New research finds that businesses are taking marketing strategy more seriously than ever before — but there’s still plenty of room for improvement
Customer marketing is on the rise for 2017, according to new research commissioned by marketing firm Influitive.
The report, prepared by Koyne Marketing, surveyed more than 200 CEOs, marketing heads and customer success leaders, primarily from B2B companies. Koine Marketing found that:
Customer marketing is on the rise. Ninety-three percent of organizations expect their customer marketing efforts to take on greater importance this year, and 62% of respondents said they would increase marketing staff or budgets in 2017.
Just 61% were satisfied with the results of their current customer marketing strategies.
Less than half said their current customer marketing efforts were tied directly to revenue metrics, revealing an opportunity to create a stronger connection between marketing and revenue.
"It is exciting to see that organizations expect customer marketing to increase in importance and budget commitment, and not surprising that there is a gap to realize the potential," said Mark Organ, founder and CEO of Influitive. "Customer marketing as a function is professionalizing, adopting new ideas, people, strategies, processes and technologies. I have seen this same trend firsthand with the demand generation function a decade ago, and believe customer marketing is similarly transforming into an area of vital importance.”
"The skills required from customer marketers are more akin to what's traditionally needed from a star sales representative," said Steve Gershik, CEO of Koyne Marketing. "Today's customer is looking for far more than just a transaction with a brand. So, modern marketing organizations need to hire customer marketers who can focus on deep, authentic relationship building."
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