US direct marketing spending to rise, but confidence wavers

Direct marketers in the United States are generally increasing their spending at the moment, according to the latest industry, but twice as many are now looking to cut spending as a result of economic uncertainty. The Direct Marketing Association said yesterday that overall digital and physical marketing spending grew or remained constant for 90% of its surveyed members during the third quarter of the year compared to the second quarter of 2011.

Compared to the third quarter 2010, spending grew for 82.2% of direct marketers.

Around 43.4% of marketers said they were expecting spending to grow in the fourth quarter.

However, the proportion of direct marketers who expected to cut their spending in the next quarter doubled from 7% polled in the last quarter, up to 14.7% of direct marketers.

The Direct Marketing Association, which partnered with New York consulting firm Winterberry Group to poll nearly 300 of its members during October, said direct marketers were currently facing increasing pressure from a senior executive level to demonstrate quantifiable improvements for marketing expenditure.

The DMA’s latest quarterly review suggested digital channels were continuing to deliver the highest return on investment of all the digital and direct marketing channels, with plans therefore likely to see email and banner advertising enjoying the biggest increases in spending over the next 12 months.

Yory Wurmser, DMA’s director of marketing and media insights, said: As much as we want to put the economic problems of the past couple of years behind us, we’re not yet in a strong recovery. With troubles in Europe getting deeper by the week, we expect to see marketers face continued obstacles to growth in the coming months.”

The DMA is expecting commercial and nonprofit marketers to spend $163bn on direct marketing in the United States during 2011.