Many companies could be missing out on sales by not maximising their websites or online marketing campaigns, worrying new findings have shown.
The survey, commissioned by Crafted Media, reveals that 88.8% of those surveyed believe online marketing to be either very or quite important, with 75.6% rating non online advertising as important.
Despite this, almost two thirds (60%) of companies said they spend less than 25% of their overall marketing budget on online marketing techniques.
The survey also shows that whilst 83% of people think their website is an effective marketing tool, less than two thirds (60%) monitor traffic to their website and under half (39.5%) optimise their websites using Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) techniques.
Only 9% said they implement Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising campaigns, with almost a third (32.8%) admitting they do neither – meaning they could be missing out on website sales and/or enquiry opportunities.
Co-founder and business development director at Crafted Media, Brad Warwick, said, “In the current economic climate, where every marketing penny needs to be spent wisely, many companies underestimate the power of an effective website or online marketing campaign.
“But you don’t have to spend a lot of money to generate online sales and enquiries.”
Warwick said he believed that the key to online marketing success was to first make a website as accessible and easy to use as possible, and then implement and monitor targeted SEO techniques.
He concluded, “Online marketing can be perceived as a dark art, but understanding your customer’s requirements and directing both them & search engines to the most relevant content of your website produces results.”