Client Connection Research™ conducted by Ascend2 in partnership with TribalVision
Marketing Strategy Outlook Report What marketing success will look like in the year ahead, and how marketers plan to achieve it.
Introduction
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What Marketing Success Will Look Like
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How (Average) Marketers Plan to Achieve it
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How Sales Channel Influences Strategies and Tactics
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How Company Size Influences Strategies and Tactics
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Actionable Advice for Developing a Superior Strategy
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About TribalVision
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About Ascend2
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To better understand what marketing success will look like in the year ahead and how marketers plan to achieve it, TribalVision is pleased to present the Marketing Strategy Outlook Report. Through our partnership with Ascend2, a Boston based marketing research firm, we conducted a Client Connection Research™ survey online titled the Marketing Strategy Outlook Survey. The survey was completed by 456 respondents from a panel of more than 50,000 US and international business leaders, marketing executives and practitioners representing a range of roles, company sizes, regions and industry segments. Survey findings were examined in a quantitative context by experienced analysts and reported objectively. As an outsourced marketing department focused on providing practical and actionable insights for our clients and friends, we hope you find this useful and applicable to improving your organization’s marketing function. Chris Ciunci Chief Executive Officer TribalVision 3
What Marketing Success Will Look Like
The difference between a Superior Strategy and an Inferior Strategy is effectiveness To determine what marketing success will look like in the year ahead, we needed to identify the most successful marketing organizations responding to this survey. Performance criteria, based on the effectiveness of marketing to accomplish objectives, is used to differentiate between companies with a Superior Strategy and those with an Inferior Strategy. The highest performers (21% of respondents rated Very Effective) are identified in the following pages of this section as having a Superior Strategy. The lowest performers (11% of respondents rated Somewhat or Very Ineffective) are identified as having an Inferior Strategy. In the charts that follow, the disparity between the objectives, challenges and tactics of those companies with a Superior Strategy and their Inferior Strategy counterparts is clear. These benchmarks are provided to show you what marketing success will look like, and how those companies with a Superior Strategy plan to achieve it.
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Optimizing the conversion rate of leads is the number one objective of a Superior Strategy A clear distinction between companies with a Superior or Inferior Strategy is how ambitious their objectives are. Conversion rate optimization ranks as the most difficult marketing tactic to execute in every segment except for companies with a Superior Strategy, which makes increasing conversions a very ambitious objective.
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Limited marketing budgets and staff are the most challenging obstacles to overcome
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Measurement of traffic, leads and their rate of conversion are Superior Strategy requirements
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Following email, the inbound tactics of content creation and organic search top effectiveness
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While content creation is the second most effective tactic, it is the most difficult to execute
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How (Average) Marketers Plan to Achieve it
Increasing lead conversions and lead quality top the average marketer’s list of objectives The charts in this section reflect the average of all responses to the survey. While there is no such thing as an “average� company or marketing situation in real life, this data is useful for comparing the average response to other segments reported in this study.
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Behind budget limitations, measuring marketing performance is the next obstacle to overcome
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Which are the MOST CHALLENGING MARKETING OBSTACLES for your company to overcome? Marketing budget limitations
45%
Measuring marketing performance
37%
Marketing sta limitations
32%
Aligning marketing and sales
26%
Articulating a value proposition
24%
Automating marketing processes
23%
Identifying buyer personas
23%
Executing marketing tactics Formulating a marketing strategy
19% 16% Sur
Ascend2 Marketing Strategy Outlook Survey Fielded Jan 2013, N=456
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Website traffic continues to be the key metric to measure in today’s web-centric marketing world
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For the average marketer, email outperforms all other outbound and inbound marketing tactics
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Conversion rate optimization requires testing capabilities beyond that of the average marketer
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How Sales Channel Influences Strategies and Tactics
Quantity and quality of business leads, and converting consumer leads are top objectives A key difference between sales channels is the length and complexity of purchase decisions. Businesses often have long, complex cycles involving a number of decision-makers and influencers, while consumer decisions are often routine and made by an individual. An alternative chart legend could be complex sale versus direct sale.
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B2B and B2C marketers agree, a limited budget is the most challenging obstacle to overcome
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Awareness is a key objective but the least often measured by both B2B and B2C marketers
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The greatest disparity in effectiveness between channels is content, lead management and PPC
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Social media is most difficult for B2C channel, and both channels find CRO difficult to execute
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B2C companies are more likely to rate their marketing efforts “very effective� than are B2B
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How Company Size Influences Strategies and Tactics
For small companies, the goal is lead volume while medium companies focus on ROI and CRO The charts in this section segment responses by company size: Small Co. (Fewer than 100 employees), Medium Co. (100 to 1,000 employees) and Large Co. (More than 1,000 employees). “Agility� is often a distinguishing factor in marketing strategies. The smaller the company, the more agile and able to quickly adapt to changes.
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Marketing/sales alignment and gauging performance are most challenging obstacles for large companies
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While small companies are measuring traffic, large companies are analyzing retention metrics
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Mobile’s bottom ranking will rise as the adoption of mobile marketing tactics and best practices increases
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Social media, CRO and content creation top the tactical difficulty chart for companies of all sizes
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When it comes to the highest ranking in marketing effectiveness, medium size companies are superior
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Actionable Advice for Developing a Superior Strategy
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Strategic
This research was conducted to help marketers develop a Superior Strategy for effectively achieving their marketing objectives. The process begins with a SWOT analysis of your company’s marketing program by applying the questions asked in this survey to your company, then comparing it to the SWOTs of companies with a Superior Strategy (right).
Tactical
A Superior Strategy is the goal, and developing one begins with a marketing SWOT analysis Strengths
Weaknesses
Most Effective Tactics Used
Most Difficult Tactics to Execute
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Email Marketing Content Creation Organic Search (SEO) Lead Management Social Media Marketing
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Content Creation Social Media Marketing Conversion Rate Optimization Mobile Marketing Blogs / Blogging
Opportunities
Threats
Most Important Objectives to Achieve
Most Challenging Obstaclesto Overcome
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Increase lead conversion rate Improve awareness or reputation Increase quantity of sales leads Increase quality of sales leads Increase customer retention
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Marketing budget limitations Marketing staff limitations Identifying buyer personas Measuring marketing performance Automating marketing processes
About TribalVision TribalVision is a marketing consulting firm whose mission is to help small to midsize businesses market smarter. As a marketing department for hire, TribalVision is a flexible, cost-effective alternative to the traditional marketing solutions available to the global business community. TribalVision offers its clients marketing strategy development, channel-mix optimization, tactics implementation, and executive leadership services. TribalVision is transforming the traditional marketing landscape by focusing on interactive e-marketing channels that often cost less, deliver more and are more measurable versus the standard suite of channels that have been broken for quite some time.
About Ascend2 Ascend2 partners with marketing services providers (agency, consultancy, marketing SaaS) to acquire new clients using an integrated research, content creation and demand generation process. Engineered specifically for marketing services providers, this process quantifies the performance of marketing programs, industry-wide and individually, enabling the analysis of a potential client’s marketing situation against industry norms. Ascend2 conducts its research independently, relying on peer reviews and contributed insights from research underwriters that add value and relevancy to the findings. The insights provided by our underwriting partners are for consideration only and are scrutinized to maintain the integrity and validity of the research and content produced by Ascend2. MARKETIN G STR ATEGY OU TLO O K R EPO RT
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www.TribalVision.com