Business-to-Business Custom Publishing Research
Business Marketers Spend Big on Custom
Junta42, in conjunction with BtoB magazine,
surveyed 150 marketing decision makers who subscribe to BtoB
magazine. The survey took place during the last week of March,
2008.
The purpose of the study was to define
business-to-business custom publishing spending and habits as it
pertains to the usage of custom content initiatives.
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;
- and share their current methods of choosing such
providers.
The findings are the first of its kind that analyze custom
content specifically for business-to-business
markets.
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.
Marketers Show Preference for eNewsletters, White Papers and
Case Studies
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.
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.
Business Marketers Are Unwilling to Significantly Invest in an
Online Service to Find Custom Publishers
Although 30% of business-to-business marketing budgets
go toward customized content, marketers are still unwilling to
invest money identifying the best providers. 44% of
respondents said that they would not be willing to pay for an
online service that gave them the most qualified content
providers/publishers for their custom content projects. The
complete scores were:
- Nothing - 44%
- Pay $1 - $24.99 - 25.3%
- Pay $25 - $49.99 - 18%
- Pay $50 - $74.99 - 6%
- Pay $100+ - 6.7%
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%
The response rate was 1.2%.
For more information on the survey and the custom publishing
industry, please contact Junta42 at info[at]junta42.com. For more
information on custom publishing and content marketing research,
refer to Junta42's Ultimate Guide to Content
Marketing.
