2018 Lead Generation Infographic: CRM, Data & Lead Statistics

In 2017, 63% of marketers said that their top challenge was generating traffic and leads (Hubspot), yet 70% said that converting those leads was their top priority. When looking at the latest lead generation statistics, how can you benchmark your own activities, and which ones will really drive conversions in 2018?

View the full 2018 Global Lead Generation Stats Infographic →

At the end of last year, we delved into our own database to find key lead generation statistics for anyone working in a B2B Marketing role: be that demand generation, CRM or customer engagement. We aggregated data from the thousands of leads we process every month (anonymously pooling together a wide range of regions, industries and company sizes) and here’s what we found:

38% of processed leads are invalid

Perhaps the most troubling figure from this survey is that more than 1 in every 4 leads processed is invalid.

• 30% of invalid leads are due to phone number
• 28% of invalid leads are due to email
• 27% of invalid leads are because of a fake name

What’s even more concerning is that these statistics are taken from the number of processed leads; meaning that these leads have already cost budget in terms of marketing and acquisition. Plus, bad leads will continue to drain time and marketing budget while stored the CRM.

On average, 70% of CRM data is useless

‘Useless’ doesn’t simply stop at incorrect data. This is the percentage of data we find during database cleanses that is: false, outdated, incomplete or duplicated, to the extent that the lead is no longer contactable.

This figure may seem high, but it’s in keeping with industry statistics: Salesforce famously claims that 91% of CRM data is incomplete.

45% of data is submitted on a mobile device

This is a key point when considering your user experience for forms, landing pages and on-form technology.

If almost half of your leads are converting on mobile devices, every form you create needs to be compatible. It’s also important that you spot mistakes fast- you never want a mobile user to enter their details twice!

40% is the average media saving for a business using lead generation technology last year – compared with previous performance

1. Lead Management Technology – to improve the end-to-end journey of the lead itself
2. Campaign Orchestration tools – to monitor and manage the efficiency of the entire campaign

We observed that by far the biggest areas of saving and sales improvement are due to:

• Faster optimisation times based on channel performance
• Not paying for invalid leads
• Implementing a lead scoring system to accelerate the overall lead to sale time

So there you have it: a top line overview of the most up-to-date statistics for demand generation in 2018. Do they surprise you? Has it made you curious about the state of your own database?

Curious about the state of your own lead data? 

That’s understandable. The good news is that this data is that we found these facts while protecting databases and streamlining customer campaigns. So our customers have stopped these issues before they cost them. More importantly, they can see the results and be confident that their lead generation process is working effectively.

We’re ready to help, and it can start here.