Thursday, August 30, 2007

31% of B2B Marketers Allocate 20% or More of Media Budgets to New Media

Below is a great article from Center for Media Research's Aug. 30, 2007 Research Brief. I think it is a very solid sign that B2B marketers have been successful in finding ways to use Web2.0 technology to help market their organizations.

If you ever questioned if you should use new media in your B2B marketing mix this answers that question with a huge YES!

Business to Business New Media Marketing Budgets More Aggressive Than Business to Consumer

Kate Maddox, summarizing in BtoB a recent joint survey by the Association of National Advertisers and BtoB, conducted by Guideline, reports that "...one of the most significant findings is that 31% of B2B marketers allocate 20% or more of their total media budgets to new media platforms, compared with only 5% of B2C marketers"

She goes on to point out that 50% of the B2B respondents planned to allocate more than 10% of their budgets to new media.

The report found that B2B and B2C marketers plan to increase their new media budgets this year, with 78% of B2C marketers and 66% of B2B marketers reporting budget increases for new media. Only 3% of B2B respondents said they planned to spend less on new media this year.


Differences in Plans Between B2B and B2C Marketers (% of each group)

Shift money from their traditional media budget
% of B2C Marketers: 73%
% of B2B Marketers: 52%

Incremental budget increases for new media
% of B2C Marketers: 33%
% of B2B Marketers: 40%
Source: B2B Magazine and NAA, August 2007


Previous Use of New Media Platforms: Used For More Than 3 years

E-Mail
% of B2C Marketers: 41.4%
% of B2B Marketers: 60.3%

Webinars
% of B2C Marketers: 7.5
% of B2B Marketers: 33.6

Previous Use of New Media Platforms: Used Between 1 and 3 Years
Blogs
% of B2C Marketers: 10.3
% of B2B Marketers: 21.2

Wikis
% of B2C Marketers: 5.6
% of B2B Marketers: 12.3

Viral video
% of B2C Marketers: 17.8
% of B2B Marketers: 6.8

Social networks
% of B2C Marketers: 11.2
% of B2B Marketers: 6.8
Source: B2B Magazine and NAA, August 2007


Objectives For the Use of New Media

Email marketing
Primary Objective: Demand generation
% of B2C Marketers: 40.9%
% of B2B Marketers: 58.3%

Primary Objective: Customer loyalty and retention
% of B2C Marketers: 28.0
% of B2B Marketers: 16.5

Webinars
Primary Objective: Demand generation
% of B2C Marketers: 26.1
% of B2B Marketers: 46.0

Primary Objective: Brand building
% of B2C Marketers: 34.8
% of B2B Marketers: 16.1
Source: B2B Magazine and NAA, August 2007

Duggan observed that "B2B marketers appear very bottom line-oriented. They use new media platforms to create demand for their products and services. Meanwhile, B2C marketers are more likely to use new media platforms for brand building."

Please visit here to access the complete Maddox summary as well as the study findings and charts by Guidline entitled "Harnessing the Power of New Media Platforms."