2015 digital marketing benchmark report

© 2014 Demand Metric Research Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

Benchmark Report

Digital Marketing:

Sponsored By:

TABLE OF CONTENTS

3

4

6

8

13

15

Introduction

Executive Summary

Digital Marketing Importance & Goals

Digital Marketing Tactics

Digital Marketing Metrics

Market Understanding

28

31

32

Analyst Bottom Line

About Demandbase

About Demand Metric

25

27

Account Based Marketing

Digital Marketing Challenges

30 Acknowledgements

19 Market Targets 33 Appendix – Survey Background

INTRODUCTION

Digital marketing has gone from being exotic, new dish to a staple in every marketer’s diet. Every modern marketer knows that

most marketing is digital, and that the set of available processes and channels to promote a product or service, or to build a

brand, is vast. So vast, in fact, that even the term “digital marketing” has become too broad to represent all that happens under

its definition. Demand generation, social media, content marketing, web analytics and other areas are so important that

entire teams are being segmented from this broad category to provide the proper digital focus.

Marketers are faced with the challenge of keeping up with new, hopefully better, strategies that emerge at a rapid rate, while

cutting ineffective practices waning in popularity. It’s very valuable for marketers to have benchmark data about how the current

digital marketing landscape looks, what’s new, what’s working and what isn’t. Quite often, marketers can gain a competitive

advantage simply by being quick to adopt new digital marketing strategies in advance of mass adoption that eventually

dilutes the impact of new things.

This study, sponsored by Demandbase, took a close look at digital marketing to understand current practices, goals,

strategies, metrics and effectiveness. Furthermore, the study investigated how well organizations understand their chosen

markets, who in those markets they target as prospects and what their biggest challenges are in the pursuit of success.

Finally, this report investigates a digital marketing strategy that is in the early-to-mid stages of adoption: Account-

Based Marketing. This report details the findings and provides insights in each of these areas.

3

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Today’s marketers have unprecedented challenges and opportunities when it comes to implementing digital marketing

strategies. This survey was conducted to get a detailed picture of the current digital marketing landscape, helping

marketers to make critical planning decisions and define areas for growth.

A majority of this study’s participants were marketers in B2B organizations that reported revenue growth in the most recently

completed fiscal year. Participants represented a wide range of industry affiliations and company sizes.

The analysis of this study’s data provides these key findings about the current state of digital marketing:

New customer acquisition is the most common digital marketing goal. 84% of study participants, however, have multiple

goals for their efforts.

The most frequently used digital marketing solutions are not the most effective ones. For example, analytics ranks first

in effectiveness but third in usage. Two solutions with known effectiveness – lead scoring and A/B testing – rank last in usage.

Click-thrus and page views are the most commonly used metrics. The use of any metric is strongly related to better

digital marketing effectiveness.

Better understanding of target markets relates to greater digital marketing effectiveness. 69% of study participants who

claim a higher understanding of their target markets reported digital marketing as effective or very effective, compared to 59%

with a lower target market understanding.

4

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Digital marketing effectiveness relates to revenue growth. 70% of study participants reporting effective digital marketing

experienced revenue growth in the most recently completed fiscal year. Only 49% of participants whose revenue was flat or

declining said their digital marketing efforts were effective.

The most important market target identified in this study was “prospect title”, but participants are investing more

resources to target companies by industry or vertical than by prospect title.

Almost one-third of participants were unaware of Account Based Marketing, but those who use it report much

greater digital marketing effectiveness.

This report details the results and insights from the analysis of the study data. For more detail on the survey participants, please

refer to the Appendix.

5

2% 2% 5%

20%

71%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

Veryunimportant

Unimportant Neutral Important Very important

Importance of Digital Marketing

Figure 1: Over 90% of organizations studies rate digital marketing’s importance high.

DIGITAL MARKETING IMPORTANCE & GOALS

Digital Marketing Benchmark Study, Demand Metric, October 2014, n=239

6

One could safely assume that digital marketing is an

important strategy in most organizations for helping

them achieve their marketing objectives.

This study measured that level of importance to establish a

baseline measure and provide context for the study.

It will surprise no modern marketer that digital marketing is

perceived as important or very important, as Figure 1

depicts. The importance of digital marketing to achieve

marketing objectives is undisputed.

From a macro perspective: What goals do organizations

have for digital marketing?

While the methods of and channels for digital marketing are

myriad, this study shows that the goals of digital marketing

fall into a few broad categories, as shown in Figure 2 on the

next page.

11%

49%

59%

73%

84%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Other goals

Growth of existing accounts

Lead nurturing

Branding

New customer acquisition

Digital Marketing Goals


Participants were asked to choose any and all of the listed

strategies in Figure 2, which shows the different categories

and the percentage of participants that report having these

goals for their digital marketing efforts.

While “New customer acquisition” is the top goal for

digital marketing in this study, 84% of the study’s

participants have multiple goals for their digital

marketing efforts, and over one-fourth list all the goals

in Figure 2, except “Other”, as digital marketing goals.

Participants who chose “Other” as a response option

shared this sampling of goals as write-in comments:

Lead conversion

Customer retention

Thought leadership

Building membership

& community 7

Figure 2: New customer acquisition is the most common goal for digital marketing.

DIGITAL MARKETING IMPORTANCE & GOALS

Customer engagement

Voice of the Customer

Drive traffic to retail location

12%

24%

24%

51%

55%

64%

68%

80%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80%

Other strategies

Mobile marketing

Content syndication

Display and/or banner ads

SEM/PPC

Inbound marketing/contentcreation/blogs

SEO/Organic search

Social media marketing

Digital Marketing Tactics in Use

Figure 3: Social media marketing is the most frequently used digital marketing tactic by participants

in this study.

The array of tactics available to the digital marketer is

broader today than ever. Email has long been the most

frequently used digital marketing tactic, and despite the

increasing challenges of email marketing, surveys continue

to show it as the most common approach.

What is the frequency of use for other digital marketing

strategies? Figure 3 shares this data.

This data reveals that social media marketing is the

most frequently used digital marketing approach.

Over two-thirds of this study’s participants are using

three or more of the strategies listed in Figure 3, and

just over one-third are using four or five tactics.

Digital marketing is clearly not a single-tactic or channel

endeavor for most organizations.

8

DIGITAL MARKETING TACTICS


50%

60%

61%

73%

85%

88%

88%

88%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

A/B testing

Lead scoring

Marketing Automation

Business Intelligence

CRM

Analytics

Content Management

Email marketing solution

Use of Digital Marketing Solutions or Approaches

Various digital marketing solutions and approaches often

support the strategies and tactics listed in Figures 2 & 3.

The study survey collected data to provide a census of

common solution usage, and Figure 4 provides the

summary of this data.

The three most heavily used digital marketing

solutions/approaches are an email marketing solution,

a content management solution and analytics.

9

Figure 4: An email solution is the most heavily used digital marketing approach; A/B testing the

least heavily used.



30%

22%

21%

19%

17%

14%

12%

10%

53%

45%

50%

59%

58%

50%

58%

47%

17%

33%

29%

22%

25%

36%

30%

43%

0% 20% 40% 60%

Lead scoring

CRM

MarketingAutomation

BusinessIntelligence

A/B testing

Email marketingsolution

ContentManagement

Analytics

Solutions Effectiveness

Effective Moderate Ineffective

Frequency of use is one side of a coin, and effectiveness is

the other. For each of the solutions listed in Figure 4, data

was also collected about how effective these solutions are.

A summary of the solutions effectiveness data is presented

in Figure 5.

It would be ideal if the most frequently used digital

marketing solutions (Figure 4) were also the most

effective ones, but that is not the case. Analytics ranks

highest in terms of effectiveness, but ranks third in usage.

Email marketing solutions, which rank highest in usage,

rank third in effectiveness. A/B testing ranks last in usage

but fourth in effectiveness.

None of these discrepancies are alarming; and they

probably reflect that marketers are busy professionals who

sometimes just continue to do what has worked in the past,

particularly when using a new solution or approach has a

learning curve associated with it. What these

discrepancies do represent, however, are

opportunities for improvement. 10

Figure 5: Solutions effectiveness, presented from bottom to top in order of increasing effectiveness.



There’s another observation worth making about the results portrayed in Figure 5: just because a solution ranks lower in

terms of effectiveness, such as lead scoring, doesn’t mean the solution has no merit. More often than not, low

effectiveness is a function of immaturity in technology implementation. As in the lead scoring example, there is an

implementation of that solution that is very effective, but that doesn’t mean most organizations have mastered the process.

What is the connection between the goals in Figure 2 and the strategies in Figure 4? A correlation analysis reveals relationships

between the two. For certain goals, it is more likely for some approaches to see use and not others (Figure 6).

GOAL: New customer acquisition GOAL: Lead nurturing GOAL: Branding

Display or Banner Advertising X

Search Engine Marketing/PPC X

SEO/Organic Search X X

Social Media Marketing X X X

Mobile Marketing

Inbound Marketing/Content/Blogs X X X

Content Syndication X

Figure 6: Summary of how digital marketing approaches and goals correlate.



It’s important to interpret the data in Figure 6 correctly. Correlation means that two things occur together; it does not

mean that one thing caused the other. With that understanding, when the goal is growth of existing accounts, it is likely that all

approaches but mobile marketing are present. The branding goal, however, only correlates to two strategies: social media

marketing and inbound marketing.

This data represents current practices, not recommendations. For example, even though the new customer acquisition or

branding goals don’t correlate to search engine marketing or PPC, they probably should.

Figure 6, therefore, is probably best understood as a census of strategies in use for these goals.

12


8%

9%

33%

36%

37%

41%

49%

54%

55%

64%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80%

Other

None

Program ROI

Sales opportunities identified

Marketing Qualified Leads

Impressions

Revenue generated

Number of inquiries

Page views

Click-thrus

Digital Marketing Success Metrics

Figure 7: The most popular digital marketing metrics are also some of the easiest to track.

The most effective approach in Figure 5 is analytics. Any

strategy, ideally, has a set of metrics to indicate results.

Figure 6 shows the usage of some common metrics.

To manage any initiative, metrics are imperative, but

not all metrics are equal when it comes to linking

activity to results that matter. For example, click-thrus

and page views are both useful indicators of success.

However, they are measures of volume, not true revenue

impact. One of digital marketing’s advantages is the

ability to more precisely target specific markets and

customers. Clicks and page views are fine metrics as long

as they are coming from the right targets, but the value of

these metrics is low when not associated with a source.

Companies are much better served by metrics that show

how digital marketing is influencing target accounts, and in

turn, what revenue impact is occurring. Therefore, using

metrics that link marketing engagement to revenue is

critical when determining program ROI. However,

Figure 6 confirms that the metrics that provide

these indicators are less frequently used. 13

DIGITAL MARKETING METRICS


Perhaps the most important aspect of using metrics and having an analytics process is the cultural dimension. A

willingness to capture and use metrics for process improvement represents a commitment to show proof of measurable value.

Figure 8 contrasts the digital marketing effectiveness mean scores for each metric listed in Figure 6.

In this study, the relationship between the use of metrics and effectiveness was powerful: the use of every success

metric identified in Figure 6 was linked to greater digital marketing effectiveness. Even though some metrics are better

than others at showing true revenue impact, the use of any of these metrics leads to better digital marketing performance.

Impressions Number of

Inquiries Click-thrus Page Views

Marketing

Qualified

Leads

Sales

Opportunities

Identified

Program

ROI

Revenue

Generated

Effectiveness

Rating (when metric

is NOT in use)

3.45 3.33 3.21 3.38 3.37 3.43 3.43 3.34

Effectiveness

Rating (when metric

is NOT in use)

3.78 3.78 3.79 3.74 3.93 3.84 3.86 3.84

Figure 8: The use of metrics increases the digital marketing effectiveness rating by an average of .45 on a scale of 1 to 5 where 5 = Very effective.

DIGITAL MARKETING METRICS


Long before any form of digital marketing existed, a fundamental principle of marketing effectiveness was known: a better

understanding of chosen markets leads to more effective marketing to those markets. This study explored how well

participants claimed to know their target markets, and results appear in Figure 9.

Participant responses were almost exactly even between these two groups:

Low market understanding: those who reported no or just a basic understanding of their target markets.

High market understanding: those that reported a complete understanding of their target markets.

This even distribution serves as an excellent filter for comparing differences between these two groups, with the assumption that

the “High market understanding” (High) group should have better results, not just in digital marketing but other areas as well.

Figure 9: Target market understanding is evenly divided across low and high groups.

MARKET UNDERSTANDING

Understanding Percentage

Low Market Understanding 48%

High Market Understanding 52%


15

A better understanding of the ideal or target markets is related to some very important aspects of digital marketing. For example,

the study participants in the High group (56%) were more likely to track revenue generated as a metric, compared to those in the

Low group (43%). Better target market understanding leads to better understanding of revenue generated from those

markets through digital marketing.

Another key relationship exists between target market understanding and effectiveness using the solutions depicted in Figure 5.

Solution effectiveness was measured using a scale from 1 to 3 where 1 = Ineffective and 3 = Effective, as seen in Figure 10.

\\

The analysis presented in Figure 10 validates that the use of these solutions, individually or in combination, leads

to greater target market understanding.

Figure 10: The average effectiveness delta between the low and high understanding groups is .25 on this 3-point scale.


Solution Analytics Business

Intelligence

Content

Management CRM Lead Scoring

Marketing

Automation

Avg. Effectiveness of Low

Understanding Group 2.22 1.89 2.07 2.05 1.71 1.93

Avg. Effectiveness of High

Understanding Group 2.43 2.15 2.33 2.29 1.97 2.22


41%

59%

31%

69%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

Neutral to Ineffective Effective/Very effective

Digital Marketing Effectiveness

Low understanding group High understanding group

17

Another thing that this study’s data analysis confirms is that

better target market understanding is related to greater

digital marketing effectiveness.

Figure 11 illustrates this analysis.

Organizations experiencing revenue growth are much

more likely to also report higher digital marketing

effectiveness, as the relationship between them is

already strong.

Figure 11: Higher target market understanding leads to greater digital marketing effectiveness.



14%

37%

49%

10%

20%

70%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

Ineffective Neutral Effective

Digital Effectiveness & Revenue Growth

Declining or Flat Growth

18

Figure 12 illustrates the digital marketing effectiveness

differences between study participants that reported

declining or flat revenue, and those who reported revenue

growth during the most recently completed fiscal year.

What’s represented in Figure 9, Figure 11 and Figure 12

are interesting as standalone data elements, but they are

best viewed holistically: the use of the right tools and

solutions leads to a better target marketing

understanding.

That better understanding produces greater digital

marketing effectiveness, which in turn, leads to higher

revenue growth. It’s important to see the relationships in

this chain and not just one to the exclusion of the others.


Figure 12: Greater digital marketing effectiveness strongly influences revenue growth.


Most organizations have some strategy for targeting prospects in their chosen markets. In the B2B world, common

marketing targets include: companies by industry or vertical, prospects by job title, companies by size (measured either in

revenue or by number of employees), prospects by the department in which they work, specific “named” accounts, companies

based on geographic location or other targeting criteria. Since digital marketing provides the ability to target prospects with fairly

high levels of precision, this study attempted to determine which target markets are considered most important, and in which

targets participants invest the most marketing resources. The rankings of most important market targets and where investment

is greatest in reaching those market targets are summarized in Figure 13.

The discrepancy in Figure 13 rankings seems subtle. Just the first and second criteria are switched between what

participants report is the most important market targeting criterion and where they are making the greatest investment

of marketing resources to reach those targets. Simply put, you can’t have your highest priority outcome be less than the

highest priority in investment – in marketing or anything else – if priorities are in the right place.

Figure 13: The most important targeting criterion and the area of greatest marketing investment don’t match.

MARKET TARGETS

Prospect Title Companies by

Industry & Vertical Companies by Size

Prospect

Department Named Accounts

Companies by

Geography

Most Important 1 2 3 4 5 6

Greatest Investment 2 1 3 4 5 6


When viewing how study participants rank market targets using the market understanding groups from Figure 8, the

low target market understanding group ranks “Prospect job title” as the top targeting criteria while the high target

market understanding group ranks “Companies by industry/vertical” as the top targeting criteria.

This difference between the low and high target market understanding groups may also seem subtle, but it represents a

profound difference of understanding. Prospect job titles are the input to persona development. Personas are powerful and

highly recommended marketing tools, but they are far more valuable for guiding content development than as

targeting criteria for sales or overall B2B marketing programs.

Unless that prospect title is CEO, rarely does a single person have all decision-making authority, so targeting by prospect title is

incomplete. For this reason, the high target market understanding group has the right perspective on targeting: at the

company level.

MARKET TARGETS

20

10%

22%

23%

24%

35%

42%

44%

50%

0% 20% 40% 60%

Other

Named account(s)

None

Company geography

Prospect department

Company size

Prospect title

Company industry/vertical

Lead Scoring Criteria

21

In an ideal world, lead scoring practices would match

targeting criteria. This study, however, found they do not.

Figure 14 shows the target qualifications that participants

are using for lead scoring, if they are doing it at all.

The data in Figure 14 suggests some further lack of

integration in the targeting and investment priorities from

Figure 13, and the lead scoring.

Ideally, the same criteria would occupy the top position

in each of these rankings, and that is not the case.

What participants said was most important – prospect title –

is not the top priority for either investment or lead scoring.

Marketers should first ensure they’re using the right or

best criteria, and then prioritize its use and investment

around those criteria.

MARKET TARGETS


Figure 14: Almost one-fourth of study participants are not using lead scoring criteria.

2%

3%

9%

11%

13%

24%

38%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40%

Other

SMB segment

Enterprise segment

Geographies

Named account lists/targets

Industries or vertical markets

Individual prospect types/buyerpersonas

Long-Term Increase in Focus of Digital Marketing

22

Ironically, targeting individual prospect types or buyers

personas is the area of highest projected increase in

long-term focus, as Figure 15 portrays.

The Demand Metric view is that the greater focus

should be on companies, either by industry, vertical or

named account. Prospect type or buyer persona then

becomes one of multiple, secondary, targeting criteria.

Figure 15: The focus on individual prospect types and/or buyer personas will increase the

most long-term.

MARKET TARGETS


As Figure 3 depicts, there are many strategies available to the digital marketer. Almost all of them rely on content to

fuel their effectiveness, either directly or indirectly via a link.

Because of the close relationship between content and digital marketing, the study survey asked participants to share which of

the following factors are considered during the content creation process.

Thought leadership: content based on broad industry awareness.

Business needs-based: content focused on specific business needs and solutions.

Industry or company-based: content based on industries or specific, targeted companies.

Sales-driven: sales enablement content such as ROI calculators or vendor comparisons.

User profile or persona-based: content based on ideal/target users or buyer personas.

Product-based: product descriptive content, brochures and guides.

These content creation factors are summarized in Figure 16, on the next page.

MARKET TARGETS

23

34%

41%

45%

46%

55%

61%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80%

Product-based

User profile or persona-based

Sales-driven

Industry or company-based

Business needs-based

Thought leadership

Content Creation Factors

24

One of these content creation factors – User profile or

persona-based – was related to digital marketing

effectiveness. This relationship seems to reflect the

main axiom of creating content: know your audience.

While using personas isn’t recommended as the primary

market targeting criteria, it is absolutely the first and most

important consideration when creating content. Using

personas in the creation process helps that content

enjoy maximum relevancy and usefulness to its

intended audience.

Figure 16: Over half the study’s participants consider business needs and thought leadership in

their content creation process.

MARKET TARGETS


32%

25%

16%

11%

9%

3%

4%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40%

Unaware

Aware, not using

Aware, considering using

Piloting ABM

Running some ABMcampaigns

Running many ABMcampaigns

ABM is primary digitalapproach

Account-Based Marketing Awareness & Use

25

Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is a digital marketing

approach that focuses on targeting and marketing to

specific companies or segments based on their

business attributes, such as industry, size, revenue,

geography account status or other criteria. Recent

technology advances have accelerated the adoption of

ABM in B2B environments.

ABM works on the premise that most purchase decisions

are not made by individuals, but buying centers, and

therefore it’s important to target all members of the buying

center. ABM uses technology like IP-based targeting to help

marketers reach buying centers in the accounts or

companies where they work.

This study investigated the awareness of ABM and how

well it is working for those that are using it. Figure 17

summarizes current ABM awareness.

Figure 17: Over two-thirds of study participants are aware of ABM, and over one-fourth have

begun using it to some degree.

ACCOUNT-BASED MARKETING


3.37

3.58

3.82

3.1

3.2

3.3

3.4

3.5

3.6

3.7

3.8

3.9

Unaware Aware, not using Using ABM

Account-Based Marketing & Digital Effectiveness

26

How is the use of ABM influencing overall digital marketing

effectiveness?

A significant relationship was discovered when analyzing

the ABM awareness data from Figure 17 with the digital

marketing effectiveness data used in Figure 11.

The results of this analysis are displayed in Figure 18.

The inescapable conclusion from the data in Figure 18

is that ABM directly or indirectly contributes to greater

digital marketing effectiveness. Directly through its use,

and indirectly through the level of digital marketing

sophistication and prowess is implied by simply knowing

what it is.

Figure 18: Even just awareness of ABM correlated to greater digital marketing effectiveness.

Effectiveness was measured on a scale from 1 to 5 where 5 = Very effective.


ACCOUNT-BASED MARKETING

4%

14%

19%

25%

25%

28%

32%

35%

37%

39%

42%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%

Other challenges

Difficulty integrating with key systems

Difficulty selecting optimal channel mix

Ability to market to prospects in real-time

Difficulty measuring ROI

Cost

Conversion rates

Developing effective content or creative

Ability to precisely target prospects

Ability to better track & measure results

Lack of staff, technology, resources

Digital Marketing Challenges

Figure 19: Lack of staff, technology and other resources are a perennial challenge for marketers.

27

Even with the many benefits and conveniences of digital

marketing, it is not without it’s challenges.

This study attempted to catalog the current challenges

digital marketers are facing, and the summary of their input

is presented in Figure 19.

Virtually every challenge identified in Figure 19 has a

solution in technology. One study participant, however,

offered this comment that seems to represent the views of

many: “analytics tools are too pricey.”

Whether the solution is an analytics tool or some other

technology, vendors need to help their prospective

customers make the business case for solutions that

measurably improve their performance and effectiveness.

Marketers, in turn, need to embrace the value of

showing the ROI for the investments they wish to

make. When they do and do it well, they’ll find very few

of their funding requests get denied.

DIGITAL MARKETING CHALLENGES


ANALYST BOTTOM LINE

Digital marketing isn’t new, but there’s always something new going on in digital marketing. One of its advantages has always

been the agility that digital marketing solutions and approaches provide, helping marketers move much faster than

traditional media to build brands and generate leads.

To be a proficient digital marketer also requires agility to discover, learn, test, deploy and exploit the vast and constantly

evolving array of solutions and approaches. That same agility is required to quickly retire methods that lose effectiveness and

move on to something better.

This study confirms some of what marketers know is true about digital marketing, challenges some assumptions and provides new

insight. To have digital marketing work as well as it can, marketers need to focus on these principles:

Set goals. It’s easy to think of digital marketing as a panacea, and it can do many things well. It’s for this very reason that digital

marketing goals are imperative. Without them, digital marketers risk having their efforts diffused because of lack of focus. Set

specific goals, and revisit them regularly to ensure that the goals and the results are still relevant. Your approach to digital

marketing should not be “one size fits all goals.”

Go multi-channel. Few digital marketers in the modern era use just a single channel, as this study shows. Most marketers use

multiple channels, and too often their selection is based on what’s easy or familiar. This results in a suboptimal or uncoordinated

channel mix. Do use multiple channels, but wisely. Make sure every channel is aligned with a goal and that its use

complements, not conflicts, with other channels. Optimize the entire channel mix, not just each channel in isolation.

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ANALYST BOTTOM LINE

Target wisely. Today’s digital marketing approaches provide the ability to precisely target an audience. While this capability

provides many advantages, it can erroneously lead to a belief that narrower targeting criteria are better. In reality, few individuals

in B2B organizations are solely responsible for purchase consideration and decisions. Digital marketers need to understand the

customer journey, because most of the time, it involves several players in a company. This is why targeting and lead scoring

at the company level instead of the prospect level produces greater digital marketing effectiveness.

Measure. Any marketing initiative should have measurements to track and manage performance, particularly digital marketing

because the data is often easily obtained. While some metrics are better than others at showing how marketing efforts

influence revenue, the use of any of the metrics in this study all were linked to greater digital marketing effectiveness.

Keep up. Things evolve very quickly in the digital marketing solutions space. Marketers cannot drag their feet on staying current

with new solutions for digital marketing, because the biggest advantages often go to the early adopters, those who are quick to

exploit something new before the rest of the marketing herd follows. In this study, even awareness of Account-Based

Marketing is an indicator of how effective an organization is when it comes to the digital marketing.

Digital marketing is not the same today as it was yesterday, and by tomorrow it will have evolved into something different. What

won’t change is the definition of success for digital marketing: it’s not measured by volume, but results. The principles

presented here will help organizations steer the right course for their digital marketing efforts, keeping efforts aligned with goals.

29

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Demand Metric is grateful to Demandbase for sponsoring this benchmarking study and for those participants that took the time to

provide their input to it.

Demand Metric acknowledges the advice and assistance of Dr. Tom Brown, Noble Foundation Chair in Marketing Strategy and

Professor of Marketing in the Spears School of Business at Oklahoma State University, in facilitating and providing counsel on

the analysis of these survey results.

30

ABOUT DEMANDBASE

Demandbase is the first targeting and personalization platform for B2B, transforming the effectiveness of marketing programs and

marketing’s ability to impact revenue.

While personalization tools have long existed for B2C, until now, none were geared specifically to enable B2B marketers to make

online interactions more effective, delivering the right message at the right time. Demandbase’s patented identification technology

bridges the gap between known and anonymous web visitors by identifying and segmenting the companies visiting a website, and

providing detailed, targetable business attributes in real-time.

Demandbase integrates with other sales and marketing technologies to deliver unique intelligence about web visitors, and better

attract, convert and retain the right customers. Enterprise leaders and high-growth companies alike use Demandbase to drive

better marketing performance.

For more information, visit www.demandbase.com.

31

http://www.demandbase.com/

ABOUT DEMAND METRIC

Demand Metric is a marketing research and advisory firm serving a membership community of over 50,000 marketing

professionals and consultants in 75 countries.

Offering consulting methodologies, advisory services, and 500+ premium marketing tools and templates, Demand Metric

resources and expertise help the marketing community plan more efficiently and effectively, answer the difficult questions about

their work with authority and conviction and complete marketing projects more quickly and with greater confidence, boosting the

respect of the marketing team and making it easier to justify resources the team needs to succeed.

To learn more about Demand Metric, please visit: www.demandmetric.com.

32

http://www.demandmetric.com/

APPENDIX – SURVEY BACKGROUND

This Demand Metric Benchmark Study survey was administered online during the period of October 2, 2014 through October 24,

2014. During this period, 268 responses were collected, 239 of which were complete enough for inclusion in the analysis. The

data was analyzed using SPSS to ensure the statistical validity of the findings. The representativeness of these results depends

on the similarity of the sample to environments in which this survey data is used for comparison or guidance.

Summarized below is the basic categorization data collected about respondents to enable filtering and analysis of the data:

Annual Sales:

$10 million or less (62%)

$11 to $25 million (6%)

$26 to $100 million (14%)

$101 to $500 million (8%)

$501 million to $1 billion (3%)

Over $1 billion (7%)

Type of Organization:

Mostly or entirely B2B (63%)

Mostly or entirely B2C (17%)

Blend of B2B/B2C (20%)

Primary Role of Respondent:

President, CEO or Owner (21%)

Marketing (61%)

Sales (5%)

Other (13%)

33

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London, ON, Canada N6A 3R5


Benchmark Report


2015 digital marketing benchmark report

Marketing

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accountbased marketing

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