• by March 23, 2001

It seems like the rest of the world is catching on to two realizations the U.S. came to a long time ago. One is that the absence of an eMarketing strategy is detrimental to a company's success. The second is that banners do not make for successful customer acquisition.

According to a survey recently done by UK's NewWorld Commerce and Marketing Week, 63% of companies already have an eMarketing strategy in place, with websites being the most important element of an eMarketing campaign, and sponsorship of third party sites being the least popular.

Early adopters of technology, such as the Telecom, IT and Services Industries are leading the pack in terms of eMarketing activity, with 76% of Telecommunications Marketers responding claiming to have an eMarketing strategy in place, followed by 75% in the service sector and 60% within the IT industry.

Other striking findings of the survey include that 85% of companies view advertising to be a key part of their marketing mix. Surprisingly, this beats direct marketing, which was viewed by 84% of respondents to be an essential part of the marketing mix.

One factor that came out strongly in the survey was the use of the Internet and email as an integral part of a marketing mix, with 73% of companies surveyed including email marketing within their marketing mix, and 58% planning to use wider eMarketing.

Means of customer acquisition brought up some interesting results, with websites viewed as the fourth most effective method, and - surprise, surprise! - banner advertising being viewed by only 3% respondents as the most effective means of customer acquisition.