Marketers challenged with Mobile ROI.

Aquent announced the results of the study, “Planning for Mobile Marketing Success Through Smart Staffing,” commissioned with Forrester Research, Inc. The study found that demonstrating the ROI of mobile marketing is the top concern of marketers planning to grow marketing programs. In addition, marketers indicated a struggle with accurately staffing for mobile campaigns; in fact, few organizations have a full-time employee dedicated to driving mobile marketing initiatives.

The results of the survey revealed that mobile marketing strategies are still in the early stages of development for many companies, with more than two-thirds of respondents indicating that they had a mobile strategy in place for two years or less. In addition to their concern with measuring and demonstrating ROI, these early-stage companies indicated other challenges they face, including the struggle to understand if mobile programs are reaching the right audience and how to integrate mobile with other marketing channels.

The report highlights the current state of staffing for early-stage mobile marketers and found that, for example, 68 percent of respondents have to prove mobile marketing’s positive ROI before they can hire more mobile marketing staff. To address this, Aquent discovered that companies are now evaluating the way they staff their mobile marketing programs and can benefit from hiring contract employees to work in conjunction with agencies and full-time employees. For example, contractors can manage the agency relationship, by specifically collecting, analyzing and iterating all mobile data. It allows early-stage mobile marketers to build expertise on measuring mobile programs and eventually a business case for hiring future mobile-dedicated staff.

“There is no denying that the consumer adoption of mobile devices is rapidly increasing and marketers must act fast to address new marketing touch points,” said Ann Webster, president of Aquent. “With 70% of companies having a mobile marketing strategy in place two years or less, we expect to see more organizations bring on mobile marketing contractors to fill critical skills gaps on their team.”

Aquent commissioned this in-depth survey of senior-level marketing and IT professionals who are influential in the hiring decisions for mobile marketing, to evaluate how companies are adjusting their staffing to support mobile program growth.

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