Introduction 2. Foreword by Tom Trainor 2 Introduction by Marie Moynihan 3 Executive summary 4. Section 1 About the Organisations 5

Transcription

1 A research project Marketing Insight 2013 A research project into Irish marketers use of

2 Contents Introduction 2 Foreword by Tom Trainor 2 Introduction by Marie Moynihan 3 Executive summary 4 Section 1 About the Organisations 5 About the organisation 5 Budgets allocated to 8 Expected change in expenditure 8 Where budgets will come from 9 Section 2 Use of by Irish Marketers 10 Importance of in the marketing strategy 10 What marketers use for 10 systems marketers are using 11 Frequency of campaigns 12 database sizes 12 Tactics used to grow subscriber lists 13 Section 3 Benchmarks 14 metrics being tracked 14 Average open rates 15 Average click-through rates 15 Use of personalisation in marketing 16 Section 4 Social Media and Marketing 17 Methods of social media integration 17 Effectiveness of social media integration 18 Section 5 - Future Perceptions of Marketing 19 Future challenges facing marketing 19 Future opportunities facing marketing 20 Section 6 - Thank You 21 Thank You 21 1

3 Introduction Foreword by Tom Trainor For the fifth year the Marketing Institute, in partnership with Newsweaver, has produced a significant report on Marketing. At the Institute we focus on delivering insights and expert content to our members that promotes and supports marketing as a key strategic business tool. The report is an important benchmark and gives valuable insights to marketers in planning and creating their campaigns. The survey represents the views of business professionals over a cross section of industry type and sizes and includes those working in both B2B and B2C sectors. continues to be an indispensable channel for Irish marketers, enabling them to sustain relationships with their core audiences. remains a strong, trustworthy channel for marketers to engage with their customers, build brand awareness and increase website traffic. As marketers see the ROI in their marketing campaigns their marketing has expanded to include both customer retention and lead nurturing. This year s results show a strong move to integration of and social media. It reflects the position of Irish marketers adopting the fast paced digital changes and a greater awareness of the value of measurement. marketing has evolved and developed to become more sophisticated as Irish marketers include personalisation, segmentation and content targeting in their campaigns. The impact of the rise in mobile is reflected with over half of the respondents still viewing mobile optimisation as an opportunity. Irish marketers are reacting to the rapid changes in device technology and marketing offers exciting challenges and opportunities to businesses in the future. Tom Trainor Chief Executive The Marketing Institute 2

4 Introduction Introduction by Marie Moynihan We are delighted to work once again with the Marketing Institute on the fifth annual Marketing Insight report. The report will be of interest to marketers who d like to gain insight into the emerging trends and attitudes towards marketing in Ireland. Once again, marketing is an essential channel within the marketing mix. What we are seeing is a continued move from very basic marketing tools to more sophisticated cloud-based software that can take advantage of advances in digital marketing such as the embedding of videos. It is no surprise that the result of this is a notable increase in the uptake in implementation of advanced marketing techniques, including personalisation beyond the use of name and salutation. More complex segmentation of databases is also a real growth area within organisations as marketers see the increased ROI in any segmentation. This year social integration into can be considered a given with marketers the most common activity being driving subscribers to social channels. Mobile optimisation trends very strongly this year, with fifty-five per cent seeing it as an opportunity they must address in the next twelve months. As part of the growing trend towards personalisation and segmentation, it is no surprise to see that over sixty-two per cent say that targeted content holds the biggest opportunity for success in Marie Moynihan Marketing Manager Newsweaver 3

5 Introduction Executive Summary In line with 2012, the popularity of remains strong amongst marketers with over 80% describing as either important or very important component of their overall marketing strategy. This reaffirms last year s results, which at the time indicated a significant jump in the importance of within the marketing mix. The cornerstone of any successful business is building brand awareness and maintaining customer relationships. With the majority of respondents citing as a vital tool for maintaining these relationships, there is continued faith and trust in the power of the inbox. It is apparent that there are challenges for marketers in their use of with swamped inboxes and spam eroding trust in ; however research is showing these issues are less prevalent among respondents that use advanced web based tools for their sends. It is also apparent that companies with larger marketing departments and larger databases are less likely to use personalisation in their s which might point to the challenges that exist in maintaining customer records. Furthermore, we have seen a significant rise in the use of targeted content in s which presents opportunities for marketers, and with the ever-increasing penetration of mobile and tablet devices, unsurprisingly marketers have indicated mobile as another opportunity for success in the future. Highlights: Customers use marketing primarily for building brand awareness, maintaining customer relations and increasing website traffic. The number of companies who have 10+ full time marketing personnel has increased by 12% in Social integration is now an established part of marketing with Facebook and Linkedin the most effective networks being integrated. Open rates and Click-through rates remain the most popular metrics tracked. 62% of respondents felt that targeted content holds the biggest opportunity for success in Mobile optimisation (55%) is still seen as an opportunity. There is an increase in the respondents using Cloud-based marketing software and a decrease in the use of existing desktop solutions for marketing. There has been an increase in the use of dynamic content for personalisation in

6 About the Organisations About the Research This is the fifth year of the survey which aims to identify trends and behaviours in the use of marketing in Ireland. The research was conducted through an online survey sent to over 3000 marketers. 340 business professionals completed this year s survey ranging from sales and marketing executives to company CEOs and owners of small, medium and large organisations. A cross section of industry type and sizes are represented and include those working in both B2B and B2C sectors. What is your job title? Marketing Manager 17% 20% 32% Marketing Director CEO/ Business Owner 14% 9% 8% Marketing Executive Other Sales Manager Marketing Managers make up the majority of the survey participants, followed by Marketing Director and CEO/Business Owner. 5

7 About the Organisations Which industry sector is your organisation in? Real Estate Utilities Agriculture/Forestry/Fishing Construction Energy 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% Government Legal Non profit/trade association Wholesale/distribution 2% 2% 2% 2% Arts/Entertainment/Recreation Hospitality Manufacturing Transportation/Travel 3% 3% 3% 3% Retail 4% Pharmaceutical/Medical/Healthcare Consulting 5% 5% Education/Training IT/Telecommunications 11% 12% Banking/Finance/Insurance 17% Marketing/Media/Publishing/Advertising 20% 0.0% 5.0% 10.0% 15.0% 20.0% Marketing/Media/Publishing/Advertising make up the majority of respondents followed by Banking/Finance/Insurance and IT/Telecomms which remains consistent from previous years. 6

8 About the Organisations Which of the following best describes your organisation s marketing audience? 40% B2B and B2C 36% B2B 24% B2C 40% operate in a B2B and B2C market, 36% in a B2B market and 24% in a B2C market. How many marketing personnel are there in your organisation? In order to assess the scale of organisations participating in this year s survey, we asked respondents to indicate how many marketing staff are employed in their business. 1 part-time person 1 full-time person 2-4 full-time people 13% 20% 31% In comparison to 2012 there was a significant increase (12%) in the number of companies with 10+ full time personnel, an increase in 2-4 full time (4%) and 5-10 full time personnel (1%) 5-10 full-time people 10+ full-time people 12% 21% This highlights the continuous growing positive trend in employment figures year on year. don't know 3% 0.0% 5.0% 10.0% 15.0% 20.0% 25.0% 30.0% 35.0% 7

9 About the Organisations What percentage of your marketing budget do you allocate to marketing? As with 2012 the majority of respondents spend less than 5% on marketing. It is encouraging to see that 10-20% has increased by 2% from 2012; this may explain the increase in building brand awareness as a use for marketing campaigns. 0-5% 41% 5-10% 23% 10-20% 11% 20-50% 6% 50%+ 2% Don't know 18% How do you expect your organisation s expenditure on to change in the next 12 months? 83% of respondents state that their budgets will increase or stay the same this year. Marketers are seeing the ROI in their marketing campaigns. As marketing expands to include both customer retention and lead nurturing, marketers are increasing budget to run more sophisticated campaigns around personalisation, segmentation and content targeting. Stay the same 39% 44% 13% 5% Increase Don t know Decrease 8

10 About the Organisations Where do you expect this increase in budget to come from? SMS/Mobile budget TV/radio/cinema budget Telemarketing budget 1% 2% 2% Field marketing budget 3% Social Media budget 11% Print/press advertising budget Don't know 13% 15% Direct mail budget 18% New budget 37% 0.0% 5.0% 10.0% 15.0% 20.0% 25.0% 30.0% 35.0% 40.0% Of those who state that their budget will increase, 37% say it will come from New budget allocation and 18% say it will come from Direct Mail budget. Upon cross analysis between B2B and B2C companies it is interesting to note that B2B state New budget as their source and B2C state Direct Mail budget. 9

11 Use of by Irish Marketers How important is as part of your overall marketing strategy? The overwhelming majority of respondents 80% state that continues to be very important (36%) or an important (44%) part of their marketing strategy. Very important 36% Important 44% Not sure 11% Not important 9% 0.0% 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% 40.0% 50.0% Which of the following do you use marketing for within your organisation? There is a slight shift in the use of marketing from customer retention to building brand awareness; this indicates more of an emphasis on lead generation this year. We added the option of driving activity to social channels in this year s survey and saw that 69% are connecting their social media accounts into their marketing campaigns. Always Sometimes Never Building brand awareness 47% 40% 13% Increasing website traffic 38% 46% 16% Driving activity to social channels 20% 49% 31% Driving direct online sales 25% 29% 46% Driving offline sales 37% 40% 23% Customer retention 46% 40% 14% Generating new sales leads 35% 46% 19% Communicating with employees & stakeholders 37% 38% 25% 0.0% 20.0% 40.0% 60.0% 80.0% 100.0% 10

12 Use of by Irish Marketers What marketing solution are you currently using? We are seeing that there is an absolute move to Cloud-based marketing software (41%). There is also a year on year decrease in desktop solutions as marketers are recognising the limitations of the solution they have and recognise the advanced technology that Cloud-based software offers such as personalisation, measurement and targeted content. Existing desktop solution (Outlook, Lotus Notes etc) 24% Cloud-based marketing software 41% In-house custom built system 15% Outsourced to an agency 12% Don't know 8% 0.0% 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% 40.0% 50.0% 11

13 Use of by Irish Marketers On average, how often do you conduct marketing campaigns? Daily 3% Weekly 22% Monthly 44% uarterly 18% Twice a year 7% Once a year 6% 0.0% 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% 40.0% 50.0% Monthly (44%) and Weekly (22%) are the most popular frequency of send. What is the approximate size of your database? As with 2012 survey the majority of respondents have a database of less than addresses. 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% 0 <5k 5-25k k k 250k+ 12

14 Use of by Irish Marketers How effective do you find these tactics in growing your subscriber mailing list? What s interesting here is the most used tactics are not always the most effective. No matter what tactic you re using the first step should be to create a powerful sign up form that incites subscribes. Then ensure the form is on the website, in the newsletter and on social media. From there, marketers are in a good position to test incentives and competitions. Excellent Good Fair Poor Website registration 17% 43% 33% 8% Links on social platforms 7% 46% 36% 11% Call-to-actions at offline events 9% 40% 36% 15% Registration during purchase 29% 37% 21% 13% Call-to-actions at online events 11% 45% 33% 12% Facebook registration 7% 27% 27% 39% Incentive to forward to a friend 5% 22% 46% 28% Paid search 11% 28% 23% 39% Competitions 25% 29% 25% 22% Partnership programs 11% 31% 33% 26% List rental 1% 16% 28% 55% 0.0% 20.0% 40.0% 60.0% 80.0% 100.0% 13

15 Benchmarks What metrics do you regularly track? Social activity 18% Click-to-open rate 34% Delivery rate 40% Conversion rate 41% Bounce rate 50% Unsubscribe rate 58% Open rate 77% Click-through rate 78% Don't know 13% 0.0% 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% 40.0% 50.0% 60.0% 70.0% 80.0% Click-through rates (72%) and open rates (69%) are the top tracked metrics. Less people Don t Know this year which indicates that there is an increase in the correct software being used. What do you view as the most important metric that you measure? Open & Click-through rates are still the most important metrics, it is very positive to see an increase in conversion rates to track as we are now looking at ROI across the entire campaign. Unsubscribe rate 1% Delivery rate 2% Social activity 4% Click-to-open rate 7% Conversion rate 22% Open rate 31% Click-through rate 33% 0.0% 5.0% 10.0% 15.0% 20.0% 25.0% 30.0% 35.0% 14

16 Benchmarks On average, what overall open rates do you get from your mailings? 0-10% 11% 11-20% 25% Top Tip from Newsweaver 21-30% 31-40% 24% 26% Subject lines can play a big part on your open rate % 5% 51+% 9% 0.0% 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% 40.0% 50.0% 60.0% Use A/B Split testing to test different subject lines on sample users. The subject line which gets the most opens will be sent to the rest of your list. Irish Marketers have become more effective with measuring their marketing campaigns. On average, what overall click-through rates do you get from your mailings? Top Tip from Newsweaver The From field can have an enormous impact on your open rate. 0-2% 3-5% 6-10% 12% 17% 26% You should decide whether your should come from your brand, your company, or the name of an individual (e.g. an Account Manager) % 20% 16-20% 13% 21%+ 12% 0.0% 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% 40.0% 50.0% 15

17 Benchmarks On average, what level of personalisation do you use in your marketing? There was an increase of 15% in the number of respondents who personalise by targeted content for specific users; this is most likely the reason for the decrease in personalising by name (-11%) and those who do not personalise at all (-4%). Name only 26% 32% More than name Targeted content for specific users 23% 12% 7% No personalisation Don t know Please indicate what area you use for personalisation? The easiest personalisation elements; name (69%) salutation (49%) subject line (48%) and company name (43%) are the most popular areas of personalisation. What is surprising and encouraging to see is that more sophisticated areas such as content (38%) is seeing an increase in use. Behaviour 4% Geolocation 6% Demographic 9% Subscriber preferences 9% Custom data fields 13% Personal or company address 14% Professional title/role 20% Welcome message 21% Relationship 23% Product and services 35% Content 38% From address 39% Company name 43% Subject line 48% Salutation 49% Name 69% 0.0% 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% 40.0% 50.0% 60.0% 70.0% 16

18 Social Media and Marketing How do you integrate social media in to your s? In 2012 there was a 60/40 split between the respondents that use social media in their marketing campaigns and those who don t this year a staggering 91% of respondents are using social media. With the main networks unsurprisingly being Facebook (59%) Twitter (58%) and Linkedin (47%). +1 feature 2% Comment feature 6% Like feature Google+ 10% 13% Do not use social media YouTube 20% 20% LinkedIn 47% Twitter Facebook 58% 59% 0.0% 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% 40.0% 50.0% 60.0% 17

19 Social Media and Marketing What do you find to be the most effective? Mirroring how marketers integrate social media in their marketing campaigns, Facebook (40%) Linkedin (35%) and Twitter (17%) are deemed the most effective respectively. Like feature 1% Google+ 2% YouTube 5% Twitter 17% LinkedIn 35% Facebook 40% On cross analysis B2C companies find Facebook most effective while B2B find Linkedin to be. B2B B2C Facebook 8% 32% LinkedIn 45% 5% Twitter 13% 4% 0.0% 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% 40.0% 50.0% 18

20 Future Perceptions of Marketing What do you perceive to be the biggest challenges for marketing in 2013/2014? As with 2012 swamped inboxes is perceived as the biggest challenge (64%). Spam (41%) and the unwillingness to opt-in (39%) are two other prominent challenges. The DMA Tracking Report finds that while marketers worry about inbox clutter and spam, and keeping up with advances in web-based filter technology such as Gmail tabs, what actually motivates people to open s hasn t changed. If they trust a brand and it consistently gives them value, they will find your content or make that purchase. There is a lack of accountability/measurement 9% Deliverability is becoming more difficult 19% A lack of customer data is holding back effectiveness 19% doesn't get the attention/budget it deserves 23% It is difficult to do effective creative due to image blocking 25% Unwillingness of people to opt-in to new lists is increasing 39% Spam is eroding trust in 41% Recipients' inboxes are swamped and all suffers 64% 19

21 Future Perceptions of Marketing What do you perceive as the biggest opportunities for success in 2013/2014? The decrease in integrating social networks as an opportunity mirrors the increase in respondents implementing it in their marketing campaigns. The two main opportunities are Targeted content (62%) and Mobile optimisation (55%) It is encouraging to see Targeted content as an opportunity as it gives us an insight into Marketers becoming increasingly more sophisticated in the marketing campaigns. Rather than a one size fits all content they are concentrating on sending more timely and relevant content and focusing on standing out in the inbox. The strong presence of mobile optimization as an opportunity suggests that it is still not being utilized. Mobile is definitely a growing trend. But most consumers are still viewing s on a variety of devices, depending where they are when receiving the s. A/B split testing 16% Triggered s 20% Use of infographics 23% Integration with social networks 31% Use of video 33% Mobile optimisation 55% Targeted content 62% Top Tip from Newsweaver Before rushing into discussions on mobile design matters Marketers should start measuring how subscribers on their mailing list are consuming their s. While going through this process, they should ensure s they are currently sending render well on the most commonly used desktops, tablets and smart phones. 20

22 Thank You Newsweaver in conjunction with the Marketing Institute would like to thank everyone who participated in this year s Marketing Insight Report. If you have any questions about the report, please contact: Newsweaver on info@newsweaver.com OR The Marketing Institute on info@mii.ie Based in Ireland Newsweaver is an award-winning communications software provider that helps over 4,000 users in 96 countries worldwide deliver relevant, targeted and engaging communications. Newsweaver clients range from large multinationals and government agencies to SMEs, charities and associations across the globe, and include Saudi Aramco, Shell, Zurich Insurance, Royal Mail, Aon Hewitt, Aviva, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), KBC Bank, Institute of Chartered Accountants, Sky, G4S and ACCA. The Marketing Institute is the professional body for Ireland s marketing people, in operation for over 50 years, and it envisions a professional marketing community that is qualified, effective and valued. With a mission to strengthen the profession of marketing in Ireland, the Institute aims to promote, support and elevate marketing as a key strategic business tool. It does this in three ways: by (1) delivering insights and expert content; (2) building the community of marketers; and (3) giving a voice to the profession. Content, Community and Voice are the three themes that underpin all Institute activities. Membership allows our community of marketing professionals to come together and network with like-minded individuals and provide them with expert content with will empower and enable them to develop their careers within the marketing profession. We also offer training solutions, marketing insights and resources and we have access to the best in class experts, reports and publications in the marketing profession. 21