Zweig Group Releases ‘2016 Marketing Survey’

On January 5, Zweig Group released the 2016 Marketing Survey of A/E/P & Environmental Consulting Firms, its 18^th iteration of the publication. The annual resource aims to help architectural, engineering, planning, and environmental consulting leaders prepare for the upcoming year’s marketing by providing benchmarks of and data from peer and target organizations to inform marketing decisions. In addition to a snapshot of the 106 firms that answered the questionnaire, the 2016 Marketing Survey features a new look that readers can expect to see continually improved upon throughout the year. “Our big push for surveys going into 2016 is two-fold,” said Andrea Bennett, who took over Zweig Group’s research area at the beginning of the month. “First, we have to meet our deadlines as often as we can, barring some kind of unforeseen catastrophe that’s outside of our control. Secondly, we want to give our readers – some who have been purchasing these surveys for forever – more bang for their buck. Longtime readers will immediately notice more information on almost every page and more charts than ever before. We want to give them the most comprehensive look at the most comprehensive information available; that’s our over-arching goal, and I think they’ll really be able to tell a difference.” The 2016 Marketing Survey provides a wealth of information related to firms’ marketing directors and staff, marketing budgets, proposal processes and spending, social media and traditional marketing usage, websites, events and trade show participation, and more. The survey ends with respondents’ candid insights on what their firms are doing well and what challenges they face in marketing. “One of the things we did this year,” Bennett said, “is provide information on fast growth firms – those whose revenue and/or staff have grown by 20 percent or more in the past three years – and high profit firms – where net service revenue has been 10 percent or greater for the past three years – whenever possible. We display these firms’ data along side the ‘overall response’ data, so that industry leaders can quickly see the difference between a so-called ‘average’ firm and those that are doing exceedingly well.” The 2016 Marketing Survey begins with an executive summary, which outlines the data line-by-line and provides a space for readers to input their firm’s information for at-a-glance comparison. Additional chapters in the publication include an outline of the demographics of questionnaire respondents, marketing planning and staff, marketing directors, proposals and sales, marketing systems, promotions, marketing expenditures, miscellaneous marketing topics, and firms’ strategies and challenges. Bennett encourages everyone to check out the survey online and to email research@zweiggroup.com with any questions. Additionally, she says, all survey questionnaires will open this month, and participation presents a unique opportunity for service and savings. “It’s super important for readers to understand that we’re not going out and purchasing lists of people to respond to these questionnaires and that the survey can only be as good as its response rate,” she said. “To that end, I would encourage anyone in an A/E/P or environmental consulting firm to consider filling out a survey. We offer such an array of topics – from ownership to the use of company cell phones – that it would be hard not to find at least one topic that you’re knowledgeable about or have experience with. “The more responses we have, the more comprehensive our final report is, and the better information we can provide to leaders, the better the industry becomes. Plus, survey respondents receive a discount code that can save them as much as $321 on the purchase of any survey product. I know saving money isn’t everything, but sometimes it’s nice to be able to tell your boss you went the extra mile to save the firm a little cash.”