Despite advancements in technology and throughout the marketing industry, many UK marketing consultants and agencies still rely on traditional marketing methods. Surely, this must mean these traditional marketing activities are still working?

Constant Contact and Our Social Times have teamed up, with help from Smart Insights and Enterprise Nation, to survey more than 130 marketing consultants and agencies in the UK about their digital marketing habits, priorities, and concerns. You can download the complete report here: Digital Marketing Survey 2015.

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Perhaps unsurprisingly, 66 percent of the 130 marketing consultants and agencies we polled said that digital marketing makes up over 60 percent of their total marketing activity, with 38 percent saying it accounts for between 81-100 percent of their marketing.

This shows broad similarities to marketing industry reports, such as Econsultancy’s Marketing Budgets 2015 Report, which found that 77 percent of all companies are planning to increase their digital marketing spend this year, while just 22 percent plan to keep it the same and 1 percent are reducing spend.

What percentage of the overall marketing activity for your business is digital

Perhaps more surprising was the finding that for 13 percent of marketing consultants, traditional marketing methods, such as trade shows, face-to-face and offline advertising, account for up to 80 percent of their total marketing output.

The marketing industry has experienced several technology changes over the last twenty years, but readers may be surprised to learn that experts aren’t fully committed to the latest techniques. However, as Dr. Dave Chaffey noted during the launch event of our report, face-to-face communication remains the strongest tool for marketers.

Of course, if marketers combine reach and frequency of social and digital marketing with the trust and authenticity of face-to-face the result can be an even more potent cocktail. This probably explains why Constant Contact provides a marketing platform that combines email with social media and event management. Smart cookies!

In fact, for all the misgivings I might have about traditional marketing methods, my company, Our Social Times, has been combining digital marketing with events to great effect for the past six years. A blog post we published about the power of social media and events (complete with obligatory infographic) is still being widely read and shared today.

There are clearly lessons for digital marketers and traditionalists alike in our report. Thankfully, in addition to making it available as a download, we have had some printed. If you’re in the offline 13 percent just send us a note and we’ll get one out to you in the post.