B-to-B Lead Generation Media: The Top Five

The cream of the crop in lead generation media consists of five tried-and-true options: telephone, direct mail, search engine marketing (SEM), your website, and trade shows, but only if they attract a large number of prospective buyers. Let’s look at each of these key prospect marketing media.

Outbound Telemarketing

The telephone is the Swiss Army knife in the B-to-B marketer’s backpack: a flexible, personal, dependable resource with infinite applications. According to the Direct Marketing Association’s 2009–2010 Power of Direct Marketing study, B-to-B direct marketers spent $15.2 billion in 2010 on telephone marketing for lead generation. That compares to $6.5 billion spent on direct mail and $3.9 billion for search marketing for the same purpose. Were those big bucks worth it? Definitely! The same study reports that the phone generated $193.3 billion in revenue for phone-based lead generation and $106.1 billion in merchandise sales.