Businesses to Increase Marketing Budgets in 2009 on Programs that Yield High Levels of Return Such as Email and Search Marketing

New survey by StrongMail Systems finds that despite recession half of businesses plan to increase marketing budgets in the New Year

Redwood City, Calif., December 15, 2008 – Despite economic concerns, businesses will continue to invest in key marketing programs in the coming year, according to a 2009 Marketing Outlook survey released today by StrongMail Systems, Inc., the leading provider of commercial-grade solutions for marketing and transactional email. Results show that more than half (51 percent) of the nearly 1,000 global business leaders polled plan to increase their marketing budgets in 2009 to focus on programs that yield a higher return on investment (ROI), such as email marketing and search, while many will decrease spending on costly, less targeted programs like advertising and trade shows.

StrongMail’s 2009 Marketing Outlook survey found that only 37 percent of those polled expect to see a decrease in sales in 2009 due to current economic conditions; 22 percent believe their customers will spend about the same in 2009 as in 2008; and 19 percent think their customers will spend more next year.

Respondents across industries, with strong representation in retail, financial services, technology, and media and entertainment sectors, indicate that they plan to direct marketing budget towards more personalized programs that will enable them to compete more effectively for customer dollars. As such, nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of companies that plan to increase marketing budgets in 2009 will bolster email marketing programs, while 44 percent will add dollars to their search marketing campaigns. Those professionals decreasing budgets in 2009 will cut spend on marketing programs that don’t typically generate as lucrative a return, such as advertising (29 percent) and trade shows (19 percent). Only four percent of companies surveyed plan to cut email marketing budget.

“Despite additional campaign costs, relevant campaigns increase net profits by an average of 18 times more than do broadcast mailings,” writes JupiterResearch vice president and research director David Daniels in the ‘The ROI of E-Mail Relevance Report’ (2005). “In addition, the use of Web analytics to target email campaigns improves revenue by nine times more than does the use of broadcast mailings.”

According to the StrongMail poll, nearly all businesses (81 percent) will either use the information available to them via customer databases, analytics tools or other resources to send more relevant emails to customers and prospects in 2009, or are currently considering tools to help them do so. Additionally, a significant number of organizations plan to experiment with new programs in 2009 to raise visibility and increase sales, like offering free-trials, promoting product giveaways and integrating social media strategies.

“We concur with the survey and plan to continue to drive sales for and awareness of our company through email marketing and other efficient endeavors including targeted media relations,” said Chuck Casto, head of communications for CSN Stores LLC (www.csnstores.com). “All of our outreach, along with our expansion efforts, has helped us to grow, and we plan to do even more in 2009 to build the CSN Stores brand.”

“It’s telling that in this tough economic climate, a majority of marketers are actually planning to increase their spend on email marketing,” said Bill Wagner, executive vice president of business operations at StrongMail Systems. “Most of businesses we speak to these days have put email at the top of their priority list for driving sales.”

Survey Methodology
The StrongMail “2009 Marketing Outlook” survey was conducted online by Zoomerang on behalf of StrongMail Systems. The poll, which gathered feedback from 949 marketing, IT, e-commerce, sales and executive management representatives in a wide range of industries (90 percent of which are U.S.-based), was conducted in December, 2008.

About StrongMail Systems, Inc.
StrongMail Systems provides businesses with commercial-grade, on-premise solutions for marketing and transactional email. StrongMail integrates its proven email delivery, tracking and campaign management software on high-performance servers that are optimized for maximum deliverability. In addition to providing superior control, security and integration capabilities, StrongMail's in-house approach offers companies a more powerful and cost-effective alternative to homegrown or outsourced solutions. Hundreds of companies worldwide rely on StrongMail's solutions to power their mission-critical customer communications. A Silicon Valley company, StrongMail is headquartered in Redwood City, CA, and is funded by Sequoia Capital, Evercore Partners, Globespan Capital Partners and DAG Ventures. To learn more about StrongMail Systems, visit www.strongmail.com.

StrongMail Systems Contact
Andrea Cousens
Eastwick Communications
650-480-4040
Email: strongmail@eastwick.com