Marketers face some tough choices in these challenging economic times. How much of their budgets should they devote to new advertising options such as social media? Is this a time to cut back on marketing budgets, or should marketers spend more to compete for scarce consumer dollars?

A recent marketing survey conducted by Adweek provides some useful insights into what experts in the field are thinking and doing right now. Participants were given a menu of responses to the question, “How will the economic downturn most affect advertising?” The response chosen most often (by 30% of participants) was that marketers will “use better targeted ads to improve return on investment.” A smaller number (22%) said that advertisers would spend less. Apparently most people in marketing believe that cutting back on advertising is not an appropriate way to respond to difficult economic conditions.

The Shift to Online Advertising
The survey results also showed a strong interest in Internet advertising, with 23% of participants saying that the most important marketing trend is that “the shift to online would accelerate.” Another 15% of participants believed the most important trend was that “ads will follow traffic to social media.”

Despite these results, online advertising still represents a fairly small slice of the advertising pie. According to the latest figures from Advertising Age, Internet advertising receives only about 10% of advertising dollars, compared to more than 40% for all types of TV advertising (http://adage.com/images/random/datacenter/2008/spendtrends08.pdf). The research service eMarketer predicts that Internet advertising will continue to grow at a steady rate, and by 2013 will represent 15% of total spending.

What Marketing Execs Are Saying
The consulting firm Anderson Analytics recently surveyed members of the Marketing Executives Networking Group to learn what they considered the top marketing trends for 2009 (www.marketingcharts.com/interactive/top-marketing-trends-for-2009-execs-sick-of-web-20-7448/). More than half of those surveyed thought their budgets would decrease because of the ailing economy. Survey results focused on these five trends:

Insight and innovation are more important than ever. Participants cited the need for more effective market research to communicate the right message to the right customers. Customer satisfaction and customer retention were cited as the two most important issues for marketers, followed by return on investment, brand loyalty, and segmentation. Apparently marketers are focusing more on keeping the customers they have than on finding new ones. There is less interest in environmental issues. Global warming fell significantly as a topic of interest to marketers. “Green marketing” also lost ground. Marketing executives seem to feel that in tough times these topics take a back seat to economic concerns. Marketers are “sick” of hearing about social media. Although marketing executives recognize that social media have become extremely popular, they seem to think they have been over-hyped, at least in terms of their marketing potential. Boomers are still the most promising target for marketers. Baby boomers may be getting gray, and many are retiring, but they still represent a vast, lucrative market. Some are tech savvy and some are not. The challenge for marketers is to choose a medium and a message that will appeal to such a large, inherently diverse group.

Jaime Brugueras, Ph.D., is founder of Mineful.com.

Social media sites have revolutionized the way online businesses market themselves and their products or services. Tapping into a community which often is predisposed to your particular brand, product or service has led to increased visibility and sales. The viral nature of some social media sites, like YouTube has also increased brand awareness. As we move forward, the tools and techniques we utilize for our social media campaigns will continue to change. The future of internet marketing and social media is bright.

Perhaps the biggest change for social media marketing will be incorporating social media directly onto business websites. Allowing members to post videos, comments, pictures and more will become more commonplace. Other popular social media tools such as sharing will continue to become a large factor when developing websites and media campaigns. We are likely to see ‘memberships’ on business websites. Much like popular social media sites such as FaceBook and Twitter, businesses may be making the leap towards fully incorporating social media directly on their sites.

Businesses will continue to utilize the popular social media sites as a part of their advertising campaigns. In fact, they are likely to begin to designate more time, effort and even funds towards developing strong social media campaigns. For example, many businesses have seen fast paced organic growth on their FaceBook profiles. Because of this, many start-ups are buying ad space on FaceBook as soon as they begin marketing their website or business. This trend is likely to increase and will encompass all of the major social media sites.

Another key change will be in the way businesses use social media. As companies trend towards controlling their online image and presence, social media sites will begin playing a larger role in developing a positive online image. Companies are likely to utilize Twitter much more extensively to announce positive changes, sales or other pertinent information. Other social media sites will be used to combat negative press and to release positive information to the community.

Finally, we are likely to see a growth in video based social media. Video blogs, introductions and commercial-like clips are already beginning to see an increase in their popularity and relevance. Companies will find new and innovative ways to use video social media to increase their presence on the net.

Social media is quickly replacing the old ‘networking’ system under which business owners went out into the community to meet with fellow businessmen and potential customers. Developing contacts was a time consuming process that social media sites has managed to neatly shorten. Relying on social media as an integral part of your internet marketing program will allow you to quickly and effectively control the flow of information, keep in touch with your client base and track current trends and requests, all from the comfort of your office.

The past few years have shown us how important social media can be for any online business. Today, it is apparent that any business that does not put effort into their social media campaign is missing the boat.

Contact us today to get your Internet Marketing and Social Media Campaigns off the ground.

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