Survey: Creating Relevant Content is Critical to Lead Nurturing Success

Marketers are finding creating relevant content to be the most challenging obstacle to lead nurturing success, but it’s by far the most effective online tactic used, according to a new survey by Ascend2. Other effective tactics include personalizing campaigns, targeting by persona and targeting by decision stage.

The December 2015 survey asked more than 200 marketers about current lead nurturing trends. The three most important objectives in a lead nurturing strategy were increasing conversion rates (68 percent), increasing sales opportunities (68 percent) and increasing lead qualification (63 percent). However, nearly 20 percent of companies said their current lead nurturing strategy was unsuccessful at achieving important objectives.

To achieve more sales-ready leads, marketers are deploying content across a variety of channels, however, 78 percent of respondents named email as the most effective online marketing channel. Marketers are still struggling to integrate their lead nurturing campaigns across channels – roughly 20 percent of respondents aren’t doing it at all.

Three-quarters of respondents said marketing technology was “extremely important” in order to implement lead nurturing tactics.

“Now more than ever, an effective lead nurturing strategy requires precisely targeted messaging delivered across multiple marketing channels and devices,” wrote the authors of the study.

B2B Marketers Continue to Benefit From Lead Nurturing

Twenty-eight percent of respondents in the “2015 Lead Nurturing Benchmark Study” by Demand Generation reported they received a 20 percent or greater increase in sales opportunities from nurtured leads. Furthermore, 26 percent said they get 10-to-20 percent better response from lead nurture campaigns compared to standard campaigns.

The two most significant benefits were a better response to campaigns as a result of targeting and relevancy (64 percent) and the opportunity to hone in on prospects based on their interests and behaviors (about 57 percent).