Dive Brief:
- Ascend2’s latest research, Lead Nurturing Trends, found that 59% of surveyed marketers reported creating relevant content was the most challenging obstacle to lead nurturing success.
- A large majority of respondents said their lead nurturing campaigns were integrated across channels with 58% reporting marginal multi-channel integration and 23% reporting extensive multi-channel integration.
- The top three lead nurturing objectives were increasing conversion rates, increasing sales opportunities and increasing lead qualification.
Dive Insight:
Ascend2 partner and CMO Todd Lebo told Marketing Dive, “Creating relevant, trustworthy content is critical to engaging and nurturing leads. Creating content is also the most challenging obstacle to lead nurturing success. Targeting campaigns to deliver content at the appropriate stage in the decision-making and buying process is second.”
More than half (59%) of surveyed marketers reported creating content was the biggest lead nurturing hurdle. Nearly half (49%) stated targeting by decision stage and 39% said targeting by prospect persona was their main challenge.
For the most important lead nurturing objective Lebo said, “The most important objectives of a lead nurturing strategy have one thing in common: moving leads closer to being sales-ready. Increasing conversion rates, sales opportunities and lead qualification are more achievable when marketing and sales processes are aligned.”
Previous research from a ToutApp survey of 300 marketers found that when asked what they would like to discuss with their sales team, lead quality and conversion-to-sale shared the top spot at 40%.
For his part, Lebo added that lead nurturing campaigns are most effective when carried out with an omni-channel approach.
“Now more than ever, an effective lead nurturing strategy requires precisely targeted messaging delivered across multiple marketing channels and devices. And nearly one-quarter (23%) of companies are extensively integrating their lead nurturing campaigns across channels," he said.
