Why marketing professionals are failing to embrace Web 2.0 and social media

Posted by: Krishna De | Posted on: August 6th, 2007 | 6 Comments | Posted in: Business blogging, Corporate podcasting, Engagement, Ireland, Marketing online, New media, Social media, Technology

The latest Marketing Trends Survey from The Chartered Institute of Marketing has revealed that while advertising is still the biggest item in average marketing budgets, its position is being eroded as more resource is devoted to other marketing activities.

The survey reported that UK marketing budgets were on average split across:

• advertising (just under 15%)
• lead generation (12%)
• relationship management (12%)
• direct mail, (11%)
• field marketing (11%) 
• and internal marketing (7%).

The survey, undertaken for The Chartered Institute of Marketing by Ipsos MORI, reveals that while marketers are planning to increase spending on on-line marketing in the current sales year by an average of 3.6%, relationship management programmes by 2% and public relations by 1.5%, the average amount they plan to spend on advertising will be reduced by 0.2%.

Digital communications are yet to move into the mainstream in most marketing departments. Of the five types of digital communications covered by the study, viral marketing and corporate blogs were reported to be the most popular.

However, the survey indicated that digital marketing was still only used by what they termed “a fair amount” by one in 12 companies.

If you are interested to learn more about this research and uncover one of the real reasons that marketing professionals in large organisations are failing to engage in new media and Web 2.0 to build their brand and engage consumers, continue reading this article.

The Marketers surveyed in the Chartered institute of Marketing research reported that advances in technology are accelerating the pace of change within the profession (97% of the respondents cited it as one of the main three catalysts for change).

The other key areas that were reported to be bringing about transformation were changing consumer attitudes which was listed by nearly two-thirds (63%) of respondents. Some 45% of respondents cited global competition and 36% named the development of Customer Relationship Management as areas bringing about change.

What is interesting to note is that while the respondents reported that technology is having a significant impact on their profession, it is still not being used fully to engage with consumers or to assist them to build their brand and support their marketing strategy and communications plan. When asked how regularly they used podcasts, corporate blogs, mobile marketing and viral marketing, more respondents reported ‘not at all’ since the last survey which was last conducted in autumn 2006.

But perhaps one of the reasons that few marketers have embraced is that they have not yet been able to engage their IT colleagues in the adoption of these strategies?

Research company Forrester recently reported that IT professionals were concerned primarily about traditional metrics of return on investment before they would embrace them. They also reported an acute lack of faith in web 2.0 technology, that was holding back new initiatives. Only 11% of the 275 IT professionals interviewed had much faith in blogging’s effectiveness as a marketing tool.

Two thirds of the IT decision makers interviewed identified ROI as the benchmark for evaluating success. This puts strategies such as blogging and podcasting at a distinct disadvantage as ROI is not straight forward sales measures as you will know if you are involved in engagement marketing.

But is this really the case, given that implementing social media platforms and Web 2.0 strategies are likely to be the least expensive investments you could make in IT and certainly do not require capital investment?

In the meantime, large organisations are continuing to fall behind in the race to engage consumers and build communities on-line. smaller, nimble organisations, often without IT experts in their midst.

These smaller businesses are realising the benefits of Web 2.0 and social media to build their brand on-line, extend their geographic reach, nurture their reputation and engage with consumers, potential clients, joint venture partners and strategic alliances.

What do you think is holding marketing departments back from stepping into the brave new world of Web 2.0?

Additional Resources

If you are interested in learning more about how Web 2.0 can be applied to your business here are some additional resources:

• Access key articles on marketing research
• check out my series of podcasts over at The Podcast Sisters where we guide you through the world of Web 2.0 from blogs to podcasts, from Second Life to Twitter
• join me at PodCamp Ireland, Ireland’s first social media conference
• join me at InHouseVillage where I am the social media expert and will be providing a series of podcasts especially for marketing agencies who want to engage in social media – starting August 2007
• contact me to discuss how we can bring your brand to life through social media and Web 2.0.