CHICAGO, IL--(Marketwire - December 14, 2010) - While social channels such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn are recognized as essential digital marketing channels in 2010, a survey conducted at the worldwide digital marketing conference ad:Tech by EPiServer, the world's fastest growing provider of platforms that drive online engagement, reveals that in 2010 nearly 60 percent of the respondents realized the highest return on investment (ROI) from Email and the company Website, and those same channels top the list for future investment among 46 percent of those responding.
In addition, the survey further asked about the involvement of the IT department in marketing technology purchasing decisions. Despite the era of Cloud Computing and the ease of technology procurement, 54 percent, or more than half, of the respondents revealed that the IT department is involved "very frequently" or "frequently" in technology purchase decisions. The survey was conducted at ad:Tech 2010 among CEOs, Vice Presidents, Directors and Digital Marketing Managers of more than 65 attending organizations including large corporations, small and medium-sized business and marketing and digital agencies.
"The survey results clearly illustrate what many in the marketing world already suspect, that while marketers are experimenting with social media, they are also struggling with the practicality and ROI of these channels and driving the bulk of investment to the more 'traditional' digital channels," said Bob Egner, Vice President of Global Marketing at EPiServer. "The reality is that as marketers we're still early in our understanding of how to best use social channels such as Facebook and Twitter and that clearly more work needs to be done to effectively connect social and mobile marketing to lead generation and revenue growth."
Bob continued, "In 2011, we expect to see more detailed analytics related to social behavior and sentiment that is closely coordinated and synchronized with the other online marketing metrics. In order to drive greater investment by marketers in the social channels, we also encourage digital agencies to take an integral role in bridging the gap between marketers and technologists to drive greater understanding of social media, and to paint a clearer roadmap to conversion and ROI."
The EPiServer platform, combining content, commerce, communication and community, is available now. For more, visit http://www.episerver.com/, or search "episerver" on Google.
About EPiServer
EPiServer is the world's fastest growing provider of Web Content Management (WCM) platforms and online community platforms. More than 3,000 customers worldwide use EPiServer CMS to create collaborative and engaging websites. EPiServer CMS is the foundation for more than 9,700 websites and is used on a daily basis by more than 130,000 web editors. EPiServer delivers its Web Content Management platform through an extensive network of over 450 competent partner companies in 30 countries. EPiServer combines the stability and support of a commercial product with a thriving developer community of an open source project through the EPiServer World community of over 11,000 developers. EPiServer is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner with an AAA-ranking by Dun & Bradstreet since 2000. The company was founded in 1994 and has offices in the United States, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, The Netherlands, South Africa, Australia and the United Kingdom. Learn more online at: http://www.episerver.com.
