Marketing Spend For Email and Social Media Top Plans for 2010

by Jack Loechner, Monday, December 7, 2009, 8:15 AM

According to the November "2010 Marketing Trends Survey"  of business leaders by StrongMail, 89% of respondents plan to increase or maintain marketing spend in email marketing and social media budgets in the New Year. The industry survey of more than 1,000 global business leaders found that the positive outlook is supported by 50% of polled businesses that expect their customers to spend more in 2010, and nearly a quarter more that expect them to spend the same.  Only 8% of businesses expect their customers to spend less.

48% of businesses are increasing overall marketing budgets in 2010, and email and social media marketing are the two leading areas of investment at 69% and 59% respectively. Search marketing comes in third at 42%.  Conversely, events and direct mail lead the pack in decreased spend at 44% and 42% respectively.

Marketing Program Spending Plans for 2010 (% of Respondents)
Program	Increase Spend	Decrease Spend
Advertising	28%	32%
Direct mail	21	42
Email marketing	69	6
Mobile	22	5
Public relations	19	12
Search (SEO/PPC)	42	7
Social media	59	3
Tradeshows & events	20	44
Other	7	7
Source: StrongMail, November 2009

 Social media marketing is a clear focus for businesses, with 69% of respondents planning to integrate it with their email marketing campaigns in 2010.  However, of those who have already integrated the two channels, only 42% are achieving a lift in campaign performance.  35% report no significant lift and another 23% are unable to measure.   Respondents identified the top three benefits of social media marketing as:

• Awareness building (64%)
• Customer loyalty and retention (49%)
• Expanded reach (46%)

 Bill Wagner, executive vice president of business operations at StrongMail, notes that "... this survey reveals a strong focus on high ROI channels like email and emerging ones like social media... (with) an unprecedented number of companies look to integrate email and social media in 2010..."

Most Important Email Marketing Initiatives in 2010
Initiative	% Ranking Among Top 3
Improving performance of campaigns	59%
Growing opt-in list	44
Re-engaging inactive subscribers	28
Integrating with social media marketing	42
Integrating with mobile marketing	19
Improving deliverability	26
Reducing costs	19
Integrating into transactional emails	20
Accessing data to increase relevance	21
Improve segmentation and targeting	46
Centralizing on single platform	11
Other	4
Source: StrongMail, November 2009

Reported survey highlights include:

• 89% of businesses plan to increase or maintain marketing spend in 2010
• 50% of businesses expect customers to spend more; 23% to spend about the same; 8% to spend less
• 69% of businesses plan to increase marketing budget for email; 59% social media; 42% search
• 69% of businesses plan to integrate email and social media in 2010
• 64% of businesses identify increasing awareness as the primary value for social media