5 Helpful New Marketing Charts for 2015
All data is from Salesforce’s new research report, 2015 State of Marketing, now available for free download.
Top 5 Areas for Increased Marketing Budgets: Social and Mobile Lead the Way
These statistics point to 2015 as the year when marketers will truly bank on social and mobile. Contrast these five areas with those from our 2014 State of Marketing report: data and analytics, marketing automation, email marketing, social media marketing, and content management.
Last year, marketers were attempting a far-reaching focus on many areas of digital marketing, while marketers this year seem to be carefully choosing social and mobile as pillars in their strategy.
Most Popular Social Channels + Their Effectiveness, As Rated by Marketers
Marketers are increasing their budgets for social more than any other digital marketing channel in 2015. Sixty-six percent of marketers now have a dedicated team to manage their company’s social media marketing programs, a 9% increase from 2014.
Podcasting will be the #1 area marketers test in 2014. Facebook is still the most popular social marketing channel. And marketers are also seeing great success with newer social channels such as Viadeo, a social network geared toward professionals with 65 million members. Pinterest scored relatively low in current usage (24% use Pinterest for marketing), with 57% of marketers ranking it as very effective/effective.
The Most Popular and Effective Mobile Marketing Campaigns
Fifty-eight percent of marketers have a dedicated team to manage their company’s mobile marketing program, up from 35% in 2014. Seventy percent of marketers using mobile say it’s a critical enabler of products or services, a 13% jump from last year.
With smartphones quickly becoming the number-one internet access device, every touchpoint along the customer journey must be planned with a mobile-first mindset.
US Marketers Plan to Increase/Maintain Marketing Spend the Least; Brazilian and Canadian Marketers to Spend Most
On average, 84% of respondents plan to increase or maintain their spend on marketing activities and technology in 2015.
Marketers in the US plan to increase or maintain spend at the lowest rate of countries and regions surveyed (80%). The top spenders are Canadian and Brazilian marketers: 96% plan to increase or maintain their digital marketing spend.
The Importance of Email Marketing in 2014 vs. 2015
Sixty percent of marketers in the 2015 survey said that email is a critical enabler of products and services vs. 42% of marketers in 2014.
Email’s growing importance coincides with the increased popularity of smartphones, which offer consumers a constant inbox in their pocket. One-third of marketers said their subscribers read emails on mobile devices at least 50% of the time. Fifty-nine percent of marketers plan on increasing their email marketing budgets in 2015, hoping to give subscribers more email content and a better experience on their mobile devices.
