Direct mail and email generated the best return on investment among media channels in 2006, according to respondents – both B2B and consumer marketers – to a new Harte-Hanks survey administered by CSO Insights.
 
Among business-to-business marketers, digital marketing – email, websites and online registrations, and search – are seeing increased investments, but a “continuing struggle with data quality” is a “major roadblock to success,” the study found.
Meanwhile, consumer marketers point to a lack of data quality – currency and accuracy – as hurting marketing efforts, though marketers gave higher marks for data quality than they had in a previous survey two years ago, according to the findings of “Target Marketing Priorities Analysis: 2007 Key Trends.”
Among all media, digital media categories – with the exception of paid search – receive the highest priorities, with near-equal attention given to data analysis, among other data-related concerns.
In both B2B and consumer markets, prompt action based on data analysis is a top priority for business demand generation, the study reported.
Asked to cite the relative importance of web-based marketing programs to the overall success of target marketing, retailers selected the following, in order of importance (via InternetRetailer):
- Web sites and micro-sites
- Search optimization
- Email marketing
- Online advertising
- E-publishing/e-newsletters
- E-fulfillment
- Paid search
- Webinars
- Blogs
Asked which strategies were increasing the most in importance, respondents cited the following:
- Web-based marketing
- Data analysis and insight
- Email marketing
- Data-based marketing
- Online advertising
- Search marketing
- Data acquisition
- Telemarketing
- Direct mail
- Paid search
- Traditional media
“As companies invest more in multiple channels in a bid to acquire customers, and to retain their loyalty, it appears businesses continue to grapple with data management and data insight – and just what the metrics are saying,” said Bill Goldberg, corporate officer and senior vice-president, Harte-Hanks.
About the study: Among the respondents, 28% represented technology companies, 19% from the manufacturing sector (non-tech), 13% among services companies, 9% financial, 7% in healthcare and 5% retailers and consumer package goods companies – with a variety of other sectors (nonprofit, government, education, travel and transportation, among others) making up the other 24%. Approximately 60% of survey respondents represent B2B marketers.
