Marketing Forecast from Ad-ology

To understand the full extent of the recession in the U.S. consider the 2% drop in e-commerce spending in 2009. Total spending for the year leveled out at $209.6 billion and was broadly divided between travel e-commerce spending at $79.8 billion and retail e-commerce spending at $129.8 billion according to comScore.

When it comes to promoting their products, pharmaceutical firms are required to be more careful than the typical marketer. A traditional print advertisement is often accompanied by an entire page of compressed text that details possible side effects that might result from taking medications. Pharmaceutical companies are currently in negotiations with the FDA about how they might be able to use social media while still meeting legal requirements.

Marketing in the B to B sector was not been immune to a drop in spending during the recession. But last fall, BtoB’s “2010 Outlook: Marketing Priorities and Plans” report noted that over a third of surveyed businesses expected to increase their 2010 marketing budgets and another 47% were planning to maintain spending. Another recently published study by AMR International also found optimism in the B to B sector, especially when it comes to online marketing.

Market watchers have been waiting for the breakout year in mobile advertising. According to Forrester projections, spending on this medium should increase from $391 million in 2009 to $561 million in 2010. While the overall numbers are still small in comparison to total interactive marketing spending, estimated to reach $29 billion in 2010, the 43% growth rate makes mobile an exciting category.

Coremetrics calls its new study “The Face of the New Marketer”. The title calls attention to the fact that more companies are shifting resources to online marketing. As this shift occurs, marketers can’t be sure if their efforts are paying off or if they could be more successful with their online strategies. It’s an important topic to consider as marketers continue to face a difficult marketplace.

Online retailing may have fared better than other sales channels during the recession but some categories, especially luxury, saw sales struggle. One strategy taken to improve conversion rates has been Web site improvement. A recently published article in Internet Retailer highlights specific changes that marketers might consider in order to boost sales.