đ Nielsenâs âAnnual Marketing Reportâ 2023
Itâs report time again, and this time it comes in the form of Nielsenâs âAnnual Marketing Reportâ, which shows that 52% of digital marketers are focused on reach rather than on ROI â which was definitely, at first, a surprise to me because ROI seems to be the only thing people on LinkedIn and in the B2B news world go on about.Â
The report suggests that 48% of marketers are focused both on their reach/frequency and ROI, whereas the other 52% are focused solely on their reach. Now, weâre going to get more into what we think about this in a minute, but here are some more statistics and facts from the report before we get into that.
Apparently, 61% of marketers are âveryâ or âextremelyâ confident in their ability to measure the ROI of social media initiatives; 59% said the same about search, and 53% said they were âveryâ or âextremelyâ confident in their email campaign measurements.
đ¤ Hereâs What We Think
Colour me sceptical, but I donât buy it. Weâve reported on a few stories in the past about how B2B digital marketers are feeling the pressure to prove ROI, how theyâre not being given sufficient budgets, nor are they being given appropriate deadlines. Granted, there have been a few outliers, and apparently, the budgets are getting bigger, but it seems very peculiar to me that we may be surprised by these statistics.
Thereâs a reason digital marketers are focused on ROI: because they donât have the required resources to be so. So the best option for them, really, is to focus on their social media and email marketing reach. Itâs the only logical thing they could do, with the funds they have, to prove theyâre doing a good job. If digital marketers had the funds for it, then ROI would probably be their main focus.
đ¤ Customer Acquisition vs Retention
âPractically speaking, marketers without dependable measurement data wonât be able to make fully informed media mix decisions,â said the researchers behind the report. âThat could limit their ability to plan for their primary business objective for the year: customer acquisition.â
Again, this smells off to me.
Itâs been proven time and time again that customer retention is much more productive and cheaper than customer acquisition. Through retention, youâre more likely to have advocates for your brand and people who genuinely trust you; theyâll persuade people to work with you, making digital marketersâ job a hell of a lot easier and much more effective in the long run. People will trust their marketing campaigns.
But customer acquisition? Itâs more expensive and involves more gambling than it does guaranteed results.
So, all in all, letâs not be too surprised by the results of this report. But, letâs also try to ram it into the heads of CEOs and CFOs that customer retention is far more viable than acquisition, and that your marketing and ROI will suffer if you donât focus on it. Reach should definitely be something youâre focusing on, but you should be honing your skills into other areas.
Sam Hollis is a Writer for Fame, SaaS Marketer, as well as his own fictional short stories. He lives and works in Birmingham with his three cats and his dog (way too many pets, if you ask us)