Add StrongMail, a leading provider of online marketing solutions for email and social media, to the list of industry experts predicting continued investment in these media formats for 2010. StrongMail’s most recent global business survey also revealed that nearly all (89%) of operators will either maintain or increase marketing budgets next year. This general optimism is based on the belief that customers are expected to spend more next year.

Here are the percentages of businesses expected to spend more on specific media formats in 2010:

• Social media: 69%
• Email: 59%
• Search marketing: 42%

At the same time, firms plan to decrease spending in:

• Events/ trade shows: 44%
• Direct mail: 42%

The survey’s most intriguing finding may be that over 1 in 4 marketers have already integrated social media into their email campaigns while another 24% have settled on a strategy and are preparing to implement this change. Of the operators that have already implemented the change, 35% report no lift in sales while another 23% do not know how to measure results. Note that the blending of email and social media marketing can be as simple as repurposing content from an email and using it to update Twitter and Facebook.

Bill Wagner, executive vice president of business operations at StrongMail says that “[w]hile an unprecedented number of companies look to integrate email and social media in 2010, the data shows that companies need to adopt new tools and strategies to properly measure and monetize their efforts.”

It looks like 2010 may be the year when many marketers blur the line between email and social media.

[Source: Email and Social Media Marketing are Top Areas of Investment in 2010, StrongMail release, 12.2.09]