The need for better quality leads is a greater challenge than the need for more leads, according to a Salesfusion survey [download page] of nearly 700 B2B marketers from companies with less than $100 million in annual revenues. The results align with previous research from Demand Gen Report, in which B2B marketers said that their top priority this year is focusing on lead quality over quantity.
Marketing automation is an area that SMBs can turn to for help with lead generation and nurturing, per the Salesfusion report. The results indicate that the top reason for investing in marketing automation is the ability to nurture leads (68%), followed by increasing lead volume (63%) and improving lead quality (57%).
Prior research from Ascend2 found similar goals in a marketing automation strategy, led by an increase in lead generation and followed by an improvement in lead nurturing.
Other results from the Salesfusion report indicate that 81% of respondents have integrated their marketing automation platform with their CRM. Those have done so – and established service level agreements (SLAs) to define marketing qualified and sales accepted leads – are twice as likely as those with no automation platform or SLA to rate the communication between sales and marketing as strong (60% vs. 30%).
About the Data: The Salesfusion results are based on a survey of close to 700 B2B marketers from companies with less than $100 million in revenues. More than 60% of respondents said they have a marketing automation platform, representing a large number of vendors.
The breakdown of respondents by company revenue was as follows: $0-5M (32% share); $5-25M (38% share); $25-100M (30% share). The majority (68%) of respondents have 1-5 people on their marketing team.
