Role of digital maturity and customer profiling: potentials for lead generation - a study in oil and gas industry

This study analyses the relationship between a company's digital maturity and its lead generation success in a more digitally conservative oil and gas (O&G) industry, and whether content personalisation, as an outcome of customer profiling, is used more intensively by companies with advanced digital maturity levels. The results show that a company's lead generation success increases with digital maturity. Content personalisation can play a major role for lead generation success and is facilitated by higher digital maturity. Therefore, driving digitalisation may be crucial for companies to maintain long-term competitiveness. However, the O&G industry shows medium overall digital maturity. Overall, this study provides an elaborate framework for assessing digital maturity from a more focused marketing and sales perspective. Moreover, the results provide marketers and managers with reasons for promoting digitalisation within their companies and assist them in developing an adequate strategy for their future lead generation.