Two-Thirds of B2B Marketers Say Lead Gen is High Priority for 2018

While email and social media marketing still yield big ROI for B2B marketers, increasing leads and lead gen tactics remain focal points, according to new research.

The “2018 B2B Marketing Mix Report” from the SageFrog Marketing Group discovered that the majority of B2B marketers (67 percent) have made generating leads for their sales teams a “high priority” for the coming year. Converting leads into customers (47 percent) is also a “high priority” for 2018.

At the moment, referrals (86 percent) are the top source of leads for both sales and marketing. This is followed by tradeshows and events (51 percent) and email marketing (37 percent).

Overall, email marketing remains one of B2B marketers’ most implemented tactics, with 79 percent saying they use this as a part of their strategy. Similarly, 79 percent claim they turn to social media to market to their target audience. LinkedIn (86 percent), Facebook (73 percent) and Twitter (67 percent) are the most used social media sites by B2B marketers.

Content Marketing Continues to Grow in Significance

Previous research has highlighted the importance of email marketing to B2B marketers, but it has also shed light on the growing ROI of content marketing.

According to the “2018 B2B Lead Gen Outlook” report from Chief Marketer, email (53 percent) is still the largest producer of leads for B2B marketers. However, 44 percent of B2B marketers also claim that content marketing produces a significant amount of leads. About 21 percent now have an editorial team dedicated to producing content.