StrongMail has released the results of its “2011 Marketing Trends”online survey, onducted from November 18 – 29, 2010 across 925 business leaders across a wide range of industries. According to the survey, half of businesses plan to increase their marketing budgets in 2011. Email marketing (65%) and social media (57%) will be the top areas of increased investment in 2011, followed by Search (41%).
Integrating social media and email marketing (43%) is the third most-important email marketing initiative for 2011, after increasing subscriber engagement (52%), improving segmentation and targeting (49%). A full 71% have already integrated email and social, or plan to in 2011.
Among social media initiatives, Facebook is the biggest priority (35%), followed by viral/referral marketing programs (22%). Marketing via Twitter and implementing social media management technology are tied for third place (21%). The primary goal for social media marketing initiatives is awareness building (63%), followed by loyalty acquisition (54%) and reaching new audiences (42%).
Where do you plan to invest your social media marketing budget in 2011? (check top 3)
| Facebook Marketing Programs | 35% |
| Not sure/don’t know | 23% |
| Viral/Referral Marketing Campaigns | 22% |
| Social Media Management Technology | 21% |
| Twitter Marketing Programs | 21% |
| Listening Platforms | 15% |
| Staff | 15% |
| I don’t have a social media marketing budget | 14% |
| Training & Education | 12% |
| Appending social data to customer database (Social CRM) | 11% |
| Agency Services | 7% |
| Other | 3% |
| I don’t see value in social media marketing | 1% |
Here’s the Strong Mail press release: http://www.strongmail.com/company/news-and-events/press_120910.php
And the PDF of the survey data: http://www.strongmail.com/pdf/SM_Trends2011.pdf
