GEC NEWS WIREDigital Marketing Budget Increase Reflects Focus on Customer Experience
Digital marketing budgets will rise by 10 percent in 2014, following a double-digit percentage increase in 2013, according to a survey of marketing executives by Gartner, Inc. The survey found that, on average, companies spent 10.7 percent of their annual 2013 revenue on overall marketing activities, with digital marketing spending averaging 3.1 percent of revenue.
These findings are included in Gartner’s Digital Marketing Spending report that is based on a survey of 285 individuals located in the U.S., but answering mainly for their entire organization (only 21 percent reported U.S.-only data). Respondents represent organizations with more than $500 million in annual revenue (average revenue $4.4 billion) across eight industries: financial services and insurance, high-tech, communications, manufacturing, media, retail, government and healthcare.
“Marketing leaders are securing bigger budgets to define markets, develop offerings, and attract, acquire and retain customers,” said Yvonne Genovese, managing vice president at Gartner. “Digital marketing is taking an increasing share of the marketing budget with annual digital marketing operating budgets totaling 3.1 percent of a company’s revenue in 2013, as compared with 2.6 percent in 2012, representing a 20 percent increase.”
Eleven percent of respondents said they spent more than half of their marketing budgets on digital activities in 2013 compared with only 3.0 percent in 2012. Digital marketing represented an average of 28.5 percent of the total marketing budget in 2013, as compared with 25.5 percent in 2012.
A further survey finding was that 77 percent of companies have a chief customer officer (CCO) or the equivalent.
“Customer experiences with a brand or organization span so many channels — both online and off — that customers have come to expect consistent experiences, no matter where an interaction initially takes place,” said Laura McLellan, research vice president at Gartner. “Customer touchpoints include websites, mobile apps, social profiles, directory listings, on-site search, email interactions, communities, call center and more; hence, the increasing popularity of the role of the chief customer officer to help guide the customer right through the buying cycle and beyond.”
