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© 2014 Demand Metric Research Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Benchmark Report
Customer Marketing:
Sponsored By:
TABLE OF CONTENTS
3
5
7
10
12
15
Introduction
Executive Summary
The Status of Customer Marketing
Customer Marketing Activities
Customer Marketing Metrics
Importance & Satisfaction
23
26
28
Analyst Bottom Line
About Influitive & Demand Metric
Appendix – Survey Background
18
20
Customer Marketing Skills
The Future of Customer Marketing
25 Acknowledgements
INTRODUCTION
The view most organizations have of revenue generation is pretty straightforward: generate leads, qualify them, pass
them on to the sales team who then closes deals with new customers. While there are lots of intricacies and moving parts
in that short process description, it is a critical process for most organizations, one that is the recipient of heavy investment and
constant scrutiny. The value and importance of keeping leads flowing through the funnel is high.
What sometimes gets lost in the shuffle is the revenue generated from current customers. Customer Marketing – pursuing
revenue from existing customers – is often a backwater in many companies. It is done if and when there is time
leftover from new customer acquisition activities.
The perceived value of hunting for new customers often exceeds the value of farming the existing customer base. Any firm’s
customer base is an asset, but often an underutilized one. With some intentional care and nurturing, the yield from the farm can
increase substantially. This “farming” of the customer base is called Customer Marketing, and it involves cross selling,
upselling and building better relationships with established customers. Far from being a backwater, it is a proven
contributor to revenue growth.
Customer Marketing as a strategy makes a lot of sense for many reasons. Firms that have the right systems in place and
manage the customer experience well will have great insights into the wants, needs and preferences of their existing customers.
It’s likely that something about their satisfaction level is known. Perhaps most importantly, customers have experience doing
business with the firm, and most of the time some level of trust and credibility comes with that. In short, current customers can
represent low-hanging fruit from a revenue perspective. But modern marketers can’t just wait for that fruit to fall into
the organization’s revenue basket. A Customer Marketing strategy helps maximize the harvest from current customers.
3
INTRODUCTION
In a study sponsored by Influitive, Demand Metric conducted a survey to explore the resources and investment
organizations are making in Customer Marketing. The goal of this study was to understand the staffing, resources, activities,
measurements and effectiveness of Customer Marketing as it exists today. With these insights, Demand Metric can provide
benchmark data to help modern marketing organizations do a better job with Customer Marketing.
4
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
A vast majority of this study’s participants were in marketing roles in B2B organizations that reported revenue growth in the most
recently completed fiscal year. Study data was collected from participants that acknowledged having some form of Customer
Marketing, either formally or informally.
The analysis of this study’s data provides these key findings:
 Over 90% of organizations in this study have some sort of Customer Marketing efforts or function, and 53% of them
report getting moderate to significant revenue as a result.
 Large companies (72%) are much more likely to report moderate to significant Customer Marketing revenue than
medium (45%) or small companies (52%).
 Organizations reporting better revenue results from Customer Marketing are doing different things. Those that
emphasize customer satisfaction programs, customer referral programs and renewal campaigns – the three least frequently
used activities by the full survey sample – are realizing a greater revenue impact from these Customer Marketing activities.
 85% of study participants are using some sort of metrics to track their Customer Marketing efforts. The metrics most
associated with moderate to significant revenue impact from Customer Marketing are “Renewal rate or churn” and “Customer
influenced revenue via referrals or references.”
5
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
 Almost every organization in this study affirmed the importance of Customer Marketing as a strategy for achieving
revenue goals, but just half were satisfied or very satisfied with the results of current efforts. It is far more likely that
large companies are satisfied with their Customer Marketing efforts than medium or small companies.
 For companies that are experiencing moderate to significant revenue impact from Customer Marketing, the top skills they
identify as most critical to success in this area are: relationship skills, communication skills and Digital Marketing skills.
 Customer Marketing is expected to grow in importance in the next year for 84% of the organizations in this study.
Furthermore, 69% of all organizations contributing to this study plan to increase their investment in Customer Marketing staff,
budget or other resources.
 There is a strong relationship between Customer Marketing success and customer satisfaction. Organizations
experiencing moderate to significant revenue impact from Customer Marketing are almost twice as likely to report customer
satisfaction at the highest level, and less than half as likely to report neutral or dissatisfied customers.
This report details the results and insights from the analysis of the study data. For more detail on the survey participants, please
refer to the Appendix.
6
THE STATUS OF CUSTOMER MARKETING
Customer Marketing Benchmark Study, Demand Metric, September 2014, n=237
7
It’s true to say that almost everyone is practicing some form
of Customer Marketing. Just 8% of the organizations that
participated in this study’s survey indicated they had
no Customer Marketing initiatives.
The remaining 92% that do have some form of Customer
Marketing were asked to characterize its state. Figure 1
summarizes the current status of Customer Marketing.
Most organizations are engaging in some form of
Customer Marketing, and the results they are getting
are evenly varied across of spectrum of no revenue or
measurements to significant revenue contribution.
27%
20%
28%
25%
0%
10%
20%
30%
Results or revenue
not tracked
Revenue
contribution is minor
Revenue
contribution is
moderate
Revenue
contribution in
significant
Customer Marketing & Revenue
Figure 1: For 53% of study participants, the revenue resulting from Customer Marketing is
moderate to significant.
52%
45%
72%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
Small companies Medium companies Large companies
Mod/High Revenue Impact by Company Size
The data depicted in Figure 1 serves as a useful filter
through which to analyze the results of this study. The
responses compiled for Figure 1 were put into two groups:
 No/low revenue impact: includes all participants that
selected “Customer Marketing results or revenue isn’t
tracked” and “Revenue contribution is minor”
 Moderate/high revenue impact: includes all
participants that selected “Revenue contribution is
moderate” and “Revenue contribution is significant”
Using the “Moderate/high revenue impact” group we
can determine if there is a relationship between
company size and revenue results from Customer
Marketing. Company size was determined using revenue
data from the survey, where small companies are those
producing $25 million or less in annual revenue, medium
companies are producing from $26 million to $500 million
annually, and large companies over $500 million annually.
Figure 2 shows the result of this comparison.
8
Customer Marketing Benchmark Study, Demand Metric, September 2014, n=237
THE STATUS OF CUSTOMER MARKETING
Figure 2: Large companies lead in generating revenue from Customer Marketing.
By a substantial margin, large companies are more likely to report a moderate to significant impact on revenue than
their medium and small company counterparts. It might seem logical to attribute this difference to the fact that large
companies are more likely to have larger customer bases, and larger customer bases translate into more Customer Marketing
revenue opportunity.
However, further analysis of this status data represented in Figure 1 reveals that there is no relationship between customer base
size and status. Large companies perceive that Customer Marketing is more important and therefore place a greater
emphasis on it.
Headcount is always a good indicator of commitment to an initiative. When it comes to Customer Marketing, the headcount
allocation is proportional to company size. Half of the large companies in this study have 10 or more people responsible
for Customer Marketing, compared to just 2% for small companies and seven percent for medium-sized companies.
Regarding management of Customer Marketing, for half the companies in this study, the responsibility falls to the
CMO, VP or Head of Marketing; and this association did not change regardless of company size. The second most likely
owner of Customer Marketing in small and medium companies is the Customer Success Manager or team, while in large
companies it is the Demand Generation Manager or team.
9
THE STATUS OF CUSTOMER MARKETING
With the status of Customer Marketing established, what
activities form the basis of Customer Marketing?
It’s important to understand what Customer Marketers are
doing, and to understand the relationship between activities
and success. The survey presented participants with a
range of possible activities and asked them to select any for
which their Customer Marketing staff had responsibility. The
results of this activity query are summarized in Figure 3.
While it’s informative to see the frequency of Customer
Marketing activities in which the full survey sample
engages, what’s more useful is to understand which
activities are related to better performance. These activities
were analyzed using the “Status” variable reported in
Figure 1. This analysis detected three noteworthy
differences in the Customer Marketing activities
pursued by survey participants in the no/low revenue
status group compared to the moderate/high revenue
status group. These differences are depicted in Figure 4,
on the next page.
10
CUSTOMER MARKETING ACTIVITIES
Figure 3: Customer and/or user group events are the top Customer Marketing activity.
Customer Marketing Benchmark Study, Demand Metric, September 2014, n=237
6%
31%
41%
46%
48%
50%
54%
54%
61%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80%
Other activities
Renewal campaigns
Customer satisfaction program
Customer referral program
Customer advocacy program
Cross-sell and/or upsell campaigns
Online customer community
Customer reference (testimonial) prog.
Customer and/or user group events
Customer Marketing Activities
29%
33%
17%
52%
57%
44%
0%
20%
40%
60%
Customer satisfaction
program
Customer referral program Renewal campaigns
Customer Marketing Activities & Program Status
No/Low Revenue Moderate/High Revenue
When comparing these Customer Marketing activities with
the high and low revenue groups from Figure 1, the
difference between adoption rates for most of these
activities was negligible. However, there were significant
differences for the three activities depicted in Figure 4, and
they have a strong relationship to the revenue status of
Customer Marketing efforts. The greater the emphasis on
customer satisfaction programs, customer referral
programs and renewal campaigns, the more likely it is
that Customer Marketing is having a moderate to
significant impact on revenue.
This relationship between activities and the performance of
Customer Marketing should force some realizations about
where Customer Marketing teams should focus their efforts.
Comparing the activities data in Figure 3 with the activities
data in Figure 4 shows that the highest revenue impact
activities are among the three lowest ranking in terms of
adoption. To realize better performance from Customer
Marketing, many organizations need to create a
customer advocacy program built around the
activities identified in Figure 4.
11
Figure 4: Study participants that report a greater revenue impact of Customer Marketing are
emphasizing certain activities more than those reporting no/low revenue impact.
Customer Marketing Benchmark Study, Demand Metric, September 2014, n=237
CUSTOMER MARKETING ACTIVITIES
11%
15%
27%
29%
37%
37%
39%
42%
44%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%
Other metrics
None
Product Usage or adoption
Net Promoter Score
Satisfaction
Number of customer-related campaigns
Upsell and/or cross-sell revenue
Customer influenced revenue via
referrals/references
Renewal rate or churn
Customer Marketing Metrics in Use
Measuring anything that marketing does is important, and
Customer Marketing activities and results are no exception.
This study first sought to understand the perception of
the ideal metrics for tracking Customer Marketing
effectiveness, which metrics are actually in use and
compare the differences, if any.
Listed by importance, survey participants were asked to
rank the following metrics:
1. Upsell and/or cross-sell revenue
2. Renewal rate or churn
3. Customer influenced revenue via referrals or references
4. Satisfaction
5. Product usage or adoption
6. Number of customer-related campaigns (e.g. email,
newsletters)
7. Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Figure 5 now presents a summary of the Customer
Marketing metrics study participants say they are
currently using.
12
CUSTOMER MARKETING METRICS
Figure 5: No single metric dominates the effectiveness measurement of Customer Marketing.
Customer Marketing Benchmark Study, Demand Metric, September 2014, n=237
To more easily see the differences between how study participants rank what they feel are the most important metrics and which
ones they’re actually using, refer to Figure 6, below.
Some useful findings come from this comparison, the first of which is the metric identified as most important – upsell
or cross-sell revenue – ranks third in actual usage. The most important metric should probably also be the most frequently
used. It’s clearly not for some companies in this study, and the reason is probably due to the difficulty of accurately tracking
upsell or cross-sell revenue.
Customer Marketing Effectiveness Metrics Should Use Rank Are Using Rank
Upsell or cross-sell revenue 1 3
Renewal rate or churn 2 1
Customer influenced revenue via referrals or references 3 2
Satisfaction 4 4
Product usage or adoption 5 7
Number of customer-related campaigns 6 4
Net Promoter Score 7 6
Figure 6: Some differences exist between what study participants say are the ideal metrics and which ones they are actually using.
Customer Marketing Benchmark Study, Demand Metric, September 2014, n=237
CUSTOMER MARKETING METRICS
The use of “number of customer-related campaigns” as a metric provides further insight into the measurement of Customer
Marketing effectiveness. This metric is relatively easy to determine, as it involves simply counting the number of campaigns
marketing has executed. However, it is probably a vanity metric, one that makes marketing feel good about how much work it is
getting done, without providing an indicator of the true value these campaigns are creating. This metric’s low importance
ranking seems to reflect this understanding that it doesn’t provide a good indicator of effectiveness. Yet, it tied with
“satisfaction” in terms of actual usage.
A final observation about metrics comes from analyzing the metrics in use through the “Status” variable reported in Figure 1.
There are two metrics associated with moderate to significant revenue impact:
 Renewal rate or churn: The higher revenue impact group uses this metric in 59% of cases, compared to just 27% for the
lower revenue impact group.
 Customer influenced revenue via referrals or references: The higher revenue impact group uses this metric in 53% of
cases, compared to just 30% for the lower revenue impact group.
When either of these metrics were in use by an organization, it was more likely for their Customer Marketing activities
to have a higher revenue impact.
CUSTOMER MARKETING METRICS
14
This study has examined the revenue impact status of
Customer Marketing, its activities and how it is measured.
From a strategic perspective, how important are Customer
Marketing initiatives to the organizations that have them?
Furthermore, how satisfied are those organizations with the
results of their Customer Marketing efforts? Figure 7
provides the detail to the question of importance.
77% of the study participants in the no/low revenue impact
group (Figure 1) rated Customer Marketing as somewhat or
very important. For comparison, 93% of the moderate/high
revenue impact group rated it at this same level of
importance. Regardless of how well Customer
Marketing activities are working to generate revenue,
there’s almost universal acceptance that it is
strategically important.
Company size, as measured by annual sales, seems to
predict how important Customer Marketing is. Large
(66%) and medium-sized (64%) companies were more
likely to rate Customer Marketing as “very important”
than were small companies (50%).
15
IMPORTANCE & SATISFACTION
Customer Marketing Benchmark Study, Demand Metric, September 2014, n=237
Figure 7: 85% of study participants rate Customer Marketing as somewhat or very important as a
strategy for achieving revenue goals.
2% 3% 10%
29%
56%
0%
20%
40%
60%
Very
unimportant
Somewhat
unimportant
Neutral Somewhat
important
Very important
Importance of Customer Marketing
3%
13%
35%
42%
7%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
Very
dissatisfied
Dissatisfied Neutral Satisfied Very satisfied
Satisfaction with Customer Marketing Results
16
It’s one thing to recognize the strategic importance of
Customer Marketing, and quite another to have satisfaction
with the results of Customer Marketing efforts.
Figure 8 summarizes how satisfied study participants said
they were with the results of current efforts.
Almost half of study participants indicated they were
satisfied or very satisfied with the results of their
Customer Marketing efforts, while the other half rated
their satisfaction as neutral or below.
While most study participants agree with the importance of
Customer Marketing, there is clearly room for improvement
in how it performs.
Figure 8: Satisfaction with Customer Marketing is almost evenly split.
Customer Marketing Benchmark Study, Demand Metric, September 2014, n=237
IMPORTANCE & SATISFACTION
The satisfaction data from Figure 8 represents a scale from 1 to 5 where 1 = very dissatisfied and 5 = very satisfied. Using this
scale and analyzing the data by company size, as measured by annual sales, Figure 9 reveals higher satisfaction with
Customer Marketing results for large companies.
The conclusion one might draw from this comparison of satisfaction by company size is that large companies, with presumably
greater resources, are more satisfied with their Customer Marketing results because they have more resources and staff
devoted to getting them. As intuitive as this conclusion seems, the data analysis shows there is no relationship between the
headcount allocated to Customer Marketing and the satisfaction with the results it is producing. In other words, more
headcount does not produce greater satisfaction. If satisfaction is not linked to people (headcount), then it must
be linked to process, the commitment to and discipline of executing the process, and the systems that support it.
Company Size Satisfaction (1 = Very Dissatisfied; 5 = Very Satisfied)
Small (sales of less than $25 million annually) 3.0
Medium (sales from $26 to $500 million annually) 3.0
Large (sales from $501 million to over $1 billion) 3.8
Figure 9: Large companies are more satisfied with Customer marketing results.
IMPORTANCE & SATISFACTION
Customer Marketing Benchmark Study, Demand Metric, September 2014, n=237
Which skills are most important to having success with Customer Marketing? To determine this, study participants were
presented with a list of skills to rank, and the ranking results are summarized below:
1. Relationship building skills
2. Communication skills
3. Customer service skills
4. Digital Marketing skills
5. Creativity
Each of the listed skills are important; the ranking simply provides a prioritized list of what study participants felt was
critical to the success of Customer Marketing.
There is one noticeable “disconnect” in this data when it is compared to the activities summarized in Figure 3 for which
Customer Marketing has responsibility. The top ranked activity from Figure 3 is “Customer events and/or user group
events.” However, “Event planning skills” falls near the bottom of the prioritized skills list. Since events are the most
frequently employed Customer Marketing activity, it stands to reason that event planning should rank higher on this skills list.
CUSTOMER MARKETING SKILLS
18
6. Organizational skills
7. Social Media skills
8. Selling skills
9. Event planning skills
10.Other skills
Comparing prioritized skills across the two Customer Marketing revenue impact groups defined using the data in Figure 1
reveals some slight differences in the rankings. This comparison is summarized in Figure 10, below.
Comparing the skills ranking across the two revenue impact groups shows that the same, top five skills set is in view
by both groups, but the prioritization is slightly different. Given the better performance of Customer Marketing for the
moderate/high revenue impact group, it’s hard to argue that this group has it wrong, even if the differences are subtle.
Figure 10: Some variation exists in how these groups ranks critical Customer Marketing skills.
CUSTOMER MARKETING SKILLS
19
Skills Critical to Customer Marketing Success No/Low Rev. Impact Skills Rank Mod/High Rev. Impact Skills Rank
Communication skills 1 2
Relationship skills 2 1
Customer service skills 3 4
Creativity 4 5
Digital Marketing skills 5 3
Customer Marketing Benchmark Study, Demand Metric, September 2014, n=237
20
One thing this study has made clear is that Customer
Marketing is currently an important strategy for achieving
revenue goals. What is the future perception of importance
for this function?
Figure 11 provides this insight.
Customer Marketing is growing in importance over the
next 12 months. The data about changes to budget,
staffing or other resources dedicated to Customer
Marketing reflect this increasing importance.
THE FUTURE OF CUSTOMER MARKETING
Customer Marketing Benchmark Study, Demand Metric, September 2014, n=237
Figure 11: Customer Marketing is expected to grow in importance in the next year.
0%
2%
14%
29%
55%
0%
20%
40%
60%
Far less
important
Slightly less
important
Staying the
same
Slightly more
important
Far more
important
Future Importance of Customer Marketing
21
Future investment trends projected over the next year are
summarized in Figure 12.
During the next year, over two-thirds of participants
plan to increase their investment in Customer
Marketing by allocating more budget, staff or other
resources to their efforts.
Will that investment produce a return?
This study didn’t collect the data necessary to measure
ROI, but it did collect the data to establish a relationship
between the Customer Marketing revenue results depicted
in Figure 1 and customer satisfaction – a critical ingredient
to brand loyalty, advocacy and of course revenue. This
relationship is depicted in Figure 13, on the next page.
Figure 12: 69% of study participants plan to increase Customer Marketing budget, staff or other
resources in the next year.
THE FUTURE OF CUSTOMER MARKETING
Customer Marketing Benchmark Study, Demand Metric, September 2014, n=237
1% 2%
28%
55%
14%
0%
20%
40%
60%
Significantly
decrease
Slightly
decrease
Remain the
same
Slightly
increase
Signficantly
increase
Projected Changes to Budget, Staff or Resources
22
Figure 13 shows the relationship this study discovered
between Customer Marketing effectiveness and customer
satisfaction.
The relationship between Customer Marketing revenue
and customer satisfaction is strong. Those companies
whose Customer Marketing efforts result in moderate to
significant revenue impact are almost twice as likely to
report customer satisfaction at the highest level. In contrast,
those companies whose Customer Marketing efforts
produce no or minor revenue impact are more than twice as
likely to report customer satisfaction at neutral or worse.
There are many contributors to achieving high levels of
customer satisfaction; Customer Marketing isn’t the only
piece in the customer satisfaction puzzle. But Customer
Marketing is certainly one of those contributors, and the
relationship to satisfaction discovered in the analysis of this
data is undeniable. Clearly, effective Customer
Marketing efforts and the culture that is responsible for
them, can play a key role in producing customer
satisfaction.
Figure 13: Study participants whose Customer Marketing efforts are producing moderate to
significant revenue also report higher levels of customer satisfaction.
THE FUTURE OF CUSTOMER MARKETING
Customer Marketing Benchmark Study, Demand Metric, September 2014, n=237
70%
48%
34%
30%
52%
66%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
Neutral/Dissatisfied Satisfied Very satisfied
Revenue Contribution & Customer Satisfaction
No/Low revenue Moderate/High revenue
ANALYST BOTTOM LINE
When executed properly, Customer Marketing utilizes the two biggest assets that most companies have: their customers
and their employees. Employees are the front line for executing a Customer Marketing strategy, and when they are trained with
the critical skills and equipped with enabling systems and resources, the revenue impact potential is significant.
Virtually every organization that participated in this study affirmed the importance of Customer Marketing as a strategy
for achieving revenue goals. But slightly under half are satisfied or very satisfied with the results of their current efforts.
There is clearly room for improvement. This benchmark study has identified a number of best practices that organizations should
use to get the best results from their Customer Marketing efforts:
 Focus on the right activities. The scope of things a Customer Marketing effort could embrace is broad. Anything that
customers respond to and favor has value, but there are three activities that this study identified that are linked to greater
revenue impact:
 Customer Satisfaction Programs: formal programs to regularly measure satisfaction, understand reasons for
dissatisfaction and address them.
 Customer Referral Programs: Implement advocacy programs, systems and measures to stimulate and accelerate the
rate at which referrals happen organically.
 Renewal Campaigns: Proactively manage renewals. Do not just assume that renewals will occur without intervention
or encouragement.
23
ANALYST BOTTOM LINE
 Measure your efforts. There are plenty of metrics that marketing could use to measure the effectiveness of Customer
Marketing efforts – this study has identified many of them. The right metrics point to real revenue results and are not “vanity”
metrics that merely measure work done or campaigns completed. In this study, the two metrics identified as most related to
moderate or significant Customer Marketing revenue impact were “Renewal rate or churn” and “Customer influenced
revenue via referrals or references.”
 Get the right people on the Customer Marketing bus. Customer Marketing is not just a set of tasks to execute, such as
sending out cross-selling or renewal email blasts to current customers. It is first a culture that values customers and then a
process executed by people with the right skills and attitude. Organizations that are having the most success with
Customer Marketing in this study have identified the top skills that are critical to success: Relationship skills,
Communication skills and Digital Marketing skills. When staffing, screen for these skills and provide ongoing training.
 Get an assist from technology. Unless an organization has a very small customer base, it is virtually impossible to consistently
execute the Customer Marketing processes well without some sort of technology and automation. The ideal combination of
technology includes CRM, Marketing Automation and advocacy/loyalty solutions. When these solutions are implemented
and properly integrated, its possible to automate many of the core Customer Marketing tasks.
 The greatest insight from this study also provides the most compelling justification for Customer Marketing: the
strong relationship between Customer Marketing and customer satisfaction. As Figure 10 dramatically illustrates,
organizations that are effectively executing a Customer Marketing strategy are getting big customer satisfaction dividends. For
any organization, Customer Marketing is a strategy for optimizing the revenue from current customers. Organizations that are
struggling to better understand their customers and forge stronger relationships with them should consider Customer Marketing
as one of the best ways to do both.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Demand Metric is grateful to Influitive for sponsoring this benchmarking study and for those participants that took the time to
provide their input to it.
Demand Metric acknowledges the advice and assistance of Dr. Tom Brown, Noble Foundation Chair in Marketing Strategy and
Professor of Marketing in the Spears School of Business at Oklahoma State University, in facilitating and providing counsel on
the analysis of these survey results.
25
ABOUT INFLUITIVE
Influitive, the advocate marketing experts, is based in Toronto with offices in Palo Alto and Boston.
Today’s buyers are increasingly leveraging their peers’ opinions and Influitive helps marketers tap into this force with its innovative
AdvocateHub platform and Maven mobile app. By capturing the enthusiasm of their best customers, followers and evangelists,
marketers gain direct support for their sales and marketing programs.
From social media reviews and customer referrals to case studies and references, passionate advocates help support all stages
of the buying cycle. Influitive’s customers include some of most successful and fastest-growing business-to-business software and
technology firms in the world.
To learn more about Influitive, visit www.influitive.com.
26
ABOUT DEMAND METRIC
Demand Metric is a marketing research and advisory firm serving a membership community of over 45,000 marketing
professionals and consultants in 75 countries.
Offering consulting methodologies, advisory services, and 500+ premium marketing tools and templates, Demand Metric
resources and expertise help the marketing community plan more efficiently and effectively, answer the difficult questions about
their work with authority and conviction and complete marketing projects more quickly and with greater confidence, boosting the
respect of the marketing team and making it easier to justify resources the team needs to succeed.
To learn more about Demand Metric, please visit: www.demandmetric.com.
27
APPENDIX – SURVEY BACKGROUND
The Customer Marketing Benchmark Study survey was administered online during the period of August 13, 2014 through
September 2, 2014. During this period, 326 responses were collected, 237 of which were complete enough for inclusion in the
analysis. The data was analyzed using SPSS to ensure the statistical validity of the findings. The representativeness of these
results depends on the similarity of the sample to environments in which this survey data is used for comparison or guidance.
Summarized below is the basic categorization data collected about respondents to enable filtering and analysis of the data:
Annual Sales:
 $10 million or less (39%)
 $11 to $25 million (12%)
 $26 to $100 million (21%)
 $101 to $500 million (12%)
 $501 million to $1 billion (3%)
 Over $1 billion (13%)
Type of Organization:
 Mostly or entirely B2B (77%)
 Mostly or entirely B2C (13%)
 Blend of B2B/B2C (10%)
Primary Role of Respondent:
 President, CEO or Owner (10%)
 Marketing (74%)
 Sales (7%)
 Other (9%)
Revenue Growth (Most Recent Fiscal Year):
 Significant increase (26%)
 Modest increase (53%)
 Flat (11%)
 Modest decline (8%)
 Significant decline (2%)
28
For more information, visit us at:
www.demandmetric.com
Demand Metric Research Corporation
562 Wellington Street
London, ON, Canada N6A 3R5
© 2013 Demand Metric Research Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Benchmark Report
© 2014 Demand Metric Research Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

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Customer marketing benchmark report

  • 1. © 2014 Demand Metric Research Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Benchmark Report Customer Marketing: Sponsored By:
  • 2. TABLE OF CONTENTS 3 5 7 10 12 15 Introduction Executive Summary The Status of Customer Marketing Customer Marketing Activities Customer Marketing Metrics Importance & Satisfaction 23 26 28 Analyst Bottom Line About Influitive & Demand Metric Appendix – Survey Background 18 20 Customer Marketing Skills The Future of Customer Marketing 25 Acknowledgements
  • 3. INTRODUCTION The view most organizations have of revenue generation is pretty straightforward: generate leads, qualify them, pass them on to the sales team who then closes deals with new customers. While there are lots of intricacies and moving parts in that short process description, it is a critical process for most organizations, one that is the recipient of heavy investment and constant scrutiny. The value and importance of keeping leads flowing through the funnel is high. What sometimes gets lost in the shuffle is the revenue generated from current customers. Customer Marketing – pursuing revenue from existing customers – is often a backwater in many companies. It is done if and when there is time leftover from new customer acquisition activities. The perceived value of hunting for new customers often exceeds the value of farming the existing customer base. Any firm’s customer base is an asset, but often an underutilized one. With some intentional care and nurturing, the yield from the farm can increase substantially. This “farming” of the customer base is called Customer Marketing, and it involves cross selling, upselling and building better relationships with established customers. Far from being a backwater, it is a proven contributor to revenue growth. Customer Marketing as a strategy makes a lot of sense for many reasons. Firms that have the right systems in place and manage the customer experience well will have great insights into the wants, needs and preferences of their existing customers. It’s likely that something about their satisfaction level is known. Perhaps most importantly, customers have experience doing business with the firm, and most of the time some level of trust and credibility comes with that. In short, current customers can represent low-hanging fruit from a revenue perspective. But modern marketers can’t just wait for that fruit to fall into the organization’s revenue basket. A Customer Marketing strategy helps maximize the harvest from current customers. 3
  • 4. INTRODUCTION In a study sponsored by Influitive, Demand Metric conducted a survey to explore the resources and investment organizations are making in Customer Marketing. The goal of this study was to understand the staffing, resources, activities, measurements and effectiveness of Customer Marketing as it exists today. With these insights, Demand Metric can provide benchmark data to help modern marketing organizations do a better job with Customer Marketing. 4
  • 5. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY A vast majority of this study’s participants were in marketing roles in B2B organizations that reported revenue growth in the most recently completed fiscal year. Study data was collected from participants that acknowledged having some form of Customer Marketing, either formally or informally. The analysis of this study’s data provides these key findings:  Over 90% of organizations in this study have some sort of Customer Marketing efforts or function, and 53% of them report getting moderate to significant revenue as a result.  Large companies (72%) are much more likely to report moderate to significant Customer Marketing revenue than medium (45%) or small companies (52%).  Organizations reporting better revenue results from Customer Marketing are doing different things. Those that emphasize customer satisfaction programs, customer referral programs and renewal campaigns – the three least frequently used activities by the full survey sample – are realizing a greater revenue impact from these Customer Marketing activities.  85% of study participants are using some sort of metrics to track their Customer Marketing efforts. The metrics most associated with moderate to significant revenue impact from Customer Marketing are “Renewal rate or churn” and “Customer influenced revenue via referrals or references.” 5
  • 6. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY  Almost every organization in this study affirmed the importance of Customer Marketing as a strategy for achieving revenue goals, but just half were satisfied or very satisfied with the results of current efforts. It is far more likely that large companies are satisfied with their Customer Marketing efforts than medium or small companies.  For companies that are experiencing moderate to significant revenue impact from Customer Marketing, the top skills they identify as most critical to success in this area are: relationship skills, communication skills and Digital Marketing skills.  Customer Marketing is expected to grow in importance in the next year for 84% of the organizations in this study. Furthermore, 69% of all organizations contributing to this study plan to increase their investment in Customer Marketing staff, budget or other resources.  There is a strong relationship between Customer Marketing success and customer satisfaction. Organizations experiencing moderate to significant revenue impact from Customer Marketing are almost twice as likely to report customer satisfaction at the highest level, and less than half as likely to report neutral or dissatisfied customers. This report details the results and insights from the analysis of the study data. For more detail on the survey participants, please refer to the Appendix. 6
  • 7. THE STATUS OF CUSTOMER MARKETING Customer Marketing Benchmark Study, Demand Metric, September 2014, n=237 7 It’s true to say that almost everyone is practicing some form of Customer Marketing. Just 8% of the organizations that participated in this study’s survey indicated they had no Customer Marketing initiatives. The remaining 92% that do have some form of Customer Marketing were asked to characterize its state. Figure 1 summarizes the current status of Customer Marketing. Most organizations are engaging in some form of Customer Marketing, and the results they are getting are evenly varied across of spectrum of no revenue or measurements to significant revenue contribution. 27% 20% 28% 25% 0% 10% 20% 30% Results or revenue not tracked Revenue contribution is minor Revenue contribution is moderate Revenue contribution in significant Customer Marketing & Revenue Figure 1: For 53% of study participants, the revenue resulting from Customer Marketing is moderate to significant.
  • 8. 52% 45% 72% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% Small companies Medium companies Large companies Mod/High Revenue Impact by Company Size The data depicted in Figure 1 serves as a useful filter through which to analyze the results of this study. The responses compiled for Figure 1 were put into two groups:  No/low revenue impact: includes all participants that selected “Customer Marketing results or revenue isn’t tracked” and “Revenue contribution is minor”  Moderate/high revenue impact: includes all participants that selected “Revenue contribution is moderate” and “Revenue contribution is significant” Using the “Moderate/high revenue impact” group we can determine if there is a relationship between company size and revenue results from Customer Marketing. Company size was determined using revenue data from the survey, where small companies are those producing $25 million or less in annual revenue, medium companies are producing from $26 million to $500 million annually, and large companies over $500 million annually. Figure 2 shows the result of this comparison. 8 Customer Marketing Benchmark Study, Demand Metric, September 2014, n=237 THE STATUS OF CUSTOMER MARKETING Figure 2: Large companies lead in generating revenue from Customer Marketing.
  • 9. By a substantial margin, large companies are more likely to report a moderate to significant impact on revenue than their medium and small company counterparts. It might seem logical to attribute this difference to the fact that large companies are more likely to have larger customer bases, and larger customer bases translate into more Customer Marketing revenue opportunity. However, further analysis of this status data represented in Figure 1 reveals that there is no relationship between customer base size and status. Large companies perceive that Customer Marketing is more important and therefore place a greater emphasis on it. Headcount is always a good indicator of commitment to an initiative. When it comes to Customer Marketing, the headcount allocation is proportional to company size. Half of the large companies in this study have 10 or more people responsible for Customer Marketing, compared to just 2% for small companies and seven percent for medium-sized companies. Regarding management of Customer Marketing, for half the companies in this study, the responsibility falls to the CMO, VP or Head of Marketing; and this association did not change regardless of company size. The second most likely owner of Customer Marketing in small and medium companies is the Customer Success Manager or team, while in large companies it is the Demand Generation Manager or team. 9 THE STATUS OF CUSTOMER MARKETING
  • 10. With the status of Customer Marketing established, what activities form the basis of Customer Marketing? It’s important to understand what Customer Marketers are doing, and to understand the relationship between activities and success. The survey presented participants with a range of possible activities and asked them to select any for which their Customer Marketing staff had responsibility. The results of this activity query are summarized in Figure 3. While it’s informative to see the frequency of Customer Marketing activities in which the full survey sample engages, what’s more useful is to understand which activities are related to better performance. These activities were analyzed using the “Status” variable reported in Figure 1. This analysis detected three noteworthy differences in the Customer Marketing activities pursued by survey participants in the no/low revenue status group compared to the moderate/high revenue status group. These differences are depicted in Figure 4, on the next page. 10 CUSTOMER MARKETING ACTIVITIES Figure 3: Customer and/or user group events are the top Customer Marketing activity. Customer Marketing Benchmark Study, Demand Metric, September 2014, n=237 6% 31% 41% 46% 48% 50% 54% 54% 61% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% Other activities Renewal campaigns Customer satisfaction program Customer referral program Customer advocacy program Cross-sell and/or upsell campaigns Online customer community Customer reference (testimonial) prog. Customer and/or user group events Customer Marketing Activities
  • 11. 29% 33% 17% 52% 57% 44% 0% 20% 40% 60% Customer satisfaction program Customer referral program Renewal campaigns Customer Marketing Activities & Program Status No/Low Revenue Moderate/High Revenue When comparing these Customer Marketing activities with the high and low revenue groups from Figure 1, the difference between adoption rates for most of these activities was negligible. However, there were significant differences for the three activities depicted in Figure 4, and they have a strong relationship to the revenue status of Customer Marketing efforts. The greater the emphasis on customer satisfaction programs, customer referral programs and renewal campaigns, the more likely it is that Customer Marketing is having a moderate to significant impact on revenue. This relationship between activities and the performance of Customer Marketing should force some realizations about where Customer Marketing teams should focus their efforts. Comparing the activities data in Figure 3 with the activities data in Figure 4 shows that the highest revenue impact activities are among the three lowest ranking in terms of adoption. To realize better performance from Customer Marketing, many organizations need to create a customer advocacy program built around the activities identified in Figure 4. 11 Figure 4: Study participants that report a greater revenue impact of Customer Marketing are emphasizing certain activities more than those reporting no/low revenue impact. Customer Marketing Benchmark Study, Demand Metric, September 2014, n=237 CUSTOMER MARKETING ACTIVITIES
  • 12. 11% 15% 27% 29% 37% 37% 39% 42% 44% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% Other metrics None Product Usage or adoption Net Promoter Score Satisfaction Number of customer-related campaigns Upsell and/or cross-sell revenue Customer influenced revenue via referrals/references Renewal rate or churn Customer Marketing Metrics in Use Measuring anything that marketing does is important, and Customer Marketing activities and results are no exception. This study first sought to understand the perception of the ideal metrics for tracking Customer Marketing effectiveness, which metrics are actually in use and compare the differences, if any. Listed by importance, survey participants were asked to rank the following metrics: 1. Upsell and/or cross-sell revenue 2. Renewal rate or churn 3. Customer influenced revenue via referrals or references 4. Satisfaction 5. Product usage or adoption 6. Number of customer-related campaigns (e.g. email, newsletters) 7. Net Promoter Score (NPS) Figure 5 now presents a summary of the Customer Marketing metrics study participants say they are currently using. 12 CUSTOMER MARKETING METRICS Figure 5: No single metric dominates the effectiveness measurement of Customer Marketing. Customer Marketing Benchmark Study, Demand Metric, September 2014, n=237
  • 13. To more easily see the differences between how study participants rank what they feel are the most important metrics and which ones they’re actually using, refer to Figure 6, below. Some useful findings come from this comparison, the first of which is the metric identified as most important – upsell or cross-sell revenue – ranks third in actual usage. The most important metric should probably also be the most frequently used. It’s clearly not for some companies in this study, and the reason is probably due to the difficulty of accurately tracking upsell or cross-sell revenue. Customer Marketing Effectiveness Metrics Should Use Rank Are Using Rank Upsell or cross-sell revenue 1 3 Renewal rate or churn 2 1 Customer influenced revenue via referrals or references 3 2 Satisfaction 4 4 Product usage or adoption 5 7 Number of customer-related campaigns 6 4 Net Promoter Score 7 6 Figure 6: Some differences exist between what study participants say are the ideal metrics and which ones they are actually using. Customer Marketing Benchmark Study, Demand Metric, September 2014, n=237 CUSTOMER MARKETING METRICS
  • 14. The use of “number of customer-related campaigns” as a metric provides further insight into the measurement of Customer Marketing effectiveness. This metric is relatively easy to determine, as it involves simply counting the number of campaigns marketing has executed. However, it is probably a vanity metric, one that makes marketing feel good about how much work it is getting done, without providing an indicator of the true value these campaigns are creating. This metric’s low importance ranking seems to reflect this understanding that it doesn’t provide a good indicator of effectiveness. Yet, it tied with “satisfaction” in terms of actual usage. A final observation about metrics comes from analyzing the metrics in use through the “Status” variable reported in Figure 1. There are two metrics associated with moderate to significant revenue impact:  Renewal rate or churn: The higher revenue impact group uses this metric in 59% of cases, compared to just 27% for the lower revenue impact group.  Customer influenced revenue via referrals or references: The higher revenue impact group uses this metric in 53% of cases, compared to just 30% for the lower revenue impact group. When either of these metrics were in use by an organization, it was more likely for their Customer Marketing activities to have a higher revenue impact. CUSTOMER MARKETING METRICS 14
  • 15. This study has examined the revenue impact status of Customer Marketing, its activities and how it is measured. From a strategic perspective, how important are Customer Marketing initiatives to the organizations that have them? Furthermore, how satisfied are those organizations with the results of their Customer Marketing efforts? Figure 7 provides the detail to the question of importance. 77% of the study participants in the no/low revenue impact group (Figure 1) rated Customer Marketing as somewhat or very important. For comparison, 93% of the moderate/high revenue impact group rated it at this same level of importance. Regardless of how well Customer Marketing activities are working to generate revenue, there’s almost universal acceptance that it is strategically important. Company size, as measured by annual sales, seems to predict how important Customer Marketing is. Large (66%) and medium-sized (64%) companies were more likely to rate Customer Marketing as “very important” than were small companies (50%). 15 IMPORTANCE & SATISFACTION Customer Marketing Benchmark Study, Demand Metric, September 2014, n=237 Figure 7: 85% of study participants rate Customer Marketing as somewhat or very important as a strategy for achieving revenue goals. 2% 3% 10% 29% 56% 0% 20% 40% 60% Very unimportant Somewhat unimportant Neutral Somewhat important Very important Importance of Customer Marketing
  • 16. 3% 13% 35% 42% 7% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% Very dissatisfied Dissatisfied Neutral Satisfied Very satisfied Satisfaction with Customer Marketing Results 16 It’s one thing to recognize the strategic importance of Customer Marketing, and quite another to have satisfaction with the results of Customer Marketing efforts. Figure 8 summarizes how satisfied study participants said they were with the results of current efforts. Almost half of study participants indicated they were satisfied or very satisfied with the results of their Customer Marketing efforts, while the other half rated their satisfaction as neutral or below. While most study participants agree with the importance of Customer Marketing, there is clearly room for improvement in how it performs. Figure 8: Satisfaction with Customer Marketing is almost evenly split. Customer Marketing Benchmark Study, Demand Metric, September 2014, n=237 IMPORTANCE & SATISFACTION
  • 17. The satisfaction data from Figure 8 represents a scale from 1 to 5 where 1 = very dissatisfied and 5 = very satisfied. Using this scale and analyzing the data by company size, as measured by annual sales, Figure 9 reveals higher satisfaction with Customer Marketing results for large companies. The conclusion one might draw from this comparison of satisfaction by company size is that large companies, with presumably greater resources, are more satisfied with their Customer Marketing results because they have more resources and staff devoted to getting them. As intuitive as this conclusion seems, the data analysis shows there is no relationship between the headcount allocated to Customer Marketing and the satisfaction with the results it is producing. In other words, more headcount does not produce greater satisfaction. If satisfaction is not linked to people (headcount), then it must be linked to process, the commitment to and discipline of executing the process, and the systems that support it. Company Size Satisfaction (1 = Very Dissatisfied; 5 = Very Satisfied) Small (sales of less than $25 million annually) 3.0 Medium (sales from $26 to $500 million annually) 3.0 Large (sales from $501 million to over $1 billion) 3.8 Figure 9: Large companies are more satisfied with Customer marketing results. IMPORTANCE & SATISFACTION Customer Marketing Benchmark Study, Demand Metric, September 2014, n=237
  • 18. Which skills are most important to having success with Customer Marketing? To determine this, study participants were presented with a list of skills to rank, and the ranking results are summarized below: 1. Relationship building skills 2. Communication skills 3. Customer service skills 4. Digital Marketing skills 5. Creativity Each of the listed skills are important; the ranking simply provides a prioritized list of what study participants felt was critical to the success of Customer Marketing. There is one noticeable “disconnect” in this data when it is compared to the activities summarized in Figure 3 for which Customer Marketing has responsibility. The top ranked activity from Figure 3 is “Customer events and/or user group events.” However, “Event planning skills” falls near the bottom of the prioritized skills list. Since events are the most frequently employed Customer Marketing activity, it stands to reason that event planning should rank higher on this skills list. CUSTOMER MARKETING SKILLS 18 6. Organizational skills 7. Social Media skills 8. Selling skills 9. Event planning skills 10.Other skills
  • 19. Comparing prioritized skills across the two Customer Marketing revenue impact groups defined using the data in Figure 1 reveals some slight differences in the rankings. This comparison is summarized in Figure 10, below. Comparing the skills ranking across the two revenue impact groups shows that the same, top five skills set is in view by both groups, but the prioritization is slightly different. Given the better performance of Customer Marketing for the moderate/high revenue impact group, it’s hard to argue that this group has it wrong, even if the differences are subtle. Figure 10: Some variation exists in how these groups ranks critical Customer Marketing skills. CUSTOMER MARKETING SKILLS 19 Skills Critical to Customer Marketing Success No/Low Rev. Impact Skills Rank Mod/High Rev. Impact Skills Rank Communication skills 1 2 Relationship skills 2 1 Customer service skills 3 4 Creativity 4 5 Digital Marketing skills 5 3 Customer Marketing Benchmark Study, Demand Metric, September 2014, n=237
  • 20. 20 One thing this study has made clear is that Customer Marketing is currently an important strategy for achieving revenue goals. What is the future perception of importance for this function? Figure 11 provides this insight. Customer Marketing is growing in importance over the next 12 months. The data about changes to budget, staffing or other resources dedicated to Customer Marketing reflect this increasing importance. THE FUTURE OF CUSTOMER MARKETING Customer Marketing Benchmark Study, Demand Metric, September 2014, n=237 Figure 11: Customer Marketing is expected to grow in importance in the next year. 0% 2% 14% 29% 55% 0% 20% 40% 60% Far less important Slightly less important Staying the same Slightly more important Far more important Future Importance of Customer Marketing
  • 21. 21 Future investment trends projected over the next year are summarized in Figure 12. During the next year, over two-thirds of participants plan to increase their investment in Customer Marketing by allocating more budget, staff or other resources to their efforts. Will that investment produce a return? This study didn’t collect the data necessary to measure ROI, but it did collect the data to establish a relationship between the Customer Marketing revenue results depicted in Figure 1 and customer satisfaction – a critical ingredient to brand loyalty, advocacy and of course revenue. This relationship is depicted in Figure 13, on the next page. Figure 12: 69% of study participants plan to increase Customer Marketing budget, staff or other resources in the next year. THE FUTURE OF CUSTOMER MARKETING Customer Marketing Benchmark Study, Demand Metric, September 2014, n=237 1% 2% 28% 55% 14% 0% 20% 40% 60% Significantly decrease Slightly decrease Remain the same Slightly increase Signficantly increase Projected Changes to Budget, Staff or Resources
  • 22. 22 Figure 13 shows the relationship this study discovered between Customer Marketing effectiveness and customer satisfaction. The relationship between Customer Marketing revenue and customer satisfaction is strong. Those companies whose Customer Marketing efforts result in moderate to significant revenue impact are almost twice as likely to report customer satisfaction at the highest level. In contrast, those companies whose Customer Marketing efforts produce no or minor revenue impact are more than twice as likely to report customer satisfaction at neutral or worse. There are many contributors to achieving high levels of customer satisfaction; Customer Marketing isn’t the only piece in the customer satisfaction puzzle. But Customer Marketing is certainly one of those contributors, and the relationship to satisfaction discovered in the analysis of this data is undeniable. Clearly, effective Customer Marketing efforts and the culture that is responsible for them, can play a key role in producing customer satisfaction. Figure 13: Study participants whose Customer Marketing efforts are producing moderate to significant revenue also report higher levels of customer satisfaction. THE FUTURE OF CUSTOMER MARKETING Customer Marketing Benchmark Study, Demand Metric, September 2014, n=237 70% 48% 34% 30% 52% 66% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% Neutral/Dissatisfied Satisfied Very satisfied Revenue Contribution & Customer Satisfaction No/Low revenue Moderate/High revenue
  • 23. ANALYST BOTTOM LINE When executed properly, Customer Marketing utilizes the two biggest assets that most companies have: their customers and their employees. Employees are the front line for executing a Customer Marketing strategy, and when they are trained with the critical skills and equipped with enabling systems and resources, the revenue impact potential is significant. Virtually every organization that participated in this study affirmed the importance of Customer Marketing as a strategy for achieving revenue goals. But slightly under half are satisfied or very satisfied with the results of their current efforts. There is clearly room for improvement. This benchmark study has identified a number of best practices that organizations should use to get the best results from their Customer Marketing efforts:  Focus on the right activities. The scope of things a Customer Marketing effort could embrace is broad. Anything that customers respond to and favor has value, but there are three activities that this study identified that are linked to greater revenue impact:  Customer Satisfaction Programs: formal programs to regularly measure satisfaction, understand reasons for dissatisfaction and address them.  Customer Referral Programs: Implement advocacy programs, systems and measures to stimulate and accelerate the rate at which referrals happen organically.  Renewal Campaigns: Proactively manage renewals. Do not just assume that renewals will occur without intervention or encouragement. 23
  • 24. ANALYST BOTTOM LINE  Measure your efforts. There are plenty of metrics that marketing could use to measure the effectiveness of Customer Marketing efforts – this study has identified many of them. The right metrics point to real revenue results and are not “vanity” metrics that merely measure work done or campaigns completed. In this study, the two metrics identified as most related to moderate or significant Customer Marketing revenue impact were “Renewal rate or churn” and “Customer influenced revenue via referrals or references.”  Get the right people on the Customer Marketing bus. Customer Marketing is not just a set of tasks to execute, such as sending out cross-selling or renewal email blasts to current customers. It is first a culture that values customers and then a process executed by people with the right skills and attitude. Organizations that are having the most success with Customer Marketing in this study have identified the top skills that are critical to success: Relationship skills, Communication skills and Digital Marketing skills. When staffing, screen for these skills and provide ongoing training.  Get an assist from technology. Unless an organization has a very small customer base, it is virtually impossible to consistently execute the Customer Marketing processes well without some sort of technology and automation. The ideal combination of technology includes CRM, Marketing Automation and advocacy/loyalty solutions. When these solutions are implemented and properly integrated, its possible to automate many of the core Customer Marketing tasks.  The greatest insight from this study also provides the most compelling justification for Customer Marketing: the strong relationship between Customer Marketing and customer satisfaction. As Figure 10 dramatically illustrates, organizations that are effectively executing a Customer Marketing strategy are getting big customer satisfaction dividends. For any organization, Customer Marketing is a strategy for optimizing the revenue from current customers. Organizations that are struggling to better understand their customers and forge stronger relationships with them should consider Customer Marketing as one of the best ways to do both.
  • 25. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Demand Metric is grateful to Influitive for sponsoring this benchmarking study and for those participants that took the time to provide their input to it. Demand Metric acknowledges the advice and assistance of Dr. Tom Brown, Noble Foundation Chair in Marketing Strategy and Professor of Marketing in the Spears School of Business at Oklahoma State University, in facilitating and providing counsel on the analysis of these survey results. 25
  • 26. ABOUT INFLUITIVE Influitive, the advocate marketing experts, is based in Toronto with offices in Palo Alto and Boston. Today’s buyers are increasingly leveraging their peers’ opinions and Influitive helps marketers tap into this force with its innovative AdvocateHub platform and Maven mobile app. By capturing the enthusiasm of their best customers, followers and evangelists, marketers gain direct support for their sales and marketing programs. From social media reviews and customer referrals to case studies and references, passionate advocates help support all stages of the buying cycle. Influitive’s customers include some of most successful and fastest-growing business-to-business software and technology firms in the world. To learn more about Influitive, visit www.influitive.com. 26
  • 27. ABOUT DEMAND METRIC Demand Metric is a marketing research and advisory firm serving a membership community of over 45,000 marketing professionals and consultants in 75 countries. Offering consulting methodologies, advisory services, and 500+ premium marketing tools and templates, Demand Metric resources and expertise help the marketing community plan more efficiently and effectively, answer the difficult questions about their work with authority and conviction and complete marketing projects more quickly and with greater confidence, boosting the respect of the marketing team and making it easier to justify resources the team needs to succeed. To learn more about Demand Metric, please visit: www.demandmetric.com. 27
  • 28. APPENDIX – SURVEY BACKGROUND The Customer Marketing Benchmark Study survey was administered online during the period of August 13, 2014 through September 2, 2014. During this period, 326 responses were collected, 237 of which were complete enough for inclusion in the analysis. The data was analyzed using SPSS to ensure the statistical validity of the findings. The representativeness of these results depends on the similarity of the sample to environments in which this survey data is used for comparison or guidance. Summarized below is the basic categorization data collected about respondents to enable filtering and analysis of the data: Annual Sales:  $10 million or less (39%)  $11 to $25 million (12%)  $26 to $100 million (21%)  $101 to $500 million (12%)  $501 million to $1 billion (3%)  Over $1 billion (13%) Type of Organization:  Mostly or entirely B2B (77%)  Mostly or entirely B2C (13%)  Blend of B2B/B2C (10%) Primary Role of Respondent:  President, CEO or Owner (10%)  Marketing (74%)  Sales (7%)  Other (9%) Revenue Growth (Most Recent Fiscal Year):  Significant increase (26%)  Modest increase (53%)  Flat (11%)  Modest decline (8%)  Significant decline (2%) 28
  • 29. For more information, visit us at: www.demandmetric.com Demand Metric Research Corporation 562 Wellington Street London, ON, Canada N6A 3R5 © 2013 Demand Metric Research Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Benchmark Report © 2014 Demand Metric Research Corporation. All Rights Reserved.