Improving Lead Quality is Top Priority and Challenge for Marketers

Providing the sales team with high-quality leads is by far the number one priority for marketers, according to new survey results from Ascend2‘s “2016 State of Lead Generation.”

More than three-quarters of respondents (77 percent) name improving the quality of leads as the most important goal; the second most popular lead generation goal was acquiring new customers (50 percent).

However, the survey revealed improving lead quality is also a struggle for marketing professionals – about half identified it as their top challenge.

The data shows content marketing (45 percent) and email marketing (45 percent) are the two most effective online tactics used for lead generation.

“Content is a common denominator to other effective marketing channels such as social media and websites as well,” wrote the authors of the study.

Content marketing, social media marketing, as well as SEO, are named the most difficult tactics for marketers to execute for lead generation. As a result, 80 percent of respondents indicate their company outsources all or part of their lead generation tactics.

B2B Marketers Feel More Pressure to Generate Quality Leads

Another survey from earlier this year reported the majority of B2B marketers (59 percent) feel there is “significant pressure” from upper management to generate quality leads.

Despite increased pressure, B2B marketers are still struggling to properly track leads and ROI. In fact, a quarter of survey respondents said they are “quite unconfident” or “very unconfident” in tracking leads from cold to close. In addition, about 24 percent indicated that sales and marketing do not have a shared definition of a “lead.”