Social Media, E-mail Top Investment Areas: Survey

More businesses plan to increase spending on e-mail and social media than on any other channel in 2010, according to a survey released recently by e-mail technology provider StrongMail.

Forty eight percent of businesses surveyed said they will increase their marketing budgets in 2010, and 69% and 59% said they will increase spending on e-mail and social media, respectively, making the channels the two leading areas of investment in terms of growth, StrongMail reported.

However, putting the results in perspective, the two channels still represent a rounding error in most marketers’ budgets.

According to the Direct Marketing Association’s 2009 Power of Direct economic impact study, U.S. marketers spent $1.2 billion on social media in 2009 and are projected to spend $1.3 billion on it in 2010, an increase of 10.4%.

Also according to the DMA, marketers spent $600 million on commercial e-mail in 2009 and are projected to spend $700 billion on the channel in 2010, an increase of 11.2%.

This is compared to $44.4 billion the DMA claims marketers spent on catalog and non-catalog direct mail in 2006 and $45.5 billion the DMA predicts marketers will spend on direct mail in 2010.

Meanwhile, according to StrongMail, 89% of businesses plan to increase or maintain their marketing spending in 2010.

Fifty percent of marketers expect their customers to spend more in 2010, 23% expect customers to spend the same and 8% expect them to spend less, Strongmail reported.

Moreover, 69% of marketers plan to integrate social media and e-mail in 2010, according to StrongMail.

However, of marketers who have already integrated social media with e-mail, 42% are reporting a lift in campaign performance, 35% reported no lift and 23% said they can’t measure whether integrating the two channels has resulted in a lift, according to StrongMail.

"As businesses are developing their marketing plans for 2010, this survey reveals a strong focus on high ROI channels like email and emerging ones like social media," said Bill Wagner, executive vice president of business operations at StrongMail, in a statement. “While an unprecedented number of companies look to integrate e-mail and social media in 2010, the data shows that companies need to adopt new tools and strategies to properly measure and monetize their efforts."