We have partnered with HubSpot to bring you The State of Inbound 2017. The report takes a hard look at the challenges businesses face in 2017 both in terms of the marketing/sales priorities they set and the trends and new channels they will use. Here, we provide you with an enticing glimpse into the report. Read on for our six highlights.
The State Of Inbound 2017
Top marketing priorities. For 70% of the survey respondents, the highest priority remains converting contacts and leads to customers. The next highest priority (coming in at 55%) was growing traffic to websites. When broken out by geographic location, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa were a little more concerned with growing website traffic than other areas of the globe.
Inbound Marketing priorities. When it comes to Inbound Marketing, the highest priority is SEO improvement (61%); next is developing more web content of the variety that will translate into web search hits (53%); and improving the reach of consumer targets with their content distribution came in third for 47% of the respondents. The emphasis on Inbound Marketing is growing globally with further expected increases in Australia, New Zealand and Asia. Interestingly, although Inbound Marketing is advancing globally, the priorities themselves shift from region to region.
The report also finds that traditional marketing was the top overrated marketing technique. It is clear that respondents have entered the “on-demand” marketing world in the effort to meet customers where they live and give them more useful, individual experiences.
Sales priorities. When it comes to sales professionals, the top priority is closing more deals (71%) and increasing the sales funnel effectiveness (44%). Sales professionals face adjusting to the new buying habits of consumers which is a major shift for businesses.
Marketing challenges. When asked to choose the marketing activities that are more difficult in today's market, 63% of respondents chose generating leads as the top challenge which mirrored their top priority. Another 40% said that proving the return on investment for marketing was their next biggest challenge. Globally, generating leads as the top challenge held true across all geographic areas.
Sales challenges. When the survey asked what sales challenges were more difficult today than 2-3 years ago, 38% of respondents answered that getting responses from prospects was their toughest challenge. Another 35% thought that closing deals was tougher and, rounding out the top three challenges, 30% of respondents said that identifying good leads was their toughest issue.
Most respondents (38%) thought that prospecting leads caused them the biggest struggle. When broken down geographically, 48% of North American sales people named prospecting leads as the top struggle. The Middle East came in a little lower with 40% choosing leads as their biggest challenge. Asian respondents picked closing as their biggest challenge (at 38%) while only 25% chose leads as the biggest challenge.
An interesting divergence. When the survey asked how much time marketers spend each day on data entry, the answers varied depending on the senior level of the respondent. C-Suite individuals (34%) were less likely to feel that their marketers spent a large part of the day on mundane data entry (or other manual tasks). They responded that their sales people spent 30 minutes or less on such tasks. Compared that to 27% of individual contributors to the survey who said they spent up to two hours daily on such tasks. That is a real disconnect for C-Suite's understanding of the everyday issues facing their sales people.
This same disconnect shows itself in the question as to whether the business' marketing is effective. Most C-Suite respondents (69%) felt their organization's marketing activities were effective. Only 55% of individual marketing people, however, felt their marketing activities were effective.
We hope you enjoyed this taste of the report. To talk more about this, or anything else, please contact us. The full State of the Inbound 2017 has many more interesting insights. To get the full picture of The State of Inbound Marketing today, download the full report now!
