Marketing Decision Makers Reveal Strategic Priorities in New Survey from Bizo; Social Media Measurement Stands Out

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 24, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Bizo, the leading solution for reaching and engaging business professionals online today unveiled the results of an online survey of leading in-house and agency marketers. The results from more than 520 strategic marketers reveal that they are getting ready for the busiest season of the year and while they are betting big on new initiatives in social, some are also doubling down on old favorites like display. An interactive presentation of the full results can be seen here: http://a.sw.io/neEV0FM

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Getting Ready for a Busy Fall

The participants in this marketing survey represent key strategic decision makers for their organizations. More than 94 percent of respondents play a role in determining overall marketing strategy for their company or clients, with 57 percent leading the strategy discussion. As they gear up for Q4, 46 percent of marketers say this is the busiest season for planning. However, there's nothing like planning on the run – survey respondents reported Fall as the busiest time for both closing sales and executing marketing campaigns as well.

New Priority in Social

When asked which marketing channels they planned to increase focus on over the next 12 months, leading marketers revealed that social was overwhelmingly the most important (65 percent) followed by email (46 percent) and content marketing (45 percent). The survey reinforces this trend, with nearly 97 percent of respondents saying social media marketing is more important or as important to their marketing mix this year versus last year. But what role does Social play for these leading marketers? Forty-one percent of respondents said creating general awareness was its most important role, followed by reinforcement of other campaigns (26 percent).

A Better Way to Measure Benefits of Social Marketing

Although an overwhelming majority of respondents said Social ranked highest on the priority list over the next 12 months, most of them have not yet figured out the best measurement techniques. The majority (almost 55 percent) of respondents are still measuring social media marketing campaigns by an increase/decrease in followers – completely missing the bigger opportunity to target their desired prospects. Only 14 percent of respondents have experienced the benefits of tracking or measuring business demographics of their social media audience, however, 63 percent of respondents said they are just getting started or are hoping to get started with this soon.

Doubling Down on Display for Branding...and Lead Generation

Of marketers that do display advertising, 84 percent of respondents said display is as important or more important to their marketing mix this year versus last year. While many marketers think of display as a good branding opportunity, more and more marketers see the benefit of display for lead generation as well. In this survey, 28 percent of marketers that do display advertising use it for top of funnel awareness, 25 percent use it to drive desired action (like downloading whitepapers or webinar registration) and 23 percent use display for generating leads.

Room for Improvement, Measurement Again

As marketers gear up for the New Year, they're also cognizant of improving their marketing programs. Over the next quarter, marketers saw room for improvement equally in creating quality content offers for marketing outreach and nurturing programs (19 percent), tighter integration across marketing programs (19 percent) and program and campaign measurement (19 percent).

"We see the marketers that we work closely with taking a much more strategic approach to their campaigns," said Russell Glass, CEO of Bizo. "As marketers move beyond email and paid search into targeted display advertising and cost-effective social media channels to reach their broader audiences across the web, the survey results reinforce that what they measure and how they measure remains vitally important."  

Survey methodology

The week of August 8, 2011, Bizo surveyed leading marketers across businesses and agencies to determine priorities in online marketing. Using online survey technology from Survey Monkey, Bizo collected more than 521 responses comprised of 57 percent in-house marketers and 31 percent advertising agencies.

About Bizo

Bizo is how marketers reach and engage business professionals, wherever they travel online.  Bizo can precisely target more than 100 million professionals around the world, including more than 80 percent of the U.S. business population. This unprecedented reach and targeting gives marketers cost-effective access and insight into business professionals – the most valuable online audience segment.  Simply put, Bizo knows business audiences. More than 300 leading brands including AMEX, Monster, Salesforce.com, Microsoft, and FedEx count on the precise display ad targeting, social media measurement, and deep audience analytics that the Bizo Audience Marketing Platform provides to successfully execute their branding and direct response initiatives.

For more information on Bizo, or for a free look at the Bizographic make-up of your website audience, visit www.bizo.com

SOURCE Bizo