Marketing Society survey reveals SEO will be most important

4 August 2010

In a survey conducted by the Marketing Society and the Royal Mail, marketing heads were asked which 3 channels they thought would be the most important in the coming financial year. SEO was the top result, chosen by 45% of respondants, closely followed by social media (42%) and word of mouth (37%)

When asked about the number one priority for their marketing budgets 43% believed it to be acquiring new customers (see chart below.) A third of those surveyed expected their overall marketing budget for the next 6 months to increase while 12.5% were expecting a decrease. The final question asked was "In terms of the total number of marketing agencies your comapy uses are you planning to use more, fewer or the same number of agencies. 25% said they were planning on using fewer agencies, suggesting that many marketing departments are planning to bring search engine optimisation and social media skills in-house. 7% surveyed were planning to employ more agencies.