Recently, we surveyed 200 professionals from the top-performing multi-national organizations to gather information about the marketing trends for the annual plans. We were interested in finding out where budgets are going to be allocated, and what tactics work best for these organizations.
Let’s take a look at the results, so that you can figure out what next steps you should take to remain competitive and up to pace with the trends.
Traditional Media Budgeting
The research results indicate that 65% of organizations expect their event marketing agency budgets to increase. This can be interpreted in different ways because some companies are better at making their budgets efficient. By spending money the right ways, investing in digital tools for example, then you won’t need to increase your budget in order to achieve better results from your marketing efforts.
Interestingly, only 36% of organizations plan to decrease their budget for print advertising. This means that more organizations are moving away from traditional forms of advertisement and into online methods. This insight is reinforced by the fact that 41% of organizations plan to decrease their budget for TV and Radio.
These results could be due to product and consumer psychographic differences, so you would need to conduct an evaluation of where your consumers are located in order to gauge whether you should decrease your budget in TV and Radio.
Digital Marketing Budgeting
Although digital advertising packs more of a punch with personalization and data aggregation, those increase the initial investment into the systems. Fortunately, the payoff is proportionately larger. 48% of organizations plan to increase the implementation of banner ads, and with the use of programmatic media buying agencies, which can drastically improve the way that their advertisements target consumers.
With new technology comes new consumer behavior, and it pays to understand their habits. A good example of this is the recent move away from PC to tablets and mobile technology use, a trend that forced 68% of organizations to increase their mobile marketing budget.
This move is great for eCommerce because mobile apps, and responsive web design make it easier for consumers to move through the sales process right from a CTA down to the final purchase in check out. All aspects of marketing need to be responsive now, and 68% of organizations plan to increase the budget for email marketing campaigns as a result.
SEO and Social
Although Google is getting more strict with its algorithms and making it difficult to trick the SERP, these changes benefit marketers with products that deliver the right value. This change in the algorithm will weed out the low-quality competitors, and improve the visibility of brands that understand the new rules.
We think that the increase in SEO budgets is due to the fact that organizations are feeling the results of bad SEO practices, and moving their budget to higher quality SEO efforts in order to get back on track. Although properly executed organic SEO efforts will take time to show results, the changes will last longer and will lead to more site visitors. Make the right investment in the right people and strategies.
Social media marketing company budgets are increasing by 86%. This may be caused by the value that consumers are placing on relationships with peers and influencers. Today consumers rely on reviews and the opinions of peers to make purchase decisions much more than web articles and product descriptions. The influencers are seen as credible sources, while the communications of the brand are becoming less trusted.
Investing in a better presence on social channels will increase your SEO efforts by increasing your visibility. Social media is all about developing relationships and fostering a community bond that will surround your brand and generate evangelists that influence other consumers. It is up to you to develop the community, engage consumers, and encourage interactions. You can also use new technology to create user-generated content that serves as the most trusted form of endorsement in the industry today.
If you ever have a question for us about what you can do to increase the efficiency of your budget, we are simply an email or a call away.
