Each year, HubSpot conducts a survey of 6000+ executives in companies across the globe to learn their marketing challenges and priorities. The State of Inbound 2017 report is chock-full of stats and facts that will inform your own marketing, making you more effective. Here's a summary.
Top Marketing Priorities
- 70% say converting leads to customers is a priority (top priority)
- 55% say growing traffic to website is a priority (2nd highest priority)
The Most Overrated Marketing Tactics
- 32% say paid advertising is overrated (highest response)
- 13% say social media organic is overrated (2nd highest response)
Company’s Top Sales Priorities
- 72% say closing more sales is a priority (highest response)
- 54% say Improving the efficiency of the sales funnel is a priority (2nd highest response)
Company’s Top Marketing Challenges
- 61% say generating traffic and leads is a challenge (highest response)
- 45% say proving the ROI of marketing activities is a challenge (2nd highest response)
Company’s Top Sales Challenges
- 49% say getting a response from prospects is a top challenge (highest response)
- 36% say connecting via phone is a top challenge (2nd highest response - tie)
- 36% say engaging multiple decision makers at a company is a top challenge (2nd highest response - tie)
Top Struggles of Sales Representatives
- 38% say prospecting is a top struggle of sales reps (highest response)
- 28% say closing is a top struggle of sales reps (2nd highest response)
Biggest Challenges in Using Company’s Existing CRM
- 23 % say manual data entry is a big challenge relative to CRM (highest response)
- 17% say lack of integration with other tools is a big challenge relative to CRM (2nd highest response)
Most Successful Channel to Connect with Prospects Used by Sales Representatives
- 36% say telephone is the most successful way to connect with a prospect (highest response)
- 26% say email is the most successful way to connect with a prospect (2nd highest response)
Effectiveness of Company’s Marketing Strategy
- Across all levels, 61% say their company’s marketing strategy is effective.
Sales and Marketing Relationship
- 44% say that marketing and sales are generally aligned (highest response)
- 66% of these respondents say that their marketing is effective
- 22% say that marketing and sales are tightly aligned (2nd highest response)
- 81% of these respondents say that their marketing is effective
Top Sources of Sales for the Sales Organization
- 38% say leads sourced by sales is the top source for leads (highest response)
- 56% rate leads from sales sources as being very high or high
- 33% say leads from referrals are the top source for leads (2nd highest response)
- 45% rate leads from referrals as being very high or high
- 25% say leads from marketing are the top source for leads (3rd highest response)
- 27% rate leads from marketing as being very high or high
Best Marketing Approach for ROI
- 46% say that inbound marketing gives them the highest ROI (highest response)
- 23% could not calculate their ROI (2nd highest response)
- 12% say that outbound marketing gives them the highest ROI
Source Providing the Highest Quality Leads for the Sales Team
- 59% say that leads from inbound marketing practices are the highest quality (highest repose)
- 66% of tightly aligned sales/marketing organizations say that inbound delivers the highest quality leads
- 26% say that leads sourced by sales are the highest quality (2nd highest response)
- 16% say that leads from outbound marketing practices are the highest quality (3nd highest response)
B2B Communications Preferences
- 86% say they prefer email as their top communication preference (highest response)
- 60% say they prefer face to face as their top communication preference (2nd highest response)
- 56% say they prefer phone as their top communication preference (3rd highest response)
- 39% say they prefer social as their top communication preference (4th highest response)
Armed with this new information, you should be able to create more effective strategies and campaigns!