B2B advertisers prefer direct response

A recent survey indicates that tried and true advertising methods are preferred for business-to-business advertisers. According to research from the Direct Marketers Association, direct response advertising takes up more than 42% of marketing budgets.

by Kristina Knight

After direct response ads, 16% of direct marketing budgets are spent on brand advertising and 13% is sent to trade show advertising.

The break down within direct response is no surprise. Much of the direct response budget is spent on direct mail (27%), followed by online marketing efforts (18%). Trade shows and catalogues are each responsible for 15% of the budget and telemarketing accounts for 12%. Surprisingly, in the B2B industry, very little money is spent on Web 2.0 functions like RSS feeds, blogs and other content information. According to the study, only about 1% is spent on new media.

This could be a mistake within the B2B industry. A recent study from KnowledgeStorm, many business professionals look to the web first to research products and services. Roughly 87% of business consumers look to white papers and other online research information before making any purchase. By including such research in an online campaign, B2B advertisers could get consumer attention more quickly. Along with white papers, blogs, podcasts and webcasts were sought out to provide product information.