Clicksharp Marketing

B2B marketing can be a little more ambiguous in the digital space. But the activities of marketing departments at corporations of all shapes and sizes indicate that B2B is following the patterns of B2C.

It’s hard to deny the digitization of marketing. Consider some very compelling evidence:

• Roughly 20% of media consumption is tied up in digital, but its share of ad spend is still indexing low at roughly 7.5%. “Four reasons why digital ad dollars return more”
• Email and search marketing are both at least four times as favorably viewed by marketing executes as print advertising. “2,000 marketing executives agree: Search is the new Email”
• Marchex estimates local online advertising to grow from $8 million to $20 million by 2011.

• Omniture estimates that ad spending on social media will nearly double to $8 billion this year.

Yet there is a misconception that this will happen only in consumer markets. After all, on the surface there are some reasonable rationales to support this:

• Products are more objectively evaluated online by end users than services.
• Tangible goods are often better positioned to capitalize on modern innovations in shipping and distribution.
• Consumer markets tend to be characterized by lower price points, giving both marketers and end users more freedom to experiment.

We could go on and on about why this might be. But in a Macchiavellian twist, let’s skip ahead some data which confirms that B2B marketing is turning digital with the same fervor. In “B2B Marketing in 2008” put out by MarketingProfs Research Insights, we find that only four marketing tactics are expected to get budget increases by at least half of respondents:

1. Online video/podcasts/rich media - 56%
2. Search marketing - 55%
3. Other web 2.0 media - 52%
4. Webinars - 51%

And in case you’re wondering, the half dozen most likely to decrease are a conspicuous lot:

• Trade shows (the highest individual share of marketing budget, according to Marketing Profs)
• TV advertising (#2 budget hog)
• Outdoor media
• Print advertising (#3 hog)
• Direct mail (#5 hog)
• Radio

Notice a pattern? It appears that B2B marketers are putting a lot of stock in the patterns observed in B2C markets. And the things they’re dropping are the things at which their companies have tended to throw the most money.

Could it be that…the rules are changing?

~~~~~

Paul Burani
Clicksharp Marketing
New York, NY

Right now, nothing comes to mind.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 20th, 2008 @ 6:52 pm on the category Marketing Theory. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.


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