Digital Marketers Plan on Investing in CRM & Technology in 2014

The results are in from the Marketing Budgets Report 2014. Seventy percent of businesses are planning on increasing their investment in digital marketing technology. The report from Econsultancy and Responsys shows also that 2% of businesses will decrease budgets while 28% will keep the same level. Since the inception of the study in 2011, this 70% increase in investment has remained about the same. “This highlights the fact that marketers need to maintain a high level of investment in order to stay up-to-date with the latest developments in digital technologies,” according to Econsultancy.

What’s Getting the Investment?

CRM along with business and web analytics take the top two spots with 49% and 47% respectively. Of the 221 respondents surveyed, 40% said their email platform would be upgraded and 40% said their content management system would get a boost.  A little more than 30% wanted to invest in conversion and optimization tools. Thirty percent of respondents wanted to invest in marketing automation and ecommerce platforms. Paid search with bid management and lead generation came in at 27%.  Social listening and online reputation monitoring received 24% of respondents looking to make an investment in these areas.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM has stayed on top of these trends, particularly with their new updates. These will include marketing automation, analytics and even social listening.

With companies this year decreasing budgeting for paid search and bid management (-8%), video advertising (-6%) and cross-channel/multi-channel campaign management (-4%) it is time to invest in what works.

Were you surprised by the numbers? As digital marketing continues to shift and evolve each year marketing budgets are going to reflect these trends. Stay in touch with Datix on Twitter @DatixInc.