Focus.com Issues 2011 Marketers' Benchmarking Survey
Social Media and E-mail Cited by Marketers as Most Effective Tools
SAN FRANCISCO, June 8, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Building brand and acquiring leads remain the two core goals of today's marketer, but social media and E-mail have moved to the forefront of the tactical approaches to achieving these goals according to the 2011 Marketers' Benchmarking Survey issued by Focus.com, the leading community for business expertise, with more than 1 million members and over 5,000 business and technology experts.
The Marketers' Benchmark Survey was designed by Focus.com to capture marketers' top concerns, priorities and strategic investments for the coming 12 months. It also asks respondents to identify top performing channels and content types. The survey is completed by marketing professionals who respond to an online invitation sent to a registered list of Focus members. Respondents then answer questions using an online survey tool.
The following were identified as the key challenges, trends and priorities in the survey:
- Marketers are prioritizing investment in social media as the way to meet their goals, and over the next 12 months, increasing investment in social media-related technologies, including social monitoring, campaign management tools, and analytics
- E-mail is still the top performing marketing channel in terms of return on investment (ROI).
- In today's customer-centric climate, marketers are embracing social media as central to effectively engaging and understanding the consumer.
- Although marketers identify their top challenge in 'doing more with less,' 50 percent of businesses surveyed in this study are increasing their marketing department's budget over the next 12 months (compared to only 16 percent decreasing).
"Based on these survey responses, it's clear that social media marketing is 'top of mind' for today's marketing professional," said Scott Albro, chief executive officer of Focus. "Whether through investing in new campaigns or programs using Twitter, creating a blog, adopting social media monitoring/ analytics software, or hiring personnel to serve these channels, businesses of all types and sizes are definitely focusing on the "social" in their marketing strategies this year.
The data compiled in the "2011 Marketers' Benchmarking Report" is based on a sample of surveys that were administered online, and was collected between late April and early May 2011. Respondents represented companies of all sizes and industries and were drawn from the membership at Focus.com. For the complete survey, please visit: http://www.focus.com/research/marketing/focus-survey-results-marketers-benchmark-report-2011/
To access instructions on how to register as a Focus business expert, as well as gain access to the latest business research and expertise on the Focus network as a member, please visit www.focus.com.
About Focus.com
Focus.com is the leading online business professional network that consists of two interconnected groups – a membership base of more than 1 million business professionals and the highly-acclaimed Focus Expert Network, which features more than 5,000 of the most-recognized business and technology experts across every business category. Focus.com is ad-supported and entirely free to join. Within its engaged business community, members interact with each other and Focus experts to make more-informed business decisions.
To become a Focus expert, the Focus.com staff conducts an evaluation of the background and credentials of each candidate in their respective industry. In addition to free access to world-class business advice, Focus.com also offers real-time Q&A, industry research, relevant product and service information and personalized support. For more information, and to register to become a member or Focus expert, please visit http://www.focus.com/.
Media Contact:
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SOURCE Focus.com
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