Online in Troubled Times

http://promomagazine.com/interactivemarketing/0401-digital-media-potential/

respondents to this year's Promo IM poll said they're holding steady on, or making moderate increases in, their use of those “hard numbers” Internet channels. Just over 74% said they will use e-mail marketing this year, a rate very comparable to reporting in 2008 and 2007. The number of respondents sending out e-mail newsletters is up about seven percentage points from last year, to 70.5%. Users of online display ads have bounced back a bit from the popularity dip they saw last year to almost 41% of those surveyed. And online promotions, search optimization, paid search ads and Web-based contests all remained basically at par with their 2008 levels.

For the big jumps in Internet usage, you have to look at the relative newcomers to this year's IM survey. For example, 38.6% of respondents said they will market online through at least one corporate blog this year, up from only 22.8% who did so in 2007, and up more than 11 percentage points from last year.

Promotions in social networks of any description are also set to pick up steam this year. For the previous two years, fewer than one in five respondents told Promo they would make social nets part of their media mix. This year, more than one-third of those polled said their companies or agencies would use those Web communities in their marketing — an increase of more than 100%.