Study: Lead Quality Top Objective, SEO & Email Main Revenue Growth Channels For B2B Marketers

Lead quality is the top objective in 2017 for digital marketers, according DemandWave’s 2017 State Of B2B Digital Marketing study. Close to half (48%) of respondents chose cultivating sales-qualified leads compared with raw leads, which was named this year’s toughest challenge.

The study also revealed nearly half of respondents expect to invest more in digital marketing this year, while only 6% expect a decrease in budget. DemandWave surveyed 200 B2B marketing professionals.

The top channel for revenue growth is tied between SEO and email. While email retains its throne as a top channel for revenue gains (63%), marketers are paying attention to the financial gains of SEO as well.

hile respondents indicated ROI is still among the top challenges, 22% named ROI as the number one metric they use to measure performance—a 77% increase from last year.

“Once a mystery, tools like attribution models are finally offering clarity,” per study. “Perhaps the ability to better track marketing efforts is also contributing to a fresh sense of confidence in digital, and therefore leading to larger budgets.”

Other findings in the study include:

• While blogs and videos are the most popular forms of content for marketers, 40% said white papers produce the most revenue. (Last year’s top revenue driver—webinars—finished a close second with 37% of the vote).
• Despite account-based marketing hype, just 37% of respondents have tried or currently use ABM. Of those who use it, 42% say it’s effective, while 40% say they’re not sure.