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%