Marketers moving DM budgets to social media

It's not just the Pope and the Catholic Church who are going social. According to multi-channel marketing firm Alterian, 66% of marketers will be investing in engaging consumers via social media channels over the coming 12 months.

Forty percent plan to divert around a fifth of their traditional direct marketing budgets towards funding social media activities.

Overall, the survey found that the majority of respondents (67%) felt social media to be either "increasingly important" or "critical to success".

"Engaging with customers is becoming paramount and the yardstick by which we measure those brands that survive and those that don't," said Alterian CEO, David Eldridge. "Marketers now need to appeal to the individual and engage with customers on a one-to-one basis. The easiest way to achieve this is by investing in social media marketing and social media monitoring, and by embracing the web."

An encouraging 36% of marketers plan to take steps to measure the success social media campaigns by employing monitoring and analysis tools. As Eldridge advises, "Without the adequate investment in listening and measurement tools it renders any anticipated investment in social media ineffectual. The key to an effective social media strategy is listening."

Tags: campaign measurement, direct marketing, marketing budgets, social media