Internet Marketing Strategies from MarketerInsight

According to Forrester…

Q1 was rough with consumer spending in the US dropping, hurting both US and global brands, and with stocks in a tailspin every time anyone used the word “recession.”

In March, Forrester asked its CMO Panel how the downturn would affect their budgets. More than one hundred panel members, with an average marketing budget of $83 million, responded that they expect their CFOs to demand an average cut by 3%. They said they would save on branding, advertising, and traditional media, while keeping budgets for loyalty programs, marketing technology, and new media marketing mostly untouched.

Employ media marketing agencies that connect with consumers. Traditional agencies excel at above-the-line mass marketing — the line items you want to cut. Forrester believes that the agency of the future will excel at understanding your consumers, involving them in defining the brand and spreading the message, and in making them loyal brand advocates — supporting those budget items you are keeping strong. Some agencies are on the path to connecting with consumers via social networks. Is your agency, or should you switch to a strong media marketing partner in these rough times?

Start experimenting with online video. Traditional media is getting into the perfect storm: Consumer attention and trust is at an all-time low, and advertisers are cutting both ad budgets and old media budgets. To survive, they need to target ads and content to individual households and consumers. While Time Warner, Comcast, Disney, and many others will speed up their trials in this field, marketing leaders should get ready for the biggest change since color TV. How? By experimenting with Web video, to understand which processes, content, and customer intelligence you will need when television offers the same functions.

Invest in intelligence. The name of the new media marketing game: targeting. Marketing leaders have voted with their wallets to reduce the two large budget items that show the biggest waste. To get the most from their reduced budgets, they need to understand their clients better — their (media) behaviors, attitudes, needs, and social connections.

This requires investments in marketing technology like CRM, in analytics, and in training. We are glad to see that CMOs kept these line items intact.

We believe that these actions are critical for every media marketing leader’s success.