21 Surprising (and Tweetable) Lead Generation Statistics

For the second year in a row, B2B marketers rated lead generation as their top online marketing challenge.  Six out of ten respondents identified lead generation as a problem area, placing it well ahead of other issues like channel attribution, brand awareness, and customer retention.

With lead generation so central to the growth of businesses, it seems strange that it poses such a problem for marketers.  How hard can it be to find people who are interested in your product/service?  Well, today, the answer is, “Pretty hard.”  Successful lead generation is a product of multiple channels, quality content, and well-thought-out processes.  These factors come together to make a defined marketing-sales funnel – and even then end-to-end conversion rates only reach about 10%.

The following list of statistics provides notable lead generation statistics on topics ranging from lead generation channels to lead generation outcomes and common mistakes.  The most important takeaways from the list are the need to qualify leads before passing them down the funnel and the value of a defined lead nurture process.

Without further ado, here are twenty-one surprising (and tweetable) lead generation statistics.

1. 49% of B2B marketers will increase their lead generation budgets this year, while 44% will keep budgets the same. (B2B Technology Marketing Community)
2. 81% of businesses have reported their blog as useful or critical to generating leads. (HubSpot)
3. 71% of B2B marketers use content marketing to generate leads. (MarketingProfs)
4. 62% of companies say that social media has become an important source of leads. (HubSpot)
5. 42% of businesses name email as one of their most effective lead generation channels. (Circle Research)
6. 49% of B2B marketers report heavy use of mobile marketing for lead generation. (MarketingProfs)
7. 68% of B2B businesses use landing pages to garner a new sales lead for future conversion. (MarketingSherpa)
8. 25% of marketers don’t know their lead conversion rates. (B2B Technology Marketing Community)
9. Between 5 and 10 percent of qualified leads convert. (B2B Technology Marketing Community)
10. Only 56% of B2B companies verify business leads before they are passed to Sales. (MarketingSherpa)
11. 61% of B2B marketers send all leads directly to Sales – only 27% of those leads will be qualified. (MarketingSherpa)
12. Only about 25% of leads should advance to Sales. (Gleanster Research)
13. 79% of marketing leads never convert into sales. An absence of lead nurturing is a major cause for this poor performance. (MarketingSherpa)
14. 57% of B2B firms identify “converting qualified leads into paying customers” as a top priority of their marketing-sales funnel. (MarketingSherpa)
15. 50% of leads are qualified, but not yet ready to buy. (Gleanster Research)
16. Companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales ready leads at 33% lower cost. (Forrester Research)
17. Companies that excel at lead nurturing have 9% more sales reps making quota. (Source: CSO Insights)
18. 65% of B2B marketers have not established lead nurturing. (MarketingSherpa)
19. More than two thirds (68%) of companies report struggling with lead generation. (CSO Insights)
20. 61% of B2B marketers identified generating high quality leads as their biggest lead generation challenge. (B2B Technology Marketing Community)
21. Outsourced B2B lead generation is 43% more effective than in-house B2B lead generation. (MarketingSherpa)

Let us know what you think:

• What type(s) of lead generation do you use?
• Which statistic or statistics are most valuable?
• What lead generation statistics would you add to the list?