Due to the poor economy in 2009, marketers significantly cut their lead generation budgets in order to save as much money as possible. Fortunately, now that the economic crisis is beginning to turn around, companies are beginning to redirect their budgets toward acquiring new customers.

This time around, however, companies are directing their lead generation dollars towards the web. According to the “2010 Lead Generation Key Trends Analysis” conducted by CSO Insights, marketers are investing more in website design, email marketing, and new media in efforts to attract more customers. 54% of businesses are increasing their budgets for email marketing, while 21% are decreasing telemarketing budgets. In fact, companies are moving almost all customer acquisition attention towards the web. In addition to the 52% of marketers who have invested more in new media such as blogs and podcasts, another 65% have increased investments for website design and content in 2010.

The truth is, however, that web-based marketing is far from perfect for attracting new leads. In fact, the web is the area that 51% of marketers feel needs the most improvement. 65% of marketers who have not yet established a lead generation management system were displeased with the effectiveness of their web-based lead generation efforts. As they shift the flow of their budgets towards the web, marketers have their fingers crossed that this attention to web-based marketing will bring an uprising in lead generations. For more information on the study, visit http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007833

As an active blogger, Arketi is excited to report that blogging is slowly proving its worth. According to recent research we’ve seen, blogging helps improve the performance of marketing programs for new products and services by reaching “influentials.” Influentials, as you may suspect, are the people who spread their opinions to neighbors, friends, relatives, co-workers, etc. by word of mouth. They also tend to be more engaged with blogs. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that influentials are having an impact on an increasing number of purchasing decisions.

According to the study, 77 percent of the participants who scored “high” in personal influence were three times more likely to have posted a comment to a blog they regularly read and/or write their own blog than people who scored “low.” In contrast, the 62 percent that scored “low” on personal influence reported that, though they know about blogs, they don’t read them on a regular basis.

Because blogs provide companies with an easy and relatively short way of spreading their brand over the internet, Arketi believes blogging will continue to be an important social media tactic to include in any well-rounded marketing plans.