Marketers: Broader Acceptance, Bigger Budgeting Plans For Interactive
- by Larry Dobrow , January 18, 2004
The report, "Digital Marketing Dialog," was sponsored by USA Today and B2B Magazine and is based on surveys with more than 400 marketing execs. Results include the impact of digital marketing technologies and the possibility that these technologies will eclipse, rather than merely complement, traditional techniques.
"Digital marketing has been around for six years," says Responsys Vice President of Marketing Kathy Gogan. "We thought it was a good time to take a pulse, to get a better understanding of market viewpoints."
Several of the study's conclusions weren't exactly stop-the-presses news, but reaffirm previous tracking studies that show digital marketing techniques are becoming an ingrained part of conventional marketing plans. Its creators probably didn't need to survey 400 marketing muckety-mucks to determine that digital marketing is increasing in popularity due to cost, speed of delivery, and ease of measurement, or that spam and cluttered inboxes are considered major barriers to its acceptance. However, the report also unearthed a wealth of data that illustrates the extent to which attitudes toward digital marketing are evolving.
As opposed to studies conducted as recently as six months ago, which placed digital far below traditional on the marketing food chain, the report noted that 64 percent of respondents believe digital marketing has a "high" or "very high" level of strategic importance within their companies. Accordingly, three-quarters of respondents plan to increase their spending on digital marketing this year, with 39 percent expecting to devote more than 20 percent of their marketing budgets to such efforts. Sixty-five percent of $100 million-plus companies plan to increase their digital marketing budgets in 2004, compared to 78 percent of companies below the $100 million mark.
Digital marketing is also being used differently than in the recent past. "Everybody naturally assumes that the best use of it is for lead generation [84.5 percent of respondents said their company was using DM for this purpose]," Gogan notes. "But we found that brand awareness and recognition [70.7 percent] ranked second. I think there's finally a recognition that digital marketing can be a big part of corporate branding."
Perhaps as a result of B2B Magazine's sponsorship, the study took a more in-depth look at the use of digital marketing in business-to-business efforts. While the B-to-B community was believed to lag far behind business-to-consumer companies in the use of these techniques, 35 percent of b-to-b companies will devote between 11 and 40 percent of their marketing budgets to digital marketing in 2004. "The B-to-B community has recognized that they haven't embraced [digital marketing] as much as others, and that they might use it to differentiate themselves," Gogan explains. "They're looking at what B-to-C companies are doing. You're starting to see insurance companies using the technology to reach affiliate agents, for example."
Asked to identify a surprise among the findings, Gogan pointed to respondents' self-evaluations: 38.9 percent slapped a C, D, or F on their use of digital marketing techniques, and 43.6 percent gave themselves a B, while 17.6 percent thought they deserved an A. "There's an acknowledgment, I think, that marketers really need to ramp up their skills to be more competitive," she says.
Beyond the study's findings, Gogan predicted less of a "blast" approach to digital marketing in 2004. "Traditional ways of reaching audiences--it's always been one-to-many," she explains. "What companies have now is the opportunity to open a one-to-one dialog with customers and partners." She cautioned, however, that digital marketing won't fully realize its potential for some time. "You think of print and direct marketing, where there are sophisticated techniques and practices that are well-understood. Digital marketing isn't as mature yet. It's going to take some patience and some more learning."
