In a recent chat with the CMO of a software services company, I asked him about the progress of their latest demand generation campaign. He was excited; they were trying out a new marketing automation system that he believed was going to bring the kind of results they had not seen before. It was good to see his enthusiasm and positive expectations. My curiosity, of course, urged me to probe further. Then I almost fell off my chair. He said, “We are aiming to be among the 2.8% of marketers who believe their demand generation campaigns are effective.”
First of all, I was disappointed to hear such a weak and ambiguous goal. Secondly, I was shocked to hear that statistic—a 2.8% success rate for demand generation program effectiveness! Is that even worth mentioning? How is that acceptable by any standards in any industry? He shared with me this Infographic: the B2B Enterprise Demand Generation Benchmarking Study from Annuitas. More than 50% of the marketers surveyed in this study admit that their primary goals are not being met with demand generation campaigns and programs. A mere 2.8% say their campaigns are effective and close to 40% are in the “somewhat effective” category. With the amount of money, time and effort we see being poured into demand generation activities, systems and campaigns, these figures are dismal!
So what are these “primary goals” that marketers are aiming to achieve? According to this study, they are:
- Quality of leads—and I couldn’t agree more. But then you see that 58% of marketers do not involve their sales team in developing or approving buyer personas; so who are these campaigns targeting?
- Volume of leads—with the growing emphasis and need for personalization, I don’t see why this should be among the main goals. That’s the reason why enterprise marketers are running over 15+ campaigns a year—but where is the strategy? Simply having a mixed bag, even a big bag of tactics will not deliver the right results. You have to find what works; and there is never just one tactic—every buyer persona you are targeting will require a different tactic.
- Brand awareness—I have seen marketers get carried away with this one, turning campaigns into heavy branding exercises rather than aiming to establish trust, boost credibility and demonstrate thought leadership.
- Customer cross-sell/upsell—of course, you want your campaigns to help you sell more. However, here is another startling figure in the Infographic—more than 50% of marketers are not really helping their buyers. Their content is not aligned to their buyer’s pain points. Their campaigns are then, obviously, shooting in the dark!
- Customer retention—only 32.1% of the surveyed marketers consider this a primary goal. In my opinion, this is a much neglected and poorly pursued goal by a majority of marketers.
When you see that more than half of these marketers in the study believing their marketing teams are lacking the right skills to execute their demand generation strategy, that 2.8% figure is actually not so shocking.
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Resources to Boost Demand Generation Campaign Effectiveness
Here are some insightful resources your B2B organization can use to monitor your lead generation process and work towards higher performance, better results and ultimately, happier customers.
If you want to do a deep dive, click here and take up this 30-day challenge: Your B2B Demand Generation Detox Diet.
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