By Melissa Campanelli
June 26, 2008
A new survey from Eloqua has revealed that despite the sagging economy, marketers in general have a positive outlook on their contributions to their companies’ success and plan to significantly increase their budgets in the next three years, as well as increase their staffs.
For the 2008 “State of the Marketer” Survey Report, Eloqua -- a provider of integrated demand generation applications and solutions -- surveyed 200 U.S. marketing professionals at companies covering a variety of industries and ranging in size from $10 million to $500 million in annual revenues. Specific industries represented included business and professional services, high technology, manufacturing, retail and hospitality.
According to the survey, online advertising spend will continue to grow at a rapid rate -- with 90 percent of marketers surveyed saying they will continue to increase their online advertising budgets. A total of 78 percent will increase their social media spend; 74 percent will increase their e-mail spend; and 65 percent will increase their texting/short message service (SMS) spend.
The survey also revealed that 55 percent of marketers surveyed plan to decreased their spending on print ads.
Other results indicated that more than 40 percent of the marketers surveyed have radically increased their budgets for online advertising today versus three years ago, yet only 23 percent have increased their spending on Google AdWords.
E-mail spend also increased more than Google AdWords, with 26 percent increasing their budgets for this channel, according to the survey. Additional findings on text and SMS spending show that 60 percent of marketers have kept their budgets the same versus three years ago.
The survey also revealed that marketers are becoming more effective. In fact, 64 percent of the marketers surveyed said they believed their marketing programs are more effective today versus three years ago. In addition, 72 percent have had an increase in their marketing budgets, with nearly 50 percent increasing by more than 10 percent and 11 percent increasing by more than 50 percent.
Finally, thee survey reveled that many marketers enjoy their jobs. In fact, 74 percent said they would re-enter the field if given the choice.
