The 35+ Lead Generation Statistics Marketers Need To Know In 2022
Quick question - what does a sole proprietor just starting out and a Fortune 500 industry leader have in common? Both need to generate leads to stay in the game.
Lead generation is at the crux of every business large or small and across all verticals. You need to have some sort of lead generation process or sales prospecting system in place in order to achieve growth, much less stay a viable business.
Here are the top lead generation statistics (both B2B and B2C) across email marketing, LinkedIn, SEO (search engine optimization) and more to inform your marketing in 2022:
(Full disclosure - Cleverly (us) is one of the best lead generation providers around with a long-standing track record of delivering 5-star results to our 5,000+ clients. We've won leads like WeWork, Uber, Cisco, PayPal and many more for our clients helping them create pipelines of over $229M since 2017…how’s that for a lead generation stat? 😜)
General Lead Generation Statistics
Generating more quality leads is a priority goal for 79% of marketers worldwide. This is followed by attracting more traffic to the website (75%).
Quality leads are the lifeblood of any viable business — naturally, quality lead generation is the number one goal for nearly 80% of marketers across the globe. 75% of marketers deemed website traffic the number two priority.
Website traffic and lead generation go hand-in-hand as increased website traffic typically will lead to increased leads. Mature or thriving businesses will have a robust lead generation strategy in place oftentimes funneling or segmenting website traffic to its services or products.
61% of marketers rank lead generation as their number one challenge.
While nearly 80% of marketers agree that lead generation is their top priority, over 60% of marketers rank it as their number one challenge.
What does this mean? In other words — while lead generation is unanimously a top marketing objective, many marketers remain unsure or in the dark on how to generate quality leads.
53% of marketers spend at least half of their budget on lead generation.
Would you spend at least half of your marketing budget to generate leads? As is, more than half of marketers already do.
When you understand that lead generation can be a culmination of email marketing, LinkedIn marketing, website/landing page SEO, marketing automation and more — allocating more resources towards quality and converting leads makes sense.
80% of marketers think marketing automation generates more leads (and conversions).
Marketing automation refers to software, platforms, or technology that enables marketing and sales teams to automatically process, manage, and optimize campaigns across multiple channels.
Lead generation can oftentimes involve many intricate steps and repetitive tasks. With a lead generation strategy and marketing automation to support in place, companies can then focus on cultivating or nurturing leads and relationships (vs. being caught up in the “nitty gritty”).
Outsourcing lead generation generates 43% better results than in-house lead generation.
Unless your company is equipped with the tools, expertise and resources required to properly execute and nurture lead generation campaigns, outsourcing this task likely will produce significantly better results. In fact…
Lack of resources such as staff, funding, and time remains the biggest obstacle to successful lead generation efforts for 61% of B2B marketers.
A majority of marketers don’t have the requisite resources or team in place to launch successful lead generation campaigns (despite knowing that generating quality leads is a top priority).
Fortunately, outsourcing lead generation has been proven to produce significantly better results than in-house efforts.
Takeaway? Outsource your lead generation.
The three most commonly used B2B lead generation strategies are email marketing (78%), event marketing (73%), and content marketing (67%).
Email marketing, event marketing, and content marketing are the most commonly used lead generation strategies for B2B. These techniques can be used in isolation, but are even more powerful when integrated together.
The average mid-to-large company generates 1,877 leads per month.
What would you do with 1,877 leads per month?
At Cleverly, we’ve helped our clients (of all sizes and verticals) generate over 151,000 leads with a sales pipeline of $229M. In terms of revenue, that’s over $37M of client revenue generated.
B2B companies with mature lead generation processes enjoy 133% more revenue than average companies.
In business, we often gloss over numbers and throw out figures like “10x.” 133% is a big number.
- If your current business is doing half a million, 133% more revenue is $1,165,000.00.
- If your current business is doing a million now, 133% more revenue is $2,330,000.00.
- If you’e doing $5M now, 133% more is $11,650,000.00.
In short, with a solid lead generation process in place, you could stand to be making more than double what you are now. Let’s chat here and make that happen.
Lead Generation Stats (As They Relate to Content Marketing)
93% of B2B companies say content marketing generates more leads than traditional marketing strategies.
Good news for marketers who are doubling down on content marketing: you likely have a good pipeline of leads available for you. Over 90% of B2B companies agree that content marketing is best when it comes to lead generation.
Need an excuse to kickstart your content marketing? According to this lead generation statistic, you’ll likely see an uptick in leads as a result of your content marketing.
85% of B2B marketers say lead generation is their most important content marketing goal.
A big majority of marketers do content marketing to generate leads as their number one outcome. Similarly…
Content marketing is used for lead generation by 83% of B2B marketers.
A similar number of marketers leverage content marketing for leads. Additionally…
Content marketing generates 3x as many leads as outbound marketing but costs 62% less.
Additionally, content marketing is not only proven to be three times more effective than outbound marketing but is also extremely cost effective.
Organizations with websites of 401-1,000 pages get 6x more leads than sites with 51-100 pages.
When it comes to content marketing, scale does impact results. Sites with four hundred or more pages generated six times the amount of leads than websites with only 51 to one hundred pages.
81% of businesses report that their blog is important or critical in generating leads.
Content marketing can take a variety of formats (e.g. case studies, how-to guides, success stories, etc.), however, a vast majority of marketers have deemed that their company blog is a must-have when it comes to producing leads.
Does your business publish a blog? How regularly?
Blogs (86%), case studies (42%), and customer success stories (36%) are the most popular content formats.
When it comes to content marketing, blogs are by far the most popular format — but what’s next?
Case studies are a distant second followed closely by customer success stories.
B2B companies that blog generate 67% more leads than those who don’t.
To illustrate how having a blog can transform your business via leads, take the following examples:
- You currently have 10 leads/day (or week or month). By blogging strategically, you now have 16-17 leads
- You currently have 20 leads. Through blogging (the most popular format of content marketing), you now have increased your pipeline to 33-34 leads
- Your business gets 50 average leads/day/week/month. With a proper blog, you’ve now increased your leads to 83-84
Interested in launching a blog as part of your content marketing or lead generation strategy? CleverTask can make that happen. Let’s chat here.
Marketers with blogs are 13x as likely to drive positive ROIs.
So blogs are a must have when it comes to lead generation. Just how effective can a blog be?
Up to 13 times as likely to drive ROI, apparently. Compared to sites without blogs, sites with blogs are significantly more likely to have a huge impact on ROI.
Effective blog headlines drive 500% more traffic.
Blogs are an important part of any content marketer’s arsenal and the headline of each blog has the potential to drive up to 500% more traffic.
While it’s important to consider the SEO implications when crafting a proper blog headline, don’t neglect the power of excellent copywriting.
B2B blogs with educational content get 52% more organic traffic than B2B blogs with company-focused content.
More than half (53%) of marketers say webinars are the top-of-the-funnel format that generates the most high-quality leads.
Website/SEO & Lead Gen
The first 5 seconds of page-load time have the highest impact on conversion rates.
Website conversion rates drop by an average of 4.42% with each additional second of load time.
Translation? For best lead gen results, get your page load times down. Optimize/compress large images, minimize CSS, Javascript, etc., sort/minimize your redirects.
68% of B2B businesses use strategic landing pages for leads.
Dedicated or custom landing pages (pages designed to convert leads vs. general pages like a home or service page) are leveraged by nearly 70% of B2B marketers to boost lead conversion.
Does your business leverage specific landing pages?
In a survey, 70% of respondents said that SEO is better than PPC for generating sales.
With all the statistics supporting content marketing for lead generation, SEO as a primary driver for sales (vs. PPC) makes sense.
Email Marketing & Lead Generation Statistics
79% of B2B marketers think email is most effective for demand generation.
When it comes to B2B businesses, nearly 80% of marketers agree that email is the most effective marketing channel for lead gen.
42% of companies consider email to be one of their most important lead generation channels.
B2B aside, over 40% of all companies deem email marketing to be the most important for lead generation.
53% of marketers say email has been the most effective channel for early-stage lead generation, followed closely by search engine optimization.
Akin to most other marketing funnels, the lead generation process can also be segmented into various stages. For early-stage or top-of-the-funnel leads, over 50% of marketers deem email marketing to be effective in generating these types of leads.
Unsurprisingly, SEO (search engine optimization) comes next in importance for generating leads. Aside from email marketing, does your business leverage SEO for lead gen?
44x ROI - Email drives higher ROIs than any other lead generation tool.
Email marketing is powerful for a number of reasons and it’s at the top for lead generation results as well. Among all lead generation tools, email marketing has the highest ROIs at a tune of 44x.
Are you using email marketing for lead generation?
Lead Nurturing Statistics
Nurtured leads produce 20% more sales opportunities.
Not every prospect will be ready to buy when you first make contact. A lead may have questions, objections, or currently be outside of a buying window. Reaching a sale may require extra attention and catering.
Companies that nurture leads generate 50% more sales at 33% lower costs.
You spend a lot of money and peoplepower finding and contacting leads, so it only makes sense that your ROI goes up when these leads close. Nurturing your leads has the potential to create more sales and ensure your team’s efforts haven’t gone to waste.
Nurtured leads spend 47% more than non-nurtured leads.
Nurtured leads have had more opportunities to learn about why your solution might be right for them. Additionally, when you spend time listening to your prospect’s problems and pain points, you’re building a relationship and making them feel understood.
Emails sent out for lead nurturing purposes had an average click-through rate of 8%.
If you’ve done your prospecting correctly, your contacts should be interested in hearing what you have to say. This can increase your CTR (click through rate) over cold emailing alone.
Lead nurturing emails also generate between 4 and 10 times as many responses than regular emails.
Nurturing is relationship building. When a potential customer sees an email come through with a familiar name, they’ll be more likely to open and respond to it. If you’re asking thoughtful questions, sharing valuable content, or making great offers, they’ll be given even more reason to respond.
LinkedIn Lead Generation
Linkedin is the most effective social media channel for B2B lead generation.
With over 830 million members, LinkedIn is the largest professional social network in the world. For businesses that sell to other businesses, LinkedIn is an effective resource for meeting and networking with new prospects.
Only 47% of marketers are actively using LinkedIn.
As the world’s number one professional social network, LinkedIn can offer marketers many untapped opportunities – from networking, to lead generation, to paid advertising.
95% of B2B marketers used LinkedIn in 2020, making it the top B2B social media channel.
Marketers from other segments may be slow to leverage LinkedIn, but B2B marketers have made it one of the top channels for social selling.
33% of B2B decision makers use LinkedIn to research purchases.
While search engines can offer the world with the click of a button, sometimes there’s too much noise to sort through. LinkedIn offers advanced search filters to help specify needs and narrow down options.
