Penton Marketing Services, a division of Penton Media, announced today the release of “Truth from the Trenches,” the largest marketing business-to-business survey conducted this year. The study was designed to explore the pain points marketers are experiencing as they develop their online marketing strategies.
Respondents spanned a broad base of industry sectors and represented 15 distinct vertical markets that Penton Media serves. From developing websites, search marketing, social media and lead optimization strategies, the survey reveals that many marketers are less than satisfied with their current digital marketing efforts. Findings include:
- 81% of marketers find online marketing moderately to extremely challenging
- 77% of marketers say their site is not that effective in generating sales leads
- 74% of markets have not implemented a social media strategy
- 80% of companies have no resources and no budget devoted to Website analytics
“What we wanted to explore were the real pain points, expectations gone unfulfilled, frustrations and realities marketers struggle with on a daily basis,” said Kim Paulsen, SVP and executive committee member for Penton Marketing Services. “This study reveals both the gaps we uncovered and the strategies you can use to gain ground and turn marketing buzzwords into real tools for success. We are confident that this study will be a great tool in your quest for successful marketing implementation.”
There are so many things in life that we simply cannot control (as is especially clear right now, around the 10 year anniversary of 9/11), but what about the things we CAN control? As human beings, we have the power of reasoning and choice, both of which give us substantial control over our own life situations… we just need to be reminded of this from time to time. Following is my reminder list of the 12 Most Important Things We All Control: