Running any marketing campaign without a fair idea of what results you want to achieve won't translate into an effective campaign. Here are 100 stats on B2B lead generation to help you concentrate your lead generation efforts in the right place.
Overview
1. The biggest challenge for 61% of B2B marketers is generating high quality leads. (B2B Marketing Community)
2. 73% of all leads are not sales ready. (Marketing Sherpa)
3. The three most common lead generation strategies are email, event and content marketing. (DM News)
4. 96% of your website visitors are not ready to buy. (Marketo)
5. 94% of B2B buyers WILL conduct some sort of research before buying. (Marketing Charts)
6. 68% of B2B companies will use landing pages to nurture new sales leads for future conversion. (Marketing Sherpa)
7. Marketers believe their biggest barrier to lead generation success lies in a lack of staff, budgeting and time. (B2B Marketing Community)
8. Outsourcing lead generation is thought to be 43% more efficient than in-house due to expertise and experience. (Fearless Competitor)
9. 59% of B2B marketers say SEO has the biggest impact on their lead generation goals. (Marketing Charts)
10. 17% of marketers spend over 15 hours a week on lead generation. (Marketing Charts)
Social Media
11. 42% of marketers believe their Facebook use is a vital part of running their business. (Quick Sprout)
12. 82% of social media leads are referred from Twitter. (Quick Sprout)
13. Social media has a higher lead-to-close frequency, doubling that of direct (Quick Sprout)
14. 39% of small businesses use social media to increase business (Quick Sprout)
15. 45% of marketers have gained customers through LinkedIn. (Quick Sprout)
16. LinkedIn is 277% more effective in generating leads than Facebook. (HubSpot)
17. Only 47% of marketers say they are actively using LinkedIn. (HubSpot)
18. Businesses on Twitter generate twice the amount of leads as opposed to those not on the platform. (HubSpot)
19. 75% of B2B buyers use social media to support their purchase decision. (HubSpot)
20. By 2020 5% of sales will be driven by data collected through wearable tech devices. (Gartner)
Email Marketing
21. 64% of marketers say email is their most effective lead generation channel when targeting new customers. (B2B Magazine)
22. Email still retains the highest ROI per $1 spend of all lead generation tools. (Quick Sprout)
23. 60% of sales executives agree that email and newsletters are still the best performing channel in regards to ROI. (B2 Community)
24. The top email client is the iphone - 33%. (Litmus)
25. Using personalisation in your emails generate 26% higher open rate. (Campaign Monitor)
26. 89% of marketers say email is their primary channel for lead generation. (Mailigen)
27. 65% of users prefer emails to contain mostly images. (HubSpot)
28. 61% of consumers LIKE to receive weekly promotional emails. (Marketing Sherpa)
29. The best time to email prospects is 8am and 3pm. (Get Response)
30. 28% of consumers want even MORE frequent promotional emails. (Marketing Sherpa)
Automation & Nurturing
31. Companies that automate lead management see a 10% or greater increase in revenue in 6-9 months. (Gartner)
32. Lead nurturing emails generate an 8% CTR compared to general emails which generate just 3%. (HubSpot)
33. Lead nurturing emails get 4-10 more response rate compared to single email blasts. (Demand Gen)
34. Nurtured leads produce, on average, a 20% increase in sales opportunities as opposed to non-nurtured leads. (Demand Gen)
35. Companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales leads at 33% lower cost. (Forrester)
36. Email nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads. (Annuitas)
37. Businesses that use marketing automation to nurture prospects experience a 451% increase in qualified leads. (Annuitas)
38. 37% of marketers blame 'budget' for not developing their marketing automation. (LinkedIn)
39. 79% of the top performing companies have been using marketing automation for more than 2 years. (Gleanster)
40. 63% of companies using marketing automation outsource all or part of it. (Ascend2)
Content Marketing
41. Content marketing is the second most common lead generation strategy - after email marketing. (DM News)
42. 83% of B2B marketers use content marketing to generate leads. (Marketing Profs)
43. 85% of B2B marketers say lead generation is their number 1 most important goal. (CMI)
44. 90% of all organisations use content in their lead generation marketing. (Demand Metric)
45. 78% of CMOs view content as the future of marketing. (Demand Metric)
46. Content marketing generates 3 times as many leads as traditional outbound marketing but costs over 60% less. (Demand Metric)
47. 70% of B2B marketers think that video is more effective than any other content when converting qualified leads. (CMI)
48. 80% of business decision makers prefer to get their information in a series of articles rather than an advertisement. (Exact Target)
49. Content creation is ranked as the most important and effective SEO technique. (Marketing Sherpa)
50. 82% of buyers viewed at least 5 pieces of content from the vendor prior to purchase. (Forrester)
Website Marketing
51. If you follow up web leads within 5 minutes, you are 9 times more likely to convert. (Inside Sales)
52. Only 25% of leads are legitimate and will advance to sales. (Gleanster)
53. 68% of B2B businesses use landing pages to gain new leads. (Marketing Sherpa)
54. Companies with 31-40 landing pages generate 7 times more leads than those using only 1-5 landing pages. (HubSpot)
55. Companies with over 40 landing pages get 12 times more leads than those using only 5 or less. (HubSpot)
56. 48% of marketers build a new landing page for each marketing campaign. (Marketing Sherpa)
57. Only 16% of landing pages are free of navigation bars. (Marketing Sherpa)
58. 86% of B2B buyers read content and websites through a mobile device - is your website mobile-friendly? (Genwi)
59. Just 16% of B2B marketers are producing mobile-specific content as part of their content marketing/web efforts. (Marketing Sherpa)
60. Case studies are the most effective lead generating tool for your website. (Marketo)
Blogging
61. Those using blogs generate 67% more leads per month than those that don't. (Social Media B2B)
62. 57% of companies with a blog have generated a lead from it. (HubSpot)
63. Companies that publish 15 blog posts a month, average 1,200 new leads per month. (HubSpot)
64. Companies with over 200 blog posts get 5 times the amount of leads than those with 10 or fewer. (HubSpot)
65. Prioritising blogging are 13 times more likely to enjoy positive ROI. (HubSpot)
66. 27,000,000 pieces of content are SHARED daily. (LinkedIn)
67. Articles with images get 94% more views. (Jeff Bullas)
68. 82% of marketers blogging daily acquire customers from it. (HubSpot)
69. 57% of all B2B buying decisions are made before a person ever contacts a company's salesforce. (HubSpot)
70. 81% of businesses reported their blog as being critical to B2B lead generation. (Nurture)
Telemarketing
71. Across all sectors, telecommunication services tend to favour Twitter most strongly, whereas businesses in consumer staples, such as household products, make the most use of Facebook. (Hootsuite)
72. The average salesperson only makes 2 attempts to reach a prospect. (Sirius Decisions)
73. 44% of salespeople give up after just one follow up call. (HubSpot)
74. 80% of telemarketing calls go unanswered. (Ring Lead)
75. 80% of sales require 5 follow-up phone calls after a meeting. (Marketing Donut)
76. 50% of leads are qualified but not ready to buy. (Gleanster)
77. 90% of managers believed cold calling to still be a valuable and effective tool. (LinkedIn)
78. While the most annoying form of advertising at home is telesales (35%), the LEAST annoying at work is also telesales (4%). (LinkedIn)
79. Almost 90% of marketing managers claim telesales and telephone follow-up calls are an effective lead nurturing technique. (LinkedIn)
80. On average it takes about 8 calls to get a sales opportunity. (LinkedIn)
Event Marketing
81.Event marketing is the third most common lead generation strategy - after email marketing and content marketing. (DM News)
82. After a presentation, 63% of attendees remember stories. (HubSpot)
83. After a presentation, only 5% remember statistics. (HubSpot)
84. Only 16% of B2B consumers preferred a live webinar to an event. (Adobe)
85. While online continues to thrive, event marketing is still considered by B2B marketers as one of the most effective strategies. (Social Fresh)
86. The most popular event B2B marketers have hosted are: conferences (80%), trade shows (69%) and webinars (55%). (Demand Metric)
87. Almost half of all marketing professionals regarded events as being one of the best ways to target high level decision makers. (Chief Nation)
88. 12.8% of marketers will decrease their event spend in 2016. (Selligent)
89. 46% of event managers view lead generation as a top reason to attend events. (Exhibitor ROI)
90. 63% of marketers use tradeshows as a form of lead generation. (Marketing Charts)
Marketing Strategy
91. Amazingly 68% of B2B companies have not identified their sales funnel. (Marketing Sherpa)
92. When sales and marketing teams are in sync, companies become 67% better at closing deals. (Marketo)
93. Companies with aligned sales and marketing generated 208% more revenue from their marketing. (Marketing Profs)
94. B2B companies who don't align sales marketing teams cost themselves upwards of 10% revenue each year. (IDC)
95. Only 44% of companies are using any kind of lead scoring tree. (Decision Tree)
96. B2B organisations that aligned their sales and marketing operations achieved 24%. faster three-year revenue growth and 27% faster three-year profit. (Sirius Decisions)
97. 57% of B2B organisations identify that converting qualified leads into paying customers is a top funnel priority. (Marketing Sherpa)
98. Sales reps ignore 50% of marketing leads. (B2B Lead)
99. Only 19% of CMOs identify that improving database hygiene as a top strategic priority for lead generation activity. (Marketing Sherpa)
100. More than two thirds of companies report struggling with lead generation. (Lattice Engines)
If, like statistic number 100 you struggle with lead generation, then these tips might hold the data you need to give you the right focus, increase your ROI and generate more leads.
If you want to improve lead generation, download our eBook 'The 30 Greatest Lead Generation Tips' here!
