The main concern of companies is the generation of leads; the search and capture of quality contacts. This is reflected in the State of Digital Marketing 2012 report, published by Webmarketing 123, which reflects the point of view of 500 professionals from prestigious companies internationally, such as Sony, Microsoft, Fedex or Nestlé; where they highlight what online marketing strategies work. From this study we also extract the following conclusions:
For 54% of the respondents, the fundamental objective that appears in a preferential place in their B2B digital marketing program is the attraction of potential clients interested in the sector.The most effective way to achieve this goal is through SEO, although Social Media is gaining ground, mainly against the actions of pay per click. In the case of these companies, SEO is practiced mainly at home, although the presence of external agencies is gaining ground; at the same time an increase in the budget for this item is foreseen.
Do it yourself
Despite the fact that most companies put into practice the policy of Juan Palomo: “I stew it, I eat it”, in terms of the management of its online marketing strategy, the satisfaction index on the effectiveness of external companies is higher, specifically double, than that of those who do everything at home; for SEO, SEM and Social Media.
Companies bet on a winning horse: Social Media
Companies believe strongly in Social Media, the percentage of companies that rely on its effectiveness is overwhelming, including almost all participants in the survey. Facebook is the social network that takes the biggest budget cut, whether it is B2B strategies or those that go directly to the end customer. If we talk about initiatives aimed at ordinary citizens, companies invest 65% of their budget in Mr. Zuckemberg’s network. It is followed by Linkedin, occupying a third of the total, especially in initiatives aimed at other companies, and Twitter in the case of B2C.
The great unfinished business: interpreting statistics
Measuring and optimizing the Return on Investment is the heavy burden dragged by all companies. 70% of them confess to being unable to analyze the ROI of their SEO strategy; whereas in Social Media, marketing professionals do not know how to measure the impact of their investment in social networks. It is an intangible, ambiguous world, where it is not easy to perform exact attributions. However, in the case of pay per click it is relatively simpler; The metrics make it possible to determine with greater certainty the relationship between the user’s click and the purchase action.
In short, companies rely on the effectiveness of digital marketing,it still remains to define a concrete strategy, where it is especially important to establish clear objectives, and to optimize the conversion funnel; In order that they can maximize their investment and measure the result of their work.