24% increase in social media tactics by CMOs in retail

A new survey has revealed a significant increase by retail CMOs in the use of social media tactics within their overall marketing strategy. Despite flat budgets during 2010, retail marketers have sharpened their focus on social networking sites, due to the effectiveness of the medium to reach consumers across demographics.

Findings from financial advisory and consulting services firm BDO’s USA Retail Compass Survey of CMOs, which surveyed the opinions of 100 chief marketing officers of leading retailers across the US, indicted that 75% have included social media in their marketing strategy this year, up from 51% in 2009.

Significantly 92% of CMOs using social media say they are focusing their social networking efforts on Facebook, up from 76% in 2009. Twitter is also a key marketing focus (61%; up from 50% in 2009) with other social networking sites featuring – YouTube (20%), LinkedIn (15%) and MySpace (8%)

Although there is some way to go, the report indicates social media is ‘gaining traction as a retail marketing tool.’ 15% of CMOs said that social media is a key part (between 20-29%) of their marketing strategy and 21% of CMOs said social media represents between 10-19% of their marketing efforts. However, 62% of retail CMOs say social media accounts for 10 percent or less of their marketing efforts.

When asked the primary way customers find retailers online, only 12% of CMOs say social networking sites are the currently the primary source of their online traffic, despite the popularity of social media in engaging and reaching customers. CMO’s cited both search engine results and previous shopping experience as the primary souce of traffic, equal at 30%. Email promotions are considered the third highest traffic driver at 24%. (although a BDO Black Friday survey indicated email as the top online moneymaker at 45%.)

The BDO USA, LLP Retail Compass Survey of CMOs is a national telephone survey conducted by Market Measurement, Inc. The companies in the study were among the largest in the country, with revenues ranging from $100 million to $100 billion. The survey was conducted in October 2010.