Report: More brands turn to digital to grow business
Look for more ad budget dollars to be pushed into the digital space in the coming year. That is the takeaway from a new study which indicates more than half of brands will increase digital spending in 2014. What is perhaps most interesting is where they are placing those budget dollars – and why.
Email remains a strong contender, although it is one of the oldest forms of online marketing, while social is building fast – even though many engaging in social marketing say they can’t pinpoint a valid ROI from those efforts. Also coming of age are Content Marketing (64% use regularly) and referral marketing as well as affiliate marketing.
Some interesting findings from the Extole/Gigaom study include:
• 60% of brands say they’ll increase digital ad spending this year
• 56% say email is their ‘most effective’ customer retention tool
• Email is also cited as the workhorse for brand awareness, customer acquisition and conversion
• Most say they’ll increase social but report social ‘is difficult to prove’ for ROI
Meanwhile, a growing number of marketers are using referral tactics however only about 39% say they regularly employ these tactics. Of those who do, nearly half (43%) say they acquire about one-third of their customers using referral tactics.
