Craig Hayman
While it may seem that new technology would only help marketers, a recent study from IBM showed conflicting results, according to Craig Hayman, General Manager of Industry Solutions at IBM Software Group.
Marketers now possess more consumer information from the Web than ever before, yet more than 60% of surveyed companies have issues turning this data into useful action.
Information Overload
As social and mobile gain popularity among users and consequently, marketers, untapped opportunity remains. For example, marketers use social and mobile outlets to acquire customer information, but have yet to develop systems that turn this information into profit—only half or less of IBM’s survey respondents said they used online data for marketing decisions.
Current Tactics
It’s not as if companies haven’t made efforts to implement social and mobile marketing. More than 40% of companies adopted mobile marketing with an additional 20% planning to implement mobile plans in the coming year as smartphones take over, according to Hayman.
As the initial hype over integrating social and mobile into marketing wanes, the search for value in social media marketing has begun.
Companies will need to value their social media content across these 3 areas:
- Owned – what companies create
- Earned – what customers create
- Paid – what marketers spend money for
Then, marketers must figure out how to put insights from this data into action.
Forward Thinking
What does this mean for the future? Of IBM’s survey respondents, 90% stated the need for an integrated marketing suite that will coordinate marketing efforts between information and social and mobile media, according to Hayman.
Marketers realize that the key to increasing productivity is no longer staff or external support. Customer analysis and action-technology rule the future, and social and mobile marketing is leading the way.
To read the entire interview with IBM’s Craig Hayman, check out the original Brand Innovator Spotlight Q&A.
