A recently released Social Media Marketing survey undertaken between September and November 2011, surveyed over 700 social media marketers to ask them amongst other things, what they saw as the main benefits to their business for using social media marketing as a promotional tool.
By far the biggest perceived benefit according to 88% of the 700 plus respondents was the ability to gain increased brand awareness within your target market.
As marketers we have always been acutely aware of the importance to raise awareness of our business and brands as a first step in the process that ultimately leads to product sales.
Almost as impressive is the second most reported benefit with 85% of the marketers surveyed reporting an increased ability develop a dialogue and engage the customer or prospect.
If we use the AIDA model as a guide with Awareness-Interest-Desire- and Action, we can see that the first two parts are well and truly positively impacted by social media according to the results of the survey.
It's reasonable to assume that with increased awareness and interest comes an increased level of desire and so it shouldn't surprise anyone that almost 3 in 5 (58%) of the respondents also felt that social media activities also led to increased sales and partnerships such as strategic alliances, with around 2 in 5 (41%) also feeling that social; media allowed them to save costs.
Not surprisingly, the vast majority (75%) plan to increase their social media marketing expenditure during 2012.
I suspect that in the next 3 to 5 years the only thing that will change is the degree to which businesses increase their expenditure each year, as social media continues to emerge and gain its place as a legitimate option to more traditional promotional tools.
What about your business. Are you planning to to increase social media spend in 2012 and if so where?
Until next time, good luck and good marketing.
Daniele.
