We’ve put together 8 important figures on lead generation to help inform your strategy.
These statistics show you the state of lead generation in 2020, its evolution, and highlight trends to consider for your lead generation strategy.
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#1 More than half of marketing teams spend more than 50% of their budget on lead generation
In the age of digitalization, competition is increasingly fierce and marketing teams continue to focus on lead generation. According to research from Bright Talk, 53% of marketers say they spend half or more of their total budget on this activity. Only 34% of marketers spend less than half their budget on lead generation. This means that lead generation is still the top priority for marketing teams.
However, when asked, marketers generally agree that this goal is now more difficult to achieve. Indeed, thisHubspot report shows that 61% of marketers see traffic and lead generation as their biggest challenge.
Things to remember
Marketing is becoming increasingly streamlined, with a strong focus on short-term actions that feed the sales teams. Be careful not to forget to build your brand and authority.
#2 Conversion rates are 9x higher when a purchase intent is met in less than 5 minutes
Another important trend to consider is the growing importance of fast and effective sales follow-up. A 2019 study by Ziff Davis found that following up on online leads in less than 5 minutes is nine times more likely to turn them into paying customers .
How do you make sure your salespeople respond within 5 minutes? Automation could help. Modern AI-powered chatbots and CRMs are able to automatically respond to your customers for you, taking the task off your sales team and helping you drive those conversions while spending less.
An effective social selling strategy will allow you to develop a close relationship with your prospect. This relationship is more likely to lead to a sale later on.
Things to remember
It is essential to set up processes that allow you to be very reactive. Your leads must be allocated and your salespeople notified very quickly to gain in efficiency.
#3 Almost two thirds of leads are not ready to be handled by a sales person
If you had any doubts about the importance of lead nurturing, Marketing Sherpa shows that 73% of prospects are not interested enough for a salesperson to start a discussion with them. To prepare them, marketing teams need to find ways to engage them and move them down the sales funnel. Find out how to boost the effectiveness of your sales funnel by optimising the link between sales and marketing teams.
The key is to set up an automated scenario that allows your prospects to gradually get closer to your brand without feeling “caught in the throat” by a sales call for example. This requires excellent collaboration between the sales and marketing teams. Clearly defined sales processes will allow everyone to know when to intervene and your prospects to become customers.
Things to remember
Lead scoring is fundamental, and qualification calls must be very efficient (no more than 15 minutes). This is why it is important to work on qualification questions for your sales people.
#4 Linkedin would be an underused el-dorado
There are so many social platforms out there that it can be difficult to know which one to focus on. In the B2B world, at least, the answer is clear: LinkedIn. LinkedIn dominates lead generation for B2B companies. According to Oktopost, 80% of B2B leads come from this platform.
Although it is so effective at generating leads, LinkedIn seems relatively underused. Indeed, according to Quicksprout, only 47% of marketers actively use LinkedIn, while 45% have gained customers through the platform.
Things to remember
Linkedin is the leading social network for generating leads but it’s not always easy to know where to start. Tools exist to generate leads from Linkedin, find 5 of the most used.
#5 Inbound marketing generates 3x more leads for half the cost
According to Demand Metric figures, content marketing is three times more effective at generating leads than outbound marketing, while costing 62% less.
By focusing your lead generation efforts on creating and promoting quality content instead of trying to reach your potential customers directly. You’ll save money while generating more leads.
In addition, you will improve brand loyalty by offering your customers something free and making them feel more like a partner than a sales target .
Things to remember
It is important to implement an inbound marketing strategy, even if you only focus on one channel. In the medium term, this is what will make the difference.
#6 It’s all in the title
To get the most out of your content marketing efforts, make sure all the blog posts you publish have attention-grabbing headlines. Effective headlines can increase clicks, and therefore traffic to your pages, by 500%. (Source: Wired)
Usingnumbers in your headlines is also a great way to make your headlines more impactful. Make sure you include them wherever possible. Try to incorporate numbers to make your email subject lines more impactful, to reach your targets more effectively.
On the other hand, it’s important to remember that generating traffic is great but useless if you can’t convert those prospects who are interested in you.
Things to remember
Don’t forget to work on and test your titles regularly. You can, for example, take back every month the titles that have performed the worst over the last 30 days.
#7 Trade shows are the most important B2B lead generation channel
In the B2B world, offline lead generation can still be effective. A 2018 study by Marketing Charts showed that trade fairs are the channel that generates the most leads in B2B.
Events and conferences offer a unique opportunity to meet your potential customers and have a face-to-face conversation with them. Unfortunately, much of this investment is wasted, due to poor lead capture and follow-up practices at trade shows. Again, well-calibrated sales processes will ensure that no valuable leads are wasted.
Moreover, in this particular period of (de)confinement, webinars are an excellent way to keep in touch with your customers that you cannot meet in person.
Things to remember
In this period of (un)containment, consider digital event formats such as webinars to generate more leads.
#8 63% of your leads will not convert for 3 months
Don’t expect these leads to turn into sales overnight, it’s best to approach conversions from a long-term perspective. In fact, Marketing Donut found that 63% of customers who request information about your brand will not be ready to buy for at least three months .
This statistic may seem a little disappointing, but it’s important to be realistic about your leads. The truth is that the vast majority of them will never convert into sales, at least according to this study by Marketing Sherpa.
The important thing is to be aware that you will only convert a small proportion of the leads you generate. But all your efforts are not in vain, even without conversion, you are building your brand and establishing yourself as an expert in your field.
Things to remember
Be realistic in your costs per lead, only deal with leads that are ready to be dealt with (discovery call and lead scoring to support this) and opt for a high sales pressure on qualified leads.
