October 6 , 2009

Marketers not practicing what they preach
Gaps exist in relationship marketing

While 88 per cent of marketers claim to employ relationship marketing activities, only 24 percent spend the majority of their marketing budgets on retention activities. This according to a new whitepaper, “ Relationship Marketing 3.0: Thriving in Marketing’s New Ecosystem,” authored by Peppers & Rogers Group, the world’s premier customer-centered management consulting firm, and Digital Cement, a thought leader in customer relationship marketing and subsidiary of Pitney Bowes Inc.

“Relationship Marketing 3.0: Thriving in Marketing’s New Ecosystem” discusses new challenges facing marketers, including the rise of social media, the risks and opportunities surrounding the new marketing landscape, and the new emphasis on gaining and keeping customer trust.

The whitepaper includes findings gathered from the recent survey, “Relationship Marketing 3.0,” developed by Peppers & Rogers Group and Digital Cement, and conducted across nearly 700 1to1 Media subscribers, senior-level marketing and customer strategy executives. The survey includes insights on relationship marketing practices, plans and challenges.

“The fact that a majority of relationship marketing professionals surveyed (53 per cent) still spend the majority of their budgets on acquisition efforts, and so little on retention, shows a serious disconnect between theory and practice,” said Don Peppers, co-founder of Peppers & Rogers Group. “In this whitepaper, we aim to help marketers understand how to connect theory and practice to improve marketing effectiveness and retain their most valuable customers. If they don’t, their competitors will.”

The “Relationship Marketing 3.0” survey also offers insights into current social media involvement and practices such as social media ownership and measurement.

Sharad Verma, president of Digital Cement, said, “It is no longer sufficient for marketers to simply tailor messages and target different customer segments. Today, marketers need to create an approach that builds trust throughout the relationship lifecycle via relevant and increasingly personalized communications, experiences and improvements that occur across multiple marketing channels.” Verma added that the new customer data stream created by social media provides marketers with an unprecedented level of honest, immediate, actionable customer feedback that can be used to build more iterative, integrated and flexible programs to help strengthen customer relationships and grow valuable, brand-building customer advocacy.