Nearly half ofall business-to-business marketing dollars (47%) are now spent online,according to a joint survey by Hearst Electronics Group and Goldstein GroupCommunications. “The survey’s goal was both simple andstraightforward,” said William Barron, vice president and publishingdirector for The Hearst Electronics Group. “Identify how companies areallocating dollars, what’s working and, most importantly, why. The most advanced marketers today build balanced programsthat incorporate multiple points of contact with their targets, from print toonline to shows to direct. The survey reinforced that budgeting shouldn’t be asearch for the ‘magic bullet’ but instead must follow a disciplined andproactive strategy.” Barron added that print advertising remains the”single largest program in the budget for an important reason. Researchfrom all the main trade publishing companies, including Hearst, Reed and theonline firm Techinsights, shows that prospects spend a majority of their time inprint when researching products and suppliers. The key point for marketingtoday is that it is an ‘and’ not ‘or’ world, meaning that customers use bothprint and online tools.”
