155 Different Digital Marketing Channels Complicate Choices

One reason digital marketing has gotten so complex is that there are so many channel choices. A recent Adobe global survey of 1,941 respondents, primarily at businesses headquartered primarily in North America, Western Europe and Japan shows that 155 different digital venues now are in operation by businesses.

In addition to the expected emphasis on websites and web analytics, social communities, blogs and microblogs were among the tactics respondents were using most frequently. Mobile tactics, starting from a low base, are growing rapidly, however.

As you might guess, though marketers are unsure about the return on investment from social and mobile tactics, that uncertainty is not preventing companies from investing in the tactics.

While a majority (58 percent) of the respondents say social has a positive impact on conversion, social
features garnering the most “very effective” ratings remain those more mature and proven tactics like
customer reviews and ratings.

In fact, unchanged for the last three years, the social features that drew the most “very effective” votes this year are user comments and reviews, and user ratings and rankings, cited as “very effective” by 32 percent of the respondents.

The content marketing angles are clear. Content has to be created in order for users to comment, review and rank products and services.

Social and mobile tactics, though, are poised to be adopted quickly by small businesses, Adobe says.
Despite the mixed outlook on social and mobile’s effectiveness, that these tactics are among the most planned deployments suggests that small businesses are bypassing tools like site analytics, universally deployed by large businesses.

Instead, smaller businesses are eyeing leading-edge tactics in social and mobile as a fast-track
to reaching users and converting them.

Fully 73 percent of the businesses surveyed say they plan to invest in website redesigns or would otherwise make significant enhancements to improve their site’s return on investment. The vast majority (82 percent) say they plan to deploy those enhancements within the year.

Analytics, social media, and rich media and merchandising are the most deployed tactics globally, while mobile apps, social executions and rich media are among the top planned tactics.

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