30 Thought-Provoking Lead Nurturing Stats You Can't Ignore

We've got some news for you, inbound marketers, and it might come as quite a shock:your job doesn't necessarily stop at lead generation(GASP!). Just because a website visitor has downloaded your awesome ebook or registered for your informative webinar doesn't exactly mean he or she is ready to chat with one of your sales reps and jump right into a purchasing decision. (Sorry, but someone had to break it to you.)

This means that, in order to be a truly effective inbound marketer, you'll need to continue talking to, sharing content with, and engaging those leads who may be stuck in the middle of your funnel -- caught between their first conversion and a sales call. The good news is, this is where lead nurturing can play a vital role, enabling marketers to continue to educate, inform, and build a solid relationship with those lost leads to push them closer toward the bottom of the funnel and transform them into a much more qualified sale that's way easier to close. Let's face it: thosemiddle childleads deserve some attention, too!

If you're not sure whether lead nurturing should hold a place in your inbound marketing strategy, some of these thought-provoking lead nurturing stats just might make you rethink your stance.

Stats to Set the Stage for Lead Nurturing

1)50% of leadsare qualified but not yet ready to buy. (Source: Gleanster Research) Tweet This Stat

2)Only25% of leads are legitimateand should advance to sales. (Source: Gleanster Research) Tweet This Stat

3)Jeff Ernst of Forrester Research, Inc., estimates that only about 5% of marketers use a full-featured marketing automation solution (Source: Forrester Research)

4)Research shows that35-50% of salesgo to the vendor that responds first. (Source: InsideSales.com) Tweet This Stat

5) 79% of marketing leadsnever convert into sales. Lack of lead nurturing is the common cause of this poor performance. (Source: MarketingSherpa) Tweet This Stat

6) 61%of B2B marketerssend all leads directly to Sales; however, only27%of those leads will be qualified. (Source: MarketingSherpa) Tweet This Stat

7)Just56% of B2B organizationsverify valid business leads before they are passed to Sales. (Source: MarketingSherpa) Tweet This Stat

8)A whopping68% of B2B organizationshave not identified their funnel. (Source: MarketingSherpa) Tweet This Stat

9) 57% of B2B organizationsidentify 'converting qualified leads into paying customers' as a top funnel priority. (Source: MarketingSherpa) Tweet This Stat

BUT...

10) 65%of B2B marketershave not established lead nurturing. (Source: MarketingSherpa) Tweet This Stat

AND...

11) 79% of B2B marketershave not established lead scoring. (Source: MarketingSherpa) Tweet This Stat

Lead Nurturing-Driven Results

12) 34%of B2B organizations touch leads with lead nurturing on amonthlybasis. (Source: MarketingSherpa) Tweet This Stat

13) 22%of B2B organizations touch leads with lead nurturing on aweeklybasis. (Source: MarketingSherpa) Tweet This Stat

14) 15%of B2B organizations touch leads with lead nurturing on aquarterlybasis. (Source: MarketingSherpa) Tweet This Stat

15) 9%of B2B organizations touch leads with lead nurturing on adailybasis. (Source: MarketingSherpa) Tweet This Stat

16) 2%of B2B organizations touch leads with lead nurturing on anannualbasis. (Source: MarketingSherpa) Tweet This Stat

17)Companies that excel at lead nurturing generate50% moresales ready leads at33% lower cost. (Source: Forrester Research) Tweet This Stat

18)Nurtured leads make47% largerpurchases than non-nurtured leads. (Source: The Annuitas Group) Tweet This Stat

19)Companies that automate lead management see a10% or greaterincrease in revenue in 6-9 months. (Source: Gartner Research) Tweet This Stat

20)46% of marketerswith mature lead management processes have sales teams that follow up on more than75% of marketing-generated leads. (Source: Forrester Research) Tweet This Stat

21) 25% of marketerswho adopt mature lead management processes report that sales teams contact prospects within one day.Only 10%of marketers report the same follow-up time without mature lead management processes. (Source: Forrester Research) Tweet This Stat

22)Companies with mature lead generation and management practices have a9.3% highersales quota achievement rate. (Source: CSO Insights) Tweet This Stat

23)Relevant emails drive18 times morerevenue than broadcast emails. (Source: Jupiter Research) Tweet This Stat

24)Personalized emailsimprove click-through rates by 14%, andconversion rates by 10%. (Source: Aberdeen Group) Tweet This Stat

25)Event-triggered marketing can potentiallysave 80%of your direct mail budget. (Source: Gartner Research) Tweet This Stat

26)Lead nurturing emails get4-10 times the response ratecompared to standalone email blasts. (Source: SilverPop/DemandGen Report) Tweet This Stat

27)Lead nurturing emails generatean 8% CTRcompared to general email sends, which generate just a 3% CTR. (Source: HubSpot) Tweet This Stat

28)Lead nurturing emails have aslightly higher unsubscribe rate (1%)than individual email sends (0.5%), indicating their effectiveness in removing unqualified leads from the sales funnel. (Source: HubSpot) Tweet This Stat

29)Companies that excel at lead nurturing have9% more sales repsmaking quota. (Source: CSO Insights) Tweet This Stat

30)Nurtured leads produce, on average, a20% increase in sales opportunitiesversus non-nurtured leads. (Source: DemandGen Report) Tweet This Stat

Were you surprised by any of these statistics? Are you convinced that your business could benefit from lead nurturing? Learn how to get started in our free lead nurturing guide.

Image Credit: Zazzle.com