Lead-acquisition budgets

The CMO Council asked top marketers what percentage of their marketing budget is allocated to customer acquisition.

Data sharing within organizations

The CMO Council asked top marketers to best describe collaboration and data sharing among marketing, sales, IT and other departments and functions.

0-10%

11-20%

21-30%

31-40%

41-50%

51-60%

61-70%

71-80%

81-90%

91-100%

28.3%

8.0%

16.7%

14.1%

12.5%

9.6%

9.3%

18.4%

26.9%

4.5%

5.8%

5.8%

37.5%

1.2%

Close sharing and integration of information, with some or all departments/functions using highly compatible systems

Good sharing or integration, with some departments/ functions using somewhat compatible systems

Some sharing but no integration, with some departments/functions using incompatible systems

Inadequate sharing of information, with siloed information and incompatible systems

No systems for information sharing, with data scattered across systems and locations

9%

Source: “Business Gain From How You Retain: Addressing the Challenge of Customer Churn & Marketing Burn,” CMO Council, 2008

Lead-generation tactics use and effectiveness

Forrester Research recently asked b-to-b marketers about their lead-generation programs. The data show that the use of certain tactics does not often correspond with their perceived effectiveness.

90%

80%

70%

% of firms that use each tactic

% of firms that say each tactic is highly effective

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

PR

Trade shows

Direct mail

Print

Source: Q2 2008 B2B Marketing Effectiveness Online Survey, Forrester Research

E-mail

Search marketing

Executive seminars

Sponsorships

Inside sales

Webinars

Online video,

podcasts, rich media

Online ads

Other Web 2.0

Blogs

Radio

Outdoor

TV advertising

Lead management/scoring use

Aberdeen Group surveyed 200 companies about their lead-management usage and divided the respondents into three categories: best-in-class, industry average and laggard. (Best-in-class companies were defined as having increased lead conversion rates and annual revenue, and reduced cost-per-lead year over year.)

Do you use lead management?

Best-in-class

91%

Industry average

67%

Laggard

44%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80% 100%

If you do use lead management, do you also use lead scoring and prioritization?

Best-in-class

88%

Industry average

61%

Laggard

33%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Source: “Lead Scoring and Prioritization: The Path to Higher Conversion” Benchmark Report, Aberdeen Group, 2008

Lead generation a priority

IDC asked technology maketers to rate how important each of the following is to their companywide marketing activities during the 2008 calendar year (using a scale of 1-5, with 1=not important and 5=very important).

Lead generation

Brand awareness

Online and interactive marketing

Alignment with sales

MPM/ROI

Customer knowledge

Channel/Partner Marketing

4. 3

4.0

4.0

3. 9

3. 9

3. 6

3. 4

Source: IDC's CMO Tech Marketing Barometer, 2008

Lead-generation efforts growing

Rain Today.com asked professional services companies about their expected lead-generation efforts in the next two years. The companies are categorized by how they identified themselves as generating new business.

51 50% 50

44 42

Respondents

40% 36

30%

30

20% 15

10

10%

4 31

0%

11

2

Half lead gen, half referrals

Significant increase

Moderate increase

No change

Moderate decrease

Significant decrease

Mostly lead gen

Mostly referrals

Source: “What’s Working in Lead Generation,” Rain Today.com, 2007

References:

http://btobonline.com

http://www.raintoday.com

http://www.raintoday.com

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