Email is a close second to social media as a productive B2B lead-generation tactic. But it is first in lead nurturing, according to Generating and Nurturing Lead Survey, a study by Ascend2.
Of the 229 marketers polled, 47% say email is an effective nurturing tactic, followed by content or video marketing (45%), social media (40%), web personalization (33%) and search engine optimization (33%).
In contrast, social media is rated as an effective lead-generation tool by 47%, and email by 46%. In addition, 39% feel that content or video is productive, and 38% cite SEO.
Their goals are different at each stage of the process. The respondents list their lead-generation priorities as follows:
Their lead nurturing priorities are different:
Overall, 58% rate themselves as very successful in demand creation, or best in class. And 35% see themselves as somewhat successful. Only 7% say they’re failing at it.
In addition, 46% agree their digital demand generation is improving moderately and 38% significantly. Only 12% feel their effectiveness is worsening moderately, and 4% that it is significantly down.
Only 8% rely entirely on in-house resources to generate and nurture leads. Some 56% combine outsourced and in-house resources, and 36% rely totally on outsourced specialists.
This news must come as a great relief to Market, Eloqua and the raft of marketing automation firms betting on email for nurturing :-)