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Junta42/BtoB Survey

Business Marketers Spend Big on Custom

In March, Junta42, in conjunction with BtoB magazine, surveyed 12,493 marketing decision makers who subscribe to BtoB magazine. 150 marketers participated in the online survey, performed by BtoB.

The study asked marketers to:

• Share the percentage of their marketing budgets that go toward custom products/publishing
• Identify an increase or decrease in their companies’ spend on custom in 2008
• Select the different custom channels their companies engage with
• Rate their awareness of various industry websites and organizations
• Indicate whether they would hire a third-party online service to assist them in finding a custom content provider/publisher
• Share their current methods of choosing such providers

The purpose of the study was to define business-to-business custom publishing spending and habits in regard to the usage of custom content initiatives. The findings are the first of its kind that analyze custom content specifically for business-to-business markets.

Key Findings

Custom Spending Significant as Part of Total Marketing Mix

Business marketers, on average, spend 29.42% of their total marketing budget for 2008 on the creation and execution of custom content. These findings are in line with 2007 research performed by the Custom Publishing Council and Publications Management total spending numbers, which represented 27% of total budgets for both business-to-business and business-to-consumer marketers.

Business Marketers Increased Custom Content Spending in 2008

42% of marketers increased their spending on customized content marketing activities in 2008. Only 12% decreased their content marketing spend, while 46% left their custom budgets unchanged.

Marketers’ Preferences

As a percentage, business marketers engage in the following customized content/custom publishing activities. Respondents were allowed to select as many activities that they currently produce as part of their marketing.

Marketers Find Custom Content Providers through Search Engines/Referrals

The majority of business-to-business marketers use search engines (30%) and colleagues/friends (28%) as the major sources for finding qualified content providers and/or custom publishers to produce their content-based projects.

• Search Engines – 30%
• Ask Colleagues/Friends – 28%
• Use Internal Resources to Produce the Project – 15.3%
• Industry Magazine/Website – 12.7%
• Go to my Agency – 10.7%
• Hire a Consultant – 3.3%

View the entire study here. For more information on the survey and the custom publishing industry, please contact Junta42 at info[at]junta42.com.

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CONTINUING THE CONVERSATION

05-Aug-08 —Walking the battlefields, I compared the lessons of Gettysburg to my own company and to the current state of the B2B publishing industry. ... more »

Watch as ABM custom media committee Chairman Jim Meyers, president and CEO of Imagination, and Joe Pulizzi, founder and chief content officer of Junta42, discuss the increased demand for custom media and the outlook for custom media products and services. - Click to watch the video here »