B2B Web Strategy Blog - eMagine

B2B Online Spending on the Rise

January 10th, 2007 Posted by: Bill Gadless

The folks at MarketingVOX have posted another nice summary of some recent research compiled by Lisa Phillips, senior analyst at eMarketer.  The report cites Veronis Suhler Stevenson forecasts showing that online spending in the B2B category will rise 23.7 percent next year to $2.4 billion.

Still, that figure is dwarfed by print advertising among the top 100 B2B advertisers, with nearly four times the spending of online in 2005.  Nonetheless, eMarketer says the Direct Marketing Association is predicting that 2008 is the year when online marketing efforts will become the dominant medium for B2B advertising …although it’s a bit hard to see how we get there from here quite that soon.

But going beyond advertising, a 2005 U.K. Internet Usage in Business Market Report showed that the Internet is being viewed by companies as a strategic weapon used to improve a business’s entire value chain.  There is a very real risk that B2B companies with an online focus limited solely to branding/image and lead generation will lose out to “2.0-savvy” businesses who are busily internet-enabling everything throughout their enterprises.

Entry Filed under: B2B Web Strategy, Internet Marketing, PPC