.
Outbound B2B lead generation
Outbound lead generation involves directly engaging potential customers instead of waiting for them to find you.
Common tactics include:
Cold calling: Contacting prospects who haven’t yet engaged with your brand to introduce your offering.
Cold emailing: Sending targeted emails to prospects who may not know your business.
LinkedIn outreach: Connecting with leads through LinkedIn messages, connection requests, and relevant content.
Account-based marketing (ABM): Running campaigns focused on high-value accounts for tailored engagement.
Warm outbound, where you reach out to leads who’ve already interacted with your brand (like visiting your site or engaging with you on social media), typically leads to better responses, as these prospects have already shown interest.
The stages of the B2B lead generation process
A structured B2B lead generation process keeps your team focused and effective, progressing from finding the right prospects to converting high-quality leads.
Each step sharpens your approach to connect with leads most likely to convert.
Here’s how to make the most of each stage.
1. Generate leads to grow your sales pipeline
A steady lead flow fuels your pipeline and supports consistent growth.
Start by identifying your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) to zero in on leads most likely to convert.
Then, use intent data to identify prospects who show interest in similar products, giving your team a solid foundation to reach out effectively and improve engagement rates.
2. Enrich your contacts list to get more qualified leads
To make your contacts list more effective, enrich your leads with key details that allow for smarter prioritization and targeted outreach. Focus on data points like email addresses, job titles, and recent job start dates.
Behavioral insights—like social media engagement—also add depth, showing which prospects might be warmer and more ready to convert.
With a more detailed contacts list, your sales team can personalize their approach and improve conversion rates, turning data into actionable insights.
3. Start your outreach to enhance your lead generation efforts
With your enriched contact list in hand, it's time to kick off your outreach efforts and connect directly with potential leads.
Personalization is crucial here—it increases engagement and shows prospects that you’ve done your research and understand their needs.
Tailor each message to address their specific pain points or interests, making your outreach feel genuine rather than generic.
This approach sets the stage for meaningful connections that lead to higher conversion rates.
Best B2B lead generation strategies
Collect leads who've interacted with your competitors' content
To collect high-quality leads who show interest in your industry, focus on those interacting with your competitors' LinkedIn content. These prospects actively engage in discussions relevant to your solution, making them valuable leads.
With the LinkedIn Post Commenters Export tool, you can extract a list of LinkedIn users who’ve commented on posts by competitors or industry leaders.
This gives you a ready-to-go list of potential leads who already resonate with topics related to your offering.
Extract attendees from your industry's LinkedIn events
Extracting attendees from industry-specific LinkedIn events gives you a list of prospects already engaged with your niche.
The LinkedIn Event Guests Export Phantom lets you compile attendee details from events relevant to your business.
Mention their participation during your outreach to create a personalized message that resonates with their interest.
This strategy shows you understand their engagement and increases the likelihood of a meaningful response.
Enrich your lead lists with key contact details
To enrich your lead lists with accurate contact details, use PhantomBuster's LinkedIn Profile Scraper. This tool extracts essential data from LinkedIn profiles, including email addresses.
It also allows you to enhance and keep your CRM up-to-date by integrating directly with HubSpot, ensuring that both sales and marketing teams have aligned and relevant information.
For even deeper insights, use the LinkedIn Activity Extractor to capture recent interactions, like posts, showing you what topics or content matter to your leads right now.
Implement a lead scoring system to identify high-quality leads
Scoring leads helps your team prioritize prospects with a high likelihood of conversion. It saves time and directs resources where they matter most.
Basically, lead scoring assigns a score to each lead based on specific attributes like job title, company size, and engagement history.
With the AI LinkedIn Profile Enricher Phantom, you can adjust criteria to create your own lead score that matches your ideal customer profile.
You can use our prompt or customize it according to relevant criteria. That way, each lead score becomes highly relevant.
Personalize outreach to your target audience
To personalize your outreach, go beyond just a name and company.
Pull in specific details about each person, like their job title, industry, or something they recently posted or commented on. This makes your sales prospecting efforts feel relevant and thought-out instead of generic.
The AI LinkedIn Message Writer Phantom can help with this. Set up a prompt that directly addresses their needs or recent activity.
It’s a simple way to make your outreach stand out and feel genuine, which boosts your chances of getting a response.
Instead of sounding like a mass email, you come across as someone who actually did their homework.
Automate outreach efforts to enhance your sales process
Consistent outreach keeps your leads engaged and moves them smoothly through your sales funnel. But staying on top of multiple follow-ups can be a challenge.
That’s where PhantomBuster's LinkedIn Outreach tool steps in.
It automates your LinkedIn outreach by sending connection requests with a tailored introduction message and up to three follow-ups once the connection request is accepted.
This lets you maintain a strong presence in your leads’ inboxes without needing manual oversight, ensuring you never miss a beat in your outreach efforts.
Optimize or create custom landing pages
We’ll now explore some of the top inbound strategies for attracting and converting high-quality leads in the B2B space. Let’s start with landing pages.
When you’re bringing traffic in—whether through ads, content, or social media—custom landing pages make a big difference. They help keep visitors focused on a single message, making them more likely to act.
A well-optimized page doesn’t just look good; it speaks directly to your audience’s needs.
This keeps their attention and makes it much more likely that they’ll hit that “sign up” or “learn more” button.
Create a high-value lead magnet
Think of a lead magnet as an easy way to get contact info from people genuinely interested in what you offer. This could be an e-book, a checklist, or even a case study.
The trick is to give them something genuinely helpful, not just a generic PDF.
When you provide real value, you’re not just gathering emails—you’re showing prospects that you understand their needs.
This builds trust and makes them more likely to come back for more.
Run workshops and webinars
Workshops and webinars are perfect if you want to dive deeper with potential leads. They let you share insights, answer questions, and engage with people who want to know more.
It’s not just about the information; it’s about building connections.
When prospects feel like they’ve gotten real, useful advice from you, they’re much more likely to think of you when they need a solution.
Plus, workshops and webinars attract highly motivated leads who are looking for exactly what you offer, making them great additions to your sales pipeline.
Best B2B lead generation tools for sales and marketing teams
Automation tools are your allies for engaging your target audiences and attracting new leads.
Here are our top picks to help you generate leads and enhance your sales process.
PhantomBuster
PhantomBuster offers a comprehensive B2B lead generation platform designed to help businesses find, qualify, and reach out to leads across various channels.
Its automations streamline the lead generation process so that you can scale faster.
Key features
Generates leads based on LinkedIn intent data.
Scrapes LinkedIn profiles for enriched lead data.
Qualifies leads with AI-driven scoring.
Automates outreach, including follow-ups and personalized messaging.
Syncs lead data with bi-directional HubSpot integration.
Automates multi-step workflows to streamline lead nurturing.
Engages LinkedIn contacts with auto-follows, likes, and comments.
Adjusts automation settings to comply with LinkedIn limits.
G2 review: 4.2/5
A must use tool
I use it almost on a daily basis to export my data from LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, and other platforms. It is one of the many features it offers. Very easy to use and a great feature.
I am pretty much happy with the features I use and I don't think there is anything that I hate in PhantomBuster at the moment.
Vikas T., Senior Business Development Executive, Mid-Market Staffing Firm
PhantomBuster's reviews on G2 - "A must use tool"Pricing
PhantomBuster starts at $56 a month, which gives you 20 hours of execution time. You can test it out with a free trial today.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator
LinkedIn Sales Navigator offers powerful tools to help B2B sales teams identify and engage with high-quality leads.
It provides advanced search and filtering options to zero in on your ideal prospects and enables you to interact directly with potential clients through LinkedIn's native messaging tools.
Key features
Locates prospects with advanced search filters based on criteria like job title and company size.
Reaches leads directly through InMail messaging, even without a connection.
Tracks prospect activity in real time to inform outreach efforts.
Recommends similar leads and accounts based on your prospect list.
Syncs LinkedIn activity with your CRM for a streamlined workflow.
G2 review: 4.3/5
Nice addition to LinkedIn for sales and marketing reps
Using Sales Navigator gives you access to tools that are not standard in LinkedIn.
Unfortunately, the tools available are not nearly as comprehensive as I would like. For such a tool, as a demanding user, I really expect many more features than are currently available.
Karel K., Sales Manager Gatewise Europe
LinkedIn Sales Navigator's reviews on G2 - "Nice addition to LinkedIn for sales and marketing reps"Pricing
Sales Navigator starts at $99.99/month for the Core plan, with additional features available in higher-tier plans. A free 30-day trial is also available for new users.
Apollo.io
Apollo.io is a robust sales automation platform tailored for targeting and prospecting high-quality B2B leads.
With a vast database and advanced filtering, it helps sales teams refine their outreach, making it easier to connect with the right audience at scale.
Key features
Syncs extensive contact data with CRM systems to ensure accuracy.
Refines lead lists through advanced filters like revenue, industry, and job title.
Integrates directly with LinkedIn Sales Navigator to gather contact data seamlessly.
Provides access to a global database of over 275 million contacts.
Tracks and manages outreach efforts automatically, boosting engagement.
G2 review: 4.8/5
Good for a start but needs utilities
I liked the Chrome extension feature for its ability to find companies and contacts when browsing LinkedIn and company websites. It saves a lot of time.
But, credits should only be consumed when full information about the person is actually available. Sometimes, it can give false information.
Also, outgoing mails usually appear as spam and my mail address is changed to a random one.
Ömer D., Sales Development Specialist, Mid-Market Company
Apollo.io's reviews on G2 - "Good for a start but needs utilities"Pricing
Apollo.io's pricing starts at $59 per user per month, billed annually.
Cognism
Cognism offers GDPR and CCPA-compliant B2B lead generation, focusing on accurate, intent-driven European and global outreach data.
It’s designed for companies looking to enrich CRM data with high-quality contact information.
Key features
Provides compliant contact data for GDPR and CCPA regions.
Integrates intent data (powered by Bombora) to prioritize high-intent leads.
Delivers global reach for international lead generation.
Syncs seamlessly with major CRMs like Salesforce and HubSpot.
Offers a browser extension for LinkedIn and Sales Navigator data enrichment.
G2 review: 4.6/5
A huge streamline to prospecting
I like the simplifying of steps across various aspects of the prospecting process. It no longer is a hunt to organize and clean up your CRM after an import or export.
I've been noticing a few more wrong numbers lately, but overall the accuracy and amount are still more substantial than previous tools I have used.
Cognism's reviews on G2 - "A huge streamline to prospecting"Pricing
Pricing starts around $15,100 annually, scaling up based on data needs and CRM integrations.
Clay
Clay is a data enrichment tool that enhances lead lists with data from sources like LinkedIn and HubSpot, using AI for personalized outreach.
Key features
Builds lead lists from multiple data sources.
Enriches lead profiles with relevant details.
Generates AI-powered outreach emails.
Integrates seamlessly with CRM systems.
G2 review: 4.9/5
Clay is a tool to increase efficiency
Clay is a good tool made for sales to optimize their time and enhance efficiency in the outbound sales process.
What I like most about Clay is that it is a tool that works quickly, has a good, accurate database, and can be integrated with another tool.
But, the interface looks like a spreadsheet, which is not bad, but it would be better to have something more explicit.
Rayan A., Sr. Legal Business & Technologist, Small-Business
Clay's reviews on G2 - "Clay is a tool to increase efficiency"Pricing
Starts at $149/month, with a free version available.
Lemlist
Lemlist focuses on personalized cold emails and automated follow-ups, ideal for sales reps prioritizing email marketing and cold outreach.
Key features
Personalizes emails with variables like images and videos.
Uses AI to generate email sequences and icebreakers.
Improves deliverability with an email warm-up tool.
Integrates with PhantomBuster for LinkedIn prospecting automation.
G2 review: 4.5/5
Great support staff + intuitive sequencing
It is easy to click on someone's LinkedIn profile and add them to a sequence (Lemlist grabs their email). Support staff always replies within 5 minutes. Incredible.
However, the reporting functionality is not intuitive. I am surprised at how difficult it is to understand campaign reporting.
Laz G., Expansion Account Manager, Small-Business
Lemlist's reviews on G2 - "Great support staff + intuitive sequencing"Pricing
Plans start at $39/month per user, with a free trial available.
Dropcontact
Dropcontact automates data cleaning, enrichment, and verification, making it a top choice for B2B contact data management with GDPR compliance.
Key features
Automates email discovery and CRM data enrichment.
Maintains GDPR compliance for European markets.
Merges duplicate data in CRM platforms like HubSpot and Salesforce.
G2 review: 4.7/5
Dropcontact is my go to tool for finding contact information in Europe
Its really easy to use once you have paid the monthly subscription, I have only ever used the file upload feature and this rarely exceeds the estimated time suggested it will take to produce the results. I find I get significantly increased volume of data vs. traditional platforms outside of Europe and its very cost effective.
One drawback is that if I have the same contact in another file that I recently uploaded, it won't recognise duplicate data records and I end up using more credits.
Upon upload, I get an estimated outcome with some tips but the content (YouTube, Forum, URL) is lacking from the user experience to really optimise the outcome (as per their recommendations).
Verified User in Marketing and Adversting, Small-Business
Dropcontact's reviews on G2 - "Dropcontact is my go to tool for finding contact information in Europe"Pricing
Plans start at €24/month, with a free trial available.
Dripify
Dripify is a LinkedIn automation tool designed to manage LinkedIn campaigns with advanced features like A/B testing and analytics.
Key features
Filters searches on LinkedIn for targeted campaigns.
Automates LinkedIn outreach sequences and follow-ups.
Includes a centralized LinkedIn inbox and analytics for performance.
G2 review: 4.5/5
Good, but could be better
I love that Dripify is cloud-based and therefore I don't have to keep a computer on with an application running.
But it lacks many capabilities that competitors have, like event invites, filtering by event registrants, and true webhooks.
Dripify's reviews on G2 - "Good, but could be better"Pricing
Starts at $39/month, with a 7-day free trial.
Conclusion
To wrap up, B2B lead generation plays a crucial role in building a steady pipeline of qualified sales leads.
Use tools like PhantomBuster to automate repetitive tasks, focus on high-quality leads, and improve conversion rates efficiently.
Try PhantomBuster with a 14-day free trial to see how automation can transform your lead-generation campaigns.
