Social, Mobile Ups Marketers’ Influence On Media Consumption

Marketers concentrate so much on consumer behavior, but what part does the behavior of brand marketers play when they attempt to connect with existing and potential customers?

Email marketing and display ads still top marketers’ lists for the most used media channels. Some 79% of respondents to a Forrester Research study use both media, compared with only 65% who used email marketing at the time the first study was done in May 2010.

Display and email adoption continues to increase, even as social and mobile becomes more popular. In the next year, 11% of respondents to a Forrester Research study plan to begin email programs, and 12% plan to use display advertising.
The study, Interactive Channels to Watch in 2014, highlights changes in media consumption in North America and the United Kingdom, analyzing sentiment from the nearly 400 marketers that participated in the online survey. The companies participating in the study reported in 2012 more than $1 billion in annual revenue in N.A. and $500 million in the U.K.

An obvious trend points to the rise in mobile marketing. This year, 65% of survey participants already use mobile marketing, and 24% more expect to use it in the next 12 months, up from 26% who tapped mobile ads, apps, and messages in 2010, per the report. Some 68% of respondents will increase mobile marketing budgets by at least 10% in 2014, targeting messages to consumers on the go.

Social platform use has grown. Today, 72% of marketers post updates to their branded pages, and 61% plan to promote those posts on Facebook, up from 45% of survey participants who created social media campaigns and 28% bought paid social media in 2010, per the report.

Good news for Google, which has been struggling to build its Google Plus platform. More marketers responding to the survey expect to adopt Google Plus in the next year than any other emerging marketing channel.

Marketers influence media consumption. Their behavior plays an influential role on trends, budgets and media consumption.

by Laurie Sullivan
Laurie Sullivan is a writer and editor for MediaPost.
Courtesy of MediaPost