• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, February 20, 2009

Most companies will increase their investment in online marketing in 2009, but the ROI may be sketchy.

Less than half (47%) of marketing professionals in North America and the U.K. recently surveyed by Alterian reported that they currently use analytics to measure online campaign results.

One-quarter cited analyzing and honing results as the hardest part of any campaign.

In this sixth annual marketing study from the analytics platform provider, 1,545 marketers, agencies, marketing services providers and systems integrators in the U.S. and U.K. were surveyed Oct. 1-Dec. 4 through a dedicated Web site landing page and interviews at three key marketing conferences last October and November.

Nearly two-thirds (62%) of organizations surveyed reported planning to increase online marketing this year, 26% said online investment would remain static, and 6% said it would decrease.

Perhaps more surprisingly, 38% reported planned spending increases in offline direct marketing, although 41% said this spending would be static, and 19% reported planned reductions.

Metrics challenges tie in with the survey's confirmation that the vast majority of marketers are attempting to analyze data from disparate, largely unintegrated systems. More than half (51%) reported using three to six applications in campaigns, another 23% reported using seven or more, and just 26% use two or fewer.

In addition, one-fifth of respondents described their Web sites as being just "basic" and not at the core of their marketing activities.

In the push to make the most of new technologies' "almost limitless ways of engaging with customers and prospects," some companies are under-focused on maximizing the value of the core Web sites to which they're driving those customers and prospects, observed Alterian CEO David Eldridge.

Marketers need to remember that brand and corporate sites are the cornerstone of effective marketing programs, he stressed.