• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, January 24, 2006

The BtoB online survey "2006 Marketing Priorities and Plans" of 366 senior marketing executives, conducted during the last week of November and the first week of December, found that 60.7% will be working with bigger budgets in 2006, reported Kate Maddox of BtoBOnline. 31.6% said their budgets would be flat. And only 7.7% said their budgets would decrease. The optimism is eleven points over last year.

In 2006, 72.0% of marketers plan to increase online budgets. Within Internet spending, the specific media that will receive the greatest share of marketers' online budgets in 2006 will be

• Web sites (30.3%)
• e-mail (22.0%)
• search (20.3%)
• sponsorships (10.3%)

For offline media,

• 52.0% of respondents said they plan to increase direct mail in 2006
• 40.0% plan to increase event marketing
• 33.0% plan to increase print advertising

The survey also found that

• 81.0% of marketers plan no changes in their broadcast spending
• 80.0% will not change outdoor spending
• 46.0% plan no changes in their print and event marketing budgets

• 21.0% of respondents will decrease print advertising
• 15.0% will reduce outdoor advertising
• 14.0% will decrease events and telemarketing spending

According to BtoB's survey, 24.9% of marketers' total budgets will be spent on direct marketing in 2006, up from an average 21.6% allocated to direct marketing this year.

Primary marketing goals found in the study included:

• 60.0% of respondents who said their primary marketing goal will be customer acquisition
• 20.8% who said brand awareness
• 11.5% who said customer retention
• 7.7% who specified "other."

Other significant marketing objectives identified were:

• Entering new markets,
• Generating leads,
• Increasing revenue,
• Growing market share and
• Proving ROI
• Improving brand awareness

For the complete article, or charts and data, please access here.