Federal research firm Input Inc. anticipates that the economic stimulus bill will generate $4.5 billion in new information technology spending from state and local governments in the U.S. This is good news for service providers who have been increasingly chasing those decreasing dollars.  

Nielsen Online reports a 16 percent year-over-year increase in unique visitors to the top 10 newspaper web sites. This represents 40.1 million unique visitors in December 2008, up from 34.6 million in December 2007.

To top online newspaper site was NYTimes.com, with 18.2 million unique visitors. USATODAY.com and washingtonpost.com took the second and third spots. See the table below for more.

Here are the top ten finishers, courtesy of Nielson Online:                        

                                               Dec-08 UA   % Change

Top 10 Online Newspapers     40,093            16

 1. NYTimes.com                       18,187             6

 2. USATODAY.com               11,420           15

 3. washingtonpost.com              9,470           12

 4. LA Times                               7,963           73

 5. Wall Street Journal Online     7,235          34

 6. Daily News Online Edition    5,883          99

 7. Chicago Tribune                    5,235           35

 8. New York Post                      4,557           60

 9. Boston.com                           4,086            -6

10. SFGate.com                          3,503           26

Of the top 10 online newspapers, nine experienced positive year-over-year growth. No small contribution to this jump was the weakening economy, election cycle and new administration.

We’re all getting ready to close the book on 2008 and many of us are looking optimistically to 2009. At least I hope you’re putting your game face on getting ready to take on the world.

Q2 is looking back affectionately on a terrific 2008. If you had any part to play in helping us achieve this milestone year, our most sincere thank you! We provided web strategy and development, public relations, advertising, tradeshow strategy and support, collateral development, strategic messaging, branding and more to many new and returning clients. We’ve proudly gained a record number of new clients and, even more proudly, continue to serve the needs of many returning software and services businesses. 

Below are some observations and trends from 2008 that we hope will help you get a jumpstart on a successful new year. These range from analyst findings to our feet-on-the street observations.

Federal sector stays strong

Many of Q2’s clients, friends and business associates provide services to the federal government. If these individuals are fearful of a slumping economy or a change in administration, they aren’t letting on. These tend to be a tough and resilient group of people anyway, determined to be successful no matter what.

Still gold in the IT hills

The tech industry will still grow, with the exception of hardware, according to the latest from Forrester.

Good business principles still in style

Companies with business models that were not entirely viable before the economic slowdown are struggling with traction, funding, etc. Many companies with great ideas, service, delivery, savvy and sound principles are well positioned to win. An oversimplification perhaps, but sometimes life is simple.

Many business owners and marketing executives are wisely looking for a flat 2009 versus focusing on growing the business. However, we talk with companies, many selling to the public sector that are hiring and growing. There are healthy organizations out there.

D.C. Tech sector strong

The Washington, D.C. area is still a burgeoning region in the tech sector, just ask the Inc. 500.

SEM and direct marketing are the spending trend winners

Direct marketing spending predictions are hot.

Search marketing is already a proven winner. Chances are it’s usurped some of your marketing budget.  

So what can I do?

Here is some of Q2 Marketing’s uncommon sense wisdom for a down economy. It’s timeless.

Come back frequently for our tech marketing New Year’s resolutions and more practical insight.

Forrester Research has released the US IT Market Outlook: Q4 2008. They remain optimistic–or at least not pessimistic–in foreseeing the near future. Forrester doesn’t see the 15% to 20% decline from the 2001 to 2002 tech downturn.

Forrester believes the recession will last into mid-2009 and anticipates declines in real GDP of up to 3.6% per quarter. So purchases of IT goods and services from US business and government will drop from 4.1% growth in 2008 to 1.6% in 2009.

Some other key findings related to industry growth:

• Data from Q3 2008 indicated US revenues of large vendors down by 2%.
• Continued declines are anticipated for computer equipment purchases in Q4 2008 and the first half of 2009.
• Little or no growth is anticipated in communications equipment and IT services.
• Software growth will slow to as little as 2% in coming quarters.

Table of contents:

The US Recession Is A Reality, With Tech Purchases Slowing Sharply

The Causes Of The Recession And Recovery, With Industry Winners And Losers

Q3 2008 IT Purchases Data Shows Tech Winners And Losers So Far

Recommendations:

Recession Is Here, Don’t Panic; Except Hardware, Growth Will Slow, Not End

As reported in btobonline, a number of companies are increasing marketing budgets during these challenging times.

Btobonline sites the recent Association of National Advertisers (ANA) findings. ANA polled more than 1,200 advertisers and agency executives at their recent annual conference. A full 27 percent said they were increasing their budgets in response to the downturn.

Additionally, nearly 40 percent said they plan to increase marketing budgets in 2009, with 26 percent planning increases greater than 10 percent, and 13 percent planning increases between 1 percent and 10 percent.

These findings aren’t necessarily consistent with those being reported elsewhere, but marketing dollars are still flowing for some organizations. I hope yours is one of them.

Americans who use social media feel better about companies when they can interact with them through social media. At least those are the conclusions of Boston-based Cone’s 2008 Business in Social Media Study.

Cone defines social media as “technology facilitated dialogue among individuals or groups, such as blogs/microblogs, forums, wikis, content sharing, social networking, social bookmarking and social gaming.”

They find that 93% of social media users believe a company should have a presence in social media. A full 85% believe a company should also interact with customers via this media.

Below are select findings:

–30% of Americans use social media sites and tools two or more times a week.

–13% of social media users interact with companies via these sites two or more times a week. 12% interact one a week. 13% interact once a month and 21% interact a few times a year.

–Those surveyed believe the role of companies within social networks is to:

1. Provide virtual customer service (43%)

2. Solicit feedback (41%)

3. Provide new ways to interact with the brand (37%)

–The bottom line is that 56% of respondents feel a stronger connection with companies that offer social media technology, and 57% feel better served.

The survey was fielded by Opinion Research Corporation on September 11-12, 2008 to 1,092 adults.

Q2 Marketing will soon be releasing our latest white paper from the Q2 Marketing Educational Series. The working title of the paper is 11 Essentials for Marketing to Government: Challenging Government Marketing Myths & Reaching Buyers.

Stay tuned for more details on this white paper, which is full of tips you can begin using right away to help increase sales in the federal government space. Reserve your copy by contacting info@q2marketing.com.

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.