The Results Are In: Digital Marketing Standard60% SAY THEIR COMPANIES ARE “BEHIND THE CURVE”

The Digital Marketing Standard, a survey conducted by Heidrick & Struggles and Digital Scientists, had some surprising and not-so-surprising results.Over 100 senior executives with decision-making or budgetary authority over their companies' marketing spending shared their perspectives on the state of things in the C-suite.

What’s not a surprise? Chief marketing officers across nearly all sectors believe their companies are under-delivering in the area of digital marketing. Citing a disconnect between their own personal capabilities and how the companies they work for are performing in the digital marketing arena, nearly 75% of respondents describe themselves personally as "at the cutting edge" or "right where they should be," while 60% believe their companies are "behind the curve."

BEHIND THE CURVE

Acquiring new customers and increasing customer retention are their top priorities. What’s no longer on the radar? Expanding into new geographical locations and acquiring and retaining talent have fallen on the wayside. The top 4 marketing tactics for growth are ROMI analysis, website activity analysis, CRM tools and SEO. The C-suite is not buying the push for mobile ads and contests.

TOP PRIORITIES

60%

BEHIND THE CURVE

WHERE WE SHOULD BE

FRUSTRATED WITH PACE

NOT A BELIEVER

It’s not about the inability to respond, it’s more about the organization not being tightly coordinated and geared to respond. It’s not just marketing, it is the whole company.

“

”

I think that getting a return on the dollar is critically important, whether that is television, web,

promotions, or whatever. It is a higher level thing than just a “tactic.” The web activity is

interesting, because it can feed the ROMI.

“

”

MARKETING EFFECTIVENESS

Companies are relying on outside agencies to bridge the talent gap. Yet, 55% don’t trust their ad agency partners to

provide them with digital marketing expertise they need.

Overall, respondents are not very satisfied with their company's marketing effectiveness. Only 16% say they are “very satisfied” with responding rapidly to growth opportunities. Proficiency in digital marketing is highly valued

but under-delivered. 49% agreed that it is important for the CMO to be proficient in digital marketing, but only 13% said that their companies had developed the internal talent required to develop and implement growth-generating digital marketing programs."CMOs confront intense pressure to deliver financial results," says Tom Klein, managing partner and chief scientist of Digital Scientists. "With digital marketing, they finally have the tools to answer the oldest question in marketing - what's working and what's not. However, they don't have the internal digital marketing skill sets they need to get the job done."

AD AGENCIES DON’T GET IT

Is there an arm wrestling match in the future? 44% of say they want the IT department to take responsibility for analytics. 60% reported the marketing department has primary responsibility for the all-important analytics, but they want IT departments to share the load.

MARKETING VS. IT

For more information on the survey, please contact us for a personal webinar.

TOM KLEIN | CHIEF SCIENTIST, DIGITAL SCIENTISTS

TOM@DIGITALSCIENTISTS.COM

404.228.1551

VERY SATISFIED

SOMEWHAT SATISFIED

NOT SATISFIED

MARKETING

IT DEPARTMENT

OTHER

Even though ad agencies say they have the expertise, they are still into big budget and big

production branding. The culture is just not there, so they go outside and find people with a

different mindset.

“

”

16%

Marketing

15

30

45

IT Other

DEPARTMENT