Content Marketing
50 Must-Know Statistics to Improve Your Lead Generation Strategy

50 Must-Know Statistics to Improve Your Lead Generation Strategy

August 25, 2021
5 min read

With so many brands competing for the same shares of consumer attention and dollars, generating quality leads has become increasingly more challenging for today’s marketers. That’s why having an effective lead generation program is more important than ever before when it comes to achieving your marketing goals.

Done right, a successful lead generation strategy will fill your sales funnel with quality leads that ultimately convert and reward your company with their business. So how do you go about building a lead generation program that will work and will not waste the time and resources you’ve invested?

Just like planning any other marketing activities, you need to consider various factors including the latest marketing trends, technologies and data you have when developing your lead generation strategy. That’s why we pulled together 50 useful statistics you’ll want to know to help you take your lead generation efforts to the next level – everything from mobile marketing to social media, landing pages, search and email marketing.

And if you’re looking for more general marketing stats and sales stats, we’ve got plenty of those too!

I hope these insights will help you come up with more effective lead generation tactics to generate higher quality prospects that convert. Are there any other important statistics or trends we’ve forgotten to cover here? Please help us add to the list by sharing them in the comments section below!

Website, Search, and Email Marketing

  1. Strategic landing pages are used by 68% of B2B businesses to acquire leads. (Marketo)
  2. 49% of B2B buyers prefer using consumer websites for work-related purchases and expect to be given the same array of omni-channel buying options they have as consumers. (The Future of Commerce)
  3. 93% of B2B buying processes begin with an online search. (Pinpoint Market Research and Anderson Jones PR)
  4. Before finalizing a product purchase, 94% of B2B buyers research online. (Marketing Profs)
  5. 76% of B2B buyers use three or more channels when researching a potential purchase. (Blue Nile Research)
  6. The three most commonly used B2B lead generation strategies are email marketing (78%), event marketing (73%), and content marketing (67%). (Demand Metric Research Corporation via Direct Marketing News)
  7. Email ranks as the third most influential information source for B2B audiences, behind colleague recommendations and industry-specific intermediaries. (BaseOne via Imagination)
  8. 59% of B2B marketers say email is the most effective channel for generating revenue. (BtoB Magazine)
  9. It is expected that by 2017, the number of emails sent daily will reach approximately 297 billion. (The Wonder of Tech)

Content Marketing

  1. 85% of B2B marketers say lead generation is their most important content marketing goal in 2016. (Content Marketing Institute)
  2. Content marketing is used for lead generation by 83% of B2B marketers. (Content Marketing Institute)
  3. Through the success of content marketing, 49% of B2B marketers follow up with quality sales leads for further assessment. (Content Marketing Institute)
  4. 70% of B2B marketers claim that videos are more effective than other content when it comes to converting users to qualified leads. (Vidyard)
  5. 93% of B2B companies say content marketing generates more leads than traditional marketing strategies. (Forbes via Marketo)

Social Media Marketing

  1. When making a purchase, 75% of B2B buyers use social media for their decision-making. (International Data Corporation)
  2. 49% of B2B marketers find social media to be the most difficult marketing activity to implement. (eMarketer)
  3. 43% of B2B marketers have acquired customers through Facebook. (HubSpot)
  4. Social media lead conversion rates are 13% higher than the average lead conversion rate. (Source: HubSpot via Struto.co)
  5. 62% of B2B users stated that LinkedIn is the most effective social media platform for their business. (Content Marketing Institute)
  6. Lead generation from LinkedIn was successful for 65% of B2B companies. (LinkedIn)
  7. Focusing more on LinkedIn is a priority for 77% of B2B marketers. (Social Media Examiner)
  8. Industry-specific forums are five times more popular than Twitter with B2B audiences. (Base One via Imagination)
  9. Twitter is the top social platform for B2B brand mentions, with 73% of B2B brand mentions happening on the site.(Brandwatch)

Mobile Marketing

  1. Only 45% of businesses are conducting mobile marketing with mobile websites (70%), mobile applications (55%), and QR codes (49%) as the most common tactics. (StrongView)
  2. About 50% of B2B vendors sell through mobile (including stores and applications). (MarketingCharts)
  3. 59% of B2B buyers use smartphones to research B2B products and services. (Panvista Mobile via SCORE Philadelphia)
  4. Mobile apps play a significant role in content marketing, according to 83% of B2B marketers. (e-Strategy Trends)
  5. Half of B2B buyers are using smartphones for business purchases — with 40% of these purchases directly influenced by such devices. Conversely, the allocation for mobile in digital marketing only amounts to 3%. (Webbiquity)

Demand Generation

  1. 37% of marketers state that budget constraints hinder them from conducting an efficient marketing automation strategy. (Pepper Global)
  2. 68% of B2B companies are not tracking their meetings. (Calendar)
  3. Expertise in lead nurturing results in a 50% increase in sales-ready leads, along with a 33% decrease in its cost. (Forrester Research via HubSpot)
  4. Lead generation strategies were only successful for 13% of business in accomplishing their main objectives. (Ascend2 Lead Generation Benchmark Report via idio)
  5. Outbound leads cost 39% more than inbound leads. (HubSpot)
  6. 61% of B2B marketers find generating high-quality leads as their biggest challenge. (B2B Technology Marketing Community)
  7. A CRM system is believed by 84% of companies to be beneficial in determining the quality of leads. (Demand Metric Research Corporation via Direct Marketing News)
  8. High-quality lead generation is the top challenge for 61% of B2B marketers. (B2B Technology Marketing Community)
  9. 58% of B2B marketers planned to increase their lead generation budget in 2015. (B2B Technology Marketing Community)
  10. Only 5-10% of qualified leads successfully convert for marketers. (B2B Technology Marketing Community)
  11. 25% of marketers don’t have any idea of their conversion rates. (B2B Technology Marketing Community)
  12. The average cost of a B2B sales lead varies by industry. Healthcare leads are most expensive ($60) followed by business/finance ($43). At the low end are leads for marketing products/services ($32) and technology ($31).  (Madison Logic via Marketing Insider)
  13. Verifying business leads before passing it to the sales team is conducted by only 56% of B2B companies. (MarketingSherpa via HubSpot)
  14. With 61% of B2B marketers immediately forwarding leads to sales, qualified leads only amount to 27%. (MarketingSherpa via HubSpot)
  15. More than 79% of marketing leads don’t convert into sales with the lack of lead nurturing as the leading cause. (MarketingSherpa via HubSpot)
  16. Increasing the quality of leads is the top priority for a majority (68%) of B2B professionals, followed by increasing lead volume (55%). (B2B Technology Marketing Community)
  17. Lead generation outsourcing is 43% more efficient than generating leads in-house because of their expertise. (Fearless Competitor)
  18. Only 57% of B2B firms consider converting leads into paying customers as their top priority when devising their marketing campaigns. (MarketingSherpa via HubSpot)

Customer Experience

  1. B2B marketers believe customer experience, personalization, and big data hold the most promise over the next five years. 22% of B2B marketers surveyed named customer experience as the greatest opportunity.(Econsultancy and Adobe)
  2. 83% of CMOs stated that their organizational culture is crucial in the team’s productivity and quality of services they deliver. (Spencer Stuart)
  3. Approximately 90% of B2B companies are likely to switch partners even with just one single bad experience. (com by Adobe)
  4. Only 45% of B2B marketers are confident that they have decent, if not high, levels of customer centricity. (FierceCMO)

4 thoughts on “50 Must-Know Statistics to Improve Your Lead Generation Strategy

  1. ed marsh

    there are really two distinct types of stats here.

    one group is the result of polling marketing folks. the other is some form of distilled metrics or results of polling buyers.

    the latter has merit – the former potentially much less so.

    looking for instance at the CMI data, in many cases the same characters who report difficulty identifying measurable results from their efforts then opine on trends and suggest areas for greater investment. that methodology – soliciting suggestions from a group which as a whole performs poorly – seems to simply guarantee mediocrity.

  2. Joshua Carter

    This is great! Thank you for compiling this information.

    Do you have something similar for B2C, or can you point me in the right direction?

  3. Michael Brenner

    I get your point Ed 100%. Since I am a small firm and cannot afford to conduct my own research, I have to rely on others. I still think the majority of the stats are directionally correct and all of them can be helpful if taken for what they are. I think no matter how accurate a stat could ever be, they all need to be considered in context and taken with a grain of salt.

  4. Michael Brenner

    Hi Joshua, Here is a list from Hubspot (both b2b and b2c) https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics

    but since lead generation is considered much more of B2B objective (B2C more focused on awareness and e-commerce sales) I think it will be tough to find more stats. If your business has lead generation as a goal, I would look to brands like AMEX Open Forum, which is a banking brand targeting small business owners for lead generation.

    Happy to help if I can. Feel free to reach out anytime.

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Michael Brenner is an international keynote speaker, author of "Mean People Suck" and "The Content Formula", and Founder of Marketing Insider Group. Recognized as a Top Content Marketing expert and Digital Marketing Leader, Michael leverages his experience from roles in sales and marketing for global brands like SAP and Nielsen, as well as his leadership in leading teams and driving growth for thriving startups. Today, Michael delivers empowering keynotes on marketing and leadership, and facilitates actionable workshops on content marketing strategy. Connect with Michael today.

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