According to a new survey on The Manifest, business investment in digital marketing is only increasing: 99% of businesses plan to increase their investment in at least one digital marketing channel in the next year.Businesses clearly see the importance of digital marketing. More than 3 billion people around the world use the internet, so businesses should be where their customers are: online.Businesses plan to invest more in digital marketing, so what channels do they invest in the most?According to The Manifest survey, the top channels businesses plan to invest in more are social media marketing (64 percent), a website (55 percent) and email marketing (43 percent).
Social media, a website, and email marketing are all easy investments compared to other channels. It is easy to measure their results: how many people engage with your social media posts, visit your website, open your emails, etc.On the other hand, the channels businesses want to invest less in are the ones that are more difficult to measure: display/banner ads (19 percent) and paid search ads (18 percent).
Display/banner ads and paid search ads don’t produce as obvious results as social media and a website, and it takes much more effort to both create a strategy and track their results. It’s much easier to create and track social media content than create and track online advertisements.Even though it requires more effort, top PPC agencies still recommend using display/banner and paid search ads to reach potential customers if companies are willing to put in the work.
How Much Do Businesses Invest in Digital Marketing?
Most businesses devote either 26 to 50 percent or 51 to 75 percent of their overall marketing budgets to digital marketing, but the percentages vary by customer needs.If a business’s customers spend a lot of time online, it makes sense for a business to invest heavily in digital marketing. On the other hand, if customers are more old-fashioned and are more influenced by traditional marketing methods, investing a lot in digital marketing may not make sense.A business has to invest in marketing in a way that makes the most sense for reaching its customers – whether through digital marketing or traditional marketing.However, 81 percent of businesses spend at least $50,000 on digital marketing annually, including 41% who spend at least $500,000.
Digital marketing is clearly a valuable investment to most businesses.
Outsourcing to a Digital Marketing Agency
Businesses use a variety of resources for digital marketing: in-house staff (69 percent), software (59 percent), agency (50 percent) and freelancer/consultant (32 percent).
Many smaller businesses may not have the resources to create and implement a digital marketing strategy solely in-house and rely on a digital marketing agency like 97 Switch for help.In fact, 32 percent of businesses plan to outsource all or some of their digital marketing in the next year.
Digital marketing is essential for businesses to succeed in the modern world, and without it, businesses miss out on reaching countless customers.
