Although a year old the following study by eMarketer demonstrated the mind shift in businesses to focus on online advertising rather than more traditional advertising like print. By far the biggest increase in spend of businesses was in WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT! What can we infer from this?
The clearest inference is that most companies have websites that arent working or are outdated.
This was validated by our own research ... we interviewed local businesses in the lower mainland - on a scale of 1-5 (1 not important and 5 very important) local businesses overwhelming agreed that the internet would be important to the growth of their business (avg 4.45). In addition most business agreed that potential customers were using the internet to search for their business(avg 4.15).
Perhaps most interesting was the facts that almost every business we spoke with indicated their sites were critically bad at generating business/customers (avg 1.60). This was further demonstrated by follow up questions regarding conversion tracking (75% of businesses don’t know if/when/or where they are making money from their advertising) and almost all businesses were not using the internet to increase the lifetime value of their customer base (95%).
This demonstrates the need to not just have a website (since most aren’t performing well at all) but to have a website that can be found and has a definitive goal of converting traffic to customers (ie conversion marketing).
B2BOnline further validated these findings by demonstrating where increase in marketing spend were being allocated and more importantly ... where that marketing spend was being transferred from.
The top areas that will see increases are Web site development (cited by 57% of respondents), search (55%), webinars, podcasts and online events (50%), email marketing (49%), social networks (47%) and blogs (44%).If that was 2010 and focused on the US market how will this impact the Canadian market? US businesses spend, by far, more on internet marketing advertising than local Canadian businesses (http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1005622) ... the challenge is convincing Canadian businesses they are missing a massive opportunity AND how they can cost effectively transition their marketing spend.
Areas that will see budget cuts include print advertising (51%), printed vertical directories (50%), direct mail (37%), outdoor (34%), TV advertising (31%), sponsorships (30%) and events (28%).
However, while budgets are increasing for digital marketing, there are still barriers to investing in online, the study found. Foremost are lack of resources (cited by 55% of respondents), the unproven value in some marketers' industries (25%) and lack of executive support (25%).
About the Author:
Samuel Araki is the founder of LocalTrifecta Internet Marketing. He believes SME’s need to regain control of their digital marketing - which has become a muddled landscape, filled with fast talking, budget sucking, wannabe Internet Marketing leeches. He is clear that online marketing is not an overnight process, but is a commitment to furthering an upward trending marketing channel. Follow Samuel’s musings on Twitter and Google+
