August 23, 2016

Can Content Break the Barriers to Stronger Lead Generation?

Lead generation is the lifeblood of business growth. But according to the results of Ascend2’s “2016 State of Lead Generation” report, a majority of marketers are faced with serious challenges impeding success in this regard. The three most important lead generation goals of the report’s 244 survey respondents were also cited as their three biggest barriers:

  • 77 percent of survey respondents named improving the quality of leads as one of their organization’s most important goals, while 53 percent reported that the quality of leads was among their most significant barriers.
  • 50 percent said acquiring new customers was a top goal, with 34 percent of respondents naming this task as a top barrier to organizational growth.
  • 41 percent cited increasing the quantity of leads as important, but 36 percent said this was one of their company’s biggest struggles.
Source: Pixabay.com

There is a glimmer of hope for distressed marketers trying to reconcile the needs and the challenges facing their organizations’ lead generation strategies. This comes in the form of elevating the role of content marketing to break the barriers preventing more solid business growth.

According to Ascend2’s report, content marketing was named as the most effective online tactic for lead generation.

Content can:

  • improve the quality of leads by educating website visitors about relevant product, service and industry materials before they reach out to a member of your sales team, helping to filter out irrelevant inquiries that could bog down staff;
  • aid the acquisition of new customers by giving your brand better visibility through search engine optimization, creating an opportunity for more cross-traffic between pages, and keeping users’ attention for a greater period of time; and
  • broaden your brand’s visibility and foster inclusivity when it includes varied content styles and topics.

If done correctly, the introduction of a content marketing strategy can resolve some of the challenges facing marketing departments that lack the ability to generate more qualified leads.

So why aren’t more marketers putting their proverbial pens to the paper?

In the case of respondents to Ascend2’s report, content marketing was not only named the most effective tactic for increasing lead generation, but 47 percent of those polled also named content marketing as the most difficult online tactic to execute for lead generation.

Despite that conundrum, only 22 percent of respondents have outsourced their lead generation tactics to specialists. Considering the fact that content production is considered so beneficial—and challenging—for marketers, more businesses should be seeking the services of an independent content marketing vendor.

To learn more about the broad offerings available to marketing departments struggling with lead generation, click here





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