According to an extensive survey of more than 900 large, medium and small firms conducted by Zoomerang in November, 2011, marketing budgets will be healthy this year, with email marketing being a huge focus for most of the firms.

In terms of marketing budgets for 2012, 51% of the companies will be increasing their budgets and 41% will maintain current levels. Email marketing will be replacing or overcoming other tactics in terms of budget allocation.

For email marketing, some of the biggest findings were:

• 60% of firms plan to increase their email marketing spend
• 68% will focus on “win back / re-engagement” tactics and 59% on “welcome” programs
• 48% want to increase email subscriber engagement and 32% want to grow their email opt-in numbers
• biggest challenges include: 45% of companies need to integrate their customer data better; 43% are challenged with lack of staff and resources
• 67% see email marketing’s primary value as a customer retention / loyalty tactic

So, companies realize the potential value of email marketing and they know it can help retain customers — if they do it right and they have the time and resources to execute email marketing on a consistent basis. The study also showed that email tactics are replacing other tactics such as direct mail and trade shows.

The name of the study is the “StrongMail 2012 Marketing Trends”. It took place online by Zoomerang and polled more than 900 marketing and business leaders over a wide industry spectrum.

The revenue coming in to Google for their Ad Words and related offerings is 150% more than the ad revenue of all of the newspapers in the U.S. combined.

We all know that ad revenue in daily papers has been declining for some time. But this statistic is really staggering. To think even just ten years ago that ad revenue in daily papers would be only a tiny fraction of an online advertising service was unthinkable.

But it’s all about how people search to get information today (face it, it’s almost all online) and how they buy. It’s not that Google stole the ad revenue; it’s that people’s search habits have changed.

When considering online advertising as compared to traditional methods, b-to-b and consumer advertisers alike benefit from almost instant testing and measurement of their ads.

For example, with Google Ad Words you can test different creative and offers and landing pages and measure the results within hours and days of your ad placements. You can also measure ROI via Google’s conversion tracking. And all of this analytical support is free.

I think that  every company that sells anything should at least test Google Ad Words. And it’s not just the broad reach that Google has; they’ve been very committed to providing advertisers with better and better tools and support. You can even talk live to a Google rep. Imagine that!

In the third quarter of 2011, Internet ad revenues were up 22% from the same period last year.  Think about it: what media (newspaper, direct mail, tv) are experiencing growth like this?  This uptick represents $7.9 billion in revenue.  Yeah, that’s just for the quarter.

And the comparison to Q3 of last year is just the tip of the iceberg. Q3 2011 is the eight consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth.  The economy may still be in the doldrums, but Internet advertising isn’t.

These findings come from the source: the Interactive Advertising Bureau, which represents more than 500 companies.  IAB members account for selling 86% of online advertising in the U.S.

Whether it’s b-to-b advertising or consumer advertising, Internet advertising continues to gain strong momentum.

And the great thing about Internet advertising is, it’s easier to measure your ROI as compared to many traditional media.  This is thanks to analytics that give you data on response rates — even conversion rates — almost instantly.

But one criterion hasn’t changed: content is still king.  Search engines love sites where the content is constantly enhanced, changed, updated, refreshed.

However, it’s not just a matter of adding content for the sake of it.  You still need to ensure that your content is relevant to your page titles, descriptions and keywords.  Maintaining a logical stream of sub pages in your site is also important: pages that support the theme of your main pages and provide deeper and deeper content for a specific product or service.

The online study showed that 35.9% of respondents cited PPC as most effective, with online display ads next at 17.9% and opt-in email campaigns at 11.3%.

Of course, PPC campaigns need to be set up and managed properly. The direct response mantra, “test, test, test” must hold true for PPC management, with testing of the creative a key ingredient, followed by continual analysis of ad performance, keyword drivers, click-through rates and cost per click.

I signed up for two Groupons lately.  I work on a secure platform; at least it HAS been secure, and for about eight years.  About two weeks after I bought from Groupon, I started getting a ton, and I mean a ton, of emails from, well, you name it: Genie Bra (what?), hair restoration, reduce your belly fat, mortgage crap, credit report stuff — it goes on and on.

I e-mailed Groupon. They said, “No, we don’t sell your email address.”  Do I believe them?  Not sure — but if they don’t sell email addresses, they sure as hell don’t protect me either, as in (maybe) their Groupon partners selling email addresses.  Or maybe there’s a good hack going on.

Am I accusing them?  Frankly, haven’t decided.  Have I deleted my Groupon account?  You betcha.  All I know is, after years of NOT getting this junk stuff, and right after buying a couple of Groupons, I am getting about 200 junk emails per week, when before I had maybe one or two per week, or none.  I’m just doing the math here.

Big stars such as Janet Jackson, Adele, Death Cab for Cutie, as well as decades-old-but-still-popular groups, are choosing to play to smaller audiences — say, 1,500 or even 450 people — instead of 6,000 people.

These people are smart marketers who have the best interests of their fans in mind, instead of focusing on a fatter wallet.

Their strategy?  Focus on their dedicated, loyal fan base first.  Make a highly personal connection.  Focus on increasing the loyalty of their fans — a smaller base maybe but a stronger one.  Create more buzz about their music.

Hmmm — seems to me that this strategy is akin to that of brands such as Apple, which of course sells to businesses as well as consumers.

And akin to many other brands which are carefully targeting (as in rifle, not shotgun) their customers and prospects with highly relevant content, solutions-based messaging, and personal service.  But that’s not all…

Smart marketers are also patient.  They take one careful step, then another.  The music stars who “go smaller” are testing things, introducing new songs, getting closer to their fans.  Then they’ll fine-tune things and roll out to a bigger fan base.

Does this sound like a pretty good marketing plan?  Think about it.

Now, however, content can act as advertising — and high-quality advertising at that.

If you can get relevant, objective content in the hands of prospects (and customers), it will be accepted by them as helpful information.  After all, buyers go online to do their research before they buy, with many buyers doing this as a follow up to a presentation by a salesperson.  Buyers want re-assurance.  Quality content can help with that.

But to you, this content can act as unique, low-cost advertising.

The secret is in the preparation and the presentation of the content: make it relevant to the needs of your prospects; make it thorough (how your product or service truly solves a problem); make it easy to read and understand; give facts and current industry information.

And change it up: update it constantly; refer to the very latest news and information; create analogies to today’s late-breaking news whether it be current events, business news or Charlie Sheen.

Then make it available: ensure your content is found organically and that it’s delivered also to targeted e-mail addresses.  Put it on your website.  Blog about it.  Tweet.  LinkedIn discussion groups.

There’s never been a better time to leverage your content.  Invest the time to make this happen, and do it all the time.  If you don’t have the resources internally, outsource it.

Today’s analytics are so robust and so inexpensive (most are free), yet many marketers don’t use them.  It’s really, really important to measure campaigns and media — even specific creative approaches — so you can measure ROI right away, and measure your marketing over time.

If you don’t have the resources to implement analytics and do the reporting (monthly is recommended), then outsource that.