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Where will marketers’ budgets rise or fall in 2023? Two studies, RR Donnelley’s Optichannel Opportunity Report and Neil Patel’s How marketers are Spending Their Money, paint a consistent picture. Money is spent where there is evidence of ROI.
Commercial printing giant RR Donnelley recently made headlines with its Optichannel Opportunity Report, which includes marketer spending forecasts for 2023. The report is based on survey responses from 300 marketers and presents a fairly positive outlook for the next 12 months. But is it the big picture?
Before answering this question, let’s look at some highlights.
- 54% of marketers expect their organization’s marketing budget to increase this year.
- 73% believe there is an opportunity to gain market share by spending more.
- 68% have adjusted their digital marketing budgets as a result of major changes in social media platforms.
- Of these, 71% have reallocated some of their digital budgets to direct mail, brochures, signage and other printed materials.
- 89% are increasing their use of QR codes. 66% use triggered messaging. 44% are using RFID to power printing.
Source: RR Donnelly “Optichannel Opportunity Report”
Of course, we have no idea who these 300 marketers are. In most cases, they are his RRD customers and, if so, marketers who are already using print. In this case it is not a random sample. So what happens when you compare your results to the larger marketing community?
Global Survey of 8,023 Marketers by Neil Patel
One comparable study is Neil Patel’s How Marketers Spend Their Money. His survey of 8,023 marketers around the world paints a slightly different picture for RRD. Not contradictory, but complementary. Let’s see.
1. Overall marketing budgets are increasing.
In the B2C world, 77% of marketers will maintain or increase their 2023 marketing budget. In the B2B world, this rises to his 79%. However, the percentage of marketers who increase their budget is higher for his B2B than B2C: 34% vs. 26%.
2. Your SEO budget will go up.
68% of marketers are increasing their SEO budget. The biggest reason they cite is that SEO offers a higher ROI than paid advertising. If marketers aren’t planning to increase their budgets, it’s because of financial constraints or uncertainty about ROI.
3. Organic search budgets are declining.
The majority of marketers surveyed (42%) are reducing their spending on organic search. reason? They don’t think it offers as high an ROI as it used to. Nearly a third (32%) of his marketers are increasing their spending on organic search, largely due to the impact of his Apple iOS changes.
4. Content creation is booming.
A whopping 83% of companies are increasing their content production budgets. What’s the number one reason? Explosive number of formats in which content is required. The 8% who maintain a budget feel they are limited by money rather than desire, and the 9% who are cutting it are because they are investing in AI tools to keep costs down.
5. AI is the only thing everyone agrees on.
From GTP-3 to ChatGPT, AI is all the rage. Nearly all companies surveyed (98%) plan to leverage AI to create their own tools or make their marketing more efficient. Some of this may be for chat features rather than content creation. But regardless, everyone is doing it.
6. Email continues its steady rise.
More than half of companies (56%) are increasing their email marketing budgets. The reasons for this fall into her three camps:
- Their mailing list continues to grow.
- They spend more to comply with privacy laws.
- They are investing in more marketing automation.
Six percent of the reasons for cutting budgets are split between deleting a list of inactive subscribers (to save money) and switching email marketing software providers (to save money).
7. Focus on user experience (UX).
Nearly a third (62%) of companies plan to increase their UX/CRO budgets. Reason? CRO helps him improve his ROI and UX is important to the overall marketing experience.
8. Podcasting is hot.
Another thing marketers agree on is that podcasting is popular. 92% say they will increase their podcasting budget next year. The reason is simple. Podcasting is not yet saturated and is seen as an untapped opportunity.
9. The focus is on community building.
84% of respondents say they are increasing their investment in community building. This focus on community is a theme we also saw in HubSpot’s 2023 Inbound Marketing Report. More and more brands are building online communities around their products.
10. Search advertising budgets are also increasing.
59% of respondents plan to increase paid search on Google, and 47% plan to increase paid search on Bing. reason? In their view, search advertising offers a clear ROI compared to other channels.
11. Social advertising is declining.
With all these increases it makes sense that something has to go down and paid social advertising seems to be taking a hit. Marketers are pulling out of Facebook (-57%) . Instagram (-56%); YouTube (-39%); Twitter (-34%); Pinterest (-36%). Even SnapChat is down 32%. What’s the number one reason? Apple IOS Privacy Changes. A marketer cannot generate the same ROI from these channels as he did before.
12. Traditional advertising is taking a hit.
Do you know what else is declining? traditional ad buying. This includes TV (-71%). Radio (-76%); Print (-89%); and Billboard (-74%). However, this is ad buying specifically in these channels, not all print (RRD research shows growth in direct mail, brochures and signage). But the reason for the decline is the same. It’s a marketer’s challenge in tracking ROI.
This last part is a common thread that runs on all these data points. Marketers aren’t biased toward one channel or another. They are for and against equal opportunity based on ROI. If they can prove it, they will invest in it. If you can’t, don’t. This is a fairly simple formula. When it comes to print, the important thing is clear. Get rid of these tracking mechanisms and put them at the heart of the conversation with your client.
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