Spending on Social Media Highest Among U.S. Marketers Using the Emerging Channel to Deepen Customer Loyalty

U.S. companies that use social media primarily to deepen customer loyalty spend almost twice as much on this emerging channel as competitors who use it for brand awareness, customer acquisition and other core marketing purposes, according to national survey results jointly released by COLLOQUY and the Direct Marketing Association (DMA).

Specifically, the survey results show the average social media spend for marketers whose primary objective is to obtain customer loyalty was $88,000 last year, compared to $53,000 for brand awareness and $30,000 for customer acquisition, the objectives that attracted the next highest spending levels.

Additionally, the survey shows that the amount of social media budget marketers allocated to loyalty objectives increased by 293% over the past 12 months, easily surpassing allocation increases for all other social media-related marketing objectives.

One of the key revelations from the research is that the absolute dollar amount marketers are setting aside for social media is low:

* When asked what percentage of their company’s overall marketing budget is spent on social media, the largest group, covering 24% of survey takers, selected "don’t know"

* 17% of respondents said they allocated only 1% of their annual marketing budget to social media

* 16% said they allocate 4-5%

* Smaller companies with tighter budgets are significantly more likely than large companies to say they spend almost 50% of their marketing budget on social media.

Another key finding reveals a lack of metrics for success differentiated by objective:

* When asked to identify the most important measure of social media success, nearly two-thirds of respondents selected "don’t know"

* Of those who identified a measurement, the largest group, covering 20%, said engaging customers to respond and provide feedback

* 65% of respondents said they’re not using any listening tools to monitor what their customers are saying about their brand.

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