Marketers will spend $163 billion on direct marketing in 2011, a 5.6% increase compared with last year, according to a report released by the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) on Oct. 2. The report also found that direct marketing accounts for 52.1% of total U.S. ad spending.

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A number of fast-moving phenomena are transforming b2b direct marketing, including the impact of marketing automation and Web analytics, crowd-sourced data gathering, the growing influence of content marketing and the need to integrate traditional with digital channels.

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Even in these challenging economic times, there are bright spots of innovation and investment that can help steer our recovery and create jobs. Technology spurred the Industrial Revolution and led our success in the 20th century. Now, technology is spurring the Information Revolution and can power an enduring engine of job creation in the 21st century.

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