Averages are a funny thing. We’d like to believe they can tell us how we will perform; where in every other area of business we aim to be “above average”, there’s some comfort in knowing that “average” is there – that should we fail to be extraordinary (and that’s what Teknicks really pushes our clients toward) , we can always expect “average”.

But what’s the average return on an inbound marketing campaign?

The average inbound marketing conversion rate of all website traffic ranges from 1% – 10% depending on many factors including industry, seasonality, demand, reputation, SEO, copy/text, and the list goes on. For that reason, most experts generally agree on a more conservative number of 1% – 3% conversions on your total website traffic.

An obvious conclusion is that if you have 300 visitors a month, you should expect 3 conversions at a 1% rate. But the power of even a single-digit percent change in conversions – the kind that can be yielded by conversion rate optimization and a hard look at your content – could change that number to 6 –twice the conversions. As you can see, conversions scale quickly, making optimizing your conversion channels a rather important (and lucrative!) undertaking.

It’s a tough number to measure – because there are so many different channels.

For example, experts agree that an average conversion rate for email marketing is 1% – 5%, while conversion rates on social media and SEO are very difficult to measure because they rely so much on what happens on your website. Conversion rates are also going to vary heavily from industry to industry depending on competition, commitment level required by the buyer and so on.

Even so, it’s helpful to have an idea of what you might expect from an inbound marketing campaign.

But did you know – 79% of marketing leads will never convert into sales?
That’s a huge shame – and one you can fix! According to HubSpot, a lack of lead nurturing is what keeps this number so high. Companies who invest in lead nurturing generate 50% more sales-ready leads at a 33% lower cost – all things that can lead to upping that conversion number. In fact, companies with a more mature lead generation process have a 9.3% higher sales quota achievement rate.

Inbound marketing can generate all sorts of leads – but if no time is invested in identifying your conversion funnel (which alarmingly 68% of B2B businesses have not), creating content for the buying cycle to attract more leads or testing your user experience with tools like eye-tracking and click-heatmaps, you could be missing out on the full return.

Conversion Rate Optimization and Inbound Marketing Go Hand in Hand!

To really generate the best bang for your buck, couple your inbound marketing efforts with ongoing testing, monitoring and refining. Don’t settle for an “Average” conversion rate – be extraordinary!