4 Findings that Reflect Marketing in a Poor Economy
Just in case you missed Thursday’s B2B Online / Eloqua webinar on Justifying Your Marketing Spend in a Tough Economy, I’m listing here a few of the more interesting findings. I confess to leaving the webinar before it was over - not because I was bored but because of a prior commitment. I made it all the way through the presentation by Stefan Tornquist, Research Director at MarketingSherpa, and most of these points come from him.
Interesting finding #1:
27% of the attendees at a recent (October) Advertising conference indicated that they plan to increase their marketing budgets in response to the current economic situation.
Undoubtedly, these are companies that understand the competitive opportunities that present themselves when economic conditions force or scare other companies into retreat.
History shows us that these companies - the ones who increase or at least maintain aggressive marketing programs - are the companies that will come out ahead when the economy turns around.
Interesting Finding #2: The shift from brand advertising to direct marketing is accelerating.
No surprise here. Direct marketing is much easier to connect directly to results. Brand advertising requires a leap of faith.
Direct marketing includes programs and tactics with (hopefully) powerful calls to action. The purpose of these tactics is to get the prospect or customer to do something.
Brand advertising on the other hand just kind of sits there, looking nice and reinforcing what the company wants people to think of it. There is plenty of research to support the idea that a strong brand will increase the effectiveness of a direct marketing program; so I put it in the “nice to have” category. Given limited resources - and marketing spends that must be justified in terms of contribution to revenue - I’d much prefer a campaign that motivates people to take action.
Interesting finding #3: there is a substantial shift from traditional to online marketing taking place.
This is also not surprising. Our company along with our clients has completed that shift over the last few years - driven mostly by the continuing decrease in results from traditional marketing programs and the increase in prospects searching for solutions online.
The B2B online webinar also pointed out two other reasons for the shift;
- Online marketing tends to be less expensive than offline marketing.
- Results are infinitely more measurable in the online world.
I’d add yet another advantage - improvements can be made rapidly and programs can be optimized for the best response very quickly
Interesting Find #4: Companies who take SEO and email marketing seriously and invest the money necessary to do it right - instead of viewing them as free tactics - enjoy “starkly better results”.
I wish I had numbers to share with you, but that’s all that was said. Don’t worry though. I’ll be tracking that one down.
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