The challenge of channel choice. Exploring B2B attitudes towards different media combinations

Transcription

1 The challenge of channel choice Exploring B2B attitudes towards different media combinations

2 Introduction Media fragmentation means businesses now have an increasing number of ways to communicate with customers and prospects. Mail, web, SMS, , social media, mobile web the choices present enormous opportunities, and challenges for marketers. Such choice has had huge ramifications for B2C marketing as Pitney Bowes revealed in its March 2009 study United We Stand, which concluded that an integrated channel approach - combining traditional and digital media was the most successful way of winning customers. Key findings There are now a plethora of ways to communicate with customers and prospects. Businesses are operating in a climate of media fragmentation. An average of 53% of firms across the UK, France (FR) and Germany (DE) find it increasingly difficult to reach and influence customers as a result of media fragmentation (50% in the US). Across the three major European economies, 51% have encountered difficulties in reaching new prospects as a result of media fragmentation. This figure rises to 58% in the US. 53% of UK/FR/DE firms believe concentrating solely on electronic media would seriously damage their ability to generate leads (US: 58%) 58% of UK/FR/DE companies are actively investing in work to understand better how different media work together to generate a response from a prospect (US: 62%). This new study, The challenge of channel choice, focuses on the B2B world. Just as in B2C marketing, today s B2B customer is sophisticated, time-poor, and selective over what marketing messages they respond to and through which channel. The very proliferation of channels that makes marketing today so exciting also presents B2B marketers with the difficult choice over which ones to use for best results. The tough economic climate has put marketing budgets under immense pressure. As a result, it is essential that any marketing strategy generates, and can be proven to generate, ROI. Indeed, in the B2B world, where companies tend to have limited resources compared to their B2C counterparts, this is particularly crucial. This new research, which follows on from United We Stand, questioned 4000 B2B marketers divided equally throughout the UK, France, Germany, and the US. The report seeks to uncover current B2B thinking regarding channel choice and business communications and to deliver peer-to-peer insight about current best practice in what is a complex and challenging communication environment. Page 2

3 Media fragmentation and B2B marketing The direct result of media fragmentation is that marketing for B2B companies has become much more difficult, both in terms of communicating with existing customers, and winning new ones. In fact, an average of 53% of UK/FR/DE firms say they have found it increasingly difficult to reach and influence customers as a result of media fragmentation. This is slightly less in the US, where the figure stands at 50%. It is also almost equally as challenging in UK/FR/DE to win new customers, with 51% having encountered growing difficulties in reaching new prospects. This however rises slightly more in the US to 58% of B2B firms. There are a number of credible possibilities for these results. One is that, while people may be quick to adopt new channels for their own use, they may favour, or have access to, a different range of channels at work. It is the B2B marketer s job to work out what is appropriate. One other possible pitfall is the temptation for companies to dabble with new channels because they are of the moment and popular with consumers, without a true assessment of the benefits and risks. According to global statistics released by Nielsen, 22% of the time people are online worldwide they are engaging with social media. 1 Little wonder then that businesses are taking an interest. In this case, marketers would do well to test before rolling out any activity in order to gauge effectiveness. Business generation stand-alone channels versus multi-channel In light of the difficulties B2B companies are facing as a result of media fragmentation, it is interesting to look at the channels businesses feel generate the most new custom for them. Direct mail comes out top here as a stand-alone channel although the percentages in each case are small. In UK/FR/DE, 12% of companies feel that stand-alone direct mail generates the most business for them. In the US it is more, at 19% of firms. In comparison, only 8% favour solus campaigns (increasing to 10% in the US), while 6% rely on stand-alone search engine marketing (7% US). In contrast, 27% of companies cited a combination of mail, and web campaigns as generating the most business for them (30% US). This clearly shows that an integrated approach is the most successful in generating new business. However, this is still a relatively low percentage. This may be for a number of reasons: the most likely being that companies lack the infrastructure and/or know-how to successfully integrate multi-channel campaigns. Graph 1: Top channel for business generation: UK/FR/DE/USA, showing the percentage of businesses that identified each channel as their the top business generator UK/FR/DE USA 0 Mail/ /Web Direct mail Search 1 Nielsen figures, June 2010 Page 3

4 While the integrated approach can pay dividends for business generation, there are certain golden rules for any company implementing multi-channel campaigns. Every channel used by B2B marketers to target people must also be a response channel. The ability to accept response from all channels and to make use of that resulting data is paramount to ongoing business success. Encouraging response Channel choice has an effect on both how businesses communicate with customers, and how those customers respond. When it comes to responding to a company, B2B firms across Europe favour website contact 29% of UK/FR/DE preferring this channel, the same percentage as the US. Almost as popular amongst European B2B businesses is the telephone, with 27% preferring to respond via a phone number. This is slightly more popular in the US at 33%, making it the most favoured choice there. lags behind somewhat with only 13% using this as their chosen response medium, compared to 9% in the US. Graph 2: Preferred response medium: UK/FR/DE/USA, showing the percentage of B2B firms that identified each channel as their preferred response medium UK/FR/DE USA What works best may depend very much on the objective of the marketing message whether, for example, it is designed to work as a hand-raiser to request further information, or to sell products and services. Certainly in B2B, the personal touch can be very important, which may be one reason for offering a phone number as the main response channel. Products and services being promoted may be of high value, or complex, so encouraging customers and prospects to call in can allow brands to deal with questions and queries, and to build that vital one-to-one relationship. For a simple information ask, such as a brochure request, responding via the company website may be the quickest and most cost-effective way of collecting these responses. provides just as fast a route to requesting information (for example) but may be less popular because of a lack of resources behind it to deal with the responses from this channel. The winning combination of direct mail and web for response While website and telephone are the most popular solus response mediums, the combination of direct mail and web response is much more popular, with 39% of UK/FR/DE companies using this combination as their chosen response mechanism. This is slightly more popular in the US, at 42%. These findings corroborate previous research amongst marketers, including Pitney Bowes United We Stand report, which revealed that direct mail is recognised as one of the most effective ways of driving web traffic from new prospects. Direct mail has a tangibility that is not shared by any other channel, on or offline. A piece of direct mail, be it a letter, a product catalogue, or a service brochure for example, can be held, examined, read and reread at leisure, it can be taken from the workplace to the home, and vice versa, and responded to in the recipient s own time. And mail works particularly well when integrated with the web. Combined with a personalised URL, it provides a highly measurable, highly targeted, and eye-catching way of engaging people and driving them online. 5 0 Website Telephone Page 4

5 Successful direct mail activity however relies on the sender getting the data side of the mail message right. Two basic rules apply. Direct mail will only reach the recipient if the message is personalised and professional. And in the case of mail and web integrated campaigns, the direct mail component of the activity has to be carefully timed to ensure it reaches recipients to coincide with the web-based side of the campaign. Effective media combinations B2B marketers clearly recognise the enhanced effectiveness of combining traditional and digital channels, and this is reflected in the finding that 53% of UK/FR/DE firms feel that concentrating solely on electronic media would seriously damage their ability to generate leads (US: 58%). It is evident that direct mail is still very much valued as an important part of a multi-channel approach. Understanding which media combinations are most effective is evidently a priority, with 58% of UK/FR/DE companies actively investing in work to understand better how different media work together to generate a response from a prospect. This is slightly higher in the US at 62%. At a time when every spend is minutely scrutinised, the fact that time and effort is being invested in understanding media combinations highlights the extent of the challenge. Methodology: 1000 B2B decision makers surveyed in each of UK, France, Germany, USA B2B business balanced by company size, location Survey conducted online Conclusion It is clear that the number and variety of channels on offer is leading to confusion for many B2B marketers. The danger is that this confusion will result in wrong choices and misspent budget. Businesses want to be able to offer communication choice and convenience to customers and to use the best possible channels to attract prospects. But the current financial climate makes selecting the correct choices even more critical. Businesses recognise the challenge presented by media fragmentation and are actively investing in increasing their learning to enable them to select the correct channel mix. There is a growing understanding that media, used in isolation, will not deliver the power in terms of response that can be generated by a truly integrated multi-channel communication strategy. Every connection is a new opportunity Pitney Bowes Limited Elizabeth Way, Harlow Essex CM19 5BD T: F: Pitney Bowes Ltd. All rights reserved. Pitney Bowes is a $5.6 billion global technology leader whose products, services and solutions deliver value within the mailstream and beyond. Founded in 1920, our company s 33,000 employees deliver technology, service and innovation to more than two million customers worldwide. For more information about Pitney Bowes, its products, services and solutions, visit (10/10)