Digital Marketing Effectiveness Survey
I recently came across the "2009 Forbes Advertising Effectiveness Survey", conducted annually by Forbes Magazine. This survey asks senior level advertising, media and marketing executives to gauge their perception of various media and digital marketing campaigns.
Here are some of the key highlights:
- 43% said that sponsoring a website, page or digital publication is the most effective digital tool when it comes to affecting brand perceptions.
- SEO and Email and e-newsletter marketing are by far the most popular methods of digital marketing among respondents, used by 75%.
- 48% percent of marketers said that SEO was the best method for generating conversions online. More than one-half of marketers with budgets over $1 million agreed.
- In 2007, only 19% utilized SEO as part of their online strategies and as of 2009, 39% of the businesses are implementing SEO.
- 87% measure results of their digital campaigns in some way, the most popular being benchmarking against goals set prior to the campaign.
- The success of digital marketing appears to be measured by physical action, with impact to the bottom line being far and away the most important factor in determining success.
- The tools seen as most effective for generating conversions were SEO (48%), email and e-newsletter marketing (46%), and pay-per-click/search marketing (32%).
- In the coming six months, respondents expect that viral marketing and SEO will likely see the biggest increases.
What does this mean for B2B companies?
- It is important, not just to maintain a website but, to actively market the site through exceptional content and search engine strategies. More companies are using Internet marketing strategies and your marketing budget should reflect the increasing importance of the digital channels.
- Search engine optimization involves many technical factors, including content development, public relations, link building, organic search engine marketing, pay per click advertising and other tactics, but if done professionally it will increase your search engine rankings and drive more qualified traffic to your website. This would appear to be a primary area to allocate resources.
- E-mail marketing, e-news letter marketing, and pay per click (PPC) marketing are effective digital tools for generating conversions. A commitment to these programs and implementation by a professional is necessary to achieve success.
- Programs should have clear and realistic objectives set prior to implementation and results should be monitored. Digital marketing offers more opportunity to track ROI than some traditional marketing methods.