An article posted to BtoB Magazine’s web site a while back pointed out an interesting result from a recent Hearst survey: nearly 50% of all b-to-b marketing budgets are spent on online programs. That spend covers everything from web site development/enhancements to online advertising to SEO to webcasts to Social Media … you get the idea. The survey goes on to explain that trade shows account for 17% of marketing budgets, direct marketing (12%) and print (11%) account for most of the rest.
But like most media property-driven market research, it ignores a significant pool of resources that often go untapped by most b-to-b marketers and the media. I understand why. For a magazine or other media outlet to try and identify how much money and human resource is dedicated to internal communications, training and organizational behavior, they would have to step waaaaaay out of their comfort zone.
It’s kind of like asking an amateur astronomer to find Dark Matter in the universe using his existing, backyard telescope. They may have an idea where to point the telescope, but they can’t really see what they’re looking at.
