From Marketing Sherpa:
SUMMARY: Every marketing tactic gets more scrutiny when budgets face the sting of a struggling economy. Here is a glance at how marketers expect to tailor their investments in digital tactics during a downturn.
As an email marketing consultant, I am pleased to see that almost half of those surveyed are investing in their email database, though it’s to be expected given email’s low cost and proven ROI. The increased focus on house lists, with a decrease in spending on rrental lists could mean more opportunity for cross-channel promotions to increase house lists, i.e. using paid search to encourage new visitors to register for an email marketing program.
It’s interesting, Sandi. I generally work with small businesses, and in that sector, the intentions of using the social media are there…but when it comes down to it, for the most part they’re not following through there.
Also, from the chart, it shows that there’ll be a slight drop in pay-per-click. But the bigger picture shows that only 10% of companies have ever even tried PPC. My guess is that email marketing makes very big gains this year based on the ROI.
Scott — Thanks for your thoughtful reply. I wonder if the difficulty in quantifying results has small businesses shying away from using social media. Given email’s tried and true methods, I imagine it to be a growth area in 2009.