March 2021: Marketing Budgets Increase in 2021

With many companies still working remotely and live events slowly ramping up later in the year, most companies are increasing digital marketing budgets in 2021 to help drive sales.

As almost 70 percent of the buyer’s journey happens digitally, marketing has a more critical sales support role than ever before. So it’s no surprise that market research company Outsell reports 60 percent of marketers recently surveyed are increasing their marketing budgets this year and only 22 percent decreasing.
And the biggest increases in spending are for digital ads, webcasts, brand marketing and content marketing, with more than 50 percent of respondents saying they are increasing these strategies this year.

Source: Outsell

But this year’s marketing spending is unlike pre-COVID spending. First, Outsell found that 54 percent of marketers are predicting that it won’t be until 2022 or 2023 when their marketing budgets get back to pre-COVID levels. And even when they do, there is a much higher focus on measuring ROI and justifying spend on a regular basis.

One way GlobeSt. can help: We just rolled out three new high-impact ad units to amp up your messages’ engagement with our audience. Our data shows these units get 3-to-6 times higher CTR than standard ROS ad banners.

And we have other suggestions for improving the ROI you are getting with webcasts, brand marketing and content marketing. Please contact me at [email protected].

Trends Real Estate Industry Marketers Need to Know

• Companies are building out specialized teams for the single family rental space as it gains momentum. It is likely to be a major asset class alongside office and multifamily in a handful of years.
• There are other emerging risks that are introducing a new element of risk to the office asset class, which was not that long ago seen as a CRE staple. Office Landlords Need to Beware of These Risks looks at the other risks facing office landlords, such as rising interest rates and slipping job growth. Another article, Why US Office Demand Is Likely to Slump 15% Post-Pandemic forecasts a dismal 15% drop in demand after the pandemic due to a number of factors.
• Lenders are getting stricter with struggling borrowers. At the start of the pandemic lenders were more than happy to grant forbearance to troubled borrowers, in part because their difficulties were not due to the property or faulty underwriting, and in part to keep the industry afloat. However, as the pandemic wears on, lenders are taking a harder stance with some borrowers. How CMBS Lenders Squeeze Borrowers in Forbearance Deals looks at how the sausage is getting made in the CMBS forbearance deals with borrowers often paying a cost for relief.