M profs 27_charts_factbook_g0xtw

27 MUST-HAVE CHARTS
TO GUIDE YOUR
MARKETING IN 2012
FACTBOOK:
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Contents at a Glance
INTRODUCTION 1
PLANNING AND BUDGETING 2
SOCIAL MEDIA 7
CONTENT MARKETING 12
SEARCH 15
EMAIL 17
MOBILE 20
LOCAL AND SMALL BUSINESSES 23
ABOUT MARKETINGPROFS 29

1©2012 MARKETINGPROFS LLC • ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
INTRODUCTION
At MarketingProfs, we’ve gathered our best trend-spotting, info-packed charts
to help guide your marketing in 2012. You’ll know what to keep an eye out for
as you plan, budget, and navigate the world of marketing.
The following 27 charts in this handbook offer data and statistics to guide your
decision-making:
Planning and Budgeting
• Forrester: Interactive Spending to Reach $76.6B by 2016
• Corporate Marketers Shifting Spend to Branded Content
• IT, Marketing More Critical to Business Strategy in 2012
• Customers Demanding Corporate Responsibility
• CMOs: Budgets, Hiring Up; Optimism Down
Social Media
• Social Media for Beautiful Things: Pinterest Soars
• Blogs Top List of Social Media Investments for 2012
• Booz: Adaptability Is Key for Social Media Success
• Google+ Pages Gaining on Facebook Among Top Brands
• LinkedIn Audiences Highly Enaged, Active in Groups
Content Marketing
• 2012 Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends
• B2B Marketers Moving Toward Online Content Strategies
• IT Pros Value Thought-Leadership Vendor Content
Search
• Three Search Mindsets Identified
• Search and Email Still Rule the Web
Email
• SMBs Missing Email List-Building Opportunities
• Marketers to Integrate Social Media and Email in 2012
• Flash Sale Emails Boost Transaction Rates
Mobile
• Web Traffic via Mobile Up 102%
• Mobile Email Audiences Up 28%
• Mobile Content Usage Still Growing
Local and Small Businesses
• Local Business Marketing: Daily Deals Up, Facebook Ads Slowing
• Small Businesses to Ramp Up Mobile, Social Marketing in 2012
• Brands to Focus on Localized Content Marketing
• Small Businesses Moving Aggressively to Online Marketing
• To Save Money, Fewer Buying the Brands They Want Most
• WOM, Forums, Blogs Top Influencers of SMB Buyers

PLANNING AND BUDGETING
Forrester: Interactive Spending to Reach $76.6B by 2016
US advertisers are expected to spend nearly $77 billion on interactive
marketing by 2016—as much as they now spend on TV—according
to a new report by Forrester Research:
• By 2016, search, display, mobile, email, and social media
together are expected to constitute 26% of all ad spending, up
from 16% in 2011.
• The forecast anticipates declines in group-buying offers, due in
large part to increased clutter in the space as ad exposures grow.
• Search will continue to dominate spending, growing from $18.8
billion in 2011 to $33.3 billion in 2016.
• Investments in display advertising, such as contextual listings,
static image ads, and rich media ads (including pre-roll, mid-roll,
and post-roll online video), are forecast to grow at a 20% CAGR
and reach $27.6 billion by 2016—some 36% of interactive
spending.
• Mobile ad spending is projected to surpass email and social
spending, reaching $8.2 billion in 2016 at a 38% CAGR.
Tweet this: Forrester: Interactive spending expected to reach
$76.6B in 2016, up from $34.5B in 2011 [Charts] http://mprofs.
com/27charts

Corporate Marketers Shifting Spend to Branded Content
More than three-quarters of US corporate marketers say they are aggressively
(16%) or moderately (62%) shifting spending from traditional marketing to
branded-content marketing, according to a study, based on a survey of 100 US
corporate marketers, by the Custom Content Council (CCC) in partnership with
ContentWise:
The annual study found as follows:
• Total spending on branded content rebounded in 2011, to its highest level
ever: $1,913,609 per company on average, among those surveyed.
• The biggest driver of branded-content growth from 2010 to 2011 was
publications budgets, up 68% year over year (YOY).
• The top-ranked reason that marketers cited for using branded content is to
educate their customers (49%), followed by customer retention (26%) and
enhancing brand loyalty (14%).
Tweet this: Total spending by US corporate marketers on branded content at its
highest level ever [Charts] http://mprofs.com/27charts

Marketing More Critical to Business Strategy in 2012
Despite continued business volatility, global executives plan to increase corpo-
rate spending (albeit cautiously) in 2012—particularly the areas of IT (informa-
tion technology) and marketing—according to a survey conducted by Doremus
and the Financial Times:
• Across most budget categories, more companies plan to increase rather
than decrease spending over the next 12 months.
• As in previous years, IT is the area most likely to record increased spending
(37%), followed by advertising and marketing (29%).
• Fewer companies plan to decrease investments in IT (15%) and marketing
(19%) in the coming year.
• Fully one-quarter (25%) of companies are increasing spending on R&D
(research and development), while 15% are upping their spend on green
investments (vs. 16% decreasing spend in that category).
Tweet this: Global execs plan to increase corporate spending in 2012. Focus is
on IT and Marketing [Charts] http://mprofs.com/27charts

Customers Demanding Corporate Responsibility
Consumers worldwide are demanding a higher level of social responsibility from
the companies they engage with, and most are using the power of the purse to
press those demands, according to a study by Cone Communications:
• Among surveyed consumers worldwide, 81% say brands have a respon-
sibility to address key social and environmental issues beyond their local
communities.
• 31% say companies should change the way they operate to align with
greater social and environmental needs.
• 30% say companies should support larger issues with donations and time—
and use corporate muscle to advocate for change.
• 20% say companies should support larger issues with donations and time.
• Only 19% of consumers say companies should have a limited (13%) or no
role (6%) in the communities they serve.
Tweet this: 81% say brands should address social and environmental issues
beyond their backyards [Charts] http://mprofs.com/27charts

CMOs: Budgets, Hiring Up; Optimism Down
Despite a lack of confidence in the overall US economy, CMOs are planning to
increase spending on all forms of marketing over the next 12 months, particu-
larly the share of budget allocated to social media marketing, according to The
CMO Survey:
• Surveyed CMOs report their companies are planning to increase spending
on marketing hires 7.2% on average over the next 12 months.
• Various marketing categories are expected to grow more robustly over the
next 12 months, including spending on new product, and new service
introductions is expected to climb 10.4% and 6.6%, respectively.
• Internet marketing spending is expected to increase 11.2%, compared with
a 1.3% increase earmarked for traditional media.
• CMOs plan to allocate fewer dollars to customer relationship management
efforts (6.5%) and brand building (5.7%) over the next 12 months.
Tweet this: CMOs plan to increase spending on all forms of marketing over the
next 12 months [Charts] http://mprofs.com/27charts

SOCIAL MEDIA
Social Media for Beautiful Things: Pinterest Soars
Social networking site Pinterest is gaining popularity in the media and
among brands, Experian Hitwise reports. The online pinboard allows
you to “organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the
Web,” according to the company. That includes images of food, home
décor, clothing, and furniture, which users “pin” onto their pages.
According to Experian Hitwise data:
• Visits to the invitation-only site skyrocketed in the second half of
2011, reaching 11.0 million as of December 17, up nearly 40
times the level recorded six months earlier.
• Visitors to the site in the 12 rolling weeks ended Dec 17
skewed female (58%) and between age 25 and age 44 (59%).
• Pinterest and the Social Networking & Forums category both at-
tract the greatest share of their visits from California and Texas.
But the Social Networking category as a whole over-indexes
on share of visits from Northeastern states whereas Pinterest
over-indexes on visits from the states in the Northwest and
Southeast.
• The site was recently named to Time Magazine’s Top 50 web-
sites of 2011, alongside Google+, Klout, Quora, and Storify, in
the social media category.
Tweet this: Visits to Pinterest skyrocketed to 11 million in 2H11,
40 times more than 6 months earlier [Charts]
http://mprofs.com/27charts

SOCIAL MEDIA
Blogs Top List of Social Media Investments for 2012
Many brands plan to focus efforts beyond the big three platforms
(Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn) in 2012, expanding their reach
into multiple social marketing channels, according to a survey from
Awareness:
• 70% of brands say they plan to increase their presence across
social media platforms.
• 59% plan to boost the frequency of social content publishing.
• 50% plan to improve social media management processes and
tools.
• 45% plan to focus on monitoring social channels.
Tweet this: 70% of brands plan to boost their presence across social
media platforms in 2012 [Charts] http://mprofs.com/27charts

SOCIAL MEDIA
Booz: Adaptability Is Key for Social Media Success
Among a list of 12 social media success enablers, the ability to react and
adapt quickly to change is ranked as the most important factor for succeeding
in today’s social media environment, according to a survey of Fortune 500
marketers by Booz & Company and Buddy Media Research:
• Among those surveyed, 94% cite the ability to adapt quickly to change as
the most critical enabler of social media success, followed by having an
in-house social media champion (93%), clearly communicated executive
support (90%), a solid education on social media (90%), and a culture of
experimentation (88%).
• Applying an integrated approach to social marketing (86%) ranks sixth
among success enablers, followed by the training staff members who
are unaccustomed to social media (83%), a strong PR capability (80%),
unique content that’s exclusive to audiences on various platforms (79%),
and the ability to coordinate multiple service providers (62%).
• Asked in which areas they are realizing benefit from social media, Fortune
500 marketers cite brand building (90%), followed by interactivity (89%),
buzz building (88%), and mining consumer insights (81%).
Tweet this: 94% of Fortune 500 marketers say adaptability is most critical
enabler of social media success [Charts] http://mprofs.com/27charts

SOCIAL MEDIA
Google+ Pages Gaining on Facebook Among Top Brands
More than three-quarters (77%) of the Top 100 global brands had a Google+
page as of Dec. 19, 2011, up 16 percentage points from the 61% that did so a
month earlier, according to research by BrightEdge Technologies:
• 93% of the Top 100 brands, based on Millward Brown’s BrandZ Most
Valuable Brands for 2011, now have a Facebook page.
• Some 16 of the Top 100 brands turned on Google+ pages in the previous
month.
• Google, IBM, and Vodafone Group have a Google+ page, but no official
Facebook page.
• Marlboro, a Philip Morris brand, has neither a Google+ nor Facebook Page.
Tweet this: 77% of Top 100 global brands had Google+ page as of Dec. 19,
2011, up from 61% a month earlier [Charts] http://mprofs.com/27charts

SOCIAL MEDIA
LinkedIn Audiences Highly Engaged, Active in Groups
LinkedIn continues to dominate the executive corner of the social media uni-
verse with a highly engaged member base.
• 61% of registered LinkedIn users say LinkedIn is the social site they use
most for professional networking.
• Nine in 10 LinkedIn users (90%) say the site is useful to them. Asked how
they use the site most, LinkedIn members cite the following top 5 activities:
keeping up with old friends and contacts, 21%; networking with industry
professionals, 20%; networking with co-workers, 19%; job hunting, 15%;
and business promotion, 12%.
• Professionals’ priorities do tend to vary by job level. For example, entry-level
professionals use LinkedIn for job hunting most (24%), whereas fewer top-
level (9%) and middle-management (8%) professionals do.
• Industry networking, however, appears to be a top priority for roughly 20%
of LinkedIn professionals, regardless of job level.
• 35% of LinkedIn users check the site daily.
• Another 32% of registered LinkedIn users check the site several times a week.
• Even though few LinkedIn users rely on Twitter and Facebook as their
primary professional networking tool (4% and 22%, respectively), nearly
one-half (46%) say they have a Twitter account and more than three-
quarters (79%) have a Facebook account.
Tweet this: 61% of LinkedIn users say it is the social site they use most for
professional networking [Charts] http://mprofs.com/27charts

CONTENT MARKETING
2012 Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends
MarketingProfs and the Content Marketing Institute surveyed
1,092 marketers in August in the second annual content marketing
survey the two organizations have conducted together. Among their
findings:
• Some 60% of the surveyed marketers say they plan to increase
spend on content marketing over the next 12 months. On aver-
age, they now spend over a quarter of their marketing budget
on content marketing.
• Just as the previous year, 9 out of 10 B2B marketers are using
content marketing to grow their businesses, relying on eight
content marketing tactics, on average, to achieve their market-
ing goals.
• The most popular tactics are article-posting (79% of respon-
dents), social media (excluding blogs) (74%), blogs (65%),
e-newsletters (63%), case studies (58%), and in-person events
(56%).
Tweet this: 9 out of 10 B2B marketers use content marketing to
grow business [Charts] http://mprofs.com/27charts

CONTENT MARKETING
B2B Marketers Moving Toward Online Content Strategies
B2B marketers are moving away from traditional marketing tactics
toward online content marketing, according to a report by HiveFire:
• 82% now use content marketing in their programs, making
it more popular than search marketing (70%), events (68%),
and public relations (64%).
• Among surveyed B2B marketers, content marketing is more
than two times more popular than advertising (print, TV, or
radio) (32%).
• Among B2B marketers, the top 2 objectives of content market-
ing programs are engaging customers and prospects (82%)
and driving sales (55%).
• Nearly one-half of marketers are focused on educating the
marketplace (44%) and increasing Web traffic (43%).
Tweet this: 82% of B2B marketers use content marketing,
making it more popular than search, events, PR [Charts]

CONTENT MARKETING
IT Pros Value Thought-Leadership Vendor Content
Information technology (IT) professionals say thought-leadership
content is the most useful type of content for them, followed by
analysis and survey and research statistics, according a new
study from IDG Connect:
• Fully two-thirds (67%) of North American IT professionals
say they find vendor-produced content such as whitepapers
“extremely useful” or “useful.”
• Though 72% of IT professionals worldwide find vendor-
produced content useful, most prefer localized content that
focuses on challenges in a particular country.
• In Asia, 74% of IT pros say they prefer localized vendor
content, but 79% say they struggle to find such content.
• In Europe, 50% of IT professionals say they prefer localized
vendor content, but 54% have a hard time finding it.
• The main exception is North America, where demand for
localized content is fairly high (56%); but that demand
appears to be largely satisfied, with only 33% of North
American IT professionals saying they struggle to find such
content.
Tweet this: 67% of North American IT professionals find
vendor-produced content extremely useful or useful [Charts]

SEARCH
Three Search Mindsets Identified
When searching for online information, people tend to exhibit one of three
distinct behavioral search patterns, according to new research by About.com,
which explores the various mindsets that drive Web search.
The three mindsets that drive search patterns can be characterized as “Answer
Me,” Educate Me,” and “Inspire Me,” according to the research:
• Answer Me searches account for 46% of total searches queries. People
conducting such searches want exactly what they ask for (and no more),
delivered in a way that allows them to get to it as directly as possible. The
top categories in Answer Me search are Entertainment, Fashion, and Beauty
& Style.
• Inspire Me (28%) searches tend to be fun and “browsy” in nature. Such
people are looking for surprises, tend to have open minds, and want to be
led. The top categories in Inspire Me search are Travel and Home & Garden.
• Educate Me (26%) searchers want 360 degrees of understanding and
multiple perspectives on critical topics. Such people tend to search until
their goals are achieved, which may stretch over long periods of time and
across related topics. The top categories in Educate Me search are Health
and Finance.
Tweet this: 46% of online searchers want exactly what they ask for (and no
more) delivered directly as possible [Charts] http://mprofs.com/27charts

Search
Search and Email Still Rule the Web
Since 2002, search and email have been the most popular online
activities in the US and remain so today, according to a report by Pew
Research:
• 61% of online males use search daily.
• 60% of online whites use search daily, compared with 57% of
African Americans and 48% of Hispanics.
• 66% of online adults age 18-29 search daily, compared with
64% of those age 30-49, 52% of those age 50-64, and 37% of
those age 65+.
• 75% of online adults with a college degree search online daily,
compared with 66% of those with some college education, 41%
of high school grads, and 29% with some high school education.
Tweet this: Since 2002, search and email the most popular online
activities in US [Charts] http://mprofs.com/27charts

EMAIL
SMBs Missing Email List-Building Opportunities
Most small-to-midsize businesses (SMBs) have
mastered the basics of organic email list-building,
making use of Web-based sign-up forms and even of-
fering incentives to encourage subscriptions, but fewer
than half use any type of email-to-social collaboration,
limiting the potential of cross-channel marketing,
according to a study by GetResponse:
• Only 40% of surveyed SMB email marketers say
they provide sign-up forms on every Web page.
• Only 41% recruit would-be subscribers via
Facebook Pages.
• Only 44% collect subscribers from offline sources,
such as tradeshows.
Tweet this: Only 40% of SMB email marketers say
they provide sign-up forms on every Web page
[Charts] http://mprofs.com/27charts

EMAIL
Marketers to Integrate Social Media and Email in 2012
More than two-thirds of business leaders (68%) say they plan to
integrate social media with their email marketing efforts in 2012, and
44% plan to integrate mobile with email, according to a survey from
StrongMail:
• Email marketing (60%) and social media (55%) are cited as the
top two areas for increased marketing spend in 2012, followed by
mobile (37%) and search (37%).
• Only 18% of business leaders plan to increase spending on direct
mail and tradeshows in the coming year.
• A total 64% cite customer loyalty and retention as the primary
benefit of email marketing, followed by awareness building (51%),
driving revenue (44%), new customer acquisition (38%), and lead
generation (B2B) (29%).
Tweet this: 68% of business leaders plan to integrate social media and
email this year [Charts] http://mprofs.com/27charts

EMAIL
Flash Sale Emails Boost Transaction Rates
The flash sale is one of the hottest tools being used today to capture
customers’ attention, and email is a key driver of such campaigns,
according to a study by Experian CheetahMail:
• Email generates on average 18% of referral traffic to websites
advertising flash sales, higher than social media (13%) and
search (11%).
• Among email campaigns studied, transaction rates for flash sale
email campaigns were more than 35% higher than standard
bulk campaigns to the same clients: 0.11% vs. 0.08%.
• Flash sale emails also generated more actions and transactions:
74% of mailers had higher transaction-to-click rates and 67%
had higher transaction rates, compared with bulk emails sent to
the same clients.
Tweet this: Flash sale emails generate a 35% lift in transaction
rates [Charts] http://mprofs.com/27charts

MOBILE
Web Traffic via Mobile Up 102%
Some 12.6% of total website traffic was generated via mobile
device in the fourth quarter of 2011, up 102% from the 6.3%
recorded a year earlier, according to the Walker Sands Quarterly
Web Traffic Report:
• The top smartphone operating system used during the fourth
quarter of 2011 was Google’s Android, accounting for nearly
one-half of all mobile traffic to websites.
• The reported 4Q11 levels were 3.3 percentage points higher
(up 22%) than the 10.3% reported in the previous quarter.
• The site with the smallest percentage of mobile activity re-
corded 4.7% of total Web traffic arriving via mobile in 4Q11.
• The site with the biggest percentage of mobile activity
recorded 24.9% of all traffic arriving via mobile during the
quarter.
Tweet this: Web traffic via mobile is up a whopping 102% from
the 6.3% the previous year [Charts] http://mprofs.com/27charts

MOBILE
Mobile Email Audiences Up 28%
Some 89.6 million Americans used their mobile phone to
access personal or work email during the three-month period
ended November 2011, up 28% (19.5 million) from the
70.1 million who did so a year earlier, according to com-
Score Data Mine:
• In November, more than three-quarters of smartphone
owners (78%) used mobile email.
• Among all mobile users, (smartphone and feature-phone
users), mobile-email penetration was lower, at roughly
40%.
• Most mobile users (64%) now access email via mobile
device nearly every day, and that audience segment
registered the biggest growth over the previous year:
33%.
• Mobile users who access email via device at least
weekly also grew at an impressive 27% year over year.
Tweet this: 64% of mobile users access email via mobile
device nearly every day [Charts]

MOBILE
Mobile Content Usage Still Growing
Mobile content use continued to grow across all measured types among
US mobile subscribers during the three months ended December 2011,
according to data from the comScore MobiLens service:
• 74.3% used text messaging on their mobile device as of December
2011, up 3.2 percentage points (PPs) from September 2011.
• 35.3% accessed social media sites or blogs (up 3.8 PPs).
• 47.5% accessed a browser (up 4.6 PPs).
• Downloaded applications were used by 47.6% of mobile subscribers
(up 5.1 PPs)
• Game-playing was done by 31.4% of mobile audiences (up 2.6 PPs)
• 23.8% listened to music on their phones (up 2.9 PPs).
According to August 2011 MobiLens data:
• Facebook was home to the largest mobile audience among the
three social networking sites, attracting 57.3 million mobile users in
August.
• Twitter had 13.4 million mobile users.
• LinkedIn came in third with 5.5 million mobile users.
Tweet this: Facebook boasts the largest mobile audience among the top
social networks [Charts] http://mprofs.com/27charts

LOCAL AND SMALL BUSINESSES
Local Business Marketing: Daily Deals Up; Facebook
Ads Slowing
Google Offers, the group-buying service that launched in 2011,
has quickly gained momentum against rivals Groupon and
Living Social and looks to continue growing in 2012:
• Some 19% of local merchants who have offered a group
deal have tried used Google Offers, compared with those
who used Groupon (26%) and LivingSocial (21%).
• An increasing number (32%) of local merchants plan to
use Google Offers in 2012, whereas the share of those
planning to use LivingSocial is expected to dip to 16%;
the use of Groupon among local merchants is expected to
remain flat.
• 41% of Groupon and LivingSocial customers say they plan
to use those services again.
• 66% of those who have used Google Offers say they plan to use
that service again.
• Before ceasing operations, Facebook Deals had been used
by 22% of the surveyed local merchants who had offered a
daily deal in the past.
• More than one-half (53%) of those Facebook Deal custom-
ers say they plan to use Google Offers for their next deal.
Tweet this: Google Offers is quickly gaining momentum; 32%
of local merchants plan to use it in 2012 [Charts]

Small Businesses to Ramp Up Social, Mobile Marketing in 2012
Smartphone penetration has reached an impressive 80% in the small-
business community, and interest in mobile marketing is mounting,
along with the use of social media, according to a report by Ad-ology
Research:
• 21.8% of small-business decision-makers say they plan to dedicate
more resources to mobile marketing in 2012, up from the 12.6%
who said so a year earlier.
• Facebook is ranked as the social media site most beneficial: 86.8%
of small-business decision-makers use the social networking site for
marketing, and 77.3% say their efforts there are very or somewhat
beneficial for business.
• Twitter penetration has reached 71.4% in the small business
community, and 56.0% say Twitter marketing is very or somewhat
beneficial.
• Google+ penetration (64.3%) is already rivaling LinkedIn (66.9%)
in the small business community; 53.2% of small-business deci-
sion-makers say their efforts with Google+ are very or somewhat
beneficial, while 51.2% say the same about LinkedIn.
Tweet this: Most small-business decision-makers use Facebook for
marketing [Charts] http://mprofs.com/27charts

Brands to Focus on Localized Content Marketing
Engaging local target audiences is a strategic focus for many
brands, according to a study by the CMO Council:
• 49% of national marketers surveyed say localized
marketing is essential to business growth and profitabil-
ity, particularly as it relates to demand generation and
sell-through of products and services.
• 86% of marketers say they intend to look for ways
to better modify, adapt, and localize their marketing
content, messaging, and prospect engagement practices.
• Major obstacles or challenges to marketing localization
include understanding local market dynamics or vari-
ables (30%), determining the right cost/benefit models
related to spend (24%), and measuring and evaluating
campaign effectiveness on a local level (23%).
Tweet this: 86% of marketers plan to better modify, adapt,
and localize their marketing content [Charts]

Small Businesses Moving Aggressively to Online Marketing
Small and midsize companies (SMBs) continue to move marketing dollars to
digital channels, according to BIA/Kelsey:
• Digital spending among US SMBs is forecast to reach $16.6 billion annu-
ally by 2015—roughly 70% of total SMB marketing budgets.
• By 2015, SMBs are expected to allocate only 30% of their marketing
budgets to traditional advertising (down from 52% in 2010).
• The remaining 70% will be allocated to digital (mobile, social, online
directories, display, and digital outdoor), performance-based commerce
(pay-per-click, deals, and couponing), and customer retention solutions
(email, reputation and presence management, websites, social marketing,
and calendaring/appointment-setting).
• SMB spending on traditional advertising will be essentially flat during the
forecast period—from $11.8 billion in 2010 to $12.1 billion in 2015—a
0.6% compound annual growth rate (CAGR).
• Overall, US SMB spending on media, marketing and business solutions
will grow from $22.4 billion in 2010 to $40.2 billion in 2015—a 12%
CAGR.
Tweet this: US SMB digital marketing spend forecast to reach $16.6B annu-
ally by 2015 [Charts] http://mprofs.com/27charts

To Save Money, Fewer Buying the Brands They Want Most
The US recession affected consumers’ purchasing behaviors across
various product categories, leading them to increasingly “buy down,” or
purchase less-expensive brands to save money, according to new report by
comScore.
Technology is enabling such price-seeking behaviors with the Internet
cited as the most popular channel for comparison shopping among every
generation except seniors:
• Internet (PC-based) is the most popular method of choice for every
generation except seniors: 63% of Millennials (under age 30), 60% of
Gen-X (age 30-44) and 57% of Boomers (age 45-50) use the Internet
for comparison shopping, compared with 50% of Seniors (age 60+).
• Mobile use is still relatively limited: 15% of Millennials and 10% of
Gen-X consumers use mobile devices to comparison shop.
• 58% of Seniors use the newspaper to comparison-shop, as do nearly
one-half (47%) of Gen-X consumers.
Tweet this: To save money, consumers buying less-expensive brands
rather than the brands they want [Charts] http://mprofs.com/27charts

WOM, Forums, Blogs Top Influencers of SMB Buyers
Though word-of-mouth (WOM) recommendations still have the
greatest influence on purchasing decisions among small and
medium-sized business (SMB) owners, online forums and blogs
play a huge role in the process, too—and a more influential one
than advertisements or consultations with salespeople, according
to a new survey from Ivy Worldwide.
When considering future purchases, sales relationships, mar-
keting messages, and green products are less important than
reviews from trusted sources and enhanced features and quality.
Asked to rate the degree of influence that various factors would
have on future decisions to purchase a product/service for their
company, SMBs report the following top 3 triggers on a scale of
1 to 7:
• Stronger feature than current solution: 6.38
• Level of quality promised greater than current solution: 6:31
• A detailed review from a trusted source illustrating pros and
cons of product/service: 6.0.
Tweet this: Word-of-mouth has the greatest influence on SMBs’
purchasing decisions [Charts] http://mprofs.com/27charts

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