by Kaci Bower, Research Analyst

Cutbacks on social marketing spending virtually nonexistent

Q. At what rate do you expect your expenditures on social marketing to change from 2010 to 2011?




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More than two-thirds of organizations are increasing their social marketing expenditures in 2011, and half of those are increasing their budgets by at least 20 percent. While an insignificant percentage plan to decrease their budgets, 22 percent are making no change from last year.

B2B marketing organizations are more conservative than their B2C counterparts when it comes to increasing social media budgets. B2B marketers are more likely to either not increase these budgets or increase them by less than 20 percent, whereas B2C marketers are more likely to increase their social media budgets by 20 percent or more.

The retail and e-commerce sector, more so than the software, professional services or education industries, is the most likely to increase their social media budgets by more than 20 percent this year. One reason for this is customer service -- a big component in customer retention, and therefore an important objective for social media.

Retailers also depend heavily on the use of social media during the purchase process, from influencing customers in their research and decisions to driving them to e-commerce sites for conversion.

For additional research data and insights about email marketing, download and read the free Executive Summary from the MarketingSherpa 2011 Social Media Marketing Benchmark Report.


Useful links related to this chart

Members Library -- Marketing Research Chart: Top metrics used for measuring social marketing impact

Members Library -- Marketing Research Chart: Social media tactics for B2B

Members Library -- Marketing Research Chart: Perceptions of Social Media at Budget Time

MarketingSherpa 2011 Social Marketing Benchmark Report