Spurred by the statistic that six out of ten US-based B2B marketers reported lead generation as their biggest online marketing challenge, we put together a number of telling statistics for our initial “21 Surprising (and Tweetable) Lead Generation Statistics” post. We looked into lead generation sources, challenges, and outcomes in an effort to explain what makes it such a challenge for so many companies.
The good news is, since the publishing of our last post, a more recent study by Asend2 found 52% of companies say their lead generation effectiveness is improving, 37% say it’s staying the same, and only 11% say it’s worsening. Lead gen appears to be moving in the right direction.
Additionally, as the Content Marketing Institute’s annual study of B2B content marketers shows, lead generation is still a major priority in 2015. It was named as an organizational goal by 83% of respondents, just a percentage point behind brand awareness for the top goal overall.
With lead generation cementing itself as a major – and increasingly successful – marketing goal, we decided to put together another list of valuable statistics on the subject. The list covers everything from lead generation planning and objectives to tactics and ROI. The key takeaways include an increased focus on lead quality, increased use of technology, and disagreements on lead evaluation.
Without any further delay, here are twenty-one more surprising and tweetable lead generation statistics.
- 60% of the marketers name lead generation as one of their top three priorities and 26% say it’s their highest priority. (NurtureHQ)
- 85% of B2B marketers say lead generation is their most important content marketing goal in 2016. (Content Marketing Institute)
- Improving the quality of leads was ranked as the most important lead generation objective by 70% B2B companies, beating out both increasing sales revenue and increasing the number of leads. (eMarketer)
- 82% of Enterprises and 77% of SMBs rated their lead generation strategy as “Somewhat successful,” while only 12% and 8%, respectively, rated their efforts as “Very successful.” (MarketingAdvocate/Ascend2)
- A lack of original and compelling content was the top lead generation obstacle for companies, named by 37% of respondents. (MarketingAdvocate/Ascend2)
- 45% of companies use some sort of CRM to store lead data and 84% of those companies have lead scoring programs to determine lead quality. (Direct Marketing News)
- 17% of respondents still used spreadsheets to store information on their leads. (Direct Marketing News)
- 79% of marketers surveyed used 11 or more software applications as part of their lead generation efforts. (Software Advice)
- The average response time to an incoming lead is 46 hours and 53 minutes. (Forbes)
- 61% of enterprises use a combination of both outsourced and in-house lead generation resources, compared to 46% of SMBs. (MarketingAdvocate/Ascend2)
- The three most used B2B lead generation tactics are email marketing (78%), event marketing (73%), and content marketing (67%). (Direct Marketing News)
- Social media was ranked as the most difficult lead generation tactic by 57% of enterprises and 42% of SMBs. (MarketingAdvocate/Ascend2)
- 37% of B2B marketers are using marketing automation to help generate leads. (Marketing Profs)
- 49% of B2B marketers are “heavily engaged” in lead generation through mobile marketing. (Marketing Profs)
- 80% of users said they would register to access a white paper or ebook, while only 31% said they would register for a webinar. (BtoB Magazine)
- Live demos were identified as producing the highest quality leads with 45% of respondents ranking them as “excellent” and 40% ranking them as “good.” (Software Advice)
- 43% of users said they give their personal email address, rather than business email, when completing online forms. (BtoB Magazine)
- 36% of organizations estimate the cost of a qualified lead at less than $20, 28% estimate $21-$99, and 36% estimate more than $100. (MarketingSherpa)
- Only 28% of B2B marketers are able to figure how much a sales-ready lead costs them. (NurtureHQ)
- Cost per lead (53%) and total revenue generated (50%) were rated as the top metrics for measuring lead generation ROI. (B2B Technology Marketing Community)
- The number of sales qualified leads generated was rated as the most useful metric for evaluating lead generation performance, chosen by 49% of B2B companies. (eMarketer)
Let us know what you think:
- What type(s) of lead generation do you use?
- Which statistic or statistics were most interesting?
- Do you have any statistics to add to the list?
