There's good news for marketing professionals in our industry: Companies are investing more in the marketing and communication functions. In fact, more than 50 percent of respondents in the 2014 TMSA Sales & Marketing Metrics Study reported increased marketing budgets for 2013 and 2014.
"Many transportation and logistics firms continue to recognize the value of investing in marketing, communication, and branding, but they were forced to cut back in the economic downturn," says Brian Everett, ABC, TMSA's Chief Executive Officer. "Historically, companies that continue to invest in marketing - particularly in a down economy - get more ROI for their investment because they're competing less with other messages and marketing campaigns from competitors. But regardless of whether or not you were able to maintain your marketing budgets for during this past economic recession, the good news is that the economy is picking up. And so are marketing investments."
Unlike sales results that saw no drop in 2013 or 2014 projected, 6 percent of respondents reported lower marketing budgets in 2013, and 3 percent reported lower marketing budgets in 2014. Approximately 53 percent had marketing budget increases in 2013, compared to 88 percent who had sales result increases in 2013. Nearly 60 percent had marketing budget increases in 2014. This suggests that marketing budget increases lag sales results.
According to the TMSA Sales & Marketing Metrics Study, overall 2013 and 2014 have been good to marketing budgets with a few exceptions. The challenge for marketers will be how to increase marketing budgets in good economic conditions as well as bad. "Clearly this will happen only if marketing executives continue to focus on demonstrating ROI of their marketing investments - and play those results back to executive management," says Everett.
TMSA is in a unique position to continue to capture industry-specific sales and marketing metrics - and TMSA recently opened the survey to collect 2015 metrics data for its second consecutive year. Your participation in this study is critical to its success. Participate in this study and you will receive a free Executive Summary. All responses are confidential and are reported only in aggregate form. Individual company data will never be shared with any other party. Click here to participate in the 2015 TMSA Sales & Marketing Metrics Study.
All TMSA members can download a copy of the 2014 TMSA Sales & Marketing Metrics Study in the members-only section of this website.
