A SEMPO’s survey recently illustrated by Advertising Age in their Search Marketing Fact Pack 2008, demonstrates that print isn’t the only victim of increased search engine marketing (SEM) spending. They asked, “From which marketing/IT programs are you shifting budget away and moving it to your search marketing programs?”

The top casualty was print magazine advertising, up from 20% in 2006 to 32% in this 07-08 survey.

Cuts to web site development spending followed from 22%, representing a 7% jump over 2006.

Direct mail is to be shifted by 17%. This is fairly consistent with 2006’s 16%.

Web display ads and print newspaper ads came in at 15% respectively. Next was TV advertising at 13% and conferences at 11%.

Of note is that public relations will be cut by only 5% of respondents in favor of SEM. I’m willing to bet that some of these marketers realize the value of PR in their web optimization and search strategy.

[Tech Marketing Feature] Is your web site helping you or hurting you? At first glance, it’s ironic that so many tech firms have unappealing web sites. But upon closer examination, it’s not so unusual. In one sense, it’s often a case of the shoemaker’s children without shoes. No matter what our business, it’s easy to fall pray to that. But even more significant is the reality that technical prowess does not an effective strategic marketer make. Just because your tech people can develop a web site doesn’t mean they should.