tribalvision marketing strategy outlook report

Marketing Strategy Outlook ReportWhat marketing success will look like in the year ahead, and how marketers plan to achieve it.

Client Connection Research™ conducted by Ascend2 in partnership with TribalVision

Introduction 3

What Marketing Success Will Look Like 4

How (Average) Marketers Plan to Achieve it 16

How Sales Channel Influences Strategies and Tactics 26

How Company Size Influences Strategies and Tactics 38

Actionable Advice for Developing a Superior Strategy 50

About TribalVision 51

About Ascend2 51

To better understand what marketing success will look like in the year ahead and how marketers

plan to achieve it, TribalVision is pleased to present the Marketing Strategy Outlook Report.

Through our partnership with Ascend2, a Boston based marketing research firm, we conducted

a Client Connection Research™ survey online titled the Marketing Strategy Outlook Survey. The

survey was completed by 456 respondents from a panel of more than 50,000 US and international

business leaders, marketing executives and practitioners representing a range of roles, company

sizes, regions and industry segments. Survey findings were examined in a quantitative context by

experienced analysts and reported objectively.

As an outsourced marketing department focused on providing practical and actionable insights for

our clients and friends, we hope you find this useful and applicable to improving your organization’s

marketing function.

Chris CiunciChief Executive Officer

TribalVision

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What Marketing Success Will Look Like

The difference between a Superior Strategyand an Inferior Strategy is effectiveness

To determine what marketing success will look like in the year ahead, we needed to identify the most successfulmarketing organizations responding to this survey. Performance criteria, based on the effectiveness of marketingto accomplish objectives, is used to differentiate between companies with a Superior Strategy and those with anInferior Strategy.

The highest performers (21% of respondents rated Very Effective) are identified in the following pages of this section as having a Superior Strategy. The lowest performers (11% of respondents rated Somewhat or Very Ineffective) are identified as having an Inferior Strategy.

In the charts that follow, the disparity between the objectives, challenges and tactics of those companies with aSuperior Strategy and their Inferior Strategy counterparts is clear. These benchmarks are provided to show youwhat marketing success will look like, and how those companies with a Superior Strategy plan to achieve it.

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Optimizing the conversion rate ofleads is the number one objective of a Superior Strategy

A clear distinction between companies with a Superior or Inferior Strategy is how ambitious their objectives are. Conversion rate optimization ranks as the most difficultmarketing tactic to execute in every segment except for companies with a SuperiorStrategy, which makes increasing conversions a very ambitious objective.

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Limited marketing budgets and staff are themost challenging obstacles to overcome

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Measurement of traffic,leads and their rate of conversion are Superior Strategy requirements

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Following email, the inbound tactics of content creation and organic search top effectiveness

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While content creation is the second most effective tactic, it is the most difficult to execute

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How (Average) Marketers Plan to Achieve it

Increasing lead conversions and lead quality top the average marketer’s list of objectives

The charts in this section reflect the average of all responses to the survey. Whilethere is no such thing as an “average” company or marketing situation in real life,this data is useful for comparing the average response to other segments reported in this study.

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Behind budget limitations, measuring marketing performance is the next obstacle to overcome

MARKETING STRATEGY OUTLOOK REPORT 19

16%

19%

23%

23%

24%

26%

32%

37%

45%

Formulating a marketing strategy

Executing marketing tactics

Identifying buyer personas

Automating marketing processes

Articulating a value proposition

Aligning marketing and sales

Marketing staff limitations

Measuring marketing performance

Marketing budget limitations

Which are the MOST CHALLENGING MARKETING OBSTACLES for your company to overcome?

Sur

Ascend2 Marketing Strategy Outlook Survey Fielded Jan 2013, N=456

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Website traffic continues to be the key metric to measure in today’s web-centric marketing world

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For the average marketer, email outperforms all other outbound and inbound marketing tactics

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Conversion rate optimization requires testingcapabilities beyond that of the average marketer

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How Sales Channel Influences Strategies and Tactics

Quantity and quality of businessleads, and converting consumerleads are top objectives

A key difference between sales channels is the length and complexity of purchase decisions. Businesses often have long, complex cycles involving a number of decision-makers and influencers, while consumer decisions are often routine andmade by an individual. An alternative chart legend could be complex sale versus direct sale.

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B2B and B2C marketers agree, a limited budget is the most challenging obstacle to overcome

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Awareness is a key objective but the least often measured by both B2B and B2C marketers

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The greatest disparity in effectiveness between channels is content, lead management and PPC

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Social media is most difficult for B2C channel, and both channels find CRO difficult to execute

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B2C companies are more likely to rate their marketing efforts “very effective” than are B2B

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How Company Size Influences Strategies and Tactics

For small companies, the goal is lead volume while medium companies focus on ROI and CRO

The charts in this section segment responses by company size: Small Co. (Fewer than100 employees), Medium Co. (100 to 1,000 employees) and Large Co. (More than1,000 employees). “Agility” is often a distinguishing factor in marketing strategies. The smaller the company, the more agile and able to quickly adapt to changes.

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Marketing/sales alignment and gauging performance are most challenging obstacles for large companies

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While small companies are measuring traffic, large companies are analyzing retention metrics

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Mobile’s bottom rankingwill rise as the adoption ofmobile marketing tactics and best practices increases

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Social media, CRO and content creation top the tactical difficulty chart forcompanies of all sizes

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When it comes to the highest ranking in marketing effectiveness, medium size companies are superior

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Actionable Advice for Developing a Superior Strategy

A Superior Strategy is the goal, and developingone begins with a marketing SWOT analysis

This research was conducted tohelp marketers develop a SuperiorStrategy for effectively achievingtheir marketing objectives. Theprocess begins with a SWOT analysis of your company’s marketing program by applying the questions asked in this surveyto your company, then comparing it to the SWOTs of companies with a Superior Strategy (right).

Tact

ical

Strengths Weaknesses Most Effective Tactics Used Most Difficult Tactics to Execute

1. Email Marketing 2. Content Creation 3. Organic Search (SEO) 4. Lead Management 5. Social Media Marketing

1. Content Creation 2. Social Media Marketing 3. Conversion Rate Optimization 4. Mobile Marketing 5. Blogs / Blogging

Stra

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c

Opportunities Threats Most Important Objectives to Achieve Most Challenging Obstacles to Overcome

1. Increase lead conversion rate 2. Improve awareness or reputation 3. Increase quantity of sales leads 4. Increase quality of sales leads 5. Increase customer retention

1. Marketing budget limitations 2. Marketing staff limitations 3. Identifying buyer personas 4. Measuring marketing performance 5. Automating marketing processes

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About TribalVisionTribalVision is a marketing consulting firm whose mission is to help small to midsize businesses marketsmarter. As a marketing department for hire, TribalVision is a flexible, cost-effective alternative to the traditional marketing solutions available to the global business community. TribalVision offers its clientsmarketing strategy development, channel-mix optimization, tactics implementation, and executive leadership services. TribalVision is transforming the traditional marketing landscape by focusing on interactive e-marketing channels that often cost less, deliver more and are more measurable versus thestandard suite of channels that have been broken for quite some time.

About Ascend2Ascend2 partners with marketing services providers (agency, consultancy, marketing SaaS) to acquirenew clients using an integrated research, content creation and demand generation process. Engineeredspecifically for marketing services providers, this process quantifies the performance of marketing programs, industry-wide and individually, enabling the analysis of a potential client’s marketing situationagainst industry norms.

Ascend2 conducts its research independently, relying on peer reviews and contributed insights from research underwriters that add value and relevancy to the findings. The insights provided by our underwriting partners are for consideration only and are scrutinized to maintain the integrity and validityof the research and content produced by Ascend2.

www.TribalVision.com