When I googled “how to generate leads” at time of writing, it returned around 560 million search results. That might sound like a lot, and it actually is. But a quick glance at the first few pages revealed that not much has been written about end-to-end, outbound lead generation strategies that use different channels. That’s what I wanted to cover in this post. I’m going to share a multi-channel outbound lead generation workflow you can quickly apply, plus go into detail about why and how each component works. Why Outbound Lead Generation Matters More Than Ever Here’s a little tidbit of marketing history for you. When inbound marketing first broke into the scene around a decade ago, there was no shortage of websites and blogs predicting the impending death of outbound marketing. But the naysayers at that time had overlooked one crucial detail about where marketing was headed. B2B Marketers Will Always Need Outbound Now, 10 years on, outbound channels remain as strong and important as ever in the B2B marketer’s arsenal. In fact, study after study show that email consistently outperforms other lead generation channels in terms of usage and effectiveness. The irony is that those very same sources that trumpeted outbound marketing’s demise are now advocating using emails, phone, and other outbound tactics alongside inbound channels. That’s because outbound complements inbound marketing strategies in many ways. Inbound works well at creating broad awareness, while outbound is ideal for activities that need precise touches. Let’s say a site visitor downloads your latest whitepaper. Without connecting with the hand-raiser via email or phone (to suggest other relevant content and acquire additional prospect info), turning this lead into an opportunity can take longer (or will never take place at all), since you have to passively wait for the prospect’s next move. What if a competitor reaches out to this prospect before you do? Then, you just lost a potential customer, because 50% of B2B buyers will end up choosing the vendor that responds first. With a solid outbound follow-up plan, you’ll be ready and able to promptly engage every prospect that comes your way. Ways Outbound Lead Generation Impacts Results Supporting inbound activities is just one way outbound lead generation drives the marketing process . Today, with buyers taking more control of the sales cycle and with ABM strategies taking center stage , B2B marketers use outbound lead generation in a number of roles to boost marketing results, including: Gaining richer prospect profiles and sharper marketing intelligence: Much of the information you’ll need to engage and convert leads later can be acquired and verified in real-time using outbound channels earlier in the funnel. Distributing relevant content to the right audience: Outbound marketing helps your content cut through the noise by putting it in front of the right decision makers at the right time. Today’s prospects continue to drown in an ocean of published materials, and traditional distribution channels (online and social media) remain highly saturated. Accelerating conversions and streamlining the sales funnel: Nothing beats Targeted, one-on-one touches at starting and completing the lead conversion process, especially now that sales cycles have gotten longer and more complicated. In the rest of this how-to guide, we’ll focus on the third point above, because lead generation still ranks as one of the biggest challenges that we B2B folks face every day. It also happens to be the top objective behind many of the activities we do. This article is originally published at The Savvy Marketer .