I’m a big believer in online marketing being used for lead generation in BtoB environments. If you’re not using e-commerce on your website, any online marketing efforts should focus on gathering information from those visitors. That can be done via click path trending, keyword analysis, lead generation, etc.
An article from BtoB magazine on lead generation got me thinking about lead generation statistics. Here’s the excerpt in which I was most interested:
The survey found that more than 50% of buyers said they provide a valid name, e-mail address, industry, job title and company name when they register; although less than 40% provide accurate phone numbers. As for e-mail addresses, in many cases marketers may harvest personal e-mail addresses rather than corporate ones (43% of users said they gave personal e-mail addresses). Respondents said they did so to better manage information rather than hide from follow-ups.
Perhaps most interesting, Lohman said, was what type of content users said they were willing to register for. White papers came out on top at 80%. Demos lagged at 38% and webcasts at 31%. That’s somewhat surprising, Lohman said, as marketers themselves ranked demos (77%) and webcasts (64%) as two types of content they most often require registration to access.
Whether your getting customers to fill out a form for podcasts, white papers, or just a call for more information, this is important data. I get quite a bit of lead forms with gmail.com or yahoo.com email address, but a correct phone number, which makes me believe these numbers are accurate. As a gatekeeper for registration forms, you need to give leads every chance to be passed on. That may mean ignoring some false looking data.
The second set of data revolves around what types of information registered for are most popular. This does not surprise me either as I think people will register and download bits of information that they can absorb on their schedule. Over time, I think downloadable webcasts and podcasts will catch up to physical promotional products.
