A sustainable and efficient B2B lead generation strategy is vital for business growth. While this may seem obvious, most businesses in the B2B niche report struggling with lead generation.
Businesses have difficulty keeping their sales pipelines full because marketing, outbound, and website lead generation techniques aren’t always effective:
- Outbound leads cost 39% more than inbound leads(* Please see all references below)
- Approximately 96% of website visitors aren’t ready to make a purchase on their first visit
- Only 25% of marketing-generated leads are typically of a high enough quality to immediately advance to sales
Not All B2B Leads Are Equal
And not all B2B leads are created equal; it is qualified leads that increase a company’s conversion rates.
Many marketing professionals are already aware of this fact. In a recent study, increasing quality leads was cited as the top priority for 68% of B2B professionals, followed by increasing lead volume at 55%.
However, only half of B2B companies have a process to verify business leads generated by various methods before forwarding them to a salesperson.
Moreover, even though 57% of B2B companies in that study said that the ability to convert qualified leads into customers was a top priority, only about 22% of businesses said they were satisfied with their conversion rates.
A Mature B2B Lead Generation Strategy Has to Include Follow-Up
When your company does receive a qualified lead, a follow-up strategy is important.
For example, if you follow up with a lead from your website within the first five minutes, you are nine times more likely to convert that person eventually.
It is also important to know that 80% of opportunities require five or more follow-up calls after an initial meeting to convert to a sale.
An established lead generation strategy that includes a procedure to follow up with qualified leads will help you capture and convert more prospects. Many companies don’t have a lead generation platform in place, however, or don’t include a follow-up strategy in their lead generation plan.
25% of marketers with mature lead management strategies report that their sales teams contact prospects within one day, compared to only 10% of marketers report the same follow-up time without mature lead management processes.
A lack of a standardized follow-up system isn’t the only reason why some B2B companies aren’t able to capture and convert qualified leads. Today’s B2B buyers need to be nurtured until they are ready to make a purchase.
You Need A Lead Nurturing Strategy
Not all prospects are ready to buy when they first become aware of your organization. You will need a lead nurturing strategy in place to help your company stay top of mind:
- Only 3% of your market is actively buying.
- 56% are not ready
- 40% are poised to begin
- Businesses who nurture leads make 50% more sales at a cost 33% less than non-nurtured prospects.
- Nurtured leads produce a 20% increase in sales opportunities versus other leads
- Companies that have mastered lead nurturing have 9% more sales reps making quota
- 22% of B2B businesses reach out to prospects with lead nurturing on a weekly basis
To capture B2B buyers early in their buyer’s journey and nurture them until they are ready to make a purchase, you will need to find the online platforms your prospects are using to research solutions and vendors. The main social media platform executives are using for research is LinkedIn.
Click here to download a copy of this infographic.
A Mature B2B Lead Generation Strategy Needs to Include LinkedIn
If you are a B2B company, LinkedIn is the place to be:
- LinkedIn dominates lead gen with more than 80% of B2B leads generated through social media coming from them
- According to Forbes, 75% of users use LinkedIn to research people and companies
- 79% of B2B Marketers say LinkedIn is an effective source for generating leads
- 92% of B2B marketers leverage LinkedIn over all other platforms
- 61 million LinkedIn users are senior level influencers
- 40 million LinkedIn users are in decision-making positions
- LinkedIn is the most-used social media platform amongst Fortune 500 companies
- 38% of B2B marketers say LinkedIn is generating revenue for them
[cta] A mature B2B lead generation strategy is vital for an effective sales team, accurate sales forecasting and a streamlined approach to revenue growth. Do you want to learn more about how lead generation has changed and what you need to know to create quality leads, streamline your lead generation process and positively impact your bottom line? Click here to access our FREE new guide: How to Generate B2B Leads in a Social World.[/cta]
Please find the list of all of the resources used in this article below:
Resources:
40 Statistics To Inform & Enhance B2B Lead Generation Strategies: http://blog.strategic-ic.co.uk/lead-generation-statistics
The Ultimate List of Marketing Statistics (Source: https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics)
Top B2B Lead Generation Statistics for 2018 http://blog.zoominfo.com/b2b-lead-generation-statistics/
http://blog.jacobsclevenger.com/6-stats-that-prove-linkedin-is-a-must-for-b2b-marketers
