The CEO's Influence On Digital Marketing Strategy

The CEO ranks second only to Marketing as an influencer on digital marketing strategy in financial services. That's according to the recently released Digital Marketing in Financial Services study produced by MarketBridge, a global professional services firm focused on sales and marketing effectiveness, and Source Media, which provides authoritative information, analysis and insight for the financial services, investment, insurance, accounting and related technology industries.

Source: Digital Marketing in Financial Services, 2008

The survey was conducted in the third quarter of 2008. A total of 237 respondents representing a mix of executive management (38%), marketing (35%) and sales (17%) answered questions on digital marketing and budgeting; usage of digital marketing channels; analytics; resources; and attitudes and beliefs about digital marketing.

We’d encourage you to download the full study from but here are just a few additional highlights.

• 50% of respondents said they’re spending more on digital marketing in 2008 than in 2007, with 30% saying they were spending at least 20% more.
• Asked to rank the effectiveness of the various platforms, respondents ranked search engine marketing (SEM) and search engine optimization (SEO) toward the top and newer Web 2.0 tools such as viral video, social networks and blogs lower on the list.
• Respondents equally cited a lack of experience and the inability to prove ROI as their top concerns about adopting digital marketing tactics and programs. (This is in spite of the fact, the survey producers noted, that "ROI can be proved through the use of the majority of digital tools.") Regulatory issues were cited by more than one-third of the respondents.