The Shift to Social Media - Section 2 of the White Paper

The following post is taken from the soon to be released white paper entitled: The Effect of the Great Recession and the Rise of Social Media on Sales & Marketing Integration 

THE SHIFT TO SOCIAL MEDIA //

The migration towards the “connected” world can be witnessed by the millions of individuals flooding to sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. This has in turn created a robust cache of potential customers for marketers to interact with and engage. Indeed widespread social media use pervades much of the B2B space as a recent Forrester Research piece outlines how B2B buyers have very high social participation and provides relevant statistics such as the fact that 88% of decision makers at business technology firms use social media for business decision-making[i].

As Figure 1 demonstrates, recent statistics reveal that marketers, in large numbers, are following prospects and customers into the digital and social media world for two primary reasons[ii]:

·       Prospects and customers have exhibited a desire to use these platforms.

·       Recent economic conditions have made this targeted and inexpensive marketing method very appealing to marketing and sales forces with declining budgets.

As evidence of the depth to which “The Great Recession” has slashed marketing budgets, in a survey in 2009, 75% of B2B marketers reported a decrease in their budgets, while 67% of marketers complained of being expected to do more with less by driving higher sales with these diminished budgets[iii]. 

Figure 2 demonstrates the degree to which average total advertising expenditure has decreased from 2007 to 2009 as a result of smaller marketing budgets. In addition, the figure reveals the shift in focus of this advertising spend away from traditional forms of marketing in favor of the internet and online media. Despite budget cuts, the recession has actually accelerated the adoption of social media marketing as companies have increasingly turned to social media as an inexpensive, measurable and direct method over traditional approaches.

---

[i] Burris, Peter, Josh Bernoff, Bradford J. Holmes, and Zachary Reiss-Davis. The Social Technographics of Business Buyers. Rep. Forrester Research, February 20, 2009.

[ii]The B-to-B Marketing Leadership Study”. American Business Media, Association of National Advertisers, and Booz & Co. August 2010. 

[iii] Maddox, Katie. "Survey Finds Budget Cuts Easing." BtoB Magazine 14 Sept. 2009: 1+. Print.

The Effect of the Great Recession and the Rise of Social Media on Sales and Marketing Integration

Yes, I know it is a mouthful.   For the past three months we have been researching how those two simultaneous events have impacted sales and marketing.  The recession, and its downward pressure on marketing spend, and the increased adoption of social media both by B2B customers and organizations.
The research is now complete and is being packaged into a white paper which will be the second in our Channel Insights series.  Over the next several weeks I will post various sections of the paper.   Today I've posted the executive summary to give you a preview of what is to come.

Executives Summary 

Business-to-Business organizations have often struggled to fully integrate sales and marketing; whether it is merely speaking the same language or adequately aligning against common goals, the two groups have often operated independently of each other despite the fact that success, more often than not, is predicated on their collaboration.

Two recent events have heightened the need to align these two groups. First, the recession has caused organizations to be more precise with their investments, making it more difficult for marketers to procure and defend their budgets, and for sales, to find buyers. 

Second, the adoption and utilization of social media platforms is providing marketers with a low cost opportunity to interact directly with customers and track their success. For sales, this means a new vehicle for gaining insight into customer buying behavior and understanding the influencer network. For marketing, this has elevated their role in helping convert identified leads to customers and provided the opportunity to manage ‘back-end’ customer relationships.

The imminent question is: How should corporations respond to these recent economic and technology trends and use new competitive advantages that increase sales, build brand equity and customers’ loyalty, and reduce costs?

The key lesson? Despite social media offering the potential to deliver an insightful customer experience with meaningful business impact, failure to properly integrate sales and marketing leaves organizations at risk of being more disconnected than ever before.