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.

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.

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.

BtoB Marketers Are Unaware of Custom Publishing Educational Resources

Junta42, the Custom Publishing Council and Content Marketing Today - each with a focus on content marketing and custom publishing activities - scored less than 25% in awareness, with each scoring less than 2% as "Very Aware".

Marketers scored the following as Very Aware:

• Marketing Sherpa - 42.7%
• Marketing Profs - 32%
• Junta42 - 1.3%
• Custom Publishing Council - 1.3%
• ContentMarketingToday - 0.7%

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.

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