Thursday, March 10, 2016

Report: Marketers Don’t Seem to Understand What Consumers Want

Understanding the impact of your marketing is key to making wise investments in social media as many marketers still struggle to measure the ROI from social media. A report from eMarketer and CMO Council examines how misaligned marketers are with the expectations of consumers.


Based on the Q4 2015 data analyzed by CMO Council, many marketing executives in the U.S. quantify success based largely on the revenue generated from engagement. CMO Council found that 38 percent of marketers concentrate on revenue metrics such as customer lifetime value, revenues per customer and overall revenue increases.


Thirty percent measure success based on campaign metrics, such as likes, shares, clicks, conversions, traffic and web analytics. According to the report, 12 percent prefer focusing on sales metrics like lead flow or downloads. Conversion is what it’s all about for many companies, as is increasing revenue through social, so it’s a little surprising that so few companies are focusing on sales enablement metrics.


Another area of concern is in customer service. Only 10 percent of marketers measure success based on customer satisfaction, customer feedback or reviews. And this is perhaps the widest gap between marketing and customer.


Users want better customer service; that’s no secret. The report notes that 89 percent of consumers surveyed said good service makes them feel more positive about a brand. And the bar for customer service isn’t even that high: 81 percent of customers just want someone to answer their questions. According to the report, 57 percent said they would consider switching if they encounter mistakes in customer service.


Marketers need to pay more attention to their customer service and develop smart strategies to avoid falling into one of the many pitfalls that cause customers to lose trust. The data shows that 48 percent are suspicious about how their data is being used. Customers also want personalization and an experience reflective of their mood and individual preferences.


Weighting key metrics can be a tricky task when a marketing campaign is trying achieve multiple goals. However, make sure to weigh what matters most to your campaign, and remember that more often than not, it’s still about customer service.

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