• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, December 26, 2003

Digital Marketing Becomes An Important Part of Marketing Mix

The recently released Digital Marketing Dialog Survey, sponsored by BtoB, the CMO Council and USA Today, finds that new-customer lead generation is the top purpose of companies engaged in digital marketing. This motive, cited by 83% of respondents, outpaced both brand awareness and recognition (68%) and improved customer relationships (67%). 63% of marketing and advertising executives in the survey see digital marketing as having a high or very high level of strategic importance within the organization. Moreover, more than three-quarters of respondents said they planned to increase their budget for digital marketing next year.

The top components of digital marketing are shifting towards e-mail marketing campaigns (80%), Web site interactions and content delivery (73%). E-newsletters and online advertising tied at 69% in the digital marketing mix. Perhaps, notes the report, because they are less costly, quicker and easier to implement, quantify and analyze than traditional marketing campaigns. One of the newest digital marketing techniques, Webcasts and Web conferences, was cited by 27% of respondents as part of the marketing mix.

Other key findings:

- Spending for online marketing of the biggest proportion of marketers is expected to double to 11% to 20% of the overall marketing budget in 2004. And 37% of companies will spend more than 20% of their marketing budgets on digital marketing in 2004 vs. only 32% this year.

- Of the marketers surveyed, 42% are adopting e-mail opt-in policies, and 35% plan to adhere to new legislative developments. The top three e-marketing challenges to overcome are spam and filtering, e-mail inbox clutter and developing more qualified lists.

- Top improvements marketers expect to boost their campaigns next year include integrating online and offline marketing, integrating e-mail campaigns with their Web sites, highly personalized interaction, and better customer profiling and analytics to determine campaign effectiveness.

- 54% of marketing professionals are relying Web site visits for measurement, 54% on customer response rates, 53% on customer leads, and 52% on click-throughs. However, nearly 10% said they were not measuring their digital marketing programs.

Find out more here.