Not Search Engine Marketing. Not PPC. Not even Social Media Marketing. No, the #1 thing B2B Marketers and B2C Marketers alike want to learn more about is marketing integration and creating a true integrated marketing strategy.
This not-shocking-to-me finding came from a report released by Webmarketing123, who surveyed over 500 marketing professionals. There are other findings which I will share with you, but after reading the report and reading it over, I knew right away the one finding that stood out from all others and it happened to be the very last chart in the report.
This one…
Now if you’re new here you won’t understand why I said this finding is not so shocking to yours truly. Let me catch you up on my thoughts on integration, the need for it and the glaring lack thereof…
Shoppers Want Integration, Retailers And Marketers Not Delivering It – In this post I told of how 72% of consumers want an integrated marketing approach yet only 39% actually experience one.
Why An Integrated Marketing Strategy Is Vital To Success – “While the number of internet users is increasing by the day, marketers would be wise to not forget those who don’t use the internet either at not as often as others, and create integrated campaigns featuring offline and online marketing collateral to reach their target audience.”
Marketers Still Not Integrating Their Marketing Strategy – “… many retailers and marketers still think being cross-channel (integrated) is as simple as offering in-store pickup for ecommerce sales.”
Integrated Marketing – The Holy Grail Of Marketing? – I compare marketing integration with the Lost City of Atlantis and openly wonder if the latter is easier to find than the former.
What Schoolhouse Rock And Integration Have In Common – That’s right, Schoolhouse Rock and marketing integration have a lot in common, trust me.
Ok, you can clearly see I am major proponent of creating and implementing an integrated marketing strategy across ALL platforms and mediums. So it was of no great surprise to me when I saw that the #1 thing marketers want to learn more about is integration.
That line below the chart above really does say it all… “As marketers continue to see the effectiveness of digital media, they are curious to learn how all digital channels can be leveraged to produce an integrated, cross-channel strategy.” They are curious indeed and they will also be amazed at how effective and successful an integrated marketing campaign, done correctly, can be.
Additional Findings…
Both B2B Marketers and B2C Marketers place a very high value, in fact the highest, on their website when it comes to how they measure success…
When it comes to social media, B2B Marketers like to spread the wealth around more than their B2C Marketing brethren…
68% of marketers have generated leads from at least one of the three major social media platforms…
16% of B2B Marketers and 8% of B2C Marketers don’t invest in SEO, PPC or Social Media.
Why do I get the feeling that of the 31% of marketers who claim they never get leads via Social Media and those that don’t invest in Social Media (along with PPC and SEO) are essentially of the same mindset? And that mindset is one born of completely archaic, outdated thinking and business modelling.
You can read the full report and all the findings by clicking here.
Steve Olenski