Reaching the Next Level of Marketing Performance Digital Marketing Strategy Research Summary Report Ascend2 Research Conducted in Partnership with Leading Marketing Solution Providers
Digital Marketing Strategy Research Summary Report Ascend2 Research Conducted in Partnership with Leading Marketing Solution Providers. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. You may adapt, copy, distribute and transmit this work. However, you must attribute the work as produced by Ascend2 and its Research Partners but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work. 2
Table of Contents Reaching the next level of digital marketing performance 4 Most import digital marketing objectives 5 Rating the success of digital marketing programs 6 Most challenging obstacles to digital marketing success 7 Digital marketing effectiveness is changing 8 Most effective types of digital marketing used 9 Most difficult types of digital marketing to execute 10 Resources used to plan and execute a digital marketing strategy 11 Comparing tactical effectiveness with degree of difficulty 12 How spending on digital marketing is changing 13 Extent of marketing software usage to manage digital 14 Research methodology and survey demographics 16 About Ascend2 18 3
Reaching the next level of digital marketing performance. A Digital Marketing Strategy is essential to achieving or sustaining growth today. Yet, lack of an effective strategy is the greatest obstacle to digital marketing success for 51% of companies. How will marketers reach the next level of digital marketing performance in the year ahead? To find out, Ascend2 and our Research Partners fielded the Digital Marketing Strategy Survey and completed interviews with 333 marketing, sales and business professionals from around the world. We thank them for sharing their valuable insights with you. The charts in this edition of our study, titled Digital Marketing Strategy Research Summary Report represent the average of all market segments responding to the survey. Specific market segments are reported on exclusively by our Research Partners. This research has been produced for your use. Put it to work in your own marketing strategy planning and presentation materials. Clip the charts and write about them in your blog or post them on social media. Please share this research credited as published. Sergio Balegno Chief Strategy Officer, Ascend2 4
The most important objectives of a digital marketing strategy vary greatly. However, reducing marketing and customer service costs are surprisingly least important. 5
Nearly nine out of ten companies (89%) rate digital marketing successful to some extent, with more than a quarter (27%) achieving very successful results. 6
The most challenging obstacle to success is clearly the lack of an effective digital marketing strategy, followed by an inadequate budget to fund programs. 7
One quarter of companies have reached a plateau in their digital marketing performance. However, 71% report that effectiveness continues to improve. 8
Email maintains its position as the most effective type of digital marketing used. However, the gap between email and other types of digital marketing is closing. 9
Social media, content and SEO are categorized as inbound marketing tactics. They are also the three most difficult types of digital marketing to execute. 10
62% of companies outsource all or part of their digital marketing, mainly the most difficult types. Outsourcing supplements internal skills to improve performance. 11
A majority (57%) of companies will continue to increase spending on digital marketing, while only 6% believe a budget decrease is the better strategy. 13
Marketing software is used to save digital marketing time, reduce expense and improve the customer experience for 74% of companies. 14
Notes 15
Research methodology Ascend2 Research Surveys are conducted online from a panel of more than 50,000 US and international marketing and sales decision-makers and practitioners representing a range of contact roles, company types, sizes and geographic regions. The questionnaire used is standardized to incorporate these methodologies across all studies while maintaining our proven 3-Minute Survey format. Survey findings are examined in a quantitative context by experienced analysts and reported objectively. 16
Survey demographics 17
About Ascend2 Research-Based Demand Generation for Marketing Solution Providers Marketing agencies, marketing software and data companies partner with Ascend2 to reliably generate demand and supplement marketing content. Our Research Partner Programs are transparent spotlighting your brand and the interests of your market. Learn more at www.ascend2.com 18
Marketing agencies, software and data companies partner with Ascend2 to generate demand and supplement content. Research Partner Programs provide white label reports and a guaranteed number of leads in two simple steps: 1. Choose the topics of interest to your target market Content Marketing Email Marketing Video Marketing Organic Search (SEO) Mobile Marketing Brand Marketing Website Optimization Inbound Marketing Paid Search (PPC) Lead Generation Social Media Marketing Database 2. Choose an exclusive research segment for each marketing topic Benchmarks for Success [A comparison of Very Successful and Not Successful segments] Benchmarks by Channel [A comparison by or targeting of B2B and/or B2C segments] Benchmarks by Company Size [A comparison by or targeting of SMB and/or Large Enterprises] Agency Benchmarks [The Agency perspective based on a wide-range of client experience] Benchmarks by Resources [A comparison of Outsourced and In-house campaign segments] Benchmarks for Europe [The European perspective on marketing practices and performance] Benchmarks by Revenue Attainment [A comparison of performance by Revenue Targets Attained] Marketing Leadership Benchmarks [A perspective from C-Level and Marketing Leaders] Learn more about research-based demand generation at Ascend2.com. 19