Note: I plan to update this post over time with new polls done to help the digital marketing industry understand how the industry is being affected as well as when it begins to come back.

Most recent number: 82.9% of respondents have seen a decrease in leads over the last two weeks as of April 7, 2020.

Right now a lot of digital marketing agencies and consultants are facing uncertain times, and it’s unclear when everything will shake out.

I start with that purposefully, to bring you a bit of hope. Everything in life is temporary, and this too shall pass. We don’t know if it’ll be 3 months or 6 months, but things will return to normal (the new normal, not the old one) with time.

It is also true that companies are still hiring agencies and consultants to help them with their marketing. The reality is that some businesses are growing even faster right now because they are in a niche that caters to remote working or various things meeting needs that are now much more in demand than before (such as food delivery).

It’s also true that there are some industries where they’re just fighting for their lives and having to lay off people, and we should be incredibly empathetic towards that. We should be connecting human to human.

March 16, 2020 – 53% say they are seeing a decrease in leads

On March 16th when this poll ended, 57% of the 205 respondents said that “yes”, they were seeing a decrease in leads already. That meant that 43% were not.

https://twitter.com/dohertyjf/status/1239386597830750209?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

I wish I had numbers from the week previously, but I am sure this is up from the previous work and probably markedly. Leads were slowing down.

March 19, 2020 – 69% say they are seeing a decrease in leads

As of the afternoon of March 19, 2020 a full 69% are now saying that they are seeing a decrease in leads. This is an increase of 21% from the previous poll.

https://twitter.com/dohertyjf/status/1240391933840818177?s=20

So yes, right now things are still getting worse. That’s reality and there is no reason to sugarcoat it.

March 23, 2020 – 71.6% say they have seen a decrease in leads

As of 8pm MT on March 23, 2020 a full 71.6% have seen a decrease in leads over the last two weeks.

https://twitter.com/dohertyjf/status/1241931447226609665

The downward trend continues. But let’s also notice that 71.6% saying they’ve seen a decrease means that 28.4% have not! Find those and see how you can adjust your strategy.

March 31, 2020 – 72.6% have seen a decrease

In our most recent poll, 72.6% of respondents report seeing a lead downturn in the last three weeks. This means that 27.4% are not.

These numbers are slightly higher than before, but not accelerating as quickly as before. Things seem to be leveling off to a new normal, though here at Credo we are seeing an increase back to where they were before.

https://twitter.com/dohertyjf/status/1244985207289044993

I also asked a follow on question to see how much of a drop people have seen. 52% say they’ve seen a drop of more than 25%, while 15.9% have seen an increase. Ask yourself, why might that be and how can you turn your own volume around?

https://twitter.com/dohertyjf/status/1244985226314432514

April 7, 2020 – 82.9% have seen a drop

In our most recent poll, asked on April 6th 2020 and finishing on April 7th 2020, the numbers have become even larger. We still haven’t seen a leveling off, but can take solace that over 4 in 5 of peers have seen a decrease in leads since the COVID crisis began more broadly across the world.

https://twitter.com/dohertyjf/status/1247242901710495746?s=20

To follow up from last week’s poll about the percentage of drop, as people get more data a larger percentage seem to be seeing bigger drops than reported last week.

https://twitter.com/dohertyjf/status/1247242903522435073?s=20

Let’s also be clear that a higher percentage (21%) are saying that their volume is up, but the poll had fewer respondents. So, directional numbers overall this week.

Keep coming back

But we’ll keep an eye on it and keep reporting the numbers, because they will go back up.

If you’re looking for a framework for lead generation right now, make sure you check out my training below: