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Lead Generation Statistics
Lead Generation Statistics
Not too long ago, I dove into some of our copious data from the 2013 State of Inbound Marketing Report to figure out where marketers get their customers. So I thought it’d be a good idea to back up a little bit and look at not just where customers come from — but where leads come from. After all, that’s where it all starts, right?
Lead Generation & Budget by Mode of Business
Notable Findings:
- B2B companies get twice as many leads from telemarketing than B2C companies do (8% versus 4%).
- B2C companies get 3X more leads than B2B companies do through traditional advertising (9% versus 4%).
- The best three lead sources for B2B companies are SEO (14%), email marketing, (13%), and social media (12%).
- The best three lead sources for B2C companies are social media (17%), SEO (16%), and email marketing (15%).
- The worst three lead sources for B2B companies are traditional advertising (3%), PPC (6%), and direct mail (6%).
- The worst three lead sources for B2C companies are telemarketing (3%), trade shows (6%), and PPC (6%).
Notable Findings:
- B2B companies are allocating 12% of their budget to trade shows but only getting 9% of their leads from that source.
- B2B companies are getting 14% of their leads from SEO but only allocating 12% of their budget to that source.
- B2B companies are allocating 8% of their budget to PPC but only getting 6% of their leads from that source.
- B2C companies are getting 15% of their leads from SEO but only allocating 13% of their budget to that source.
- B2C companies are allocating 13% of their budget to traditional advertising but only getting 9% of their leads from that source.
Lead Generation & Budget by Company Size
Notable Findings:
- With direct mail, trade shows, telemarketing, and traditional advertising, the bigger the company, the more likely they are to get leads from the aforementioned tactics.
- Small companies are more than twice as likely to get leads from social media than large companies (18% versus 7%).
- Large companies are almost three times as likely to get leads from traditional advertising than small companies (11% versus 4%).
Notable Findings:
- 9% of small business leads are from blogging, and they are allocating 12% of their budget toward this lead source.
- 15% of leads from medium-sized companies are from SEO, but they are only allocating 12% of their budget to this source.
- 12% of leads from large companies are from SEO, but they are only allocating 9% of their budget towards this source. 11% of their leads are from traditional advertising, but they are allocating 15% of their budget to this lead source.
Lead Generation & Budget by Industry
Notable Findings:
- The Nonprofit/Edu space and the Banking/Insurance/Financial Services industry get more leads through direct mail than their counterparts — 13% and 11%, respectively.
- The Technology (Hardware) industry gets at least double the number of leads (24%) through trade shows compared to the other industries represented.
- Marketing agencies get the most leads from blogging compared to the other industries.
- The Retail/Wholesale/Consumer Goods industry gets 19% of its leads from social media, the most when compared to the other industries surveyed.
- The Technology (Software) industry gets 16% of its leads from SEO, the leader with respect to the other industries surveyed.
Notable Findings:
- In the Banking/Insurance/Financial Services sphere, only 6% of leads come from PPC, but they are still allocating 9% of their lead generation budget toward this lead source.
- Marketing agencies are allocating 14% of their lead generation budget toward blogging.
- In the Nonprofit/Edu space, only 11% of leads come from traditional advertising, but they are still allocating 16% of their budget toward this source.
- In the PR/Communications/Media sphere, only 4% of leads come from PPC, but they’re allocating 7% of their lead generation money toward this source.
- In the Retail/Wholesale/Consumer Goods industry, 10% of leads come from traditional advertising, and they are allocating 14% of their budget toward this source.
- In the Technology (Hardware) space, 16% of leads come from email marketing, and 12% of their budget goes toward this source.
- In the Technology (Software) industry, 13% of leads come from trade shows, and they are putting 17% of their budget toward this source.
Lead Generation & Budget by Location
Notable Findings:
- U.S. companies get more leads than international companies for the following sources: trade shows, email marketing, and social media.
- International companies get more leads than U.S. companies for the following sources: direct mail, blogs, SEO, PPC, and traditional advertising.
Notable Findings:
- International companies get 6% of their leads from PPC but are still allocating 9% of their budget towards this lead source.
- U.S. companies get 13% of their leads from SEO but are only allocating 10% of their budget toward this source.
Average Cost per Lead Benchmark Data
Notable Findings:
- B2B companies have a significantly higher cost per lead ($43) in comparison to B2C companies ($15).
- Medium companies have the lowest cost per lead ($19) in comparison to small ($31) and large ($38) companies.
- Marketing agencies have the highest cost per lead ($58) whereas the Retail/Wholesale/Consumer Goods industry has the lowest cost per lead ($6).
- U.S. companies have the highest cost per lead ($40); LATAM has the lowest cost per lead ($15).
Travis Piepho is a founding partner at Prospectr Marketing. Prospectr Marketing is a premier lead generation company focused on providing demand generation from start to finish for its clients on a performance-based model.
Revenue Process Optimization and The New Drive for High Quality Data
Building an effective high performance revenue process requires the right frameworks, measurements and efforts to engage with prospects and guide them through the buying cycle. This process performs best when there is a continuous stream of clean data, continual analysis and adjustment, and prompt response when the warning signs indicate that performance is beginning to suffer
Perhaps the most important aspect of optimizing revenue performance is the quality of your marketing database. Only with clean data can you effectively define and target segments of buyers. If the data is consistent then you may build and route leads based on scoring. Only if the data is standard and normalized can your marketing analytics give you the business insights you need to optimize the revenue engine.
Data quality can be measured by three C’s:
- Consistency
- Complete
- Correct
The reason for the increased emphasis on data cleanliness is that all of the systems that enable us to understand our prospects, determine their location in the buying processes, and interact with them appropriately rely on automated systems driven by clean data.
Lead Qualification
First off, let’s define what a lead qualification is. Lead qualification is a requirement that a prospect meets and this contributes to, whether or not they have a high chance of purchasing and are ready for sales engagement.
There is no precise way of telling they are ready or not. This would be like asking for a specific definition of good music (not really possible because it is all based on opinion). It basically comes down to Sales and whether not they deem the lead as qualified, or not. So it is your job to bring your own lead qualifications to the table and sell them to sales. Here are some parameters you should consider when you propose your case to Sales.
Contact Information
Although contact information is one of the weakest qualification criteria, it can be useful for developing businesses that have rapidly growing competition in the field (rare cases). Gaining a prospect’s contact information might be all you are able to acquire due to your new business, so in this case gather all this information and try to close as many leads as possible before more competition comes your way.
In this type of situation, Sales just needs the contact information in order to close the deal.
Firmographics
Again, not every sales department will need this, but simple firmographics is also very easy to come by.
For example, when your organization is the leading service provider in a certain geographic area or industry this can be enough information for Sales to consider a lead qualified.
Budget Authority Need Timeline (BANT)
This is a scoring and methodology for lead qualification that was developed by IBM, but is now commonly used. Depending on how you organize your information, you may want all or just some of these factors to define what you qualify as a lead. Even if this information doesn’t qualify for your lead, it will help you identify potential leads and you can nurture them into becoming a lead.
Behavior Analytics and Lead Scoring
Lead scoring has a more thorough and complex system of identifying leads. This is most effective when coupled with Behavior Analytics. With Lead Scoring you are giving different point values to different characteristics.
A benefit that comes from including behavior analytics is that you are able to use a prospect’s actions to qualify them. For example, a prospect might download a whitepaper off of your company’s website. This may warrant a certain amount of points on a qualification you have for leads. By scoring, you can see how interested a person is in your product, rather than just going by a checked box that doesn’t display the strength or weakness of a prospects interest.
Predictive Analytics
This is where math gets involved. This is a non-traditional way to qualify a lead but is more often used for lead generation. Discussing terms like predictive analytics or regression analysis with your data analysts my help you find hidden resources. Another aspect you want your analyst to be on the lookout for commonalities between potential leads and current leads.
Hand Raiser
This is one of the hardest ways to qualify a lead, but also the most valuable qualified leads. “Hand raiser” means that someone from your company is actively looking for sales engagement and is offering up information and urging you to get in contact with them.
This is usually done well with good lead nurturing and inbound marketing programs.
~ Chelsea Jensen, Prospectr Marketing
New Generation of Marketing
Lead generation and prospecting for new business are common and traditional words found in our dynamic and post modern world of marketing. Business has changed over the past years and the change continues to accelerate. Change consumes an incredible amount of energy and resources – so how do we get on the front edge of innovation and change in our businesses?
Every thought leader, whether they represent a larger organization, like Google, or individuals who have been making significant ripples like Pamela Wilhelms, focus on a few core principles. Principles that embody change by clearly seeing through the haze of traditional business and economics of our systems. Core principles that deliver movements, rather than simple business processes. Movements dripping in opposition to traditional models, but still able to drive growth and sustainable revenue. These thought leaders: believe, understand people and support psychology that drives us. They leverage innovation, by focusing on the strengths from a whole spectrum of individuals. By going to the roots – visionaries are able to place a piece of the puzzle that many businesses find elusive.
Embracing change and following thought leaders like Google, Apple, Brian Solis, Pamela Wilhelms and the others who advocate for progressive innovation and build regenerative systems requires attentiveness. Every detail is considered. Google built their world-class complex to empower employees – the architecture and floor plan of the office supports employee equality and innovation. The common use facilities are all located at the center of the building causing interns and executives to spend time together. Their model gets employees into crossing the lines of traditional business. This crossing of the lines inspires moral, creativity and dynamic change by giving individuals with different and unique skill sets the opportunity to interact together on a level playing field.
Apple has inspired an image that is unparalleled. Their brand is driven by attention to detail in the creativity and inspiration of its leaders. Apple continues stay on the front edge by embodying change – Jobs took a huge risk to ultimately reap the rewards of his vision for Apple. This commitment to change has inspired a generation of branding and marketing professionals.
Pamela Wilhelms has spent years of her life speaking to the top of our countries circles. She has pursued regenerative systems and continues to influence generations by driving after a movement embodying change from the top down.
All of these visionaries see through the haze that clouds our businesses. They choose to pursue a vision of innovation and regenerative growth that will outlast the others. I would love to start a discussion on how we can all become better business professionals. What are your businesses priorities?
-Travis Piepho, Prospectr Marketing
Use Social media for bringing traffic
Social media is a great source to drive traffic for your business. Many businesses are using social media for bringing traffic to their websites, and to their sales teams.
It is important to create trackable and targeted social media engagement campaigns. This will increase the chances of adding more
Measuring social media contest success
Today, many businesses are involved in social media contests and, thus, it is imperative to define what “success” looks like?
So, measuring social media contest success is important and the first step should always be asking “what are we trying to accomplish?” The goals most often associated with social media activities are branding-related, not strictly financial. And it’s a bit more difficult to
Social Media Can Help With Critical Aspects of Your Company
There is confusion around social media for many companies, since many business teams are uneducated and do not know how social media can help their company with the most critical aspects of sales and marketing as well as HR and customer support.
Client Marketing Portals and Dashboards
Client Marketing Portals and Dashboards
The Internet allows companies to operate in unprecedented ways. Taking advantage of online technology, Prospectr develops customized marketing portals and client dashboards that enable clients to streamline and coordinate marketing programs and tactics. Our portals are designed to save clients valuable time and resources, powering companies to share and communicate information in a central, password-secure environment.
The Modern Marketer
Within the past 10-12 years there has been a remarkable renovation within marketing. Buyers can now have the control of how and when they access information within the purchasing process. In the midst of this, marketers have to work with tight budgets and communicate with buyers through many different channels. Despite the challenges that arise, new opportunities are also beginning to show up as well for marketers. At this point in time, the modern marketer is being viewed as a revenue driver and no longer has the backseat in decisions.
You may be asking now where your business needs to start in order to keep up with this pace of change. The modern marketer has been newly defined and implementing this new definition takes the right people and the right process.
Here are a few elements that define the modern marketer:
• Have a Buyer-centric approach
• Accountable for revenue
• Automate processes
• Collaborate with sales at new levels
• Measure against new metrics
As I said before, transforming into this type of marketer takes not only you, but also your whole team and those you effect.
Your Team
The buyer’s journey is now going to be the new focus for everyone starting with your marketing team. Traditional metrics, like number trade show leads or number of click-thru’s should still be rewarded within the team, but it is the new goals you should push for. An example of a new goal would be marketing’s contribution to pipeline.
Another addition to add to your team is new skills that involve looking at data and analytics to help formulate more informed decisions for continual improvement.
Changing up your content will also bring about transformation to your team. This content should focus around attractive content that will help move customers through the purchase process.
Your Process
Nurturing prospects that are further down the tunnel becomes a key element in adapting your modern market techniques. Lead-revenue- management starts when you can implement lead nurturing into your process. Measuring and keeping track of your progress at relevant points…..
Chelsea Jensen, Prospectr Marketing
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