Ok, perhaps the headline is a bit overdramatic, but the point here is that companies tend to focus far too much on staying within a set budget line for their online initiatives to the detriment of driving an acceptable amount of qualified traffic. This common, albeit myopic, tactic will drive marketers right out of a job.

Any promotion campaign – but particularly online ones – must first and foremost deliver returns for a company’s investment. This is where the true value of such initiatives lies; if they bear sizeable fruit, it would stand to reason that an organization should look at putting more resources toward them, and consider going over budget to capitalize on their full potential. That isn’t to say that corporations need to write a blank check to advertising outlets, but it does mean that adherence to an arbitrary dollar figure should not come at the expense of customer growth and market share. Doing so leaves significant money on the table.

Here’s a great example. A well-known Internet wholesaler and closeout company that helps small businesses and entrepreneurs compete against larger enterprises that buy bulk merchandise products has leveraged online advertising campaigns on major search engines as part of its marketing strategy to attract new customers since its inception. The company spends a great deal of effort in measuring the success of all such ventures, and continuously looks for ways to improve the response rates they receive. While their campaigns on the Googles and Yahoos of the world were generating significant results, the Internet wholesaler wondered what else they could do.

What they uncovered were opportunities to expand their marketing efforts to smaller, vertical search engines that cater specifically to the wholesale industry, and connect active buyers of general merchandise products to manufactures, importers, distributors, auctioneers, independent retailers, flea marketers, drop shippers and resellers of new and closeouts merchandise. The results were impressive; the company witnessed its greatest return on their online marketing investment through these sites; making $5 for every dollar they spent promoting themselves on vertical search engines. None of this would have been possible had the Internet wholesaler been more concerned with sticking to a budget line than driving quantitative marketing results.

Now at this point, I’m sure some of those reading this blog are balking at this stance, claiming that it’s tough enough to squeeze any more dollars out of the CFO. That’s certainly true if marketers can’t justify such expenses from an ROI perspective. So as 2009 budgets are being drafted, I propose companies make this New Year’s Resolution a bit early: set quantitative benchmarks for what returns their online campaigns should generate. If programs are meeting or exceeding those figures, organizations should consider expanding these efforts. If they are not, a careful assessment should ensue to see if returns can be improved or if the campaign should be scrapped. I’m of the firm belief that companies will pay for value. Marketers should not be afraid to act in similar fashion.