Posted: April 23, 2015
Research on B2B Lead Gen Tactics

For any size business, generating quality B2B leads – at the lowest possible cost per lead – is necessary for healthy growth. In most cases, you need good leads just to survive.

So what is working, what are these leads costing and what are businesses planning to do about it? We recently came across the results of a survey of 200 U.S. B2B marketing professionals conducted by Software Advice, a subsidiary of Gartner (the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company).

This post is the Envision Works executive summary of that research.

Starting the evaluation of lead quality, B2B marketers say trade shows, search engine marketing and email are the best channels for generating large numbers of high-quality leads. Trade shows were cited as the channel that generates both the most and the best leads.

QUALITY OF LEADS

  1. Trade Shows and Events
  2. Email Marketing
  3. Telemarketing/Cold-calling
  4. Search Engine Advertising
  5. Organic Search
  6. Social Media Advertising
  7. Print, Radio & TV Advertising
  8. Social Media (Non-Paid)
  9. Direct Mail
  10. Display Advertising

When it comes to cost per lead, respondents put email, organic search and social media as the demand generation channels with the lowest cost per lead. Trade Shows, on the other hand, are viewed as the most expensive cost per lead (even though the quality of the leads is high).

COST PER LEAD

  1. Social Media (Non-Paid)
  2. Email Marketing
  3. Organic Search
  4. Social Media Advertising
  5. Telemarketing/Cold-calling
  6. Direct Mail
  7. Search Engine Advertising
  8. Display Advertising
  9. Print, Radio & TV Advertising
  10. Trade Shows and Events

As businesses decide how to adjust their marketing investment for the future, search engine advertising is the most commonly sited planned increase. 12% of the survey respondents say they plan to spend “much more,” while 30% plan to spend “somewhat more.” Here are the rankings.

PLANS FOR FUTURE LEAD GEN SPENDING

  1. Search Engine Advertising
  2. Social Media (Non-Paid)
  3. Trade Shows and Events
  4. Telemarketing/Cold-calling
  5. Social Media Advertising
  6. Print, Radio & TV Advertising
  7. Direct Mail
  8. Email Marketing
  9. Organic Search
  10. Display Advertising

Now that you know what 200 experienced B2B marketing experts think, does that change your next B2B marketing plans? Please leave comments, or call Envisions Works to talk it over.