As part of the finding of the Direct Marketing Association’s Statistical Fact Book, released yesterday, nearly one in two marketers has not yet allocated dollars to emerging media, such as social networks, blogs, or word-of-mouth initiatives. Over 65 industry recourses have been used in assembling the fact book. In a survey conducted by database marketing firm Epsilon, 45 percent of the integrated marketers who were surveyed said they haven’t spent marketing dollars in emerging media although they’re interested in doing so.
In the list of areas that interest the marketers to incorporate in their campaigns, at the top of the list is computing/word-of-mouth marketing with 67 percent willing to try it. The next in line is blogs with 55 percent, mobile with 48 percent, RSS feeds 44 percent and instant messaging which ranked lower at 31 percent.
Close to 90 percent of study respondents said Web sites and micro-sites are gaining in importance in regards to B2C marketing. About 30 percent said paid search and traditional media are gaining in importance.
In other findings, e-mail marketing showed that 73 percent of every dollar spent went to customer retention and the rest went to acquisition, according to DMA’s statistics.
Two-thirds of online search users performed searches as a direct result of exposure to an offline channel, such as a television ad (37 percent) or word of mouth from a friend (36 percent), according to a Jupiter Research/Ipos Insight consumer survey.
When asked the purpose of search engine marketing, 57 percent said it’s used to increase brand awareness, according to a survey by Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization. A total of 47 percent of the advertisers and agencies said it’s to generate leads for themselves, and 20 percent said it’s for leads for a dealer or distributor.

Digital advertising, in consumer category, is expected to continue to experience an increase in spending over the next year and beyond. Sponsorships are the only category that the DMA expects to see declining in the consecutive-year. Between 2007 and 2008 an estimated dip of approximately 16 percent. By 2009 another 12 percent. DMA uses figures from Veronis Suhler Stevenson, PQ Media, and the Interactive Advertising Bureau to calculate the national consumer internet advertising spending.