• by Ray Schultz , February 21, 2018

Email is the most effective channel for driving leads through the B2B pipeline — especially in the later stages — and it is also the most widely used, according to a study by Demand Gen Report, sponsored by Content Demand, Integrate and Selling Simplified.

Of 160 marketing executives surveyed, 81% say email is effective in propelling conversations later in the sales funnel, followed by web sites (50%) and telemarketing (45%).

Search and social perform dismally at this stage, cited by less than 20% apiece. 

Things are a little closer when driving early-stage engagement, with 59% saying email is effective, followed by search (56%) and website (51%).

Email is the most widely deployed.. But search appears to be the comer.

“While email was still the go-to channel for 67% of marketers, search grew by almost 10% from last year (moving from 41% to 50%), and online ads climbed 5% (moving from 16% to 21%),” the study notes.  

In general, marketers are anticipating a good year, with 26% projecting a revenue increase of more than 30%, 37% a hike of over 20% and 33% a boost of 1% to 10%. A mere 1% foresee a sales decrease.

At the same time, 70% plan to increase their demand-generation budgets this year, with 12% of the respondents hiking them by more than 30% and 22% by over 20%. In addition, 25% will hold them as present levels. Only 6% foresee a decrease.

Their priorities are as follows:

• Focusing on lead quality over lead quantity — 73%
• Improving conversion rates/campaign results — 72%
• Generating increased lead volume —  62%
• Improving ability to measure and analyze marketing impact — 61%
• Improving sales-marketing alignment — 60%
• Expanding content library to drive campaigns — 53%
• Improving the depth and accuracy of company's database — 48%

Marketing is playing a greater role, judging by the percentage of revenue attributed to marketing-sourced leads:

• 75% to 100% — 6%
• 50% to 75% — 11%
• 26% to 50% — 28%
• 11% to 25%  — 27%
• Less than 10% — 18%
• Don’t track — 9%

As for metrics, companies are looking for results, not mere traffic. Here is the lineup:

• MQLs/SALs — 33%
• Pipeline influenced — 30%
• Total leads/inquiries — 14%
• Accounts engaged — 11%
• Other — 10%
• Web traffic — 2%