What best describes your plans for digital marketing technology spending in 2014?

The Marketing Budgets 2014 Report, published by Econsultancy in association with Responsys, looks in detail at how companies are allocating their online and offline marketing budgets in 2014.

The report compares spending trends – and ability to measure ROI – across different ‘traditional’ and digital channels.

More than 600 companies, mainly from the UK, participated in this research, which took the form of an online survey between December 2013 and January 2014.

Investment in digital marketing technologies

The survey also asked respondents to identify exactly where they would be increasing their investment in 2014.

CRM takes the top spot when it comes to technology investment, with half (49%) of companies surveyed planning to spend more in this area (up by 4% in the last 12 months).

Other areas organisations are likely to be increasing investment in are business analytics and web analytics software (47%), email platforms (40%) and content management systems (40%).

In which types of digital marketing technology will you be increasing investment in 2014?

The year-on-year comparison shows there has been a significant decline in the proportion of organisations that plan to increase investment in social media management systems, from over a third (38%) in 2013 to a quarter (26%) this year.

Compared to last year, fewer companies are planning to increase their investment in paid search/bid management (-8%), video advertising (-6%) and cross-channel/multichannel campaign management (-4%).