Mike McKay
July 27, 2026
Lead Generation. Let’s face it. Your business doesn’t grow without leads. That’s not “Rah Rah”, it’s math. No leads, no clients, no revenue. Let’s not discuss theory today. Let’s talk about what to do, and the differences in selling to businesses versus selling to individuals.
Most marketing advice treats B2B and B2C like they’re the same. They’re not. They consist of different buyers, different timelines, different needs, and different reasons people say yes. If you ignore that distinction, you’ll waste time and money on tactics built for the wrong audience.
Do that often enough, and you’ll eventually believe marketing “just doesn’t work.”
Step One. Know Who You’re Actually Selling To
If you skip this step, everything after it is guesswork. There are 4 key questions you’ll need to answer:
- Who is your ideal client?
- What problem(s) keeps them up at night?
- Where do they seek out information? Online? In person? Industry associations? Trade journals?
- Who makes the buying decision?
That last question is where B2B and B2C become radically different.
B2B: You’ll rarely talk to just one person. More likely, you’ll engage with a “committee.” This will start with a manager or leader who wants a problem solved, a finance person who wants an ROI, maybe a VP or owner who then signs off. Your content and outreach need to answer to all three.
B2C: An individual making one decision, often driven more by emotion or convenience than facts or data. You’ll need to build desire, trust, and urgency.
Content Marketing: Different Content, Different Job
Content can still work. But “good content” now depends on who’s reading it. Here are some considerations.
- Blog posts solve one specific problem, get found on Google.
- Ebooks/guides trade a real answer for an email address.
- Webinars show up live, prove you know what you’re talking about.
- Video is a cheap trust-builder, especially on YouTube and social.
B2B content should read like it was written by someone who’s done the job. Case studies, data, ROI breakdowns, whitepapers. The buyer is doing due diligence. You need to give them ammunition to justify the purchase to their boss.
B2C content should feel less like a report and more like a conversation. Short-form video, lifestyle content, before/afters, reviews. People buy based on how something makes them feel, then justify it after.
Successful use of Social Media requires you to pick the right location, and then get your prospects off the platform and into your database.
Stop trying to be everywhere. Pick where your buyer is. And don’t depend on platforms!
- B2B buyers are more likely to be on LinkedIn, industry-specific forums, niche Facebook Groups. “Earn” your sales pitch by showing up with insight, answering questions, and freely sharing expertise.
- B2C buyers are more likely to be on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook. They’re visual, fast, emotional. Paid ads work well here because the buying decision is quicker and cheaper to influence. Consumers are now used to being marketed on these platforms as well.
Engagement matters. Comments, DMs, polls, live Q&As are still useful, but the tone shifts. B2B engagement builds credibility. B2C engagement builds affinity.
Networking still works, but maybe not the way you do it today.
B2B Networking is a direct pipeline. Conferences, professional associations, strategic partnerships, co-hosted webinars. One good relationship can produce years of referrals. Treat it like a long-term investment, not a numbers game. In the B2B space, personal contact is the way in. It nearly always requires an actual live conversation with one or more people from the buyer’s side.
No conversation, no sale. And in B2B networking, the objective is always business.
B2C “Networking” looks more like community-building. It’s made up of reviews, referral programs, influencer partnerships, and word of mouth. Your existing customers are your best networkers. Make it easy for them to talk about you.
Follow-Up is where most of your leads die.
Believe it or not, generating a lead isn’t the hard part. Follow up is where deals get won or lost. Here are three basic rules of follow up;
- Use a CRM. Track every lead, every touchpoint. No exceptions.
- Personalize the follow-up. Reference the actual conversation, not a generic template.
- Keep following up. 7 times at least, or until you get a yes. Silence kills more deals than any other strategy.
Follow up is not optional if you want to bring customers along for your business. Statistics say that to optimize the number of “yeses” in your sales pipeline requires 7 or more steps. No one like to hear this, but stats are stats. It’s probably happened to you over the years, and it still works today.
Don’t chicken out. You’ve already invested in the lead, take that last few steps as well.
Email is still a high-ROI Channel. If you don’t already believe this, I might not be able to change your mind, but if you’re using any platform, you’re at the risk of that platform making a change that can destroy your lead flow.
This isn’t chicken little. Just one example is on Instagram, you used to be able to mass message your followers with marketing info. Now you can’t. It’s that simple. The feature was turned off by Instagram and there is nothing anyone can do about it. That’s just an example. It happens.
The path is to provide enough value to your people to get them onto your email list, and then regularly provide value. Then you’ve earned the right to make offers.
Keep Improving or Lose Your Race…
Lead generation isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it system. Ask for feedback. Watch what competitors are doing and test new channels before you’re forced to.
Bottom Line
Lead generation isn’t complicated — it’s just work, and the work looks different depending on who you’re selling to. B2B is longer, more rational, built on relationships and proof. B2C is faster, more emotional, built on trust and convenience. Know which game you’re playing before you pick your plays.
Want help building out a lead gen strategy that actually fits your business? Schedule a call and let’s map it out.