The results of a new study published by email marketer StrongMail and promoted by The eMarketer Daily show that 90% of business executives plan to spend the same or more on marketing next year. No kidding! Business executives who cut their marketing budgets are likely the same ones that closed their doors last year. Marketing can’t be treated as a discretionary expense like going out to dinner or the movies. Without marketing there are no sales. Without sales there is no revenue. Without revenue you have no business.
So why do so many businesses consider marketing expendable and cut their promotional spend when things get tight? Because they are myopic. If your current marketing spend isn’t generating the results that you need, change your mix, change your message, change your team but don’t reduce your spend. Or next year you’ll be changing jobs.
For some ideas on how marketers are changing their spend for 2010, check out the rest of the StrongMail survey results. It should come as no surprise that 69% report a planned increase in email marketing.