More funding, more emailing

Marketing techniques change all the time. Annual trends revolutionize the marketplace, exhaust budgets and show tentative results. In 2012, many organizations are planning to go back to the basics with a few slight twists.

A recent survey from StrongMail, an email marketing and social media firm, gave marketing experts a glimpse into where many businesses plan to focus their future dollars in the upcoming year. The results indicated that, above all other media outlets, most businesses plan to put an added emphasis on email marketing, followed by social media and an increased budget for mobile and search.

Many businesses will have to expand their creative departments in order to accommodate for the new demand in additional marketing avenues. In order to efficiently fill gaps in creative fields, organizations may turn to creative staffing services to help them find qualified individuals. A creative staffing agency specializes in linking the right individuals with the right employers, taking into account their experiences and the culture of the companies.

Moving forward, StrongMail projects that 60 percent of businesses will raise their email marketing budgets to reach out to consumers in multiple ways. Email carries a lot of weight, even today, as the proper promotional message, mixed in with unique content, can draw potential clients in closer. Social media budgets are expected to increase 54 percent, and mobile and search each will increase 37 percent respectively. However, even more important for businesses will be the incorporation of software as a service (SaaS) into daily business practices.

SaaS, otherwise known as cloud computing, will play an important role in future business initiatives, as organizations will easily be able to store large amounts of information in the clouds. The availability of cloud services for any sized business may affect how marketing is performed. Now, larger, more interactive online advertisements can be hosted in the clouds without slowing down internal servers. The cloud could open the door to advertisements that incorporate more realistic elements, such as the interactive video ads seen recently by Old Spice and Barcardi Rum. In the former, for example, users can drift through an interactive party, while enjoying their favorite rum drink.

After looking over the latest data provided by StrongMail, it might be difficult to imagine how the increased budgets in each avenue will be realized in 2012. Each method has already played such an important role in how people communicate and share information with one another. One thing is for sure, 2012 will have its own surprises in store.

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