Another MarketingSherpa Chart on Top Marketing Tactics in a Downturn

Perhaps this is becoming repetitive, but this past Tuesday, MarketingSherpa published another chart showing that email marketing and Web 2.0 social marketing remain the top two marketing tactics for the downturn. MS opines that the growing popularity of these two tactics in a tough economic climate is due to their low cost, and in the case of email marketing, proven ROI (in light of the ability to precisely measure results using clickthrough tracking and other metrics). In contrast, investment in print advertising is seeing the biggest drop (due to high cost and difficulty proving ROI due to the lack of interactivity).

Comments

[Mere]

This shows the trends, but are they the most effective methods right now?

[Joshua Fruchter]

Meredith - the trends demonstrate that marketers BELIEVE that these methods - i.e., email marketing and social networking - are the most effective marketing methods in a downturn, and that is why they are investing more marketing dollars in them. Whether these beliefs are correct (and whether they are correct for B2B-focused law firms) is a separate issue. But my personal feeling is they are correct and the research is relevant to B2B law firms because the ROI on email marketing can be so high. Consider, for say $2500/year for standard core email marketing features (e.g., segmentation, tracking), a law firm can potentially bag tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars in new business by making correct use of the metrics that help identify what clients are interested in what issues. Similarly, with social networking, while the metrics are less precise, a meaningful investment of time can yield excellent results in the areas of "buzz," thought leadership and search engine visibility. Happy to discuss further if you are interested.