Those of us that are in the business of selling products and services to other businesses (B2B) know full well that traditional consumer marketing does not work for our business. There is no better way to waste your marketing money than on traditional advertising on radio, television or newspapers.
B2B marketers prefer to spend their money on more traditional, organic methods, but with an increasing budget directed to digital and e-mail marketing. In fact, according to a Forrester Research study highlighted by e-Marketer (B2B Marketers Shift Budgets to Online), in-person event marketing such as tradeshow participation is the number one preferred tactic of B2B marketers.
Although TV is listed as the 5th most popular tactic, I’m sure you’d find that much of that TV advertising is targeted cable TV advertising on specialty channels such as the Money channel or MSNBC.
Of particular interest to digital strategists such as myself is that no digital marketing makes it into the top 5 tactics. After the military and education, B2B were the first early adapters of digital marketing and electronic sales. Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) was being used by many B2B companies before many of us had even heard of the Internet. Despite this early mover advantage into the digital world, B2B marketers have not discounted more traditional methods such as face-to-face and PR.
The good news for digital media buyers and marketers is that digital marketing –such as e-mail marketing and paid search – is being used more and more often by B2B companies and is projected to be the number two tactic of choice by 2008.
ANALYSIS
Traditional, organic marketing such as in-person events and public relations works best for many B2B organizations. Digital marketing, particularly targeted permission marketing (see Web marketing (part III): E-mail marketing ), is becoming more effective and will continue to garner more and more of the marketing pie. Increases in digital marketing budgets will continue to be at the expense of less successful media such as newspapers, printed newsletters and radio.
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Web marketing (part III): E-mail marketing
