Digital marketing: These are the real stars
A study reveals what all those who don't automatically like to jump on every "digital hype" suspect: mobile and social media marketing is less relevant than expected. This is because 76 percent of companies rely on classic public relations and budgets remain stable. The loser among the communication channels is the smartwatch.
Search engine and e-mail marketing are on the rise, while event marketing is losing importance. These are key findings of the current study "Digital Marketing Trends 2016" by Dr. Torsten Schwarz, Head of the Online Marketing Competence Group at eco - Verband der Internetwirtschaft e. V. (www.eco.de). For the report, 172 experts were surveyed on the distribution of online budgets and the importance of online and mobile topics in their companies.
Rising budgets for search engine, email and data-driven marketing
According to the survey, 46 percent expect budgets for search engine and e-mail marketing to increase. 44 percent expect budget increases for data-driven marketing, 41 percent for social media marketing. The frequently hyped topic of mobile marketing can expect more budget in a good third of all companies (36 percent).
Event marketing on the retreat
According to the survey, event marketing will have to accept the most drastic cutbacks in funding: 15 percent of respondents expect cuts, while another 21 percent will not spend any money on it anyway. In social media, too, the trees no longer seem to be growing to the sky: 45 percent do not want to expand the budget, and 5 percent even want to cut it. By the way, public relations has the most stable budget: A good three-quarters (76 percent) of companies simply want to "leave everything as it is" in this area.
Half of the budgets remain unchanged
Across all communication channels, one third (34 percent) of respondents expect marketing budgets to increase this year. A good half (51 percent) expect last year's budget to remain unchanged for 2016. Only 5 percent are planning a reduction.
Content marketing at the top of the agenda
Content marketing is at the top of the online marketing agenda for more than three quarters (77 percent) of companies. Right behind (70 percent) comes system integration, i.e., the networking of all systems to ensure the best possible process control. The other places, according to the eco study, are occupied by customer journey (64 percent), personalization (61 percent), conversion optimization (59 percent), moving image and video advertising (54 percent) and lead generation (53 percent). Less in demand are real-time marketing (24 percent), messaging and Internet of Things (20 percent), and programmatic advertising (15 percent). Often praised, but in last place in the marketing comparison, is virtual reality (10 percent).
Responsive design of high importance
Responsive design, on the other hand, is very high on the scale of importance: for 87 percent for the website, for 80 percent for e-mails. Multi-device user tracking is considered important by 56 percent of respondents. Mobile advertising is important for 44 percent, and a company's own app for 39 percent. Less interesting is apparently the integration of location-based content in real time (26 percent). Optimization for a smartwatch is far behind - only 5 percent of respondents currently attach importance to communication on the wrist.
Supposed marketing stars not quite as relevant
Dr. Torsten Schwarz, Head of the eco Competence Group Online Marketing, explains: "The supposed stars of modern online marketing, such as mobile and social media, are obviously not seen as being quite as relevant as perhaps suspected. Rather, the fastest-growing channels are search engine, e-mail and data-driven marketing. And content marketing continues to be an important topic: More than three quarters of respondents have it on their agenda for this year."
Source: www.eco.de
