66% of companies use social media for online lead generation

There has been a big increase in the use of social media for online lead generation according to the Online Lead Generation Report 2010 (B2C) from Econsultancy.

66% of companies surveyed are using this channel to generate consumer leads, compared to 40% in 2009, indicating social media is the fastest growing channel for online lead generation.

While search engine optimisation remains the most popular channel for generating leads online, up by 13% to 90% this year, email marketing is the second most popular method on 83% followed by PPC on 73%. The survey also saw an increase in the use of rich media and video to generate leads online, while RSS feeds were down 2% on the previous year.

Significantly, the report demonstrates that companies generating leads online with the intention of converting them offline has increased from 70% in 2009 to 81% this year, with online lead generation responsible for an increase to 42% of total sales, up from 40% last year.

Although marketers regard effective measurement of online lead generation as problematic, the increasing importance of online lead generation is reflected in the increase in company budgets, up from 59% last year to 65% this year.