|
The index is a bi-annual survey conducted among marketing executives to track trends and acceptance of both off-line and on-line marketing tools. The survey also tracks the usage, spending, and perceived effectiveness and revenue impact of various marketing tools.
Fifty percent of respondents to the survey expected 2002 marketing budgets to increase from 2001 levels, while 27 percent said budgets would stay the same and 23 percent anticipated that they would decline.
E-mail budgets in particular were expected to increase, with 61 percent of respondents expecting their e-mail marketing budgets to grow over the next 12 months. They expected a 17 percent increase in e-mail budgets, while on-line marketing should grow by 9 percent and direct response TV by 18 percent.
"This is consistent with what we've seen," said Mark Tarbatt, managing director of Generator, a Dublin-based interactive advertising agency. "We've seen a significant increase in the amount of revenue we've generated from e-mail."
E-mail marketing was ranked consistently highly by respondents for achieving all marketing objectives, including lead generation, information dissemination, retention, building awareness, generating immediate sales and upselling.
Andrew O'Shaughnessy, managing director of e-mail marketing company Newsweaver, pointed out that e-mail newsletters conform to the required criteria of marketers. "They allow marketers to build a relationship with their customers and ascertain their preferences," he told ElectricNews.net. "It provides information that businesses can turn into revenues, it allows them to cut costs and keeps them at the top of their customers' mind."
The growth in e-mail advertising also reflects a growing sophistication among marketers. "E-mail newsletters are no longer plain text, they include HTML and richer media. HTML also allows companies to track the people who've read the newsletter, or even a particular article," said Tarbatt. "Companies are also becoming more sensitive to spam and are more likely to include opt-in and opt-out features in their e-mail newsletters."
The DoubleClick survey found that on-line advertising was the third most commonly used form of advertising, behind print and direct mail, and slightly ahead of TV, radio and e-mail. Respondents said they used on-line advertising primarily for building brand awareness and acquiring new leads. It is used to a lesser degree for driving immediate sales and providing company information.
The index found that traditional media such as TV, print and radio were expected to experience a small decrease in relative spending, while telemarketing, direct mail and catalogue marketing were expected to see the largest relative decline.
The survey was conducted among 190 chief marketing officers, vice presidents of marketing, advertising managers and brand managers. Respondents all had budgetary responsibility for a company or brand with gross revenue of more than USD50 million and a total marketing budget during 2001 of more than USD1 million.
|
