Report: Digital Marketing Budgets To Increase In 2010

Econsultancy and ExactTarget released a new report today that says digital marketing will account for 24% of overall marketing spend this year, and 28% of firms are shifting at least some of their overall marketing budgets from traditional to digital channels.

The research was based on a survey of more than 1,000 companies around the world, though the majority were based in the US (45%) or UK (33%). Some key findings include:

• Just under half (46%) of companies say they are planning to increase their overall marketing budget, and a further 42% say they are planning to keep this budget the same as it was in 2009. Only 13% say they are planning to decrease overall marketing budget.
• 64% plan to increase budgets for search engine optimization, and 51% plan to increase budgets for paid search marketing.
• 70% are planning to increase their budgets for off-site social media such as Facebook and Twitter, despite admitting to being “poor” at measuring social media ROI.
• Budget shifts will hurt traditional media spending. Just 17% say they are increasing their print media budgets, compared to 41% who are decreasing spending.

According to the survey, the biggest barrier to digital marketing investment is restricted budget for all types of marketing, cited as a factor by 40% of company respondents.

The full report, Marketing Budgets 2010: Effectiveness, Measurement and Allocation is available for $249, but you can download a free sample (pdf) featuring key highlights.