According to a recent ‘marketing budgets for 2014’ report out by Econsultancy and Responsys;
“Overall marketing budgets are at their most buoyant since the launch of the survey five years ago... Sixty percent of respondents said their companies were intending to increase budgets for 2014.”
This news is extremely encouraging, but how much is allocated to digital marketing?
The report continues to relay;
“Looking specifically at digital; the proportion of companies increasing spend, remains consistent and strong, with 71% of companies stating this is the case – the same percentage as last year. Responding companies are spending, on average, 38% of their total marketing budgets on digital, which is a 3% increase from last year’s figures.”
It seems that 2014 has a fresh feel to it, with many businesses planning to increase both overall and digital budgets from last year, but will these budgets be allocated to innovation, or to the long standing tried and tested channels?
Well, despite the growth and publicity mobile marketing and social media have received over recent years, in another survey conducted by Econsultancy in association with SEMPO found that:
“it appears search engine optimization (SEO) and paid search are still the most commonly carried out digital activities within organizations out of the six surveyed. Nearly nine in 10 (89%) respondents stated they carry out search engine optimization, while more than three-quarters (78%) of organizations use paid search as part of their digital marketing arsenal.”
Data from the Econsultancy and Responsys marketing budget report supports this with the following figures regarding planned budget increases for 2014:
“Of respondents asked 74% plan to increase their content marketing spend in 2014, 63% search engine optimisation, 63% mobile marketing, 53% paid search and social media (engagement/retention).”
Towards the end of 2013, with the introduction of hummingbird and other algorithm updates, SEO clients began to divert budgets, and I mean big budgets away from their search engine optimisation strategies and most definitely their link development programmes, investing heavily in paid search, seen as a safer alternative until the dust settles.
It seems that this time has come and confidence in SEO has been reinstated, well, this is what we as search specialists at Be Seen Online are experiencing anyway. In fact the demand and appreciation for SEO has grown significantly in this first quarter of 2014. There is a sense of calm in the air, with many of the previously mentioned algorithm changes having positive effects on those sites who continue to adhere to best practice. The quality and quantity of natural results achieved for our clients has been at a great level and in turn, conversions to business have been on an increase too. ..so you could say Google know their stuff.
With these changes we can only expect to see search budgets allocate a significant percentage to SEO in 2014. Enough to not only effectively manage search visibility, but to combine search strategies with social media, PR, user experience, content marketing and more, as a more integrated digital marketing approach becomes the way forward in providing the ultimate customer journey and online experience, from start to finish.
Further reading and references:
http://www.responsys.com/land/2014-marketing-budgets-report-econsultancy
https://sempo.site-ym.com/?CurrentStateofSearch