Empirical Rationalism and Other Oxymora
Marketing
The CPO as CMO?…
Aug 24th
I don’t think so. While there is no doubt that procurement has been increasingly effective at getting more categories of spend under management, the shift away from advertising isn’t because procurement is controlling the purse strings – this is a fundamental shift predicated on efficacy and customer preference.
Amplify’d from www.huffingtonpost.com
Between 2007 and 2012, advertising’s slice of the total marketing pie is forecast by Jack Myers Media Business Report to decline from 30.7% to 25.9%. That represents more than $100 billion that is shifting away from traditional media spending to alternative marketing options during this five-year span. Even with hundreds of millions of dollars invested in effectiveness, engagement and emotional connections™ research studies by media companies and agencies, advertising remains a cost center that is increasingly subjected to procurement oversight and intensifying cost controls.
See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/963d
Marketers Are Spending More Than Planned This Year
Aug 24th
A new Aberdeen survey of 264 tech industry executives revealed that more than a third (36%) of tech marketers are spending more than originally planned this year.
Despite negative economic news and continued concerns of a double-dip recession, a new Aberdeen survey reveals that tech marketers are still expecting an average 7% increase in marketing budgets in 2010; 36% have increased budgets since their original 2010 plan (27% “minor” and 9% “significant” increases). Not surprisingly, new customer acquisition and customer marketing (cross-sell/up-sell) top the list of priorities for tech marketers. That said, 23% of tech marketers have decreased budgets since their original 2010 plan (17% “minor” and 6% “significant” decreases).
We’ll be releasing results over the next few weeks, but early findings are now available. Give me a shout if you are interested in learning more about the study (@andrew_boyd).
We just can’t get enough ineffective marketing content
Aug 23rd
No wonder everybody is talking about [quitting] Twitter, Facebook, whatever…
Amplify’d from www.btobonline.com
See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/9498
Long Live the (Content) King
Aug 23rd
CMO’s I talk to have always used words like “new”, “fresh”, “unique”, “differentiated” when discussing programs and content. However, it seems that marketing spend is starting to shift. Some interesting research from McKinsey…
Amplify’d from www.btobonline.com
It’s clear that custom content is growing. A survey by the Custom Content Council found that spending on custom content in 2009 was higher than in any other year in the history of the survey, which was first conducted in 2003. The survey found that branded content accounted for 32% of overall marketing, advertising and communications budgets last year. Additionally, a recent report by McKinsey & Co. found that traditional marketers, which in general have not yet embraced online custom content, typically spend about 60% of their budgets on paid media and about 20% on content creation.
At the same time, marketers that are embracing custom content— especially online—are shifting their spending. “Active digital marketers tend to devote about 30% of their marketing budgets to paid media and 50% to content,” according to the McKinsey report. Read more at www.btobonline.com
See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/93t3
Your Marketing Content: Smart Investment or Waste of Money?
Aug 17th
Aberdeen’s Chris Houpis just completed some great research on “The Marketing Executive’s Agenda for 2010 and Beyond” (the benchmark will be publishing at the end of the month, but here is an advance look at some of the findings). In this survey, 55% of B2B marketers said they are planning to increase marketing budgets over the next 12 months (24% said they were planning on increasing their marketing budgets by 20% or more). Not surprisingly, the top five areas that will benefit from the increase in budget areas:
- Social media (70% planning to increase)
- Microsites / landing pages (66%)
- Webinars (60%)
- Search engine optimization (58%)
- Corporate website (55%)
You’ll have to wait for the benchmark to see the whole list, but I found most interesting is that six of the top 10 planned investment areas (social media, microsites, webinars, website, video and whitepapers) are content related. This got me to thinking, with all this focus on marketing content… why is most of it… well, pretty bad?
In a recent survey of 500 technology buyers conducted by Harte-Hanks (findings presented in the webinar), the majority of respondent said that “factual” (87%), “cost/value-oriented” (83%) and “benefit-oriented” (79%) were the most effective “tones” in technology product advertising – no surprise there, this the staple of B2B technology marketing. However, what was interesting was that comparatively few respondents said that humorous (17%) or edgy/cool (15%) tones were effective in capturing their attention. If you are about to spend more money on new content, think about this… What do your customers really need to make a decision? What do they really want to read/view? How can you differentiate without alienating? How do you measure and evaluate the effectiveness of your content?
I attend about 100-150 product/technology briefings per year. Every once in a while, instead of asking my opinion about the product, service, market, whatever, someone asks about the deck itself. My advice usually pretty simple, find a way to communicate in a language that buyers understand; eliminate the jargon and corporate speak from your content; use real words that convey real value and real meaning. Otherwise, you’re probably wasting your money (and your prospect’s time).
If you have examples of really good (or really bad) B2B marketing content, or if you’d like to share how you measure the effectiveness of your content, I’d love to hear from you – leave a comment or @andrew_boyd.
