#1 – Outsourced lead generation is 43% more effective than in-house.
Many businesses find their lead generation more effective when outsourced to another company. Lead generation is a challenging task, and when run in-house, if you don’t have a deep understanding of generating quality leads, the resources required, or the marketing rules and regulations that apply to your business, your campaign is likely to crash and burn or even get your business into hot water with organisations like the ICO (Information Commissioner’s Office).
Outsourcing to a team of experts who have years of experience in sales and lead generation, you know that your campaign is in the safest possible hands and your campaign will often yield an increased number and quality of leads.
This statistic also likely refers to the closing of leads that have been generated by an outsourced company. One of the many benefits of outsourcing your lead generation is that it frees up your time to focus on other tasks, while still making sure that your prospecting and lead generation is taken care of.
For most organisations, outsourcing their lead generation means that their sales representatives aren’t stuck in an office on the phones all day trying to generate business opportunities, but are instead out on the road, meeting potential clients and closing the deals.
Due to the impact of lockdown, an increasing number of businesses have been investing in outsourced lead generation and appointment setting as a way to get their business back on track, and regain some of the customers and revenue that they have lost, and still having the time to focus on other areas of their business. With that in mind, it will be interesting to see if, by the end of this year, this statistic is even higher due to the surge in outsourced sales and marketing activity.
#2 – Cold Calls Have a 46% Higher Success Rate on Wednesdays Rather Than on Mondays.
As well all know, Mondays are typically the busiest day of the week, and Monday mornings are especially manic.
First thing on a Monday morning, decision-makers are often rushed off their feet trying to get their week started, get their teams up and running, and replying to emails and phone calls that came in over the weekend. The last thing they will want to do at a time like this is take a cold call.
In comparison, Wednesdays typically have a much higher cold call success rate than Mondays. Decision-makers aren’t likely to be any less busy on a Wednesday, as high-level decision-makers will very rarely have a lot of free time, however, their mid-week will often be more relaxed than their mad rush on a Monday morning, and are usually more open to taking your call.
Since lockdown restrictions were lifted, allowing businesses to return to relative normality, the optimal calling times may have shifted for some businesses. For example, there may be some organisations who are not at full operational capacity or are less busy and could mean that the decision-maker is available on a Monday morning. On the other hand, some businesses are busier than they have ever been, trying to get their business out of troubled waters, and therefore the decision-maker may not be available no matter what day of the week you call.
It’s important to do your research on your target market before making your cold calls. Make sure that you are aware of the current market environment and if businesses are busier now or if things are a bit quieter.
Now more than ever, if you are trying to get your business back on track, it’s vital to try and optimise your calling times to improve your lead generation efficiency.
#3 – 61% of Marketers Say Their Top Challenge is Generating Traffic and Leads.
Generating website traffic and leads requires a lot of moving parts, and many marketers, particularly within SMEs, can struggle to keep up.
Despite there being a lot of tools for social media, content creation, SEO, PPC advertising etc. to help you generate more traffic and leads, with your competitors all using the same tools, it can be difficult to get ahead.
Competition on social media and search engines has always been fierce in most industries. But now, with everyone recovering from the financial impact of the coronavirus lockdown and wanting to avoid joining the long list of UK businesses that have permanently closed, the stakes and the need to optimise your channels for generating inbound traffic is higher than ever.
If you are pulling your hair out over where to start with optimising your inbound marketing channels, take a step back and try to look at what some of your competitors are doing that you are not. Carrying out a competitor analysis could help you see something that is missing from your current strategy.
For example, your competitors could be leveraging video content on their social media posts which are outperforming your standard text or image posts. Including more video content, and highlighting your USPs in a more eye-catching and engaging way, could help you to keep up with your competitors and increase the traffic on your social media pages and your website, and result in more leads.
#4 – 42% of Companies Feel That Email Marketing Is One of Their Most Effective Lead Generation Channels.
Although being one of the longest-standing channels, email marketing still proves to be effective at generating quality leads and is still ever-present in today’s sales and marketing landscape.
As mentioned in the 2nd point in this article, many businesses are busier than ever now that lockdown restrictions have allowed them to get back to work. Sending an introductory email will be less intrusive and may be welcomed more than a cold call by some businesses.
However, in today’s market landscape, your prospects will be inundated with introductory and promotional emails as businesses are trying to regain the customers and revenue that they have lost due to the lockdown. This means that even though email may be better received, if the prospect is being flooded with emails, your email may be missed.
That is why it’s vital to ensure that your emails stand out from the crowd and offer something that your competitors’ do not.
#5 – Nurturing Leads Using Email Can Increase Response Rates By 10x Compared to Sending Standalone Email.
Lead nurturing is an essential aspect of the lead generation process and for building business relationships that last.
To effectively nurture your leads and build lasting relationships with prospects, you need to have genuine conversations and provide value to your them, not just blindly pitch your offering while keeping your fingers crossed that it will resonate.
If you’ve sent an email out to a prospect, introducing your business and your offering in a personalised and value-focused way, and haven’t received a response, don’t just send a generic ‘I was wondering if you’d seen my last email?’ follow-up.
Make sure your follow-up has just as much value as your initial email, if not more. Try following up by sending them a piece of collateral such as a relevant case study that will be of value to them, or an offer that they may be interested in to give them a gentle nudge and reminder about replying to your email.
In a time where decision-makers will be inundated with several bland emails and pushy follow-ups every day, sending a more natural and value-focused follow-up may be a breath of fresh air to them.
As shown in the statistic, nurturing your leads via email can increase response rates by up to 10x. So, taking 5 minutes to put together a simple and friendly follow-up email, could make the difference between successfully converting a lead into a customer, or watching the opportunity fizzle away.
Does your business need help generating fully-qualified sales leads or appointments?
If you would like to know more about our B2B Lead Generation and Appointment Setting services and how we can help your customer acquisition process back on track, then please get in touch to speak to a member of our team!