Two recently released global surveys shed some interesting light on plans and concerns related to marketing in general and loyalty marketing specifically.
One covers B2B marketing, asking marketers and decision makers in Europe, the U.S. and Asia, “What would be (according to you), the five marketing challenges faced in the year 2015?” And the 2015 B2B Marketing Trends, Predictions and Forecasts Report from Regalix Research reveals that customer loyalty concerns fell somewhere in the middle of the pack—and customer retention ranked lower than customer acquisition.
At the top of the list was “converting leads to customers” and “measuring ROI,” both selected by 52% of respondents. At the bottom, at 10% each, were “superior customer service on multiple channels using multiple devices,” and “keeping up with trends.”
In the middle were the loyalty concerns:
- 29% targeting and personalization
- 22% driving customer loyalty and satisfaction
- 22% customer retention
- 16% social engagement
- 16% consistent customer experience
Success with loyalty also ranked lower when the marketers were asked, “Which of the following marketing objectives did you accomplish in 2014? Top was “increase in revenue” at 67%, and bottom was “improved engagement/customer relationship.”
The Regalix report has a number of other interesting observations, including planned decreases in mobile: 40% will decrease spending on mobile QR codes, 40% on text messaging, and 31% on mobile apps. Says the report: “Videos and webcasts seem to be growing in importance and that is a refreshing change. The initial promise held out by mobile seems to be
wearing off and their relevance in the B2B space needs to be re-assessed.”
That observation leads into another survey:
The findings of PwC’s 18th Annual Global CEO Survey, posing questions to more than 1,300 CEOs in 77 countries shows this “on the other hand…”finding: 81% see mobile technologies for customer engagement as the most strategically important in 2015.