Sometimes — even though you’re not sure if it’ll work — you throw more money at it — just in case.
And such is the case with advertisers who “don’t know what they’re doing yet when it comes to digital marketing.”
“Nearly half of marketers plan to boost their investments in digital channels this year, according to a new report from Forrester Research,” notes the Wall Street Journal blog CMO. “The survey of 89 business-to-consumer marketers found that, despite the higher investments, 43 percent of respondents said they are still experimenting with digital marketing and do not yet know what works.”
Mastering digital, it seems, comes not before but maybe at the same time as additional expenditure on what is the advertising no brand can live without.
“Marketing leaders mustn’t allow the latest gadget-du-jour to distract them from developing an adequate level of mastery of digital programs that have become essential to their marketing mix,” Forrester analysts wrote in the recent report.
The biggest challenge? About 50 percent of Forrester survey respondents admitted that “securing incremental budget for marketing experimentation and innovation” is a top challenge in creating ongoing budgets.
“While nearly all of the survey’s respondents agreed that digital will play a significantly more important role in their marketing strategy, the study’s findings suggest that it’s the execution of the digital strategy falls short,” notes CMO. “About 53 percent of respondents said their approach to digital marketing is more tactical and reactive than strategic. And only 43 percent said their marketing team is “extremely successful” in developing and executive digital advertising programs.”
When in doubt, throw more money out? Maybe so.
“Digital and traditional outlets account for about equal portions of advertising budgets, the report showed,” according to CMO. “Respondents said digital advertising will make up about 13 percent of their budgets this year, compared with 14 percent for traditional advertising and 12 percent for response and direct marketing. Within digital, mobile and social marketing are the top investment priorities and make up almost 30 percent of total digital spending.”