In a downturn, perhaps the most important metric of all is the bottom line, or, in other words, answers to the questions: “What are you spending money on and are these investments paying off?” To that end, BtoB (Rich Karpinski) spoke in May 2009 to analysts and b-to-b marketers to get a feel for how marketing spending and tactics are evolving in the economic recession.
Recent data from Forrester Research indicates that 50% of the 114 interactive marketers using social media that it surveyed plan to increase social technology spending this year, while only 5% plan to decrease spending. Granted, that’s spending on a relatively small base, given that social technologies are new and relatively cheap; but “try to name another marketing investment that’s anywhere near this strong in recessionary times,” said Forrester analyst Josh Bernoff.
Likewise, in IDC’s marketing barometer study, which looked at b-to-b marketing trends for the first quarter of 2009, overall spending was down about 10% on average, but some areas were holding steady. In particular, spending on marketing automation seems stable, at least for now, said Michael Gerard, analyst and leader of IDC’s CMO Advisory Practice.
Marketing automation is increasingly a “more sophisticated approach to demand generation than, “Hey, let’s generate some leads,’ “ Gerard said. “There’s more of a focus on quality content generation and getting leads to sales folks in an expedient manner. That’s a big difference from in the past.”
Eastman Kodak Co., for instance, is “moving full steam ahead” with an ongoing deployment of a marketing resource management platform, said Kodak CMO Jeffrey Hayzlett. “Those systems help me gain more efficiencies.”
Overall, b-to-b marketers say they are being cautious with budgets, but can’t afford to stall key activities. The flip side of focusing spending on areas with strong ROI is taking a look at areas—often areas of traditional marketing spending—and making some strategic cuts. “We continue to tell our clients to leverage this as an opportunity to eliminate entrenched silos of cost,” said IDC’s Gerard, adding, “things such as big events or significant traditional [print or broadcast] advertising—it’s time to rethink those areas.”
