Online marketing gaining importance, says Emedia

Emedia has published the results of its 2010 Online Marketing Strategy Survey, which revealed how online marketing is gaining in strategic importance for companies across every sector.

The survey was run in the company's marketing and digital marketing bulletins and asked readers how important online marketing is to their organisation.

The questions were: what percentage of marketing spend was dedicated to online activity; which aspects of online promotion were considered the most important; how useful thought leadership assets such as guides, reports, whitepapers and articles were; how well set-up companies' sales forces were to follow up leads generated online; the importance of new business generation; and what were considered the main online marketing challenges.

Forty-eight per cent dedicate a minimal amount (less than 25 per cent) of their marketing spend to online marketing.

With almost half of respondents allocating less than a quarter of their marketing budget to online activity, considerable potential still exists for further expansion into online marketing.

Only 12 per cent allocate more than 50 per cent of their budget to online activity and marketing spend also appears to diminish as the commitment to online activity increases.

These findings are not surprising, given the proven cost-effectiveness and higher returns on investment that online marketing offers.

Sixty-six per cent consider e-mail marketing to be the most important aspect of online promotion, followed closely by natural (organic) search engine traffic and search engine optimisation strategies.

These very different online vehicles complement each other well; search engines are an effective vehicle to pull in potential customers while e-mail marketing offers a quick and effective method to push out your marketing messages to capture new business opportunities.

Social networking, so often a medium used for increasing brand awareness rather than for lead generation, was quite highly regarded at 41 per cent.

This may, in part, be due to the almost universal popularity of Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and so on, rather than through a proven track record of them delivering tangible results.

Any evidence pointing to the true value of social media marketing may often be anecdotal since it is certain that it will work better for some business models/sectors than for others.

Paid search strategies ranked lowest in the findings.

Forty per cent already value using thought leadership collateral to engage their audience.

A high number already place high importance on the value of using their marketing collateral in a non-sales capacity in order to engage more fully with their target audience and around a third of respondents already deploy the 'thought leadership' tactic.

Marketing activities that 'connect' to a large audience online by providing the ability for their audience to easily access and download such collateral are experiencing the greatest response with regard to their respective product and service offerings.

Around a quarter of respondents said they prefer to lead with a sales-led message but at the same time conceding that this frequently restricts the volumes of interest they can achieve.

Fifty-seven per cent have a fully trained internal sales team wanting marketing to provide new leads.

More than half the respondents already have an in-house team ready to follow up leads and were acutely aware of the need for a constant stream of qualified sales leads.

This supports the widely accepted assertion that lead generation is the most effective form of creating new business opportunities.

While attaining an adequate number of responses from relevant business contacts is a positive first step towards effective lead generation, only a dedicated lead-nurturing programme can promise to deliver an optimum return on investment when pursuing this type of activity.

Thirty-three per cent have aggressive new business lead generation targets The vast majority of respondents cite an interest in actively winning new customers and have the capability to do so with 33 per cent of those identifying a clear need for fast and effective sales leads to support their aggressive new business targets.

It may be the case that the desire for more sales leads is a sign of an improving economy.

Online media lends itself extremely well to supporting such business needs as speed of execution is not a barrier while the subsequent data capture and sales follow-up can happen almost immediately and often within days rather than weeks or months.

Some 16 per cent of respondents remained focused on their existing customers to grow their revenue streams.

However, many businesses appear to prefer to pursue an improved market share.

Twenty-eight per cent consider the quality of leads the main online marketing challenge.

While the results have established that online marketing generates responses for businesses in the majority of cases, many professionals highlighted further challenges they would like to address The most prominent issue appears to be lead quality, which might explain why cost-per-lead campaigns - which offer a degree of qualification - have become increasingly popular in the online marketing space.

A third mentioned frustrations finding the vehicles that reach their target markets or struggle with the volumes of sales leads available to them, indicating that a strategy overhaul or use of an integrated marketing approach are worth considering.

Factor in also, the relatively high proportion of respondents who have difficulty with either aligning a specific sales lead to their brand or purely converting a sales lead and this demonstrates the importance of the role the sales force plays in turning opportunity into revenue.

Off the back of the survey, Emedia has made several recommendations.

Consider all the markets you can supply to and gain interest from the core decision-maker as well as any influencing parties.

The more people who read your message and see your expertise increases engagement in your brand and consideration of your services within their objectives.

Find a supplier who has a wealth of readers from all parts of the business decision-making chain to get the best exposure.

'Buy me' campaigns seldom work.

Online media does not lend itself well to text-heavy messages and it is therefore difficult to show off your unique selling propositions and demonstrate how you can fit into the core challenge that business is facing.

Thought leadership assets address the business context as a whole and allow you to flaunt your expertise in addressing those challenges while your service thereby becomes an obvious and credible solution.

Stimulating an interest in your business is a task in itself.

Do not lose the opportunity to progress that opportunity.

Online media allows quick fulfilment of contact details in exchange for downloadable assets and this should remain a key component to optimise the return on any marketing investment.

Keep this process as quick and simple as possible.

It is really important to properly brief your sales force on all data capture activity and to ensure you prioritise follow-up to these parties.

You have determined that they have sufficient interest in your area of service and it is crucial to call them shortly after they have read your material to begin dialogue into their pain points and how your company can help.

The quicker and more professionally this is executed, the more it will aid your conversion.

Some online activities, such as social networking, are used for awareness and reinforcement goals and a tangible return is not always a core consideration.

Most other online activities, such as e-mail marketing and ad networks, are used to gain a tangible response and this is becoming increasingly hard to guarantee the more people wake up to using these vehicles on a frequent basis and give readers more choice.

Some suppliers are able to offer guaranteed returns and this is the most logical way to proceed in lead generation in particular.

New business targets are harder to hit with guesswork marketing activities.

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