Several more responses have arrived for the informal survey on effective marketing strategies beyond repeat and referral relationships; and the data shows some interesting trends. The results show that social media continues to be effective, but “Trade/community association participation and relationships” has taken a slight lead. As well, the data also suggests that virtually all the marketing options available to us work for some businesses.
This survey isn’t scientific, but I’m hoping to receive several more responses before drilling down and looking deeper into the numbers.
The question remains simple but I think important. More than 70 per cent of marketers indicate that repeat/referral and word-of-mouth result in their most effective marketing. This is a given. However, if we could learn from others about which other options are most effective, we could presumably direct our marketing efforts in these directions most effectively.
I’m not surprised by the results so far, and I expect when we have a large enough sample size, I’ll find that social media is most effective for business-to-consumer markets, while association participation and relationships are vital for business-to-business and business-to-government marketing.
