75% of Ad Campaigns for New Account Acquisition

No wonder we are getting so busy. 75% of all b2b marketers will be or are launching ad campaigns designed to focus on new account acquisition. That, of course, is our primary job. To find our customers new sales leads now. The remaining 25% is divided. 15% is on brand awareness and 10% for customer retention. 29% of would be marketers are increasing their 2012 budgets.
In order to achieve their goal of finding more customers, marketers will but using a variety of on and offline ideas. The largest investment will be, of course, online. E-commerce is the fastest going demographic of customers and companies know that they need to reach this wellspring of potential income. 74% of marketers increased their online budgets this year. 41% increased event marketing and 36% their direct mail.

For those of you who what to see where everyone else is spending keep reading but I will warn you, don’t use another companies marketing spending as a cookie cutter approach to creating your marketing planning and spending. Your company is, I am sure, not like theirs even if both companies are in the same market. Yet it is a good idea to look at what other companies are planning to see if you missed something and might want to tweek your plan.

Spending Plans 2012 vs 2011

Marketing on outside websites
  5.8% - Decrease
35.1% - Increase
31.7% - Same
27.4% - Do not use

Direct Mail*
12.6% - Decrease
31.2% - Increase
38.1% - Same
18.1% - Do not use

DR Radio
  3.8% - Decrease
  9.9% - Increase
11.8% - Same
74.5% - Do not use

Direct Response Space (newspapers, magazines, etc)
  9.6% - Decrease
18.6% - Increase
27.4% - Same
44.4% - Do not use

Direct Response TV
  3.8% - Decrease
  7.7% - Increase
12.6% - Same
75.9% - Do not use

E-Mail*
  1.4% - Decrease
64.7% - Increase
30.1% - Same
  3.8% - Do not use

Inserts
  7.2% - Decrease
  9.0% - Increase
29.6% - Same
54.2% - Do not use

Mobile Marketing via Web/apps
  0.3% - Decrease
35.1% - Increase
15.3% - Same
49.3% - Do not use

Mobile Marketing via text/SMS/phone
  0.8% - Decrease
24.9% - Increase
15.6% - Same
58.7% - Do not use

Search Engine Marketing*
  3.8% - Decrease
51.0% - Increase
28.8% - Same
16.4% - Do not use

Social Media Marketing*
  3.0% - Decrease
63.0% - Increase
18.7% - Same
15.3% - Do not use

Social Media Paid Marketing*
  2.2% - Decrease
30.7% - Increase
21.6% - Same
45.5% - Do not use

Telemarketing*
  6.0% - Decrease
20.3% - Increase
25.2% - Same
48.5% - Do not use

Webcasts
  2.5% - Decrease
27.4% - Increase
20.3% - Same
49.8% - Do not use

Marketing Technologies Planning 2012 vs 2011

Bar Code QR Codes, etc
  1.1% - Decrease
25.1% - Increase
15.6% - Same
48.2% - Do not use

Automated Response/Trigger Messages
  0.8% - Decrease
39.2% - Increase
19.5% - Same
40.5% - Do not use

Blogs*
  0.8% - Decrease
45.5% - Increase
18.1% - Same
35.6% - Do not use

Content Marketing*
  0.8% - Decrease
62.2% - Increase
20.0% - Same
17.0% - Do not use

GPS/Location Marketing
  0.5% - Decrease
10.2% - Increase
  9.0% - Same
80.3% - Do not use

Loyalty Programs*
  1.1% - Decrease
27.1% - Increase
21.4% - Same
50.4% - Do not use

Mobile SMS
  0.8% - Decrease
19.7% - Increase
11.3% - Same
68.2% - Do not use

Mobile Optimized Website
  0.5% - Decrease
37.8% - Increase
11.8% - Same
49.9% - Do not use

Mobile apps
  1.1% - Decrease
31.5% - Increase
11.5% - Same
55.9% - Do not use

Personalization*
  0.8% - Decrease
44.7% - Increase
23.3% - Same
31.2% - Do not use

Personalized URLs (PURLs)*
  1.7% - Decrease
24.4% - Increase
13.4% - Same
60.5% - Do not use

Podcasts
  1.4% - Decrease
16.4% - Increase
11.5% - Same
70.7% - Do not use

Response Boosters*
  1.6% - Decrease
12.3% - Increase
11.9% - Same
74.2% - Do not use

Variable Data Printing*
  0.8% - Decrease
16.4% - Increase
15.7% - Same
67.1% - Do not use

Video
  1.1% - Decrease
52.1% - Increase
13.2% - Same
33.6% - Do not use

Webinars*
  1.4% - Decrease
35.1% - Increase
16.4% - Same
47.1% - Do not use

Delivery Use Methods 2012 vs 2011

Advertising on outside websites
 56.2% - 2011
46.6% - 2012

Affiliate Marketing
 40.8% - 2011
32.6% - 2012

Direct Mail*
 69.0% - 2011
65.8% - 2012

DR Radio
 15.1% - 2011
11.2% - 2012

Direct Response Space (magazine, newspapers, etc.)
 29.3% - 2011
27.9% - 2012

Direct Response television
 14.2% - 2011
  9.3% - 2012

E-Mail*
 86.3% - 2011
83.3% - 2012

Insert Media*
 28.8% - 2011
23.3% - 2012

Mobile Marketing – Mobile Web Apps
 31.8% - 2011
12.9% - 2012

Mobile Marketing – text/SMS/phone
 24.9% - 2011
10.7% - 2012

Search Engine Marketing*
 58.9% - 2011
46.8% - 2012

Search Engine Optimization*
 66.8% - 2011
51.5% - 2012

Social Media Marketing*
 67.4% - 2011
56.4% - 2012

Social Media Marketing – Paid Advertising*
 34.8% - 2011
19.2% - 2012

Telemarketing*
 35.6% - 2011
31.2% - 2012

Webcasts
 34.2% - 2011
20.8% - 2012

*Designates primary Larson Service

All this is not an open checkbook on spending by businesses. If you read between the lines you will be seeing a spending that takes into account careful consideration of what is happening in the economy. The major growth is where the traffic is highest and thus so is the return in advertising budget.
Direct mail and E-mail continue to be the most used marketing channels used.  Both have a high return rate in both customer retention and new account acquisition.

Social & Mobile are the big growth areas, not because of result but partly because they are new. Social Media Marketing will continue to be a time eater for most companies who don’t know how to keep a balance in monitoring and their legal department’s reluctance at possible bad exposure. Adding to the dilemma is the unknown ROI (Return on Investment) because they can’t keep records of what they are getting in response. So, when, where and how is the real question here. If you get into mobile you can expect to see 10% to 15% more hits on your web site and that is never a bad thing, for possible sales and for page ranking.

Web and SEO Marketing You want to own the first page of Google, Bing and Yahoo Search. Dominate that 1st and 2nd page that comes up in your key words for your organic search. Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing (SEO) (SEM), content marketing, landing page creation, blogs, and social media marketing can all help you own that 1st and 2nd page. Can it happen? Oh yes! Can it happen for you and your business? I know it can if you want it bad enough. You can have 3, 4, 5 if not all the listings on the 1st page of an organic search and most people do not get past page 1 maybe page 2, but that’s it.

What is “The Next Big Thing”? Bar codes, QR codes or maybe Web video? You tell me. Indications are that QR codes are finding their place in marketing but not as much as we were lead to believe at this time last year. Yes you will see more of them but it is more of an afterthought in marketing not a major piece of the puzzle.

Larson Notes & Satire:  So what your next move?  I am betting that when the gurus of marketing do their mid-year surveys we are going to see some major swings as to what companies are doing and how they are changing their plans. The surveys we review where based off of 56% of companies less than $100,000. 16% of companies $100,000-$499,000, 5% of companies $500,000-$999,999, 10% companies 1million to $5 million, 7% over $5 million and 6% in I don’t know land. My guess is that these statistics are going to be in line with you, the kind of people and companies that are reading my blog here.

So now you ask, where am I putting my efforts this year? Well my 3 legged stool attack remains intact. Telemarketing, Social Media and Direct mail, that my friend is not going to change, it is just too powerful. Then add in my blog and email staying deep penetration in our multilevel attack. The new big “spend” in money and time is in F2F networking. It has been a few years since I was out and about doing in your face networking and 2012 will see this area as the MAJOR push for me and that is not even on the charts is it? Considering it has brought in 2 new accounts all ready this year how can we knock success?

When we look to hiring for 2012 we see a personal increase of 17 people in our telemarketing department at a minimum, and our web work will remain pretty steady with maybe 1 or 2 new hirers with support staff increasing 2 or 3.

“We don’t sell lists, we find customers.”

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates, a Division of US Telemarketing Group LLC
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
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