ShareTweet

A recent survey of BtoB Magazine illustrates what is important to business-to-business marketers in it’s “2010 Outlook”. What is crystal clear is the 2010 substantial focus on social media in the marketing budget.

Could Low Expectations Reflect a Web 1.0 Perspective?

A recent eMarketer report suggests, however, that the expectation of ROI or delivering results is on a different playing field. Marketing typically focuses on results. Yet, this study reveals that was that few marketers tangible results from social media marketing. What are these marketers missing?

“Isn’t this reminiscent of how marketers approached websites and the Internet in the early days?”

eMarketer reports that a mere 15% of marketers cite marketing products and 81% use social media for brand development, customer relations, competitive intelligence, etc. Could it be that marketers don’t yet fully understand social media platforms as a viable marketing medium? Could it be they haven’t quite figured out HOW to drive action and ROI from social media?

Marketers seems to be revealing that perhaps they are still trying to figure out how to leverage the social media landscape beyond social conversations and brand awareness. Of course 1-to-1 relationships are vital to social media success, but marketing must result in a conversion of some sort to generate ROI.

If Dell applied these goals could they have sold $3 million in computers from Twitter alone? I think perhaps not.

I have to say, because I started my Internet career in the mid 1990′s (when websites were owned by the corporate IT Department not Marketing) after many years as a traditional marketer, this is a very stark reminder of how marketers initially viewed the corporate website and the Internet.

How Marketers Viewed Websites in the Early Internet Days

If you weren’t a practicing marketer in the early days, let me fill you in…Websites were considered one-way communications. Essentially they pushed out their message via “online brochures” designed to promote the brand and to “one-up” the competition.

It was only after marketers embraced the website as a marketing medium, like they previously treated direct mail, in targeting customers, presenting calls to action, driving conversion, and impacting the bottom line, that they could justify KEEPING their budgets.

I’m just saying!
(Tell me what you think?!?)

ShareTweet