Webinars Considered Most Effective for B2B Lead Nurture Programs

September 27, 2021

DGRFolloze Top B2B Nurture Tactics Sept2021Only one-quarter of B2B executives say they have content that is exclusively used for lead nurturing. Instead, a report [download page] from Demand Gen Report and RollWorks finds that close to two-thirds (63%) say they only have multi-purpose content. Here’s a look at which forms of content B2B organizations are using for their nurture programs.

With a majority of marketers saying they have increased their frequency of webinars due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it may not be too surprising that webinars are one of the tactics that almost half (48%) of the marketing, sales and IT executives surveyed for this report say works best with their nurture initiatives. Indeed, a recent report from Activate Marketing Services and MarketingCharts shows that respondents felt that webinars are most effective mid-funnel.

Furthermore, it appears that more marketers are seeing how effective webinars can be in nurturing leads than had only a couple of years ago. A similar survey from two years ago found that only 35% of respondents cited webinars as a tactic that worked best within their lead nurture initiatives.

Thought leadership articles are another tactic that has worked well within nurture initiatives for a sizable share (41%) of respondents. This finding is backed up by other research that found that about half (47%) of marketing professionals from both B2B and B2C companies consider thought leadership to be useful in generating and nurturing leads.

Also included on the list of tactics that have been working for nurturing programs are email newsletters (40%), sales emails (40%) and customer content such as case studies and reviews (39%).

Types of Nurturing Campaigns

The majority (69%) of respondents say they currently have early-stage (new lead, completed form) lead nurturing campaigns. Half (49%) have current client campaigns (upsell and cross-sell), while about 4 in 10 (42%) say they have warm-up campaigns. Fewer respondents say they have advanced-stage campaigns (specific to role/title/industry/company; 29%), touch campaigns (sales owners reached SQL; 27%) and trial nurture campaigns (following free trial request; 22%).

It’s also worth noting that about 7 in 10 (69% of) respondents claim that at least 10% of their leads are returned for additional nurturing.

About one-third of respondents say they are including 4-5 touches, while another quarter are including somewhere between 6 and 10. They are also reaching out to leads more frequently, with 4 in 10 operating with weekly cadences and 1 in 5 (19%) doing so every three days. Another 17% have a cadence of every other week.

Future Goals and Priorities

It should come as no surprise that when asked what are some of their future goals or priorities for their lead nurturing programs 7 in 10 respondents cited increasing conversion rates. In fact, alongside generating warmer, sales-ready leads (62%), increasing conversion rates is a long-standing priority reflected in an earlier study from Demand Gen Report.

To a lesser extent, marketers plan to prioritize getting deeper engagement data on prospects and customers (41%) and incorporating ABM to nurture by account (40%). And, while marketers plan to use website optimization and personalization in order to improve the customer experience, more than one-third (37%) of respondents cite delivering a customized experience through their website as one of their future goals for their lead nurturing programs.

The full report can be downloaded here.

About the Data: Findings are based on a July-August survey of 161 B2B marketing, sales and IT executives.

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