Last updated on September 8th, 2015 at 03:33 pm
B2B marketers know how important lead nurturing is to their overall business success. With the arrival of Big Data, they can refine their lead nurturing to target prospects as they move through their buying cycle, improving their conversion numbers.
DemandGenReport recently released a study on the subject, the 2015 Lead Nurturing Benchmark Study that shows just how B2B marketers are driving their prospects through the buying cycle.
Here are a few highlights from the report:
1 – B2B marketers are developing more sophisticated lead nurture campaigns. It isn’t a new tactic for B2B marketers; in fact 42 percentof them have been using lead nurturing for more than two years. They understand what’s involved and are evolving their strategies into deeper and more complex campaigns. Cari Baldwin, President and Founder of BlueBird Strategies, said, “We are definitely seeing marketers ready and willing to take nurturing to the next level, moving beyond drips to more sophisticated campaigns that align to the buyer’s journey.”
Credit: DemandGen Benchmark Report
2 – B2B marketers enjoy increased sales returns. Over half of those surveyed said their lead nurture campaigns provide them with great returns compared to standard ones (26 percent get between 10-20 percent better response from their lead nurture campaigns than their standard ones, while 25 percent get 20 to 30 percent better response.)
And it’s not just for leads entering the sales funnel, but those high returns continue as leads move through the funnel. Thirty-eigh percent of those surveyed reported a 20+ percent increase in sales opportunities from those nurtured leads, while another 21 percent reported a 10 percent increase.
“Marketers of leading enterprises are personalizing their message and their advertising, leveraging integrated technology with their marketing automation platform.” – Jon Russo, Founder and CEO, B2B Fusion Group.
3 – B2B marketers saw an increase in most of their marketing metrics.Whether it’s revenue, email click-through rates, costs per lead, or average deal size, B2B marketers reported significant increases in these metrics, which meant a more profitable business.
4 – B2B marketers prefer to offer longer content in their campaigns. Email newsletters, white papers, thought leadership articles, videos, and webinars were just some of the longer content types they were offering. Yet many marketers weren’t confident in their offers when it came to performance.
For example:
- Two-thirds of marketers offered white papers, yet only 41 percent thought they worked best in their lead nurture campaigns.
- 65 percent offered thought leadership articles, yet only 35 percent thought they worked.
- 48 percent offered blog posts, yet only 24 percent thought they worked.
For more insights from the report, head over to the DemandGen site and download a copy.
Flickr photo via Creative Commons
