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The Current State of B2B demand generation

Guest post by: Jeff Ogden

Article Overview: I was recently invited as a guest speaker for Act-On Software for a webinar entitled “Stop Marketing in the Dark.” But I just saw the results of a study by Act-On and the verdict is clear. Most continue to market in the dark.

The Current State of B2B demand generation

Take a look at the slide below. Large companies with 500 employees or more should be somewhat sophisticated, but the data shows otherwise. Note the tactics they are using – email, tradeshows and advertising – all are focused on top of funnel activities – generating what Jon Miller, VP of Marketing at Marketo calls “Names.” (Jon believes raw contacts do not deserve to be called leads.)

These are unqualified, non-nurtured leads. Passing these leads to sales is a massive waste of expensive resources. In fact, data shows only about 16% of these turn into sales opportunities, so sales typically contacts only 1 in 5.

Look at what these large companies are NOT engaged in:

• Search engine optimization/Pay per click
• Lead nurturing
• Lead scoring

With the exception of SEO/PPC, those approaches focus on the middle of the funnel – converting names to qualified sales opportunities.

It is clear that companies need to focus much more on middle of the funnel activities, especially lead nurturing and scoring. For more, click on “The Power of B2B Lead Nurturing” below.

What do you think? Why are so many companies focusing just on “top of funnel” activities? We love comments and those who share.

For a great free resource on how to win customers, download the highly acclaimed (and free) white paper, How to Find New Customers.



“If more companies listened to (Find New Customers) a lot more would be sold.” Dan McDade, Pointclear.

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Article Tags: b2b demand generation, b2b lead generation, btob demand generation, btob lead generation, demand gen, demand generation, demand generation companies, demand generation company, find new customers, lead gen, lead generation, lead generation companies, lead generation company, sales lead generation



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