Internet Marketting Strategies.

While email remains king in the types of digital marketing businesses find successful, other tactics are quickly closing the gap, new research finds.

Specifically, 54 percent of businesses view email as the most effective form of Internet marketing, according to a study from the marketing research firm Ascend2. However, a number of other types of digital marketing tactics aren't far behind.

More than 40 percent of the businesses surveyed believe optimized websites and blogs, search engine optimization (SEO) and social media are among the most successful online marketing tactics.

Mobile marketing and e-commerce marketing are viewed as the least effective forms, according to the study.

Contributing to email marketing's success is the ease in which it is conducted, the researchers found. Just 11 percent of the businesses surveyed thought email was one of the most difficult types of digital marketing to execute. Social media tops the list, with nearly 50 percent of businesses saying it was the hardest to accomplish. [5 Major Email Marketing Mistakes ]

Content marketing and SEO were among the other toughest tactics to execute.

Overall, the vast majority of businesses using some form of digital marketing report seeing positive results from it.

"Nearly nine out of ten companies rate digital marketing successful to some extent, with more than a quarter achieving 'very successful' results,'" the study's authors wrote.

Businesses have a wide range of motives for using Internet marketing. Wanting to increase customer engagement, sales revenue, leads for their sales teams and brand awareness were the most important reasons.

"Reducing marketing and customer service costs are surprisingly least important," researchers wrote.

The study revealed that the majority of the businesses believe their digital marketing efforts are only getting better. More than 70 percent of the business surveyed said the effectiveness of their digital marketing continues to improve, with just 4 percent saying it's getting worse.

In order to achieve all of their goals, there are a number of challenges businesses are facing.

"The most challenging obstacle to success is clearly the lack of an effective digital marketing strategy, followed by an inadequate budget to fund programs," the study's authors wrote.

Among the other challenges business must overcome to achieve better digital marketing results include a lack of training and expertise, an inability to prove a return on investment and increasing competition.

The study was based on surveys of 333 marketing, sales and business professionals from around the world.

What Are The Effective Marketting Strategies?

Specific Targeting

Effective marketing is targeted to a specific, not a general, audience. By way of illustration, consider the different approaches that might be taken with a product as basic as rice if selling to these audiences: retirees, young mothers or athletes. By focusing on a specific audience and seeking to understand that audience's needs, interests and desires, marketers can be most effective in achieving their objectives, says Lin Grensing-Pophal, author of "Marketing With the End in Mind."

Focus on Benefits

It can be difficult for small business owners to view their business and their products from the outside in, but that's exactly what they must do if they hope to be successful in their marketing efforts, says Grensing-Pophal. "Too often we become enamored with our own products and services or we take it for granted that our target audiences will understand our products and services the way we do--they won't." Marketers need to learn about and consider audience needs and concerns, and identify potential objections that they can work to overcome in their marketing efforts. In doing so, they can identify key benefits to focus on that will be attractive to the target audience.

Good Timing

A message about female incontinence delivered through a poster on the inside of a restroom door stall is hitting an audience at just about the perfect time. The same message delivered on an overhead announcement at a mall would probably not have the same impact. Effective marketing seeks to reach audiences when they are most likely to be open and attentive to the message. Small businesses need to think carefully about their delivery mechanisms--newspaper, radio, TV, social media, and others--and consider whether messages are being conveyed in the right place, at the right time.