Most Businesses Plan to Increase Digital Marketing Spending
By now, nearly all businesses invest in digital marketing and believe it is an important strategy to improve brand awareness, stand out from competitors, convert leads, and eventually increase sales and revenue.
According to new research from The Manifest, 99% of businesses plan to increase their digital marketing spending in the next year.
As this investment increases, so do businesses’ budgets for digital marketing.
Typical Digital Marketing Spending
According to The Manifest survey, 81 percent of businesses spend at least $50,000 on digital marketing annually, and just 7 percent spend less than $10,000.
In fact, 41 percent of businesses spend more than $500,000 on digital marketing every year, with 24 percent spending more than $1 million.
Businesses clearly believe digital marketing is necessary if they are willing to spend that much money on it.
The Digital Marketing Channels Businesses Prefer
Businesses are spending more on digital marketing, but what channels are their focus?
Businesses plan to increase their investment in a variety of channels, but the most popular are social media marketing (64 percent) and a website (55 percent).
Businesses focus on those two digital marketing channels in particular because they are easy investments, and measuring their metrics and seeing their results doesn’t take much effort.
On the other hand, nearly one-fifth of businesses plan to spend less on display/banner advertisements (19 percent) and paid search advertisements (18 percent) because their results aren’t as immediate as social media and a website, and measuring their metrics is much more difficult.
Most businesses need social media and a website to succeed, which is why they plan to invest more in these channels and digital marketing as a whole.
Outsourcing Digital Marketing
Businesses want to invest more in digital marketing, but 49 percent do not have a clearly defined digital marketing strategy.
This is why, according to The Manifest article, 32 percent of businesses plan to outsource their strategy to a digital marketing agency such as Online Optimism.
Outsourcing digital marketing gives an outside perspective that can benefit many businesses.
Whether a company conducts digital marketing itself or hires an agency, it must have a strategy in place and actively invest in it. Being willing to spend money on digital marketing is just the beginning. Businesses have to create a marketing plan, research what strategies work best for their industry, and launch a campaign based on a set of goals.
