As Recession Deepens, Top Performers Revamp Their Marketing Budgets

Aberdeen research reveals that 82% of companies have reallocated their planned marketing spend for 2009 to varying degrees on account of the recession. For only 8% of companies has the current economic climate had no effect on their planned marketing spend. The specific revisions that many Best-in-Class companies have made to their original marketing plans for 2009 in response to the economic downturn are multifaceted, affecting everything from the number, scope and types of marketing campaigns that companies intend to launch to the deployment of new technologies and analytic capabilities to ensure that the campaigns that do launch achieve the desired results.

One major trend relates to the migration of marketing spend from high-cost channels like TV and print to low-cost channels like email that tend to be more cost effective in yielding the desired results and can also be more closely tracked and measured, which is imperative from a performance management perspective. In fact, Aberdeen research reveals that 60% of Best-in-Class companies have cut their previously allocated marketing spend in traditional media, 18% by more than half, while 47% of Best-in-Class companies, compared to 26% of Laggards, have increased their marketing spend on email marketing.

The report includes a number of recommendations to help spur performance improvements, based on the actions that Best-in-Class companies are taking, including an increased emphasis on customer data management and analytics to enable customer value management and to drive precision marketing effectiveness. Recommended actions also include the deployment of various technologies, including market asset management systems, which reduce costs by providing seamless asset management through content distribution workflow, mobile marketing solutions, which can be used to reach consumers on the go in a relevant, engaging and cost-effective manner, and lead nurturing solutions, which can help overcome the budget freezes and longer sales cycles that have become hallmarks of the economic downturn.

More information on Customer Relationship Management can be found at www.CRMindustry.com