THE STATE OF B2B LEAD NURTURING Survey Data and Key Findings on Strategies, Technologies, and What Lies Ahead
Overview Goal: In May 2014, Bizo, in association with Oracle Marketing Cloud, surveyed more than 500 business executives about their companies lead nurturing challenges and strategies. The survey revealed that, even as the importance of marketing s role has grown, many organizations are still struggling to develop comprehensive, multi-channel lead nurturing programs, and that tremendous opportunities lie ahead. Methodology: The survey was sent to a random sample of Bizo s marketers database, resulting in 505 total responses with 23 percent of respondents from SMB s, 41 percent at mid-size companies, and 36 percent at enterprise brands.
B2B Marketers Have a Seat at the Revenue Table More than half of the marketers surveyed report that 20-60% of their companies revenues are marketing sourced. Question: What percentage of your company s overall revenue goal is marketing-sourced revenue?
Lead Nurturing is a Key Strategy 94% of marketers use lead nurturing. Question: How important is lead nurturing to your marketing efforts?
Marketers are Allocating Spend Toward Lead Nurturing More than one third of marketers claim that less than 25% of their budgets goes toward prospecting new leads. Question: Approximately what percentage of your marketing budget goes toward acquiring new prospects versus building relationships with existing ones?
Marketing Automation Is Core to the Marketing Technology Stack 72% of marketers use marketing automation for lead nurturing. Question: Are you currently using marketing automation for lead nurturing?
Marketers Need to Optimize Email Nurturing Performance 79% of marketers say their email open rates don t exceed 20% on average. Question: On average, what is your email open rate?
It s Tough to Get Email Addresses in the First Place 44% of marketers say only 1-5% of website visitors provide an email address. Question: On average, what percentage of anonymous visitors to your website do you estimate ultimately convert by supplying an email address?
Multiple Marketing Channels Can Nurture Leads Marketers believe that social media, paid search, and display retargeting can be used to nurture prospects. Question: Which marketing channels do you consider playing a role in nurturing your prospects? Check all that apply.
The Future of Lead Nurturing Lies Beyond the Inbox 89% of marketers are interested in nurturing anonymous and known prospects beyond email. Question: How interested would you be in a technology that allowed you to nurture anonymous and known prospects without using email?
Takeaways! Marketing organizations are increasingly responsible for contributing to the sales pipeline.! Email marketing is widely used, but does not reach a significant proportion of known contacts.! Less than 5 percent of anonymous website visitors fill out contact forms on business websites.! In order to help fill the sales pipeline, marketing must embrace a truly multi-channel lead nurturing strategy that goes beyond traditional email marketing approaches.
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