Lead Generation Benchmarks: How does your company stack up?

A benchmark study just released by Ascend2 dramatically demonstrates the lead-generation challenges faced by marketers and reveals the tactics employed to overcome them. Of the 445 global marketing professionals surveyed, only 8% rated their lead-generation strategy “very successful,” while 20% called their programs “not successful.”

“Improving the quality of leads” was ranked as the marketers’ top priority (62%) followed by “increasing lead quantity” (52%). The lack of an effective strategy was cited as the most challenging obstacle to successful lead generation (36%) with lack of original and compelling content coming in second (33%).

The most effective lead-generation tactics named were e-mail marketing (49%) and content marketing (41%). The most difficult tactics to execute were social media marketing (42%), which was also viewed as among the least effective, and content marketing (39%). The majority of the respondents (55%) said they are implementing their lead-generation efforts entirely in-house.

The benchmark research shows the difficulty marketers face in implementing a lead-generation process that creates strong demand for their products and services.  Those who have adopted an effective strategy, such as Tiziani Whitmyre’s Revenue Generation Process, have seen lead generation results improve to upper quartile performance. This model combines the tactics marketers cited as most effective – content marketing, e-mail, and search engine optimization – with powerful lead nurturing, conversion, and analytic methodologies.

E-mail me at rwhitmyre@tizinc.com for a copy of the Ascend2 study.

Download Tiziani Whitmyre’s white paper on Revenue Generation.