Survey: Lead Nurturing Efforts Need Improvement for Most B2B Marketers

B2B marketers are still turning to lead nurturing campaigns to drive sales and grow their customer base, but are their efforts paying off? The “2017 Lead Nurturing and Acceleration Survey Report” from Demand Gen Report recently shed light on how lead nurturing strategies are helping marketers achieve their objectives.

The researchers of the report asked B2B marketers to rate the benefits they experience from lead nurturing on a scale of one to five (five being the most beneficial). The majority (30 percent) claimed that generating sales-ready leads was the largest benefit, with responses averaging 3.8 on the scale.

However, roughly three-quarters of respondents (77 percent) reported their lead nurturing initiatives were either “average” or “need improvement”. Just 11 percent of marketers rated their efforts as excellent.

To measure their lead nurturing efforts, most marketers (70 percent) said they look at email click-through rates. Approximately 62 percent consider revenue, while 61 percent look at lead volume in the sales pipeline.

“The survey showed that there is still room for growth in what metrics are being leveraged,” wrote the authors of the report. “For example, only 18 percent measure customer lifetime value, a metric that can help marketers better understand nurture efforts with current clients in cross-sell/upsell opportunities.”

Marketing and Sales Collaboration for Success

Marketers who work closely with sales on initiatives, such as lead nurturing, may better position themselves for success.

The “What Does Sales Need and Want from Marketing?” white paper from Televerde recently looked at how marketing and sales teams are working together toward similar goals. The majority of sales reps (62 percent) said they are aligned with marketing professionals at their organizations.

In addition, the “State of Marketing” report from Salesforce discovered that 91 percent of the highest-performing marketers agree that sales and marketing often share common goals and strategies.

“Winning marketing teams keep close tabs on their sales counterparts’ needs and value two-way communication,” wrote the authors of the report.