Retailers want to spend more on eMail marketing, SEM, & SEO

The Webtrends recent Online Retail Holiday Readiness Survey with over 300 retail professionals, found that overall, retailers surveyed ranked email marketing as the most important demand-generation activity for holiday success. In addition, 50% of the respondents said that visitor segmentation is important to the success of their online holiday season. Making sure that campaigns are targeted and relevant to customers is vital, says the report.

Email marketing to stimulate demand is the winner with ecommerce businesses, with Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) ranking second and third. Print advertising was ranked second and in-store promotions third to Internet and Store retailers, while traditional forms of demand generation such as broadcast advertising and coupons didn't make the cut. Online banner ads were also a lower priority for all retailers.

The biggest increases in spending, according to the report will be:
1. eMail marketing (52%)
2. SEM (46%)
3. SEO (38%)

The biggest decreases in spending will be:
1. online banner ads (17%)
2. print advertising (16%)
3. broadcast advertising (14%)

Some other key findings reported in the study include:
1. 63% of retailers are relying on response and activity-based metrics like clickthroughs, page and product views to measure demand generation;
2. 27% aren't consistently measuring their demand generation activities at all;
3. 10% of retailers surveyed are using visitor-centric metrics like unique visitors and deferred conversions to measure these activities.