Marketers have – presumably – an excellent understanding of what a lead generation campaign entails. So how do they respond when they’re the target? Quite well, says LeadJen [download page] in a study that analyzed records for lead generation campaigns targeting lists of marketers over a 3-and-a-half year period spanning from 2010 through this year. The results indicate that the average connect rate for lead gen efforts aimed at marketing professionals was 13%, compared to 10-12% for other professions. How were those appointments set?
Interestingly, an impressive 34% came as a result of inbound responses: 20% via email and 14% via phone call. A majority 53% were set from outbound phone calls – predictably with diminishing returns as the number of calls increased. In other words, 31% of appointments were set from 1 call, dropping to 11% from 2 calls, 6% from 3 calls, and 5% from 4-6 calls. While that suggests that there’s a limit to the number of calls to be made, research from Velocify (formerly Leads360) has shown that up to 50% of leads are never called a second time.
It also can pay to be persistent – although one would probably advise some caution here. According to the LeadJen data, 13% of appointments came from a phone call or email occurring after a “no” response.
Wondering when to set an appointment? LeadJen has some data for that too. Apparently, a plurality 30% of appointments are set on Tuesdays, with Wednesdays and Thursdays equally popular at 20% each. Not many marketers are looking to set appointments on Mondays (17%) and Fridays (13%), a fairly understandable result.
As for time-of-day, most appointments tracked by the study were set between 11AM and 3PM, with a plurality 16% occurring from 2-3PM EST. There doesn’t appear to be much appetite for appointment-setting after 5PM (5%) or before 9AM (2%).
About the Data: LeadJen reviewed records for lead generation campaigns targeting lists of marketers over a three and a half year period, from 2010-2013. These records included 1.45 million outreach attempts, including both phone calls and emails.
The campaigns included more than 20,000 conversations with marketing professionals, and generated 830 appointments resulting in nearly $4.8 million in revenue generated.
