Move Over Leads: Customer Engagement, Retention and Advocacy are the New Critical Contributors Impacting Revenue

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Oct 06, 2014, 03:26 ET

5 big trends for the future of customer marketing: New benchmark research from Influitive and Demand Metric

TORONTO, Oct. 6, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Traditionally, customer marketing has been an under-funded, under-valued and under-appreciated function on the marketing team, especially compared to its counterparts such as demand generation and content marketing. Today, however, new benchmark research released by Influitive, the advocate marketing experts, reveals that customer marketing is becoming increasingly important.

The study, developed in conjunction with global marketing research and advisory firm Demand Metric, identifies five big trends for the future of customer marketing and how it can help generate scalable, repeatable revenue from existing customers:

1. Customer marketing is on the rise.

Formerly a "backwater" of the marketing organization, customer marketing is on the rise: 84 percent of the participants in this study say customer marketing will become more important over the next year, and 69 percent plan to increase their investment in customer marketing staff, budget or other resources.

2. Here's why: customer marketing is key to achieving revenue goals.

Almost every organization in this study affirmed the importance of customer marketing as a strategy for achieving revenue goals, even though just half were satisfied or very satisfied with the results of their current efforts.

3. Not all customer marketing efforts are equally effective.

Although more organizations report using tactics such as customer events, reference programs and communities, those that emphasize customer satisfaction programs, customer referral programs and renewal campaigns – the three least frequently used activities by the full survey sample – are actually realizing a greater revenue impact from their efforts.

4. Customer marketing success results in greater customer satisfaction.

Those companies whose customer marketing efforts result in moderate to significant revenue impact are almost twice as likely to report customer satisfaction at the highest level. In contrast, those companies whose Customer Marketing efforts produce no or minor revenue impact are more than twice as likely to report customer satisfaction at neutral or worse.

5. For better performance, bring it all together with a customer advocacy program.

Demand Metric Chief Analyst Jerry Rackley recommends creating a customer advocacy program built around the customer marketing activities that generate the greatest revenue impact, namely customer satisfaction and referral programs, and ongoing engagement to ensure renewals.

"We know from this study that most organizations feel that Customer Marketing is an important strategy for achieving revenue goals," explains Rackley. "However, just under half are satisfied or very satisfied with the results of their current efforts. There is plenty of room for improvement, and the study provides compelling reasons for investing in making customer marketing perform better. The value of this benchmark study is that it identifies some best practices that will help organizations get a real revenue impact from their Customer Marketing efforts."

The Customer Marketing Benchmark Research report is now available to download here.

About Influitive

Influitive, the advocate marketing experts, is based in Toronto with offices in Menlo Park and Boston. Today's buyers are increasingly leveraging their peers' opinions and Influitive helps marketers tap into this force with its innovative AdvocateHub platform and Maven mobile app. By capturing the enthusiasm of their best customers, followers and evangelists, marketers gain direct support for their sales and marketing programs. From social media reviews and customer referrals to case studies and references, passionate advocate help support all stages of the buying cycle. Influitive's customers include some of most successful and fastest-growing business-to-business software and technology firms in the world.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20141006/150477-INFO

SOURCE Influitive