Online marketers’ focus revealed

An industry commentator has suggested that online marketing companies will be focused on three goals this year as a result of the limited cashflow available.

Heidi Cohen, from ClickZ, said that this year will see “longer sales cycles, lengthier pre-purchase dialogues with consumers and less brand advertising”, namely as a result of the economic downturn.

This will mean firms will look at doing the following: “increasing return on investment, enhancing targeting “based on a better understanding of the behaviours that drive profitable revenues” and improving customer focus.

She also claimed that a slowdown in the economy doesn’t necessarily mean people’s intellect or inventiveness will be sluggish.

“The reality is that companies can’t just stop marketing when times are tough because they risk hurting their long-term market share and bottom line,” she said.

“For many firms this will translate into clever workarounds to leverage existing resources to achieve short-term goals.”

Ms Cohen’s optimism is in keeping with that of the UK chief executive of the Internet Advertising Bureau.

Guy Phillipson predicted in December that the online medium will continue to increase its share of the marketing sector throughout 2009.