Online To Be Main Marketing Spending Priority Of 2007
Online activities will be the direct marketing spending priority of 2007, according to Alterian’s fourth transatlantic annual survey of over 500 direct marketers, marketing service providers and agencies.
While online direct marketing will receive the largest investment increase, 51% of survey respondents also plan to boost their offline direct marketing spend in 2007.
When asked about specific channel investments, 81% plan to increase spending on email marketing, 50% say they will spend more on direct mail, and 45% will increase their budgets for personalized landing pages.
Despite the strong spending indicators for both online and offline channels, 94% of respondents who said they will decrease offline spending said they will increase online spending.
Alterian says that the 2006 survey confirms the growing emphasis on the integration of email marketing. 35% of respondents reported that their email activity was integrated with all other channels, and 26% of respondents said their email is at least integrated with other online channels. Only 18% reported that email is still used as a standalone channel.
Despite progress on multichannel integration, an overwhelming 70% or respondents said they apply basic or no analysis to any of their email campaigns, with only 29% claiming that they carry out full analysis.
At the service provider level, says Alterian, marketing services providers reported the highest percentage, at 32%, of those carrying out full data analysis on email campaigns. Agencies have the lowest percentage of those carrying out full analysis, at 23%, but reported the highest percentage, at 57%, of those carrying out basic analysis.
The survey revealed a correlation between the level of channel integration and analytical activity. Those with the most advanced level of online and offline integration also indicated that they are performing the most advanced levels of analysis, with 45% of respondents topping both these segments.
Conversely, those not integrating email fully with other online or offline channels are doing the least analysis, with only 12% of respondents using email as a standalone channel completing full analysis of email campaigns.
According to 36% of respondents, the top obstacle to improving integration is that online and offline activities are managed by separate departments, whilst 32% reported difficulty integrating email marketing activity with the customer database.
While email campaigns are growing in sophistication and frequency, still about half, or 44%, of marketers manage their email activities in-house. 29% outsource email marketing to email service providers, and 15% send the work to agencies. Only 11% tap marketing services providers.
Regarding email volume, 71% send less than one million emails in an average month. The survey revealed that marketers are managing the largest percentage of small (less than one million emails monthly) and large (more than 10 million emails monthly) campaigns in-house, but tend to outsource mid-size campaigns (one to 10 million emails monthly), primarily to email service providers, followed by agencies and marketing services providers.
David Eldridge, Alterian’s chief executive officer, said: “The 2006 survey shows positive trends for the marketing industry in general, and a well defined shift in spending and activity as marketers are moving towards true integration backed by analysis and successful supplier relationships.
“Challenges remain, but these results certainly indicate tremendous opportunities for marketers to use email and online marketing techniques linked with traditional direct marketing tactics to establish competitive advantages and serve customers better than ever.”
The Alterian 2006 Survey polled a total of 540 marketing professionals. The annual survey, now in its fourth year, was conducted in North America and the United Kingdom in October 2006 through a dedicated web site landing page, a hardcopy form and in-person interviews at the 2006 Direct Marketing Association Conference and Exhibition in San Francisco, Calif.
The recent Marketing Trends Survey from the Chartered Institute of Marketing said that marketers in the UK expect online and digital marketing to be the area in which marketing spend will increase the fastest (see UK Marketing Spend To Increase Fastest In Online And Digital).
At the start of the year, MediaTel Insight collated several forecasts estimating the extent of growth in the UK advertising market in 2007, with online predicted by many to be the area seeing the greatest increases (see UK Advertising Growth Forecasts 2007).