The annual B2B Demand Generation Benchmark report from from lead nurturing technology reviewer Software Advice provides trends and best practices for marketing professionals to compare their lead generation performance to that of their peers.
Based on a survey of U.S. B2B marketers, the 2014 report bears interesting implications for marketers looking to maximize their demand generation efforts.
From a content marketing perspective, the most intriguing result centers around the success of video as a direct source of high-volume leads. When asked to evaluate content types, B2B marketers cited video as the most used content type (92%), outranking surveys (88%), white papers (88%) and case studies (87%).
Toolkits and ebooks were the least-commonly used content type, both with an adoption rate trailing below 80%.
Image via Software Advice
Software Advice does concede that the high adoption rate of video indicated in these results could be artificially inflated given the percentage of large businesses in the sample size. However, when it comes to the highest lead-generating content type, video again took the top spot, with 23% of marketers reporting “very high” lead quantity from video content.
Image via Software Advice
What’s contributing to this high B2B lead-volume from video content? Software Advice suggests the organic search benefits of YouTube videos could be a contributing factor. More proactively, the report also points to smart CTAs and strategic form-gating practices to capitalize on video lead-flow. In other words, video content won’t bring in the leads on its own; you have to be smart about lead capture through calls-to-action and follow-up campaigns.
Above all else, Software Advice points to an overall improvement in the quality and positioning of video content as a driving force behind its high value for lead generation: “The fact that videos are directly generating leads suggests that marketers are creating more actionable videos.”
These results align with data from Advertising Age’s 2014 B2B Outlook: Marketing Priorities and Plans survey, which saw video and webcasts/webinars as the top two content areas where B2B marketers increased budget spend year-over-year.
For more on the content types and technologies B2B marketers are implementing to drive demand generation, read the full 2014 B2B Demand Generation Benchmark report here.