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: those middle child leads 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 leads are qualified but not yet ready to buy. (Source: Gleanster Research) Tweet This Stat

2) Only 25% of leads are legitimate and 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 that 35-50% of sales go to the vendor that responds first. (Source: InsideSales.com) Tweet This Stat

5) 79% of marketing leads never convert into sales. Lack of lead nurturing is the common cause of this poor performance. (Source: MarketingSherpa) Tweet This Stat

6) 61% of B2B marketers send all leads directly to Sales; however, only 27% of those leads will be qualified. (Source: MarketingSherpa) Tweet This Stat

7) Just 56% of B2B organizations verify valid business leads before they are passed to Sales. (Source: MarketingSherpa) Tweet This Stat

8) A whopping 68% of B2B organizations have not identified their funnel. (Source: MarketingSherpa) Tweet This Stat

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

BUT...

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

AND...

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

Lead Nurturing-Driven Results

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

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

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

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

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

17) Companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales ready leads at 33% lower cost. (Source: Forrester Research) Tweet This Stat

18) Nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads. (Source: The Annuitas Group) Tweet This Stat

19) Companies that automate lead management see a 10% or greater increase in revenue in 6-9 months. (Source: Gartner Research) Tweet This Stat

20) 46% of marketers with mature lead management processes have sales teams that follow up on more than 75% of marketing-generated leads. (Source: Forrester Research) Tweet This Stat

21) 25% of marketers who 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 a 9.3% higher sales quota achievement rate. (Source: CSO Insights) Tweet This Stat

23) Relevant emails drive 18 times more revenue than broadcast emails. (Source: Jupiter Research) Tweet This Stat

24) Personalized emails improve click-through rates by 14%, and conversion rates by 10%. (Source: Aberdeen Group) Tweet This Stat

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

26) Lead nurturing emails get 4-10 times the response rate compared to standalone email blasts. (Source: SilverPop/DemandGen Report) Tweet This Stat

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

28) Lead nurturing emails have a slightly 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 have 9% more sales reps making quota. (Source: CSO Insights) Tweet This Stat

30) Nurtured leads produce, on average, a 20% increase in sales opportunities versus 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