Budget trends are going in the direction that marketers like to see them go—upward, says StrongView Director of Marketing Communications Jason Klein. The cross-channel solutions provider’s 2015 Marketing Trends Survey released this week reports that 54% of marketers expect to see bigger budgets in the coming year (versus 46% last year), and that one third of them are counting on increases of 10% or more. They will devote the majority of their largesse to what has been and will continue to be their favorite method of targeting customers.
“Email retains the top spot in their spending plans. The more data you have available, the more you can use it to trigger interactions with your brand through email,” Klein says. “They’ll be putting more funds into automated programs. Triggered emails and lifecycle marketing will be the most favored methods.”
Some 61% of the 400 marketers of global brands surveyed by StrongView said they’d up email spending. Just under half (49%) put social media next in line for cash infusions, and 40% will dial up mobile activity.
“Social has long been a way for marketers to spread their messages through refer-a-friend campaigns, but now they are able to analyze social to see what people are talking about on Facebook and Twitter and put that into play,” Klein says.
Marketers will also continue to draw on budgets for traditional methods to fund more data-driven efforts. One third of them told StrongView they would decrease spending on print advertising and 22% will de-emphasize direct mail.
Two fifths of marketers said they would increase investments in triggered email programs and lifecycle marketing campaigns. Touchpoints on which they intend to focus lifecycle efforts are loyalty, welcome, win-back, and post-purchase.
Cross-channel marketing will continue to challenge marketers in 2015. Their biggest concerns revolved around leveraging customer data obtained from multiple channels and then coordinating resulting efforts across the various channels.
