Published on the 27/05/2013 | Written by Newsdesk
Digital marketing accounts for almost a third of marketing budgets in Australia with email and search engine optimisation (SEO) investments leading the pack while social network spending is also rising…
The second annual State of Digital Marketing in Australia report has revealed continued enthusiasm for digital marketing investment, with 68 percent of supply-side marketers (as opposed to external agency-based marketing specialists)reporting that they planned to increase their digital marketing budgets during 2013. The average forecast increase is a bouncing 20 percent.
According to the report, which has been prepared by econsultancy in association with Marketing Magazine, digital marketing now accounts for 29 percent of overall marketing budgets in Australia. Email marketing is used by 91 percent of respondents, and SEO by 76 percent. A further 67 percent of supply side marketers said that they would invest more on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter in 2013. Mobile marketing is also on the march with mobile apps a particular favourite for the year ahead.
Client-side marketers believe that about 22 percent of revenue is driven by digital marketing, up from 21 percent a year ago.
Despite this apparent enthusiasm for digital marketing investment, only 27 percent of supply-side marketers felt that they had the full support of senior management in terms of digital marketing or e-commerce investment. This however is an improvement on 2012, when only 18 percent reported having senior management’s blessing.
Early digital marketing efforts have had something of a Field of Dreams quality – the “build it and they will come” form of optimism which rarely sits well with senior management. It is perhaps with that in mind that an overwhelming majority of respondents to this year’s survey report they expect to be able to better measure the impact of digital marketing spending this year. More than 50 percent of companies are investing in tools to support this initiative.
Although website traffic remains the key metric, customer satisfaction and net promoter scoring are also gaining traction as measurement tools.
While investment is on the rise and measurement intentions suggest a new level of maturity is emerging, both supply-side and agency marketers acknowledge the large talent vacuum in Australia with only eight percent of client-side marketers rating as “excellent” their understanding of digital marketing.
