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The Future of Digital Marketing

Last Wednesday I spoke on a keynote panel at DM Days focused on the future of digital marketing and how it played a role in our business culture today relative to budgets, decision making, key successes, measurement and trends. The panel was moderated by Scott Delea from Digital Grit, and included me, Bryan Eisenberg from FutureNow, Rodney Spady from Novartis and Hillary Evans from Y & R’s Brand Buzz.

It was an open panel focused around the future of digital, but had a few highlights I thought would be fun to share with you. One of the elements discussed was that digital marketing budgets are reported to be 7% of total marketing spend—and the question was, is that accurate?

We all gave our thoughts, and my comment that we are undervaluing the budgetary commitment to digital marketing resonated with most people. While traditional marketing budget fell within marketing groups only, digital marketing can be seen in all aspects of the company—advertising, call centers and face to face. When you consider the total investment on digital efforts, the number is closer to 27%.

Another item discussed was, what is the one thing that will help marketers move into a digital space quickly? My response was database alignment. But not just relying on enhancements to current enterprise databases, but intelligently mapping current legacy databases to the digital data available via other channels, like Google and other data centers. This way of managing and collecting behavioral and demographic data will push us light years into the future.

Lastly, we spoke about email and how, in the digital world, the landscape is getting crowded. With all of the new digital channels out there, the customer can very quickly become confused as to where to focus attention, and how to focus attention on marketing. Email acts as a guide to keep people on track.

One thing I walked away with from this panel was a new appreciation for the power of digital in our marketing and advertising world. I wonder what the next great way for marketers to leverage this vehicle will be.

—Jeanniey Mullen

Posted on June 25, 2007 9:09 AM |

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Comments (1)

Josef Katz:

Jeanniey,

It was a good panel discussion and it was great to see you again.

The point about digital marketing budgets should be looked at in more detail. The 7% quoted is probably an overall average that would see great difference between companies operating online and offline. Where did the 7% statistic come from and how was digital marketing defined? I agree with you that the number is under reported but depending on what is included under digital marketing it might be even higher then you suggested.

Speak with you soon.
Josef

Posted by Josef Katz | July 3, 2007 9:38 AM

Posted on July 3, 2007 09:38

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The Email Experience Council's membership includes many of the brightest and most committed email marketing experts. We're pleased to have some of them share their insights here on these pages. Our blog contributors include:

Elie Ashery is the president and CEO of Gold Lasso, and is responsible for the company’s vision and strategy execution. Before joining Gold Lasso, he co-founded Newsletters.com in 1997, selling it to The Tribune Cos. in 2000. He then worked for IncenSoft, focusing on email marketing while there. Read more.

Amy Bills is the senior manager of field marketing at lead optimization company Bulldog Solutions. She is responsible for lead generation and the go-to-market execution of Bulldog's new products and initiatives. Amy was previously the editorial team leader of Freescale Semiconductor’s internal creative agency and a senior editor at Hoover’s Online. Read more.

Nicholas Einstein is director of strategic and analytic services at Datran Media. Specializing in email and CRM strategy, he helps some of America’s top brands leverage online channels to communicate more effectively with their customers and prospects.

Lisa Harmon is a principal at Smith-Harmon, a creative services consultancy dedicated to email marketing strategy and production. She works with marketers to increase clickthrough, maximize revenue, and infuse delight into their email creative. Lisa is also the blogger behind edm.smith-harmon.com, an ongoing commentary on the best (and worst!) in email marketing creative. Read more.

Chip House is ExactTarget's VP of marketing services, leading the teams responsible for client success. He was named to BtoB Magazine’s 2005 “Who’s Who in B-To-B,” for being a vocal proponent of legitimate commercial email and an active lobbyist regarding spam and privacy issues. Read more.

Spencer Kollas is the director of delivery services at StrongMail, helping maximize customers’ email deliverability rates. He was previously director of deliverability services for Premiere Global Services. Spencer is an active member in the Email Sender & Provider Coalition, Messaging Anti-Abuse Work Group, the Anti-Phishing Work Group and, of course, the eec. Read more.

Stephanie Miller is VP of strategic services for Return Path, the leading email performance company. She works with marketers to earn a higher ROI and response from their acquisition and retention email programs—developing content, contact and segmentation strategies, along with testing, measurement and production programs. Read more.

Erick Mott is the director of marketing and corporate communications for Habeas, the leader in email reputation management services. He has a rich background in marketing and communications strategy and execution for such companies as Nokia, MarkMonitor, GlobalFluency, Cisco Systems, Creator Connection, Sun Microsystems, Philips NV, Elm Products and CBS Television. Read more.

Jeanniey Mullen is the Email Experiene Council's founder and the global EVP and CMO of global online publishing company Zinio. She is a thought leader and visionary in the email and digital marketing field. A columnist for ClickZ, she has published numerous papers and is a frequent speaker. Read more.

Charles Stiles is the VP of worldwide business development at Goodmail Systems. In his role, Charles is focused on helping generate a better understanding of the email environment and potential solutions for a better consumer experience. He currently serves as the chairman for the Messaging Anti-Abuse Work Group. Read more.

Jeremy Swift is director of client relations for email service provider BlueHornet. He helped form BlueHornet’s founding team in 2000 and has been responsible for client services and marketing strategy since the company’s inception. Jeremy is known for his ability to articulate technical information in ways that clearly resonate with today’s online marketer.

DJ Waldow is an account manager at Bronto Software. He works with Bronto’s largest clients to help them achieve and surpass their marketing goals. An active member of the email marketing community, DJ posts regularly on the Email Marketer’s Club, publishes a bi-weekly email marketing best practices newsletter, and films BrontoFire.

Chad White is the Email Experience Council’s director of retail insights and editor-at-large. He founded and is the author of the Retail Email Blog, a blog dedicated to tracking the email marketing practices of the largest online retailers. Chad regularly writes major research reports on email marketing and is an Email Insider columnist for MediaPost. Read more.

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