11/14/07

Did you know that spending for social media and conversational marketing will outpace that of traditional marketing by 2012?  That’s the key finding of a survey of marketing professionals conducted recently on behalf of the Society for New Communications Research (SNCR). The purpose of the study was to assess senior PR and marketing communications professionals’ awareness and knowledge of social media and conversational marketing, and their priorities for including it in their strategies and initiatives.

Granted, the use of social media in marketing is still very much in its infancy, but this study shows that communications professionals—our peers—foresee significant growth in adoption and spending over the next five years. Of the 260 respondents:
• 70% are currently spending 2.5% or less of their communications budgets on conversational marketing
• Two-thirds plan to increase their investment in conversation within the next twelve months
• 57% project that in five years they will spending more on conversational marketing than traditional marketing
• 23.8% believe that spending on conversational marketing will be the same as traditional marketing in five years

So that means, in total, that 81% of all respondents project that, by 2012, they will spend at least as much on conversational marketing as traditional marketing. That is a pretty amazing result, for such a nascent discipline.  In the SNCR press release, Joseph Jaffe, Senior Fellow, said “The rise of digital media continues to make significant inroads into the mainstream media pie. Conversational marketing investment will make up the third pillar of the new marketing model.” He even maintains that the four P’s of marketing (product, place, price, and promotion) should be replaced with the six C’s:
• Content
• Commerce
• Community
• Context
• Customization
and, of course,
• Conversation

The SNCR report says the primary obstacles preventing respondents from investing more in conversational marketing today include:
• Manpower restraints - 51.1%
• Fear of loss of control - 46.9%
• Inadequate metrics - 45.4%
• Culture of their organizations - 43.5%
• Difficulty with internal sell-through - 35.8%

Jen McClure, executive director of the Society for New Communications Research, commented that “… this research indicates that the industry is currently in a state of cautious experimentation with regard to social media and conversational marketing.” But, Jaffe added, “… over the next few years we will see… tremendous strategic and cultural realignments and organizational shifts (among marketers).”

What do you think?  Where do you or your organization stand on Conversational Marketing today?  And where will you be in five years?