Most Brands Plan To Increase Marketing Budgets In 2017

by @lauriesullivan, December 12, 2016

Most Brands Plan To Increase Marketing Budgets In 2017

Some 70% of marketers will spend more on marketing in 2017, with 67% saying they will spend up to 75%. Some 19% said they will spend the same and 5% plan to spend less. About one-third plan to hire more SEO and content professionals, according to a study released Monday.

The data from Conductor, which focuses on supporting content and search engine optimization, found that 80% of marketers will increase their focus on digital advertising, content marketing and SEO in 2017.

About 82% of marketers reported introducing one to five new technologies in 2016 into their organizations, 10% released between six and 10; 7% zero; and 1% between 11 and 20. 

When it comes to tallying up how much marketers spent on technology in 2016, about 61% of respondents reported budgets of less than $100,000, specifically dedicated to marketing technology. Some 8% spent between $100,000 and $150,000; 13% between $150,000 and $500,000; and 7%, $500,000 or more.

Some 91% of survey respondents said they use 20 or fewer marketing technologies, with the largest single group of 38% using between six and 10. About 7% report using more than 20 different software solutions. About 1% use between 51 and 99, according to survey findings.

Why so many technology platforms? About 53% of marketers responding to the survey said they feel “overwhelmed” by the amount of data in their marketing technologies. Some 67% feel they had to look at too many different dashboards and reports to get insight, and 36% needed extra analysis to extract value.

Organic traffic from search results was the top-performing channel in 2016 and will be the top priority of marketing executives in 2017, but more than 80% of marketers said they will increase their company’s focus on digital advertising, content marketing, and SEO in 2017.

When asked to rank the top internal challenges that could negatively impact online performance in 2017, marketers named having the correct team as number 1. Lack of budget followed at number 2; not enough time, number 3; lack of support, number 4; and can’t prove return on investment at number 5.

 

MediaPost.com: Search Marketing Daily

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