In the Econsultancy Cross-Channel Marketing Report of 2014, company respondents dished out which marketing channels were of the upmost importance in the coming year. You may be surprised to see what they said…

• More than half of the company respondents voted their website as their top priority, coming in at 53%.

• Email marketing took second place at 46%.

• SEO (natural search) took third place at 38%.

We know what you’re asking: where is social media marketing? It came in a close fourth at 36% of respondents naming it as a top priority. However, when they were asked which channel held the most opportunity for the coming year, 45% said social media marketing, ranking above all other channels.

What’s the key takeaway from this?

Well, digital marketing remains the top focus for marketers. But this doesn’t mean people are cutting back on traditional advertising—they may just be investing more into digital.

In fact, 67% say what they’d really like above all else is to have fully integrated marketing activities—which includes traditional methods.

Looking forward, marketing automation systems that can gather data and integrate with CRM’s will allow for this desired multi-touchpoint marketing. So while websites, email, and SEO hold the top 3 spots for the year to come, the overarching theme here is the importance of an integrated approach.

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