Ezine add in section – March 2009
Ask ITSMA: How can marketing make it easier for happy customers to spread the word?
By Julie Schwartz, Senior Vice President, Research and Thought Leadership, ITSMA
Each month, ITSMA receives a number of queries through Ask ITSMA, a resource designed to give program clients a quick and easy way to get insight on important services and solutions marketing questions they face. In this column, we will publish some of our favorite questions along with excerpts from our replies.
I’m sending out a survey and would like to gauge my response rate. What is the industry average?
Though it may be tempting to reach for benchmarks to judge response rates to surveys, marketers should avoid it. There are so many variables that affect response rates that any averages are highly suspect. These variables include:
- Is this a mail survey or a Web-based survey?
- Is this a survey of customers or a target audience?
- Is it a blind study, or are you identifying yourself as the sponsor?
- Do you have a good in-house list with contact information, including names, or is this a purchased list with incomplete information?
- Was the survey invitation addressed by name?
- Will your survey invitation (if online) be assumed to be spam?
- Are you sending the survey out during a holiday period? The summer months?
- What is the incentive for the respondent to fill out your survey?
- How interesting/relevant is the survey?
- Is the survey long or tedious to answer?
- Will answering the survey provide any direct business benefit to the respondent?
Examining each of these variables against your survey plans will help you maximize your response rates.
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Upcoming ITSMA Events
To view all events, please go to http://www.itsma.com/aspfiles/events/calendar.asp.
Optimizing the Marketing Organization Spend and Structure
Executive Roundtable
March 4, 2009
12:00 – 4:30 pm ET
The Westin Copley Place, Boston, MA
http://www.itsma.com/Events/event_desc/09RT02N03.htm
Marketers are under pressure to get the best return from existing resources. Rethinking the structure of the marketing organization can help. Dave Munn, President and CEO of ITSMA, and Ajit Maira, ITSMA Senior Vice President, will offer survey data and best practices and lead a discussion on topics that include ways to optimize marketing structure, the right blend of marketing programs and activities to get the best return, and which metrics offer the best evidence that marketing is indeed optimized.
Setting the Agenda for 2009: Optimising for the Downturn
ITSMA Inner Circle Meeting
4 March 2009
18:30 – 21:00 London time
Elena’s L’Etoile, London, UK
http://www.itsma.com/Events/event_desc/09DM03E06.htm
There are strong arguments to support the view that, in an economic downturn, marketing is more important than ever. Yet faced with tighter budgets and closer scrutiny, marketers are having to make tough choices. Using ITSMA research, Richard Seymour, Managing Director, ITSMA Europe, and Jerry Dixon, Associate Director, ITSMA Europe, will lead a discussion of what leading companies are doing to weather the storm and demonstrate the value of marketing.
Driving New Business Through Effective Client Referral
ITSMA Roundtable
31 March 2009
12:00 – 15:00 London time
London, UK
http://www.itsma.com/Events/event_desc/09RT03E09.htm
This roundtable event will explore how to enhance the sales and marketing life cycle of value-based case studies and create strong propositions and programmes using client referrals to drive sales. Attendees will improve their ability to evangelise client success, strengthen value propositions, and deliver effective client referral programmes.
Creating Marketing Programs and Content That Sales Will Actually Use
Breakfast and lunch briefings
April 2, 2009
12:00 – 2:00 pm PT
Santa Clara, CA
April 15, 2009
7:30 – 9:30 am ET
Newton, MA
April 22, 2009
7:30 – 9:30 am ET
Vienna, VA
http://www.itsma.com/aspfiles/events/calendar.asp
Join ITSMA’s Jeff Sands as he offers best practices and case studies describing ways in which marketing can provide sales with highly targeted content and programs that can be used to move prospects closer to selecting you as their preferred solution provider. You will learn how to help sales choose the accounts in which they have the greatest likelihood of success and how to get prospects to engage in conversations with sales earlier in the buying process.
Increasing Growth in Target Accounts: A Practical Approach to Account-Based Marketing
Workshop
29 April 2009
London, UK
http://www.itsma.com/Events/event_desc/09WS04E15.htm
As the economic turmoil intensifies, more and more companies are increasing investments in marketing and sales programs that target individual accounts and prospects. In this one-day workshop, you will learn how to identify the most appropriate criteria to select the best accounts for your program, determine an appropriate funding model, create an ABM Governance model to effectively manage your program, and design your ABM workshops to create your integrated ABM sales and marketing campaign plans.
Recent ITSMA Research
Services Marketing Budgets and Benchmarks: 2009 Budget Allocations and Trends
This research is free to anyone from participating companies
http://www.itsma.com/research/abstracts/B020.htm
In a tough economy, companies do more than make cuts; they make choices. A down economy affords the opportunity to fine-tune marketing initiatives by reallocating the budget to invest in high potential programs and eliminate those that deliver subpar results. This research provides detailed data on services marketing budgets, budget allocations, and marketing priorities from a range of companies across the technology and consulting industries.
Marketing Analytics
This research is free to anyone from participating companies
http://www.itsma.com/research/abstracts/SV4436.htm
ITSMA’s analytics survey revealed that it is critical that marketing improve its ability to analyze data to inform decisions, predict buyer behavior, and forecast trends. Included in the report are best practices for analytics gleaned from the results and from ITSMA research.
Recent ITSMA Thought Leadership
ITSMA’s 2009 State of the Marketing Profession Address:
Making the Right Choices in Uncertain Times
http://www.itsma.com/Events/event_desc/09OB01G01.htm
When times get tough, the traditional response of most companies is to increase sales resources while cutting marketing. That thinking is outdated. In this online briefing, ITSMA’s Dave Munn and Julie Schwartz explain how marketing can improve the efficiency of sales better than simply putting more feet on the street to sell.
What You Need to Know About Marketing Analytics
http://www.itsma.com/research/abstracts/olb081216.htm
It’s critical that marketing improve its ability to analyze data to inform decisions, predict buyer behavior, and forecast trends. This requires a foundation of quality data, collaboration between marketing and finance, and a willingness to experiment before making big commitments to programs and campaigns. In this Online Briefing, ITSMA’s Chris Koch, analytics guru Pat LaPointe of MarketingNPV, and Samir Bagga, Vice President, Global Marketing & Communications for professional services company Satyam, reveal highlights from ITSMA’s survey on marketing analytics and provide insights and best practices in marketing analytics.
Two Extremes That Will Clarify Your Launch Strategy
http://www.itsma.com/research/abstracts/V0045.htm
Product and service launch strategies are framed by two extremes: blow open the market right away with a big marketing push or build awareness slowly over time. Wharton marketing professor Peter Fader calls these extremes “penetration” and “skim.” In this Viewpoint, Fader explains how marketers can use skim and penetration as guidelines for developing the most appropriate campaigns.
Marketing in a Downturn
http://www.itsma.com/research/abstracts/SV4320.htm
ITSMA members are beginning to feel the effects of the financial markets crisis. Although pipelines remain strong in the fourth calendar quarter, companies are issuing cautions regarding 2009. There is little to no visibility for 2009 customer demand. In response, marketers are changing their strategies and tactics.
