29 Apr Digital Marketing Budgets Set To Increase This Year
An Econsultancy survey earlier this year shows an increase in planned digital marketing budgets for the coming year.
According to the survey, which you can see here, 66% of respondents plan to increase their digital budgets in 2010. An interesting stat from the study has to do with allocation of marketing dollars. The study shows that 28% of marketers are planning to, at a minimum, shift some of their marketing budget towards digital efforts because of its ease to track. This of course does not include social media but does include web analytics.
As this article states, marketers tend to take a scientific approach when it comes to planning a digital marketing strategy and budgeting for it. It’s all about numbers and I can understand that. I do think there is a danger to this approach to digital marketing, especially if you plan on implementing a social media strategy. There are several theories on how ROI for social media can and should be measured. Regardless of your theory, I would suggest making sure you have one before you begin.
Companies need to set goals when it comes to social media. This starts with an understanding of why you are doing it. Are you trying to create buzz? Are you trying to generate web traffic? Are you trying to sell a product? These are all questions that you need to answer before you begin. You can measure social media success by the number of followers you have, the number of interactions, or the web traffic generated from social sites. It really depends on what you are trying to accomplish.
If we don’t know what we are tying to accomplish, how will we ever know if we accomplished anything? This is a very common mistake made by companies when it comes to social media. They just jump in and start rolling with it. I truly believe that we must jump in and participate in order to understand, but using your company’s brand to learn about the social realm is not a good idea. Make a plan. Understand what you are doing and why. These are key issues.
