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We've got some news for you, inbound marketers, and it might come as quite a shock: your job doesn't necessarily stop at lead generation (GASP!). Just because a website visitor has downloaded your awesome ebook or registered for your informative webinar doesn't exactly mean he or she is ready to chat with one of your sales reps and jump right into a purchasing decision. (Sorry, but someone had to break it to you.)

This means that, in order to be a truly effective inbound marketer, you'll need to continue talking to, sharing content with, and engaging those leads who may be stuck in the middle of your funnel -- caught between their first conversion and a sales call. The good news is, this is where can play a vital role, enabling marketers to continue to educate, inform, and build a solid relationship with those lost leads to push them closer toward the bottom of the funnel and transform them into a much more qualified sale that's way easier to close. Let's face it: those middle child leads deserve some attention, too!

If you're not sure whether should hold a place in your inbound marketing strategy, some of these thought-provoking just might make you rethink your stance.

Stats to Set the Stage for Lead Nurturing

1) 50% of leads are qualified but not yet ready to buy. (Source: Gleanster Research)

2) Only 25% of leads are legitimate and should advance to sales. (Source: Gleanster Research)

3) Jeff Ernst of Forrester Research, Inc., estimates that only about 5% of marketers use a full-featured marketing automation solution (Source: Forrester Research) 

4) Research shows that 35-50% of sales go to the vendor that responds first. (Source: InsideSales.com)

5) 79% of marketing leads never convert into sales. Lack of lead nurturing is the common cause of this poor performance. (Source: MarketingSherpa)

6) 61% of B2B marketers send all leads directly to Sales; however, only 27% of those leads will be qualified. (Source: MarketingSherpa)

7) Just 56% of B2B organizations verify valid business leads before they are passed to Sales. (Source: MarketingSherpa)

8) A whopping 68% of B2B organizations have not identified their funnel. (Source: MarketingSherpa)

9) 57% of B2B organizations identify 'converting qualified leads into paying customers' as a top funnel priority. (Source: MarketingSherpa)

BUT...

10) 65% of B2B marketers have not established lead nurturing. (Source: MarketingSherpa)

AND...

11) 79% of B2B marketers have not established lead scoring. (Source: MarketingSherpa)

Lead Nurturing-Driven Results

12) 34% of B2B organizations touch leads with lead nurturing on a monthly basis. (Source: MarketingSherpa) Tweet This Stat

13) 22% of B2B organizations touch leads with lead nurturing on a weekly basis. (Source: MarketingSherpa)

14) 15% of B2B organizations touch leads with lead nurturing on a quarterly basis. (Source: MarketingSherpa)

15) 9% of B2B organizations touch leads with lead nurturing on a daily basis. (Source: MarketingSherpa)

16) 2% of B2B organizations touch leads with lead nurturing on an annual basis. (Source: MarketingSherpa)

17) Companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales ready leads at 33% lower cost. (Source: Forrester Research)

18) Nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads. (Source: The Annuitas Group)

19) Companies that automate see a 10% or greater increase in revenue in 6-9 months. (Source: Gartner Research)

20) 46% of marketers with mature lead management processes have sales teams that follow up on more than 75% of marketing-generated leads. (Source: Forrester Research)

21) 25% of marketers who adopt mature lead management processes report that sales teams contact prospects within one day. Only 10% of marketers report the same follow-up time without mature lead management processes. (Source: Forrester Research)

22) Companies with mature lead generation and management practices have a 9.3% higher sales quota achievement rate. (Source: CSO Insights)

23) Relevant emails drive 18 times more revenue than broadcast emails. (Source: Jupiter Research)

24) Personalized emails improve click-through rates by 14%, and conversion rates by 10%. (Source: Aberdeen Group)

25) Event-triggered marketing can potentially save 80% of your direct mail budget. (Source: Gartner Research)

26) Lead nurturing emails get 4-10 times the response rate compared to standalone email blasts. (Source: SilverPop/DemandGen Report)

27) Lead nurturing emails generate an 8% CTR compared to general email sends, which generate just a 3% CTR. (Source: )

28) Lead nurturing emails have a slightly higher unsubscribe rate (1%) than individual email sends (0.5%), indicating their effectiveness in removing unqualified leads from the sales funnel. (Source: )

29) Companies that excel at lead nurturing have 9% more sales reps making quota. (Source: CSO Insights)

30) Nurtured leads produce, on average, a 20% increase in sales opportunities versus non-nurtured leads. (Source: DemandGen Report)

Were you surprised by any of these statistics? Are you convinced that your business could benefit from lead nurturing? Learn how to get started in our free .

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