If you would have thought that digital strategies in the age of Social Media would have shifted to Facebook, Twitter & Co. – think again.

According to a new poll of U.S. marketers conducted by IT research company Gartner, corporate websites are ranked as the top digital activity for marketing “success” — beating marketing on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

When asked to rank different marketing activities first, second and third, Social media marketing was cited by only 6 percent as the most important activity, outranked by corporate website development and maintenance, digital advertising, improving commerce experience, content creation and search marketing (SEO and Paid Search).

Interesting and shocking) is the fact that mobile marketing is still low down the priorities list.

Additional takeaways from the study:

• Survey respondents are spending an average at 25 percent on digital marketing activities
• Digital advertising accounts for the largest share of digital marketing budgets at 12.5 percent
• content creation and management account for the second-largest share (the use of content marketing as part of a shift to drive more inbound marketing)
• 28 percent of marketers say they have reduced their traditional advertising budget to fund digital marketing activities

Bill Gassman, research director at Gartner, believes that these survey results show clearly that the corporate website will not be displaced anytime soon by a brand’s social media presence. “That’s all the more reason for marketing leaders to continuously invest in measuring and optimizing their websites through Web analytics and testing, paying attention to all aspects — from customized landing pages to compelling content that encourages visitors to be engaged with your brand.”

I couldn’t agree more.

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