Yep, and here’s a few numbers to show it...
“If we could just get more customers, all our problems would be solved!”
Well...although most business owners understand more customers don’t solve all your problems, getting more customers for your business is what brings in the revenue, keeps your doors open, your people employed and your business growing.
So, what lead generation techniques are the most effective?
What types of marketing strategies are other businesses implementing? Are businesses really using online strategies or do the “old school” traditional techniques still pull in the leads?
I decided to look at the numbers.
The Chief Marketer’s 2013 Prospecting survey found that when asked which marketing channels marketers planned to use in 2013, every category showed an increase. That would seem to say that all the respondents plan to increase their marketing in 2013. Surprise!
So which lead generation techniques should you focus on?
Here are statistics that may help you in your decision making process. If anything else, I hope they stimulate your curiosity to find out more and nudge you away from basing business marketing decisions solely on how you feel or on your experiences.
Internet Marketing (Inbound):
Inbound leads cost 61% less than outbound leads. HubSpot
Inbound marketers' average website conversion is double the rate of non-inbound marketers -- 12% vs. 6%. HubSpot
60% of marketers said they would use content marketing as a lead generation technique in 2013, up from 46% in 2012. Marketingcharts.com
SEO consumes an average of 9% of marketers’ overall time, and its leads convert to sales at an industry leading 15% -- 50% better than trade shows, the leading traditional marketing channel. HubSpot
Social Media:
Growth in adoption of the use of social media as a part of the overall marketing strategy is 67.5%, up from 57.3% in 2012. Marketingcharts.com
Social media accounts for 14% of marketers’ total lead pipeline this year. HubSpot
21% of marketers report that social media has become more important to their company over the past six months. HubSpot
In 2013:
52% of all marketers generated a lead from Facebook.
43% of marketers generated a customer from LinkedIn.
36% of marketers found a new customer from Twitter.
Google+ delivered customers for 15% of marketers this year.
9% of marketers sourced a customer from Pinterest. HubSpot
Social media budgets grew 9% in 2013, to 23% of all marketing allocations. HubSpot
The primary goal of social media lead generation techniques was to build relationships that would convert to transactions over time with B2B reporting 41.6% and B2C 52.3% reporting that as their goal. Marketingcharts.com
Only 13.6% of B2C and 25.8% of B2B were not currently using social media as part of their marketing and lead generation strategy. Wow! If you are not currently using social media strategies, you might want to consider it! Marketingcharts.com
Blogging:
Company blogs produced a customer for 43% of marketers in 2013. HubSpot
9% of small business leads are from blogging, and small businesses are allocating 12% of their budget toward this lead source. HubSpot
Nearly 40% of US companies use blogs for marketing purposes. HubSpot
Companies that blog have 55% more website visitors. HubSpot
Email Marketing:
Email marketing as a channel was the third overall lead generation source for marketers in 2013, producing 13% of all leads. HubSpot
The best three lead sources for B2B companies are SEO (14%), email marketing, (13%), and social media (12%). HubSpot
Email marketing was the highest marketing channel with a 87% usage rate; traditional media like direct mail was at 50% and telemarketing at 36%. Marketingcharts.com
PPC:
PPC accounted for just 6% of all lead generation for marketers in 2013. HubSpot
The worst three lead sources for B2B companies are traditional advertising (3%), PPC (6%), and direct mail (6%). HubSpot
The three worst lead sources for B2C companies are telemarketing (3%), trade shows (6%), and PPC (6%). HubSpot
Tradeshows and Direct Mail:
Trade shows and direct mail each provide just 8% of all leads for the 2013 marketing funnel. HubSpot
According to DM News, in 2012 the average response rate for direct mail was 4.4 percent for both business to business and business to consumer mailings. BMSdirect
Deciding on which lead generation techniques to use for your business is an important part of your overall marketing strategy.
Here at Half a Bubble Out, we have an inbound method to our marketing madness and we love to share about it. If you are looking for some direction in choosing lead generation techniques, want to know more about inbound marketing, looking to tune up your plan or have no idea which direction to start in, give us call. We love to share, teach and consult small businesses to help you be as successful as you can.
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