Email Was Still the Go-to Demand Gen Channel for 67% of Marketers, but Search Grew by Almost 10% from Last Year (Moving from 41% to 50%), and Online Ads Climbed 5% (Moving from 16% to 21%)

Statistic Info

Marketers are continuing to rely on multiple channels to drive leads for their pipeline. While email was still the go-to channel for 67% of marketers, search grew by almost 10% from last year (moving from 41% to 50%), and online ads climbed 5% (moving from 16% to 21%).

The importance of cross-channel marketing was also validated when marketers were asked which channels were most effective in terms of early-stage engagement, with search increasing 6% YOY to 56%, social climbing 4% YOY to 44%, and online ads moving 6% YOY to 27%.

When it came to tactics that helped drive conversions in later stages of the funnel, search actually dipped as a tactic (dropping from 26% last year to 18% this year), while retargeting increased 6% (from 21% last year to 27% this year), direct mail climbed 7% (from 13% to 20% this year) and telemarketing posted a big jump (from 32% to 45% this year).

More 2018 Stats

Image and Voice Activated Search May Make up 50% of all Searches by 2020

Mobile 500 Retailers Made Big Gains in 2017, Reporting a 68.5% Increase in Visits and Topping More than 3 Billion Logged Shopping Sessions

Personalized Call-To-Actions Convert 42% More Visitors into Leads than Generic CTAs

Given 15 Minutes to Consume Content, Two-Thirds of People Would Rather Read Something Beautifully Designed Than Something Plain

Anchor Text CTAs (Clickable Text in a Hyperlink) Increase Conversion Rates by a Whooping 121%

Only About 22 Percent of Businesses are Satisfied With Their Conversion Rates

40% of Millennials Have Used Voice Search Before Making a Purchase Online, According to Studies

U.S. Retail Ecommerce Sales are Expected to Surpass 735 Billion by 2023

Gmail is the Most Popular Email Platform, Commanding 46.77% of the Marketshare

As of Q2 2018, 2.86 Percent of E-Commerce Website Visits Converted into Purchases

More Demand Generation Stats

More than Three-Quarters of Online Shoppers Would Like their Orders Shipped the Same Day

Bundled Nurturing Content Within a Resource Hub (Instead of Multiple Emails) Produced a 3X Increase in Lead to Pipeline Ratio

64% of B2B Buyers Said They Prefer Podcasts at the Top of the Funnel

Organizations With Revenues Under $500 Million Have a Mean Cost Per Lead of Roughly $180; Companies With Revenues Above $500 Million Spend More Than Double That, at Roughly $430 Per Lead

Only 19% of Marketers Said They Are Currently using AI-Powered Applications Today, but 36% of Marketers Said They Are Planning to Deploy Them as Part of their Martech Stack in the next 12 Months

79% of B2B Marketers Credit Email as the Most Effective Distribution Channel for Demand Gen Efforts

33% of Demand Generation Professionals Say That Generation of MQLs is Their Primary Metric for Success

79% of Marketers Already Using Interactive Content Plan to Increase Their Use in the Next 12 Months

46% of Marketers are Using Interactive Content, with the Top Reason for Moving to Interactive Being Better Engagement Around Demand Gen Efforts

Marketers are Now Experimenting with Buyer Engagement through Formats other than Form Fills: Infographics (59%)