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According to the study underwritten by Harte-Hanks, Inc., and conducted by CSO Insights, one in five companies is now spending almost 50 percent of its marketing budget on “target marketing” methods. In addition, another two in five companies are spending between 15 to 45 percent on these same types of activities. According to the study, interactive marketing that is closely integrated with company database management is the leading, and fastest growing, segment in this target marketing category.

The study titled, “2005 Executive Report: Target Marketing Priorities Analysis,” three out of five companies are planning on spending more on Web design, data quality initiatives and email. In addition, over 50 percent of the companies surveyed said they would be increasing their search marketing budgets.

The biggest challenge that company managers face in light of new marketing realities is data management and insuring the quality of that data. In fact, almost 75 percent of the companies surveyed said they were going to increase their investments in database management.

Some other interesting stats:

• 58 percent of companies still have no formal process for planning and implementing this target marketing process
• 53 percent describe their Web sites as mission critical
• 49 percent want more customer insights to understand how people perceive and buy their products/services
• 43 percent describe search engine optimization as mission critical
The survey revealed that the top marketing priorities for those surveyed were: 1) Acquire new customers 2) Improve marketing ROI There were 281 companies that participated in the survey representing a broad spectrum of manufacturing, retail, technology and other categories. About 25 percent of the firms surveyed had over $1 billion in revenues, while 189 of the participating companies had revenues between $10 million and $500 million.

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