Corporate Sites Most Effective Online

B2B Lead Gen Tool

September 29,
2011

in$,7022

Although Iour in 10 (41) B2B marketing/IT
proIessionals say personal connections and reIerrals are their top lead source, corporate
websites (23) are the clear leader in online lead generation, according to |landing
page| a study released in September 2011 by Demandbase. Results oI the '2011
National Website Demand Generation Study indicate the percentage oI respondents
citing corporate sites as their top lead source is 64 higher than the 14 citing email,
the second-most-popular online lead source.

In addition, respondents cited corporate sites at a rate more than seven times the 3
who cited social media. Despite the popularity oI corporate sites as a lead source, only
20 oI respondents said they Ieel like their business leverages its corporate website to
its maximum potential.
Online Sales Leads Seen Needing Improvement
When asked to rate how much (or iI at all) Iive
key areas oI their company site need improvement, respondents were most likely
generating new sales leads needed some level oI improvement (94). This was
Iollowed by building a sense oI community amongst customers (92), providing
relevant product inIormation (89), tracking and reporting on unregistered/anonymous
users (87), and tracking and reporting on current/registered users (81).
Although tracking/reporting on unregistered/anonymous users had a comparatively
lower percentage oI respondents saying it needed improvement, it had the highest rate
oI respondents indicating 'strong improvement is needed (18).
in 10 Say Business Knows Prospects Well
In one positive sign, a combined six in 10 (61) respondents said their company
knows/understands the prospects it is selling to either well (41) or extremely well
(20). Another 27 said their company knows/understands its prospects moderately
well, meaning only a combined 12 said somewhat/barely (10) or not well at all
(2).
8 in 10 Collect Email Addresses
Email addresses are the inIormation Iield most Irequently included on respondent
webIorm/registration pages (80), Iollowed by company name/address (58). No other
type oI inIormation Iield is included by anywhere near the same percentage oI
respondent companies. Industry (24) and company size (9) are the only other
individual Iields with a signiIicant inclusion percentage, while 12 include all oI the
above and 9 include a combined other.
In addition, the highest percentage oI respondents (31) say a typical webIorm on their
company`s site contains Iive to seven Iields, while 29 say a webIorm contains two to
Iour Iields and 21 say eight to 10. Much less common are webIorms with 11 or more
Iields (6), one Iield (4) or no Iields (8).
ReturnPath: 8 in 10 B2B Emails Reach Inbox
Eighty percent oI commercial B2B emails reach the intended inbox, while 8 wind up
in a spam/junk Iolder and 12 are blocked by ISP-level Iiltering, according to data
released in September 2011 by ReturnPath. ReturnPath analysis indicates this is a 5
improvement Irom 2009, when just 75.2 oI commercial B2B emails made it to the
inbox. The study advises the multiple company-level Iiltering methods used Ior
business email addresses mean that deliverability is still a major concern. At the deIault
setting, a lot oI mail remains undelivered.
About the Data. Data is based on a sample oI 100 B2B marketing and IT proIessionals,
invited to participate via online promotion and e-mail with the survey administered
online May 18-25, 2011 using a web survey tool.
Related topics: New Tech, Measurement/Analytics, Online Networks, Promotions,
Online, Research, Integrated/Cross-Media/Convergence, E-Commerce, Behavioral
Marketing, Interactive, Blogs, Branding, Business-to-Business, Direct,