Tag: social media marketing research

Some people in the industry are still not entirely convinced about the benefits that it brings.

According to an analyst from Forrester Research, even though social media marketing has been around for almost a decade, many marketers are still questioning its benefits and there are still more who feel that their campaigns are failing than succeeding.

The analyst, Nate Elliott, published this statement in his most recent report, at a time when the channel has never been bigger.

This has caused many to ask questions regarding what is making social media marketing so difficult to use in a successful way. There were many different responses that were provided in the Forrester study, ranging from budget to return on investment and a number of other areas. It is clear that there are many different means by which to decide whether or not a campaign has been successful, and a standard has not yet been created.

Social media marketing has a number of challenges that are making marketers feel uncertain.

Within the Forrester study, participants were asked to identify their top three challenges when it came to social media marketing. The answer provided a number of different areas, including the following:

• ROI (38 percent)
• Measurement (35 percent)
• Lack of internal resources, such as workers (34 percent)
• Lack of budget (25 percent)
• Integrating social media marketing with other channels (24 percent)
• Lack of time (23 percent)

The social media marketing industry doesn’t typically enjoy focusing on the struggles that businesses and brands are continuing to experience in its use. However, at the same time, the challenges are not suggesting that the channel is not worthwhile. Instead, it merely indicates that the channel is not a magical cure for all advertising and promotion issues that have been seen in other areas. It has reached a time in which it is being recognized as a useful, but not perfect way to connect with consumers, as is the case with virtually every other mature marketing channel. Furthermore, it still remains very unique from any other method of reaching consumers, which means that there is still a learning curve for applying it properly.

The size of budgets designated to reach smartphone and tablet users is expected to climb.

According to a recent survey, the percentage of overall advertising budgets that is expected to be designated for social media marketing, specifically with smartphone using consumers in mind, is expected to explode.

This was reported in the latest CMO Survey, which looked into the types of spending within the budgets.

The survey involved the participation of chief marketing officers of various firms, who reported that they are currently spending an average of 8.4 percent of their overall budgets toward social media marketing. However, within the next year, that number is expected to climb to 11.5 percent of the budgets.

In 5 years, social media marketing will make up 21.6 percent of the budgets, said the survey.

This shift in the way that the funds are being spent and in the importance of social media marketing is expected to become a primary topic in advertising and technology circles. According to the CMO Survey director, Christine Moorman, “Companies are searching for novel ways to interact with their customers that will drive the growth of their companies. Unfortunately, marketers are behind the curve with their current levels of social media expenditure, given the amount of time customers spend engaged with one another and with companies online.”

The research, said Moorman, involved the participation of 468 American marketing execs who identified social media marketing as one of the most important areas for increased spending. These results, she said, show that the importance of this channel is now being heavily recognized. She also pointed out that some of the largest spending increases in this area are expected to take place in some of the business-to-consumer sector giants, such as Coca-Cola and Proctor & Gamble.

The survey showed that among companies of this nature, social media marketing spending will rise from an average 9.6 percent of the budget at the moment, to 24.6 percent of the budget in five years from now.

In Moorman’s news release, she stated that companies are still trying to figure out how to be able to measure the efficacy of their social media marketing campaigns.