Brandcurve - branding and marketing

New Media, Direct Marketing and Branding

by Susan Gunelius on May 7th, 2008

Today’s guest post is from Drew McLellan of Drew’s Marketing Minute.  Drew is one of my favorite branding and marketing bloggers!  

While we hear over and over that those of us writing or reading blogs, creating wikis or harnessing the other Web 2.0 tools are a very small percentage of population, we know two things:

• The percentage is on the rise.  And quickly.
• Those who are using the tools are finding them very effective.

A recent study by the Direct Marketing Association concluded that many marketers who are focusing on building their brand believe in the power of Web 2.0.

The “New Media Emergence in DM & Brand” report (which apparently you can purchase for around $600) from the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) investigates Web 2.0 - including blogs, virtual words, social networks, user-generated content, RSS feeds, and Wikis - as the platform that converges all marketing.

According to the study, new-media elements most used by Web 2.0 direct marketers for DM are (in order):

• Blogs
• Online video
• User-generated content
• Social networks

Other key findings from the study of B2B and B2C DM marketers who use Web 2.0:

Despite being relatively new, Web 2.0 is apparently recognized as a brand-building channel:

• 84% of respondents use it to raise brand awareness.
• 82% use Web 2.0 tools to increase brand preference.

New media is used for direct marketing as much as it is for brand building:

• 83% use Web 2.0 to generate sales.
• 80% use it to generate leads.

Most marketers realize the opportunities that new media create for integrating DM and brand:

• 85% of respondents use Web 2.0 to engage their customers and rate it as a highly effective mechanism for customer engagement (average rating is 5.3)
• 84% of our respondents use Web 2.0 to create a community of loyal customers, and they find it very effective for doing so (the average rating is 5.0).

All well and good.  But here’s one of the things I found most interesting about this study.  While the marketers profess the power of Web 2.0, they don’t put their money where their mouth is.  82% of respondents are allocating 25% or less of their budget towards web 2.0. 

Do you think that’s because many of the Web 2.0 are inexpensive or free?  Or is it because they’re cautiously tiptoeing into the new media, despite their beliefs about its effectiveness?

How about you?   Are you integrating Web 2.0 into your marketing plan/efforts?

As a complement to the report, DMA is hosting a virtual seminar, “Using New Media - The Link Between DM & Brand,” on Wednesday, May 7. 

Image source: DMA

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POSTED IN: Online Branding