New research has revealed that an "alarmingly" low amount of internet marketers employ the use of analytics.

According to the Alterian Annual Marketing Survey, while marketers continue to invest in the likes of social networks, email, search engine optimisation and pay-per-click advertising, less than half measure their campaign's success with analytics.

The survey revealed that only 47 per cent of marketers use analytics, while a quarter of those polled said they thought analysing results in such a way is the hardest part of any campaign.

Alterian chief executive officer David Eldridge commented that many organisations therefore "continue to market in the dark".

He added: "Multichannel marketing is commonplace in 2009, but the challenge for marketers is to measure the value and draw results across these various systems in order to provide a true picture of return on investment back to the business."

The fact that 51 per cent of marketers do not use analytics to do this, he described as "less encouraging".

Meanwhile, Google is running a string of analytics training courses this week in Las Vegas aimed at providing marketers with the guidance they require to make the process easier.

Living Streams comment - we have been using analytics as our primary success measurement tool for some 12months