More than half of respondents to this year’s Chief Marketer Martech Outlook survey said they expect marketing technology budgets to increase in the next 12 months. That’s great news for brands—and martech vendors. But before you buy, you need to carefully consider what purchases make the most sense for your organization.

Ashley DePaolo, president of CommCreative, notes that she frequently has conversations with B2B clients wanting to invest more in their martech stack.

“We try to coach clients that unless they have the content and programs to fuel [such expenditures], stop,” she says. “Martech isn’t a bandage to help you keep up with bandwidth. Investing without a strategy will lead to you ending up with a very complicated tech stack that won’t really help you nurture leads.”

Technology, a good CRM system, marketing automation and a marketing analytics platform that are set up to meet your brand’s needs are table stakes. But beyond that, it doesn’t make sense to go crazy out of the gate, DePaulo says. “You don’t need a lot. Start small and add as it makes sense.”

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CMOs (43 percent), CEOs (42 percent), marketing VPs (46 percent) and marketing managers (38 percent) were the leaders most likely to be responsible for making martech purchasing decisions, according to Chief Marketer’s research.

Marketers looking to invest in technology need to consider their investments from several different angles, notes Siddharth Taparia, SVP and head of strategic ecosystem marketing at SAP.

“Ultimately, what does the technology do for the customer? Does it provide a more personalized experience? Does it capture the information you’re looking for? Does it make a sales transaction easier? Does it make marketing more efficient? That is the guiding principle.”

As marketers invest in technologies such as AI and machine learning, it is important to understand how to get the most effective ROI from those investments, he says. “We need to identify our customers and think about how we can [use] the information we have about customers to provide the right information at the right time for the entirety of the customer journey.”

The volume of solutions on the market (50 percent) and a lack of available budget (45 percent) were the two biggest hurdles to optimizing martech and making purchasing decisions. Respondents also cited frustration in how quickly solutions could become outdated.

“The idea that as soon as you buy or subscribe to a solution a new one could come out and claim to be better is frustrating,” said one respondent. “And the truth is that it might just be better at one part of what it does.”

It can be difficult determining which of the numerous solutions on the market is the best one for your company, said another. “It’s hard to understand whether we should go for a niche product or a broader solution, and understand whether a broad solution has the specific tools to get each job done.”

The post Brands Need to Consider Martech Investments Wisely: Report appeared first on Chief Marketer.

Transforming Customer Experience With Data: 5 Tips
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The Changing Face of B2B Social Media
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The post October’s B2B and Martech Top 10 appeared first on Chief Marketer.

According to Chief Marketer’s Martech Outlook survey, marketers face a number of hurdles in making the most of the marketing technology investments, including a lack of training (27 percent), lack of time (58 percent), the solution not working as expected (25 percent) and a lack of vendor support (11 percent).

B2B brands were more likely to look at leads as a key gauge of ROI, while B2C marketers were more inclined to use industry specific KPIs. Across the board, respondents determine the ROI of their martech spending in a number of ways, including leads converted to opportunities (63 percent), sales (52 percent), KPIs specific to the brand’s industry (36 percent), productivity (22 percent) and cost savings (23 percent).

Marketing automation was the type of technology the highest number of respondents said they planned to invest in over the next year, with 48 percent of B2C respondents and 51 percent of B2B respondents saying they planned such purchases. Email was the second most popular type of tech on marketers’ wish lists, with 47 percent of both B2B and B2C respondents indicating they planned to update their email marketing technology.

Of course, no technology can be used effectively without the right talent to direct how it is used. Anecdotally, respondents cited staffing and resources as two of their top challenges when it comes to purchasing, implementing or using martech.

“We need the dedicated resources to fully leverage capabilities and analyze the results, so we can make recommendations  for better utilizing [systems], said one respondent.

Another cited issues with getting IT on board. “Our tech teams don’t understand true marketing needs,” said another respondent. “They don’t actually use the tools, so their input on purchasing decisions is skewed.”

Click on the Image to View the Full Size Infographic

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The post Why Martech Investments Aren’t Optimized: Infographic appeared first on Chief Marketer.

The study, from The Public Good Projects (PGP)—a non-profit backed by the Nicholson Foundation and dedicated to improving public health—looked at 1.3 million tweets sent between February and June of this year, reports CBS News. Minors are the target audience of the posts, which typically spread misinformation about e-cigarettes, promoting them as a healthier alternative to traditional tobacco products.

“This report should serve as a wake-up call: Bots are helping to fuel the e-cig epidemic,” said Joe Smyser, CEO of PGP. “Pro e-cig messages find you, not the other way around.”

The study doesn’t identify who is behind the bots disseminating the misleading information. Greg Conley, president of the American Vaping Association, told CBS the tweets generated by bots were “essentially meaningless,” because the accounts have few followers.

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“A bot can spit out thousands of tweets per month, but if the associated account has few followers and even less engagement, the tweets are essentially meaningless,” Conley said.

Jidong Huang, associate professor of Health Management policy at the Georgia State University School, disagreed, noting that the number of followers isn’t the issue.

“The way they increase their exposure is through constantly putting content on Twitter, and hopefully when people search ‘e-cigarettes’ they will see links and clickthrough to their websites,” Huang said, noting that the posts often link to promotions for vaping devices. “It’s a different way or marketing and promoting.”

This week, Florida’s Attorney General Ashley Moody said her office is investigating the marketing practices of nearly two dozen vaping companies that do business in the state.

Other states have launched similar efforts, with some—such as Massachusetts and Montana—have placed temporary bans on vaping products.

“We’re looking at it, we’re going to be thorough in our investigation, and we will hold accountable any companies that are intentionally targeting and misleading our youth regarding vaping products,” said Moody in a press conference, reported the Tampa Bay Times.

The post Vape Marketing on Social Media Fueled by Bots appeared first on Chief Marketer.

Response rates are 41 percent higher in integrated campaigns, compared to mailings not integrated with other channels, according to new research from PFL and Demand Metric. Still, only a small percentage of the 600 respondents—16 percent—reported that they have completely integrated direct mail into their campaigns and implemented solutions to track mail’s influence on overall results.

Half of the respondents reported using between three and four channels in their mix. Email was the most used channel in a multichannel marketing mix, utilized by 91 percent of respondents. Social media came in second, used by 81 percent, followed by events (73 percent), digital advertising/retargeting (60 percent), direct mail (56 percent), search/PPC (51 percent), outbound sales and business development reps (47 percent) and content syndication (35 percent).

Events were cited as the most effective channel (83 percent),  followed by integrated, branded, personalized direct mail (78 percent) and search/PPC (73 percent).

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Fifty-two percent reported that adding direct mail to their multichannel mix delivered “moderate to major” improvement to their  overall campaign performance. That number jumps significantly when direct mail is personalized and tightly integrated into the channel mix, with 89% of respondents saying it delivers a moderate to major improvement to response rates.

“Direct mail is ideal for certain audiences that marketers are trying to reach,” said Jerry Rackley, chief analyst for Demand Metric. “When direct mail is done intelligently—meaning it’s integrated with the campaign technology, it’s personalized, and the formats that represent the brand best are used—it’s very effective.”

Postcards were the most frequently used format by respondents (53 percent), followed by letters (52 percent), dimensional mail (42 percent), oversized postcards (29 percent) and oversized letters (nine percent). Dimensional mail was cited as the format that best represented brand identity.

The post Direct Mail Improves Multichannel Mix: Report appeared first on Chief Marketer.

Twelve percent of marketers describe these increases as significant according to the research, from Ascend2. Improving third-party lead sources (36 percent), data management (36 percent), personalization (44 percent) and engagement with content (53 percent) were the most important challenges cited.

Social media marketing and email were cited as the most effective tactics for improving lead generation (59 and 40 percent, respectively), followed by website personalization (38 percent), content/video marketing (34 percent), martech/CRM (33 percent), events/product demos (28 percent), and search (23 percent).

The popularity of online tactics is no surprise. As a new report from Alliance Data notes, all consumers today are digital: 91 percent have Internet access and 77 percent have a smartphone. And, 34 percent identify as “digital first,” preferring to engage on digital channels and shop online. Seventy-three percent of digital first consumers said they preferred to engage with companies via websites, 48 percent via email, 35 percent via mobile apps and only 19 percent in-store.

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Online, their top expectations from brands’ digital presences are predictable. Ninety-one percent want quick and to find information, and 86 percent said easy-to-navigate sites are an unmet need. Eighty-eight percent wanted clear product descriptions and photos, but only 58 percent were satisfied with how brand are delivering on this promise today.

Measurement and attribution continues to be a challenge for some marketers. While just over half (54 percent) of respondents to the Ascend2 survey, 38 said they are continuously measuring lead quality, over a third (38 percent) said they are only occasionally measuring lead quality. The remainder said it is measured rarely—or never.

The post Lead Generation Resources on the Rise: Report appeared first on Chief Marketer.

The ability to easily make returns plays a huge part in where online shoppers decide to spend their ecommerce dollars, according to a new report from UPS.

Globally, 36 percent of online shoppers have returned an item in the last three months, and 73 percent said the returns process affected whether they would shop again with a retailer, according to the 2019 Pulse of the Online Shopper report.

The study, conducted in early 2019 by PwC, surveyed more than 18,000 shoppers in 15 countries and regions. Fifty-six percent of online shoppers track their deliveries, with Americans being the most active trackers.

About two out of three shoppers (63 percent) ship ecommerce returns directly back to sellers overall. A delay in getting a refund (25 percent) was the biggest returns issue cited by shoppers, followed by having to pay for a return (24 percent) or a delay in receiving an exchange or replacement item (21 percent).

The biggest element in a positive returns experience was free return shipping, cited by 42 percent of respondents. Next was a hassle free returns policy (28 percent), automatic refunds to credit or debit cards (24 percent) and easy to print returns labels (21 percent).

Not surprisingly, 90 percent of online shoppers do research before making a purchase. The most important factors to research were price (79 percent), product details (43 percent) and delivery costs (43 percent).

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Ninety-five percent expect to see all shipping fees and taxes totaled before they complete the purchase. To cut down on those fees, many online shoppers are drawn to rewards programs. About one in five surveyed (19 percent) have more than five loyalty memberships, citing free shipping, members-only discounts and rewards points as their primary reasons for joining.

While shoppers do want convenience, they don’t want to pay for it. Respondents liked next-day deliveries, but will consider incentives for slower shipping. Millennials were the most likely to opt for accelerated shipping, while online shoppers in general showed a low propensity for paying for shipping. Adding items to the cart (36 percent), choosing the slowest transit time (32 percent) and searching for a promo code (32 percent) were among the actions shoppers took to avoid shipping fees.

Nearly six percent of online shoppers have used a marketplace, according to the report; 36 percent of consumers and nearly half of businesses said they intend to purchase more on marketplaces in the next year. Globally, 48 percent of consumers impulse buy on marketplaces.

The most used marketplaces in the Americas are Amazon, Walmart/Jet, eBay, Best Buy and Mercado Libre. Amazon matters tremendously for consumers, even if shoppers don’t decide to buy there: more than half of shoppers with Amazon Prime (56 percent) start their research there, as do 40 percent of shoppers generally. Prime membership is linked to higher average orders as well: the average order cost of all online purchases in a three month period was $207 for Amazon Prime users; $142 for shoppers who buy from Amazon but don’t have Prime; and $131 for those who do not shop on Amazon.

Small businesses are also drawn to marketplaces for low prices (73 percent); shopping efficiencies such as one-click purchases or saved payment details (42 percent); and better return policies (43 percent).

‘The growth of digital marketplaces is extraordinary,” notes Kevin Warren, CMO of UPS. “As recent as the mid-1990s, ecommerce barely existed. Today, it’s a $2.9 trillion industry, growing 24 percent annually. “

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Email marketing saw the most consistent use throughout the funnel, used by 66 percent of respondents at the top of the funnel, 64 percent in the middle and 46 percent at the bottom, according to the study, conducted in June and July 2019 by GetResponse and DemandMetric.

Other tactics that showed high usage throughout the entire buying cycle included owned media (64 percent top, 43 percent middle and 28 percent bottom); event marketing (61 percent top, 34 percent middle and 30 percent bottom); social media (56 percent top, 33 percent middle and 19 percent bottom); and content marketing (53 percent top, 39 percent middle and 20 percent bottom).

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Interestingly, the tactics that respondents rated as the best performing weren’t always the most used. For example, while email, owned media and event were cited as the most used in the top of the funnel, the survey showed that referral marketing, events and content marketing were actually cited as the tactics with the best results. Ease of use may be the reason for this, the report notes. “Social, email, referral marketing, and earned media become easier to execute as their usage moves down the funnel. Most other tactics become more difficult to use, particularly video marketing.”

The majority of respondents (56 percent) reported utilizing little to no automation in the marketing funnel to drive ROI. Twenty-nine percent reported moderate automation, and only 14 percent said their funnel was mostly to fully automated. Those utilizing a higher level of automation reported a higher east of attribution. Fifty-four percent of companies that are mostly to fully automated in their funnel marketing reported ease of attribution, versus only 34 percent of those with little to no automation.

The research was based on responses from 285 B2B and B2C brand marketers and agency professionals.

The post Less than 30 Percent of Marketers Understand ROI: Report appeared first on Chief Marketer.

Dissatisfaction with their compensation packages, problems with managers and the level of respect the organization shows employees are the three most common factors causing sales reps to think about jumping ship, according to the recently released Global Labor Market Survey from Gartner.

Sales leaders are faced with a high turnover risk, notes Matt Dudek, VP in the sales practice at Gartner. “To avoid this, sales leaders not only need to craft a compelling employee value proposition to attract high-quality candidates to inside sales roles, they must make sure they are delivering on the proposition to retain talent in a competitive labor market.”

What are sales reps looking for in a new role? More engaging work, more development opportunities, a friendlier work environment, better managers and a 15 percent increase in compensation.

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Of course, while a good compensation package is important, it isn’t the only factor sales professionals. In Gartner’s research, nearly 60 percent of inside sellers surveyed didn’t choose compensation as one of their top five sources of dissatisfaction at prior employers.

Interpersonal factors can motivate sales reps by helping them improve their work-lie balance. Reps are also inspired by more engaging work challenges and personal development opportunities. These non-monetary factors should be emphasized in job postings.

“While competitive compensation is an obvious lever for attracting and retaining inside sales talent, it is often an expensive and temporary fix that covers more fundamental issues with a role,” says Dudek. “By focusing on the most common reasons inside sales staff quit beyond compensation, sales leaders can decrease turnover and potentially realize efficiency and effectiveness gains as a result.”

The post Sales Teams Face 24 Percent Turnover Annually: Gartner appeared first on Chief Marketer.

Looking at over 30 billion emails across 4.2 million campaigns sent last year, the report found that Tuesday was best for clickthrough rates, while campaigns sent on Mondays showed the lowest bounce rates.

The beginning of the week is rough all around for email, according to the report. Sunday was the worst day both for open and clickthrough rates, and Monday showed the worst click-to-open rates. Friday is the day with the highest bounce rates.

Nonprofits showed the highest open rates (20.39 percent); followed by agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting (20.13 percent); government (19.79 percent); and healthcare (19.12 percent).

What industries didn’t fare as well? Consumer packaged goods (14.53 percent), retail (14.98 percent) and food and beverage (15.48) showed the lowest open rates of all verticals surveyed.

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Overall, across all industries the average open rate was 17.92 percent. The average clickthrough rate was 2.69 percent, and the average click-to-open rate was 14.1 percent.

Relevant content is crucial if brands want to optimize their clickthrough and open rates, says Stu Richards, CEO of Bredin.

For example, [if you’re a bank] and a customer already has a business checking account, don’t just send them a random link to an article,” says Richards. “Relevancy is the key to the kingdom in content marketing. If you have a preexisting relationship, personalization should resonate and feel authentic.”

Emails should also have a clear call to action and be easy to read. After all, people may very likely be reading your message in a non-business setting, like while they’re waiting in line at the drug store or watching their kid’s soccer game, says Gordon Brott, founder of Gordon Brott Growth Marketing.  Avoid big blocks of text that make it difficult to read, and keep the focus on the customer, not your product, to keep them engaged.

No one has time to scroll through line after line after line of copy in B2B email, adds marketing writer Mary Hart. Start with a compelling headline, followed by a concise opening that leads into three to four bullet points explaining what your recipient will get if they clickthrough—the more you can convey how your product or service will solve their problem, the better.

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