Online advertising is experiencing phenomenal growth these days. One business-to-business survey conducted by Hearst Electronics and Goldstein Group Communications (GGC) in 2008 shows that nearly half of the communications budgets from those surveyed are being spent on online advertising.
Printed newspapers are reporting that their advertising dollars are shifting to the web. What does this growth mean to printed advertising as well as what does it all mean for online advertising?
Online Advertising Growth
Advertising outlets online have been growing in number as fast as companies getting online with their advertising. Currently, online advertising includes:
- Webcasts
- Search engine optimizing and marketing
- Generating online content
- Social media
- Banners
- Video.
Leading analysts believe their research shows that online advertising will grow at overwhelming rates.
According to a quote from GGC’s president, Joel Goldsten, in the study from HighBeam Research, “The sense of urgency to move to online marketing has been felt by leading marketing organizations for some time now, but the extent to which budgets have been re-defined is dramatic.”
Some companies are planning up to 80 percent of their advertising budgets to online according to GGC’s survey.
Decline of Print Advertising
The fast decline of print advertising and the resulting troubles plaguing newspapers across the country including those in Cleveland, Seattle, Chicago, and New York city just to list a few is another strong indicator that advertisers are making the transition to online.
Portions of print advertising will remain a central part of the marketing and advertising mix. The best mix is to use print items to build or maintain the brand as such it is best to keep the following in print:
- Brochures
- Flyers
- Fact sheet
- Pocket folders
- Business cards
- Sales booklets
- Press kits
Online advertising can be the lead generator or the other end of the call to action on the print materials.
Direct Mail Spending Declines
The GGC survey also showed direct mail budgets are only only five percent of advertising budgets.
Direct mail has long been used to reach the consumer on a direct and personal level. Online advertising resources such as email, blogs and social media have been more effective as of late in reaching the consumer on a personal level. As such, direct mail has been affected negatively by the increase in online advertising budgets.
Recent reports of the financial troubles of the U.S. Postal Service are a direct result of decreased direct mail campaigns as well as other factors.
Making the Shift to Online Advertising
Because of the economic hardships, more people are more than likely staying home and doing more business on the net and spending less on magazines and printed newspapers. Which means for any advertising budget, transitioning to online advertising is an obvious must do for any type of business or company to be and stay competitive?
