Alterian research reveals marketing
strategies need to evolve to successfully engage the new breed of
consumer
Study Points to Explosion in Social Media as Single
Biggest Factor Changing How Marketers Approach Customer
Engagement
New York – September 23, 2009 Alterian (LSE: ALN), the leading
international integrated marketing
platform provider, today announced the results of a recent
research study revealing that the emergence of new social media
channels is forcing organizations to radically rethink and evolve
their marketing techniques. The study explored the shifting
marketing landscape and increasing importance of true customer
engagement and was conducted among marketing professionals at
Alterian's recent Engaging Times Summit in
Chicago.
The research revealed that 60% of organizations think that
personal one-to-one engagement with consumers requires a radically
new way of creating content and on-demand services, while 60% also
felt that that the existing techniques for understanding consumers
needs required significant improvement.
"The research clearly evidences that there needs to be major
changes implemented in marketing organizations across the globe.
The engagement of so many individuals across social networks, blogs
and other online channels has meant that organizations need to
increasingly treat consumers as individuals – both in order to
recruit new customers and to retain existing ones." Said Mike
Fisher, Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing, The
Americas, Alterian. "Conversations can now spread across the web in
seconds that can have both a dramatically positive or negative
impact on a brand dependent on their content. Businesses need to
evolve their monitoring and marketing techniques to offer
one-on-one engagement with the customer and act on these
conversations in real-time."
Social media was clearly identified as the channel which has had
the most influence on the customer experience in the last twelve
months (27%) and, unsurprisingly, is the channel which businesses
expect to have the greatest effect on the customer experience in
the next year (48%). In terms of return on investment, however,
over a quarter of respondents (28%) cited email as the channel that
delivered the greatest ROI and the second most popular channel
(20%) for investment in the next twelve months.
The research indicated that organizations recognize the value
that adopting an effective customer engagement model can have in
delivering successful marketing campaigns and significant return on
investment. Several speakers at the Engaging Times Summit
identified the emergence of a new type of marketing agency – the
Customer Engagement Agency, which is an evolution of the current
model. These agencies are focused on helping marketers engage with
customers in a two-way dialogue, connect online and offline
channels within an analytics framework, and fully measure the value
of each individual customer.
The research also revealed
- 46% of respondents felt that strategy was the most
important factor in defining the customer engagement agency
- 25% stated that the top obstacle to overcome in online
marketing was the integration of online with database marketing and
offline channels
- The lack of ability to assess or manage internal infrastructure
and culture challenges (25%) and the integration of all the
technology to power the cycle (20%) were identified as the biggest
factors in implementing the customer engagement cycle.
The research study took place among over 200 marketing
professionals at Alterian's Engaging Times Summit in August,
2009.
About Alterian
Alterian (LSE: ALN) empowers organizations to create relevant,
effective and engaging experiences with their audience that help
build value and reinforce commitment to their brand, through the
use of the Alterian
Integrated Marketing Platform. Alterian drives the
transformation of marketing and communications, making it practical
and cost-effective for companies to orchestrate multichannel
engagement with the individual.
Alterian's unprecedented integration of analytics, content and
execution through industry leading tools, such as the Dynamic
Messenger email platform and the award winning Content Management
solutions, enables companies to build integrated communication
strategies which create a true picture of the individual.
Alterian works with marketing services partners, system integrators
and agencies who recognize the need to plan and deliver coordinated
customer engagement services in partnership with their clients. For
more information about Alterian, products within the Alterian
Integrated Marketing Platform or Alterian's Partner Network, visit
www.alterian.com or the
Alterian blog at www.engagingtimes.com.
For more information, contact:
James Walker
Bite Communications
+1 212 857 9374
james.walker@bitepr.com
Karen
Gibbons
Alterian
+44 (0)117 970 3200
karen.gibbons@alterian.com