| Survey Reveals CRM practitioners Have Been Slow to Embrace Social Networking
SugarCRM, a customer relationship management (CRM) company, announced the results of its 2010 Social CRM Survey. The poll's results reinforced the notion that in the year 2010, CRM practitioners have been slow to embrace social. Those that have chosen to take advantage of this new technology have enjoyed a competitive advantage in the market and a considerable return on investment, placing them firmly ahead of their challengers.
Survey Results
- 42 percent of respondents said LinkedIn is where they most often interact with or research customers and prospects, while 32 percent listed Facebook and 14 percent listed Twitter.
- 50 percent of respondents said yes, social networks have helped their business become more successful in the last 12 months.
- Only 26 percent of respondents said they currently integrate their customers' social networking information with their existing CRM data.
- 72 percent of respondents said they plan to integrate their customers' social networking information into their existing CRM data within the next year.
After reviewing the results, the discrepancies among the responses become obvious. Over half of those polled indicated that social networks have helped their business become more successful, yet only 26 percent of respondents currently utilize this priceless social network information.
According to the survey, 2011 will bring much change to the CRM market; virtually all of the respondents agreed that over the course of the new year they planned to integrate their customers' social networking information into their existing CRM data. While nearly half of all respondents stated that having social CRM capabilities would impact their decision-making when purchasing their company's next CRM system, it's clear that social CRM will become a staple in the market by 2012.
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Cloud Adoption Triggering Fundamental Changes in Mid-Market and SMB
The results of a December survey of 1,000 North American mid-market and small businesses examines their adoption of cloud-based information technologies. The research was performed by MarketBridge, a provider of technology-enabled Marketing & Sales Managed Services and Solutions. Among the initial findings are:
- Migration to the "Cloud" is Accelerating: 44% of companies claim to have at least one business application on the cloud and over 70% indicate they will move more within the next 12 months
- Mobility Drives Cloud Migration: 38% of respondents indicated that the need to support greater workforce mobility is a trigger for cloud adoption
- Early Adopters are Growth Companies: Companies growing >10% per year were nearly twice as likely to move software and infrastructure to the cloud
- Marketing, Sales Most Accepted Cloud Applications: While 36% of companies using marketing automation do so via the cloud, and 29% of CRM is cloud-deployed, >49% of companies are planning to move one or more of these applications to the cloud within 12 months
- Private Cloud Networks Preferred: 52% of respondents preferred to deploy on some sort of "private cloud" as oppose to multi-tenant public clouds
- Better Security Becoming a Cloud Asset: 48% of respondents believed that data security would actually be better on the cloud, recognizing the investment and expertise needed to establish and maintain secure computing environments
- 3rd Party Channels Remain Critical: 67% of respondents preferred to purchase software applications through a 3rd party value-added managed service provider; this appears to be due to a need for both higher service levels and functional expertise.
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Marketing Trends Survey Reveals Positive Economic Outlook for 2011
StrongMail a provider of marketing solutions for email marketing and social media, announced the results of its "2011 Marketing Trends" survey, which provides unique insight into how businesses plan to budget and prioritize marketing dollars in 2011.
According to the survey, half of businesses plan to increase their marketing budgets in 2011, and another 43% plan to maintain current levels. Only 7% of respondents plan to decrease marketing budgets, a significant improvement over the 11% reported in last year's survey. Despite budget increases, respondents indicated a lack of resources/staff to be the biggest email marketing challenge in 2011, representing a potential demand for outsourced marketing services. Integration with customer data and email deliverability rounded out the top three email marketing challenges for 2011.
Email and Social Media Lead the Pack; Direct Mail and Tradeshows Face Cuts
Email marketing (65%) and social media (57%) will be the top areas of investment in 2011, followed by Search (41%). Direct Mail (36%) and Tradeshows/Events (33%) are the top targets for decreased spend; however, this is a marked improvement over last year's survey, which found marketers reducing spend in these areas by 42% and 44% respectively.
Engagement and Segmentation Are Top Priorities; Facebook is King
The most important email marketing initiatives for 2011 are increasing subscriber engagement (52%), improving segmentation and targeting (49%), and integrating social media and email marketing (43%). On the latter point, a full 71% have already integrated email and social, or plan to 2011.
Among social media initiatives, Facebook is the biggest priority (35%), followed by viral/referral marketing programs (22%). Marketing via Twitter and implementing social media management technology tied for third place (21%). Awareness building (63%) is the primary goal for social media marketing initiatives, followed by loyalty acquisition (54%) and reaching new audiences (42%). As is the case with any new channel, social media marketing is seen as least effective at generating leads and revenue.
Survey Highlights
- 93% of businesses plan to increase or maintain marketing spend in 2011
- 44% of business cite lack of resources/staff as primary email marketing challenge in 2011; 41% data integration; 36% email deliverability
- 52% of businesses cite increasing subscriber engagement as top 2011 email marketing initiative; 49% improving segmentation/targeting; 43% integrating email and social media
- 65% of businesses plan to increase marketing budget for email; 57% social media; 41% search
- 71% of businesses plan to integrate email and social media in 2011
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