Email Marketing to be a Top Priority in 2011

Email and social media will be the highest marketing priorities for many Web businesses in 2011, according to a recent Zoomerang survey commissioned by Strongmail.

Of nearly 1,000 businesses polled, 65 percent intend to increase spending on their email marketing campaigns for the coming year. The insurgence of targeting technologies and practices will play a big role in email marketing in 2011, as brands are hoping to increase segmentation and send more targeted messages to the most qualified consumers.

Social media earned the next highest response with 57 percent of the businesses planning to spend more on their social marketing efforts in 2011. Increased Facebook engagement was the predominant method of choice, with Twitter lagging well in the distance.

Meanwhile, businesses will be spending less of their marketing budgets on direct mail and events/trade shows in 2011, according to the survey. Other findings from the study included the following:

- 93 percent of marketers plan to "at least maintain" their ad spending in 2011
- 41 percent consider a lack of resources as their leading ad challenge
- 52 percent of businesses want to increase engagement
- 41 percent plan to increase search ad spending