As a marketing head, it is imperative for you to
know how lead generation has changed over the years and how this fits in your
marketing strategy that leads to increased product demand and, eventually sales
conversion.
Lead
generation is crucial for maximizing the growth and revenue of every business.
You need to keep on attracting and, eventually converting your targeted
customers that have shown interest in your product into buyers. The ultimate
goal is to direct your leads or prospects through the buyer’s journey to the
end of the sales funnel, that is into a closed deal. To sum up, the more leads
you have, the more likely they are to going engage with your business,
eventually the odds of closed deals and sales being much greater.
But then
again, with the business environment getting more and more competitive, it is
simply just not enough to generate a ton of leads, but also to ensure that
these are of right persona, segment and vertical in order to maximize the
effectiveness of sales and marketing strategies.
So, naturally
it would not be wrong to say that finding and attracting the leads has become a
daunting task for the marketing heads. As per various studies, 61% of
marketers’ rank lead generation as their top most challenge.
We have put
together five important facts on lead generation that will surely help the
marketing heads in getting informed and evolving their lead generation strategy.
These statistics highlights the state of lead generation and trends to consider
when strategizing lead generation especially during market entry.
1. The
majority of midsize and large companies generate less than 5,000 qualified
leads each month.
Majority of
midsize and large corporations seem to struggle to generate large numbers of
qualified leads. Rather, a report from Hub spot suggests that the vast majority
generate less than 5,000 per month, with the average being 1,877 leads per
month. With such small numbers in consideration, it is even more critical that
the marketing heads emphasize on converting as many of those leads as possible.
2. Companies
that nurture leads generate 50% more sales at 33% lower costs.
Lead nurturing
helps prospective buyer to get to know your business. As per a study from
Marketo, companies that nurture leads generate 50% more sales. Moreover, sales
cost an average of 33% less than non-nurtured prospects. This clearly
substantiate the fact that lead nurturing eventually is beneficial. Businesses
that put effort into it see a huge increase in sales and have fewer costs.
Thus, as the marketing head marketer it is essential that you adopt strong lead
nurturing strategies that enables you to increase your sales.
3. 49%
of companies are using marketing automation tools as part of their marketing
efforts and 80% of marketers think marketing automation generates more leads
and conversions.
Over the
years, the trend of using automation software in lead generation has seen a
drastic increase. Basically, marketing automation allows businesses to target
customers with automated messages across email, web, social, and text and saves
a lot of time of marketers. Around 49% of companies are using marketing
automation tools as part of their marketing efforts. Further, according to a
report by VB Insight, APSIS, 80% of marketers that use automation software
drive increased leads (as much as 451% more), and that 77% of them convert more
leads than those that don’t use automation.
4. Content
marketing generates 3x as many leads as outbound marketing at less than half
the cost.
Outbound
marketing, primarily comprising of promotional messages/ads are fast becoming a
thing of past and are considered as forceful, interruptive, and interfering by
today’s customers. Besides, they are quite expensive. According to figures from
Demand Metric, content marketing is thrice as effective at generating leads as
outbound marketing while costing a whopping 62% less. Thus, by focusing your
lead generation efforts on creating and promoting great content instead of
reaching out directly to potential customers, marketing heads can definitely
grow more leads, and what more this is quite cost-effective method as compared
to traditional marketing.
5. 90%
of marketing leads never convert into sales.
It is
essential for marketing heads to be realistic and understand that not all of
the qualified leads will convert into buyers and product sales. As a fact, not
every potential customer who shows interest in a product or a service ends up
becoming a buyer. Rather, a staggering 90% of marketing leads never convert
into sales, so you must focus on selling to the ones you can.
Make Your Lead
Generation Strategy More Effective!
To boost your
marketing Return on investment (ROI), the most important thing is to generate
new leads. This way, not only will you have the revenue from your current
customers, but from a continuous stream of new ones as well.
Hopefully,
these key lead generation statistics has given you some new insight to apply to
your marketing strategy.
Were you
surprised by any of these statistics?
Comment below and let us know what you think.