We recently published the 2015 State of Pipeline Marketing report and shared our findings on how pipeline marketers track and grow demand.
It was a lot of data to share. The coverage was broad, so we are blogging a series of deep dives into our survey data to uncover industry and firmographic trends.
For this post we focus on the marketing channels that have the greatest impact on revenue.
And if you’re curious whether it varies by industry, you would be correct.
Depending on which industry you’re in, you can expect success from certain key marketing channels and activities.
Meet The Industries
The 370 marketers who took our survey come from five major industries.
–Business Support, Logistics and Manufacturing
–Technology, SaaS
–Education
–Financial Services
–Healthcare and Pharmaceutical
The marketers surveyed are all investing in online marketing and are part of fast growing companies.
Email Marketing Is The Most Effective Marketing Channel For Manufacturers And Logistics Companies
Our survey data shows that marketers in the manufacturing sector have success with email marketing. In fact, it is highlighted as the marketing activity with the greatest impact on revenue by the majority of marketers in the manufacturing sector. 
We’ve written about email marketing tactics before and manufacturers may have the most success with email marketing due to limited audience size and seasonality. Highly specialized widgets, for example, components for the wings of a commercial aircraft probably don’t require a large rolodex. Boeing, Airbus, and a handful of known regional brands make up the market.
Distribution channels and intermediaries also limit the need to engage in activities like outbound calling and prospecting. With the former, established relationships create opportunities for upselling. Seasonal factors may also explain why email marketing is so effective. Offers or specials based on distributors’ busiest months fits with the strengths of email marketing: relationship building via 1 to 1 communications.
TV, Radio And Print Ads Work In Education
Go where the students and parents are. Often times this means a table at a recruitment event, partnering with campuses and community organizations, and ads in magazine read by parents.
Here are the most effective marketing and recruiting activities for education institutions.
In Finance Your SEO Better Be Strong
Local search listings matter as marketers in the finance industry name SEO as their number one most important channel for revenue. This is followed by email marketing and outbound calling.
Where SEO may play a major role in web traffic and inbound calls, email marketing may be the the nurturing activity that helps close clients. Generating revenue for financial services may depend on personal consultation, lengthy consideration process for prospects, or seasonality (tax), each of which can be addressed via email campaigns.
Content Marketing And Events/Conferences Generate Business For Tech Companies
Technology and SaaS companies rely on events and conferences, along with content marketing to be “found” by their prospects. Where new and sophisticated products are born, so too is the need to notify the masses and find qualified buyers. Using content marketing, these marketers can communicate the value proposition, and establish a need — which is critical for new products and technologies to gain adoption by users.
Health And Pharmacueticals Should Keep Sticking With Content Marketing
Rounding out our industry analysis is the health and pharmacuetical industry. For these marketers, content marketing works. This may be because consumers prefer to do online research when it comes to learning and making decisions related to health and wellbeing. Whether it’s due to privacy or being informed prior to picking up the phone, content marketing is working for health and pharmacueticals.
What’s With The Don’t Know?!
Every marketer should be able to answer the question, “What’s the activity that’s generating the most revenue?”
For some marketers this isn’t the case.
In the results above, marketers chose “Don’t know” as a response to the survey question, “What’s the activity that’s generating the most revenue?”
Without an attribution model, identifying the strongest and weakest channels is difficult. An accurate attribution model begins with understanding the customer journey and the major transition points within the funnel.
Just how widespread is the lack of attribution models across industries?
This circle packing chart below shows the attribution models used by marketers across industries. The larger the circle the more marketers use that respective attribution model.
The majority of marketers in technology, manufacturing and advertising industries are not using an attribution model (as shown by the larger dark navy blue color). The dominant models in use today are single-touch models. Multi-touch models are burgeoning, represented by the light brown circles.
Click the chart below to view it larger in a new tab.
When marketers can distribute revenue along the key funnel transition points, they gain an accurate and detailed view of their funnel and pipeline. They know where there marketing budget is going at every stage of the funnel.
No marketer should be lost when it comes to examining how marketing activities generate leads, sales opportunities and revenue.
As our recently released State of Pipeline Marketing report shows, revenue-focused marketers are leading the way in proving the value of their marketing budgets.
Read more: Why Single-Touch Attribution In B2B Marketing Is Unethical