Useful research, which shows that CEOs and CFOs don't agree with CMOs in terms of outlook.
It also shows that CMOs are not focusing in on the areas that will pull business out of the pandemic and economic down turn that will follow.
What was thought was great marketing in February of 2020, it not great marketing in July of 2020. They are totally reliant on "tools" so martech to pull a business out of the mess.
History of Marketing
We all know how marketing has worked from the 1930s to the present time.
in 1930, advertising was invented. Marketing was simple, you interrupted people in their newspaper and broadcast at them a message. As time went on, advertising moved to television and it was the same. Interrupt people and broadcast a message.
In 1980 cold calling started, this was very simple, call somebody up, interrupt them and broadcast. In the 1990s, email marketing was started and emails were sent to interrupt you and broadcast your message.
I bumped into somebody last week and they had come up with a 19 point plan to interrupt people, right down to SMS messages and whatsapp messages. In 2020 I was amazed that this was seen as "normal" behaviour.
Is Interrupt and Broadcast The Best That Marketing Can Do in 2020?
Your Clients Have Moved onto Social
This is a set of interesting research and it's "current" as in it's Covid19 related as it covers the month of June 2020.
I've seen a number of pieces of research that have been issued recently and while they are from the first three months of the year, as they are all before lockdown it could be a million years ago.
Anyway the figures are in and the use of Social Media is up!
B2B is now B2C
All of us are using to Zoom or Teams to make calls, in fact there are 300 million daily participants on Zoom. 200 million of us are on Teams. Zoom is now the 6th most downloaded app.
Life has moved online .... we work from home, study from home, we shop from home, we go to church from home, we go to scouts from home, we go to the gym at home. In fact, being online is part of all of our lives. This isn't just a few, it's everybody.
My mother (82) runs her wine group through Zoom. They even had a member, who drives around dropping a wine bottle off on each members doorstep. So they can drink the same wine and talk about, all at the same time.... online.
How is Social Media Making an Impact?
Simon Kemp in his research says that there are 4.57 Billion people in the world on the internet, that is up 7% on last year. There are 3.81 Billion people, active, on social media. That is up 300 million on last year.
So while "Sharon" on facebook left Facebook, 300 million people joined.
Covid19 has seen a 50% increase in social media usage.
In fact the world has changed with social media, from the way ideas are propagated to the way we do business.
So What? - The Winners are on Social
This Business to Consumer (B2C) world gets pulled into Business to Business (B2B) world. In other words our B2C behaviours, become normal in B2B. How? Because we bring our everyday lives into the world of work.
BMW for example, even before Covid19 was selling through social. In November last year, they got 28 pieces of inbound (people making an enquiry to buy cars) through LinkedIn. I'm not talking about their website, I'm talking about people making enquiries through social.
BMW ere able to convert 14 of these into sales. Let's assume a BMW is $50,000, that's 14 x $50,000 = $700,000
That's an additional $700K that they signed from social media. This was for zero cost of Marketing. Let's hope there are some CEOs and CFOs starting to take notice. The current marketing money is being poured down the drain. Money that companies probably don't have!
Ironically, their competitor, Jaguar Land Rover announced in the same month, November 2019 that they were reducing production as they were not selling enough cars.
This is clear evidence that business has moved to social and the winners who are there .... are winners. And the losers who are not there ... are losers.
What does this mean for marketers?
This means that B2B buyers are very comfortable going online and searching for good and services. Your good and services.
That means that if you and your sales team are not active on social, then you are leaving money on the table. It could also be worse than that, you are falling behind your competition and you are no longer relevant to the modern consumer.
Buyer Behaviour Covid19 Style
This online world has enable us as consumers and buyers to even more comfortable with online buying. So while the BMW buyers above were OK last November to make a considered purchase using the internet and social media. It means that there is an inherent behaviour in us to support this.
What is this change in buyer behaviour?
If I say to you that the iPhone is the best phone on the market, what would you do? Of course you will make your own enquiries, you will search on the internet, you will read content, you will ask your friends on social. We are all now, Ok with this, it's natural.
The Impact this makes on marketing today.
Why You Old School Marketing Drives Business for Your Competition
This means if you advertise at me, send me an email or cold call you. I will look you up. I will look up who is making the approach (the salesperson) and I will jump to a conclusion about that person based on their passive and active online behaviour.
I will also do all the activities I described above.
If you advertise, cold call me or email me I will go online, I will search and find your competitors. I will compare you with them.
If you are not active online, your sales people look like spammers, or you are invisible online, what conclusion will I jump to?
That you don't exist as a business.
All Your Advertising, Email Marketing and Cold Calling is Driving Business to Your Competitors
Let me make a guess that if you are investing in advertising, cold calling or email marketing you are not investing in social ...... I would make a guess that all this money on advertising, cold calling and email marketing is driving people to buy from your competitors.
You are Marketing and Selling in an Analogue Form But Your Buyers are Digital
Can you see the mismatch?
So what as a marketer and a sales leader are you going to do about it?
To quote my good friend Larry Levine
"has the window of relevancy closed with many of your customers and prospects?"
You can find me on social here
“Gartner data from a poll of CFOs showed that the majority (almost 60 per cent) are building scenario plans that include a second wave of the disease outbreak. Further Gartner poll data indicates that they see a strong connection between the disease outbreak and challenges with the macroenvironment, revenue losses, and demand. ” The authors note that this concern is shared by CEOs, and they quote data from a recent World Economic Forum survey to support that. WEF found that 60 per cent of CEOs believe that there will be a U-shaped recession, while 22 per cent believe it could be a double-dip, W-shaped recession.
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