Date Added: April 2006
A recent survey of marketing leaders found that 60.7% of respondents are working with larger marketing budgets this year versus last year. This is great news if organizations utilize the extra funds to their advantage. More than 69% of respondents claimed they plan to introduce new marketing campaigns this year. Normally, when budgets are tight or sales are declining, marketing budgets are scaled back - not particularly the wisest decision as this is counter-productive to bringing those sales back.1
More than 67% of respondents plan to increase their marketing budgets an average of 13%. The percentage increase for marketing budgets is a higher percentage overall than the increase in corporate budgets in general, approximately 15%. With the emergence of Internet use, it is important to increase online marketing budgets as well. This includes web sites, e-mail marketing and Search Engine Optimization.
Increasing a marketing budget is important for several reasons, most notably:
The importance being placed on marketing budgets is about building brand recognition that will make your company stand out from your competitors. This also has a lot to do with higher costs of doing business and the overall economic environment. Organizations are placing more importance on research related to business/market intelligence and trend analysis to compete with others. Finding out exactly what customers want and need is becoming more important in our competitive environment where everyone is connected globally.
Some of the top marketing trends include:
With the emergence of the Internet and other forms of marketing, it is becoming more difficult to effectively measure and track marketing budgets. You and your current supplier should be able to determine your measurable goals and know if they are being met. If you don't know this, you are simply throwing dollars down the drain.
1"Budgeting for 2006." BtoB online. December 12, 2005.