Allocation of Online Marketing Tactics

I came across this chart from Marketing Sherpa showing how online marketing budgets in the US is allocated to each of the following online tactics. Pretty interesting reading:





View the whole article and chart at Marketing Sherpa:  
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=32135


Or read the article here:

Paid search, website management and design, and search engine optimization are the top three tactics to which organizations designate online marketing dollars.

Organizations devote one-quarter of their online marketing budgets to their websites. Even the best marketing efforts are for naught if the website is not optimized (in terms of performance and design) to communicate the “offer” and trigger a “response.”

Paid search also comprises 25% of the budget. Because SEO tactics often take time before having an impact on search rankings, many organizations use paid search to supplement SEO efforts.

Paid and organic search can work well together as a means for establishing authority on a search engine results page. Further segmenting the data, we found B2C organizations allocate more than half of online marketing dollars to PPC and SEO, which is more than their counterparts with primary business channels.

Advertising on social networks is gaining traction, particularly when viewed in light of the budget allocations of other tactics in this list. Companies focused on both business and consumer channels allocate nearly 10% of online marketing budgets to this area.

Organizations advertising in this arena need to bear in mind that social media users are focused on social interactions, unlike searchers who are seeking relevant information to a query. For this reason, social media ads may work better when they do not attempt to drive traffic off the social media platform, but instead aim to attract and engage fans.

PPC is the biggest area of investment for organizations of all sizes. Medium and large organizations direct 28% of online marketing budgets into this tactic, whereas small organizations set aside 24%.

Along with PPC, search engine optimization is another big area of investment for small organizations. On average, these organizations earmark 22% of online marketing dollars for SEO. They also designate a greater percentage of online marketing budgets for content marketing, a strong complementary tactic to SEO. Search engines index content, while people share content, making content good for an organization’s SEO efforts.

ABC - email marketing

It is perfectly possible to use email marketing without appearing spammy and annoying your users. But you can’t phone it in. Put some thought into your message. Content needs to be fresh, engaging and relevant to your subscribers.

Email marketing is a form of direct marketing to the end user that relies on email as its communication channel. This is unlike blog posts, banner ads or online articles, which require the person to first visit your website.Email marketing is one of the most effective (and overlooked) marketing channels on the Internet. 

Software tools

Many email marketing platforms are available on the Internet today. You will be able to use these platforms to collect email addresses, design email newsletters and send messages on a regular basis, as well as cross-promote and link up to your website and your social media profiles and get statistics/track your results. The most popular solutions are “hosted,” meaning the company will host the software for you, and you’ll just need to log in to its website to manage your email lists.

Popular, user-friendly platforms include Emma, Constant Contact, Vertical Response and MailChimp. 

Which to chose?

Consider deliverability rate (percentage of emails sent that reach the end user), available features and price. Take note of the platform’s compliance with anti-spam laws and opt-in mechanisms. Many plans start at $15 a month and are on a tiered pricing plan. The more email addresses you collect and emails you send, the more you will generally pay. For larger businesses, enterprise-level systems such as Exact Target are available. These are more costly with their robust analytics and cross-channel and interactive marketing campaigns, and Fortune 500 companies typically favor them.

Some platforms let you create templates and newsletters to share with franchisees, independent sales representatives or others. This will permit you to control company messaging while allowing your sales team to leverage their email databases.

Getting subscribers

After choosing a platform, it’s a matter of logging in, adding emails to your list(s) and creating your email newsletter form. They offer simple templates you can use by dragging and dropping fields. You can even customize your form from scratch. In either case, you can add images and company logos.

You should consider displaying your subscription form in multiple spots. It should be noted that businesses must explicitly ask permission to collect the email address and send future messages, and this is typically accomplished via an opt-in process (a form is completed with name and email address, often followed by a click on a confirmation link sent via email).

On your company website, encourage folks to opt in to your email list near the top of the home page and at the bottom of every blog post (if you have a company blog). These two spots are very visible, and usually they have high conversion rates.

Install an email collection application on your Facebook page. Many email marketing platforms (like Constant Contact) make it very easy to install apps that collect email addresses and “dump” them into your master email list.

Lists can be sorted and organized according to your specific business needs. Perhaps you want to send emails targeted to a certain subsection of your master list. This is possible, not to mention a good use of the tool. Be creative about your email collection process as well. Allow consumers to opt in to your email database when they enter a giveaway or sweepstakes promotion or when they request a free product sample. These incentives can be a simple way to build your list.

Content is king

An email piece should NOT be thought of exclusively as a sales circular. People will unsubscribe faster than you can hit “send” a second time. As with social media, trust and value are paramount to success. Provide solid content, earn trust, and then sell. It’s OK to send an email with a more “sales-y” tone, but don’t make that the norm. And think long and hard about your subject line — it can make or break your email open rate.

Have a editorial calendar in place

This makes it possible for all marketing platforms to march in the same direction at the same time and for messaging to be uniform and consistent. For example, the email piece might highlight the most recent blog post, which in turn gets promoted on Facebook and Twitter. All platforms have a place for readers to opt in and receive emails.

Frequency

There is no magic formula. Most platforms provide some analytics that will allow you to gauge the success of your emails by reviewing your open rate, click-through rate and more. Keep an eye on these metrics, and adjust your email strategy accordingly.

Social Sharing

Take advantage of the social media sharing icons included in most popular email marketing platforms. These are great calls to action for readers, encouraging them to share your email with others via email, Facebook, Twitter, etc. This is an easy way to expand the reach of your messaging.