According to a new Koyne/Influitive Marketing survey of company leaders and top marketers, examining how organizations currently manage the planning, resourcing and measurement of
customer marketing efforts, only 61% were satisfied with the results. Customer marketing says the report, is the complete set of activities undertaken by a company following a customer’s
purchase of products and services.
With data collected from CEOs and marketing executives at more than two hundred B2B organizations representing small companies with annual
revenues up to $25M, medium companies with revenue between $25M and $1B, and large companies with revenue greater than $1B, the analysis reveals some significant findings:
- Of the
satisfied respondents, most were from large organizations. This represents a significant opportunity for growth in the customer marketing arena
- Over 90% of respondents acknowledged that
customer marketing is somewhat or very important
- Over the next year, 93% of organizations expect that their customer marketing efforts will take on greater importance, and 62% will increase
their staff or budgets in the customer marketing area
Companies identified three main skills as vital to the success of customer marketing efforts: relationship
building, communication, and customer service.
49% of companies reported that their customer marketing efforts resulted in moderate to significant revenue gains. 71% of large
companies report greater gains due to customer marketing than medium (52%), or small companies (44%). The three most frequently tracked metrics were:
- Upsell/cross-sell revenues
- Renewal/churn rate
- Customer satisfaction
Organizations reporting moderate to significant revenue from customer marketing are more than two and a half
times more likely to report high levels of customer satisfaction. The most frequently used customer marketing strategies reported were:
- Customer referrals and testimonials
- Customer user groups
- Events and newsletters
60% of survey respondents state that customer marketing is very important to their revenue; 33% believe it
is “somewhat” important; 7% are neutral or think it’s not important. Although 49% of respondents see moderate or significant revenue impact, 93% agree that customer marketing efforts
are important or very important.
In response to respondents requested to rank critical customer marketing skills, these are the summarized results:
- Relationship
building
- Communication
- Customer service
- Digital marketing
- Creativity
- Organization
- Social media
- Selling
- Event
planning
Less than half of the survey respondents felt satisfied or very satisfied with the results of their current customer marketing efforts. Clearly, there is a
lot of room for improvement, concludes the report.
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