11/27/2018 
Patrick WhelanEvery year, Target Marketing surveys its readership to identify trends for the upcoming marketing year. This year, its “2019 Marketing Budget Survey” found that a whopping 10x more marketing budgets are increasing for 2019 than decreasing. Great news! That’s the kind of commitment that gets results.
Here’s how the data on respondents’ budgets broke out:
- 60% increasing
- 31% staying the same
- 6% decreasing
- 3% not sure
As part of its survey, Target Marketing also identified three top marketing trends that all marketers, whether digital or traditional (or both), need to know.
- More money is going to tech and data.
Marketers’ highest spend is going for media and other outreach (28%) and personnel (20%). That’s to be expected, but this year, they take up less than half of marketers’ budgets overall. Technology, consumer data/data management, and metrics/performance measurement combined to account for 42% of spending overall. Data is the foundation of good marketing, and marketers’ budgets are reflecting that.
- Marketing is moving from push to pull.
Channels that use pull marketing (social media, online video, content marketing) are growing faster than those that push (email). Social media advertising (59%), online video (54%), and content marketing (53%) are the fastest growing media channels. As you integrate digital media into your marketing efforts, make sure you are incorporating channels that pull, as well as push.
- Marketers still demand conversions.
When it comes to grading performance, conversion metrics win the most favor for budgeting. As you justify your 2019 marketing budget to the higher-ups, focus on metrics that reflect conversions. Select metrics such as sales, lead generation, and sign-ups that prove that you are getting those conversions, however you define them.
Next year is going to be an exciting year for marketers, full of change and opportunity. How are you allocating your budget?
