Email Still Tops with Marketing Execs

This year 60% of respondents to a survey conducted at the worldwide digital marketing conference ad:Tech by EPiServer said they realized the highest return on investment from email and the company website. Furthermore those same channels were at the top the list for future investment among 46% of those responding. Also, 54% said that the IT department is involved "very frequently" or "frequently" in technology purchase decisions.

Travel Industry Embracing Social Media

Another survey, Bigmouthmedia's 2011 Travel Report, however, has found that at least one sector -the travel industry - has unabated enthusiasm for the nascent social media as well as mobile channel. According to the report, which surveyed 78 leading travel professionals from bigmouthmedia's client base, digital's share of the overall marketing budget looks set to continue to grow - from 56% in 2010 to 60% in 2011 - with some 85% of companies planning to increase their spend in the months ahead.

While the majority intend to do so by means of a direct investment, some 33% will transfer the funds across from traditional channels. As might be expected Online Travel Agents (OTAs) and comparison search engines have the largest budget share devoted to online marketing at 90%, while airlines and hotel companies have the lowest proportion allocated to online spend, with around 30% in 2010. However, this figure is set to increase to 33% for airlines and 38% for hotels in 2011.