B2B Services Marketers Will Spend More and Spend Differently in 2013, According to ITSMA Study

Feb. 28, 2013 - PRLog -- ITSMA’s 2013 Services Marketing Budget Allocations and Trends study shows that nearly half of B2B services marketers at Technology, Telecom, and Professional Services Companies plan to increase their budgets this year—significantly more than the percentages who say that spending will fall or remain unchanged.

The study, which surveyed leading B2B Technology, Telecom, and Professional Services companies, reveals that top marketing priorities include developing thought leadership content, enabling the sales force, building a more effective lead management model, and increasing the use of Account Based Marketing.

Consequently, marketers report that they will increase spending on demand generation and lead management, brand and communications, content development, and sales enablement and support. They plan to do that with their in-house staff and by relying on external agencies. The data shows that agencies consume a substantial portion of the marketing budget—25 percent on average—but provide more execution than strategic work.

Marketers report that the most significant change in the budget is to digital marketing, with 76 percent indicating an increase on digital marketing efforts. The majority of these increases will be in online video, corporate website development, email and newsletters, public online communities, and search engine optimization (SEO).

Despite this focus on digital marketing, private events, seminars, and conferences remain an important component of the marketing mix, with 45 percent of marketers reporting budget increases in these areas.

Another area of investment is on strategic account marketing. “B2B solution providers earn the lion’s share of their business from existing accounts, which makes client engagement programs essential,” said Julie Schwartz, ITSMA’s Senior Vice President of Research. “Given the impact of key accounts, it makes sense that marketers are doubling their spending on Account Based Marketing in 2013.”

ITSMA has published a report on the survey data, which gives detailed information on services marketing budgets, budget allocations, and marketing priorities from a range of companies across the technology, IT services, and consulting industries. The report can be found at http://www.itsma.com/research/services-marketing-budgets-....

Methodology

In November 2012 through January 2013, ITSMA used a web-based survey to gather data from its members about services marketing budgets, top spending categories, services growth, use of outside agencies, critical skills needed for future success, and top marketing priorities, among other topics.

ITSMA received 42 representatives from 38 unique companies, including such companies as Avaya, Capgemini, Cisco, Dell, Deloitte, Fujitsu, HP, IBM, Infosys, KPMG, Microsoft, Oracle, Tata Consultancy Services, and Xerox, and analyzed the collected data in three ways:

The data set as a whole
Company type—primarily services or product and services
Company size—less than $1 billion or more than $1 billion in annual services revenue

For more information on the study, contact Julie Schwartz at +1-781-862-8500, Ext. 112, or at jschwartz@itsma.com, or go to http://www.itsma.com/research/services-marketing-budgets-and-benchmarks-2013/.