Thursday, April 06, 2006
Marketing-Driven Web Development Budgets See Healthy Increases
bySeveral reports lately have pointed to large increases in corporate budgets for Web development. The latest confirmation of this trend comes from Piper Jaffray senior research analyst Safa Rashtchy via ClickZ News. One of the key drivers of this increased demand is the need to optimize company Web sites to get the most return from online marketing activities.
In the past, Web site development stood on its own, but now one of the primary drivers of Web site design and function is how it will be integrated into online and offline campaigns. Consequently, marketing people are becoming the primary drivers of the design, development, architecture and ongoing implementation process.
Martin Reidy of Modem Media is quoted in the story: “A Web site is no longer a place where people can go and read stuff. It’s now a 24x7 marketing engine where people can interact with your brand, and you can, in turn, see what’s important to your customers.” The way you “see” what is important to your customers is through the critical metrics and ROI analysis that a Web site—properly designed—is equipped to deliver. Web sites have become dynamic marketing tools that need to flex and fit with the ongoing marketing strategies and activities.
Another key factor pushing marketing-driven Web development is the need to coordinate search engine optimization (SEO) around key marketing words and concepts. This can apply to pay-per-click (PPC) and organic search. Both types of search exist in a rapidly changing environment and good placement requires ongoing tweaks from those developing and implementing campaigns. That is relatively easy when the marketers, designers, information architects and engineers are part of the same Web development team. The importance of search integration cannot be overstated because 41 percent of search users only look at the first page of search results and only one-third of searchers ever go beyond the first two pages of results.
Another post from iMedia Connection emphasizes the importance of organic SEO search and the need to understand the marketing dynamics driving its success. The iMedia story also references an Outsell Ad Spending Study that we discussed previously here. That study points out that companies this year are allocating 33 percent of their online budgets to Web site improvements that will enable their marketing efforts.
The now almost ubiquitous reach of broadband Internet into homes and businesses is another reason the online marketing team has become the main driver of Web development. Increasingly, video and other rich media content will need to be continually integrated into sites, microsites and landing pages. This content will need to be carefully coordinated to deliver a unique and brand-building user experience.
