Report: Lead Generation from Social Media Continues to Fall Short for Marketers

Marketers continue to turn to social media for lead generation, but new research shows that they could be more satisfied with the quality of leads they garner from this channel.

Social Media Today recently conducted “The State of Social Lead Generation” report, and statistics suggested that the majority of marketers (38%) are only “somewhat satisfied” with the volume of leads they generate from social media. Most respondents (30%) also said they would only rate the quality of their leads as “neutral.”

This is all despite the fact that the majority of marketers (64%) stated that they have a specific plan for generating leads from social media in place.

In the future, 69% of marketers said they would consider automating more elements of their lead generation process.

“There is clearly opportunity in automation — and potentially even more so in regards to follow-up emails to segmented lists, based on which stage in the cycle each potential customer is placed,” wrote the authors of the report.

The Alternative Value of Social Media in Marketing

Overall, social media is still proving to be useful for marketers, at least in terms of driving website visits, according to previous research.

Merkle published the “Digital Marketing Report” for Q3 2019, and data suggested that the average share of visits to company websites produced by social media remained steady between Q2 and Q3, hovering around 4%.

Compared to the previous year, social media visit share increased by one percentage point, indicating that it continues to grow as a marketing channel.