MarketingSherpa asked more than 900 B2B marketers how they expect their marketing budgets to change for 2011.The results are in: The majority of B2B organizations are increasing marketing budgets for inbound marketing tactics, including social media, virtual events and webinars, SEO and PPC. When considering outbound marketing tactics such as telemarketing, direct mail and print advertising, the majority of B2B organizations are either not changing or decreasing budgets.
The growing trend of utilizing inbound marketing tactics is a result of the changed buying behaviors of B2B buyers and the perceived cost effectiveness of these marketing channels.
IDC Reports Slow Growth of B2B Tech Marketing Budgets
On the same topic, IDC reports in the “2010 Tech Marketing Benchmark” study that technology marketing budgets are up 3.7% this year over 2009. It looks like we are bouncing back from the recession compared to last year when tech companies slashed marketing budgets by over 8%.
This year, IDC says, tech companies will allocate 19.3% of their total marketing budget to digital, up from 12.6% last year. Within digital marketing, the largest share of the budget will go toward company websites (26.7%), followed by display ads (21.0%), email marketing (18.6%), search ads (13.6%), search engine optimization (7.6%), digital events (7.1%) and social networks (5.4%).
Traditional advertising, including TV, print, out-of-home and sponsorships, has dropped to 11.9% of the total marketing mix this year from 20.9% last year.
Marketers will spend the largest share of their budget this year on events (20.2%), up from 17.2% last year. They will spend 19.0% on marketing support materials, compared with 17.8% last year.
IDC also asked tech marketers what their primary go-to-market orientation is this year. The top response was product line (25.1%), followed by customer segment (19.6%), solution (16.4%), campaign or theme (16.0%), industry (15.8%), job role (5.8%) and other (1.3%).
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