• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, January 9, 2019

Email gets a nice slice of the average B2B marketing budget, according to The 2019 State Of IT, a study by Spiceworks. 

The channel now receives 12% of the average paid media spend, placing it third behind search marketing (28%) and social media marketing (19%). 

Why does email come in third? Perhaps because it is an older medium — companies already have their tech platforms in place. At that, it beats out display advertising (10%), events/trade shows (9%) and mobile marketing (3%).

Moreover, paid media will receive 30% of the average budget in 2019, beating events (22%) and marketing technology (21%). 

And many marketing budgets are going up. Of the firms surveyed, 37% plan to increase their 2019 marketing spend. Another 42% will remain as they are, and 8% foresee a decrease. Not that those stats reflect robust market growth.

The biggest growth will be seen in martech budgets, where 51% predict spending boosts. In addition, 44% will hike their paid media allocations. 

What do B2B brands hope to achieve in 2019? 

For 51%, the main driver of budget growth is increased emphasis on marketing, and for 48% it is customer expansion. And 45% are looking for increased company revenue. In addition, 27% see changes coming with new marketing leadership.

As for their marketing priorities, 73%, hope to generate leads to acquire new customers, and 39% wish to increase brand awareness. 

These priorities are reflected in the budgets, with 45% going to lead generation and 23% to brand awareness — goals largely driven by email.

Email is cited as the top lead generator by 66%. And 44% rate it as best in creating product awareness, versus 43% for organic social.

However, email is further down the list when it comes to brand awareness — 32% rate it highly, whereas 56% choose organic social and 47% choose PR.

At the same time, 32% favor email for upselling.

Only 10% say they are not using email, versus 56% who spurn organic social and 53% who say they are not using mobile.  

The top marketing challenges?

As in other B2B and B2C surveys, measuring marketing ROI is the toughest one — cited by 48% — followed by driving conversions with content (45%), aligning marketing & sales (37%).

In addition, 36% are daunted by identifying the most effective channels and 34% by creating an attribution mode. And 25% are challenged by prioritizing based on revenue impact.

Spiceworks surveyed 252 B2B marketers in North America and Europe.

Here is the martech budget breakdown for 2019: 

• Content & experience technology — 28%
• Social & relationships technology — 20%
• Advertising & promotional technology — 16%
• Data & analytics technology — 14%
• Commerce & sales technology — 11%
• Management technology — 9%
• Other — 3% 

Their outside agency spending allocations are as follows: 

• Creative partners — 30% 
• Advertising/digital marketing partners — 27% 
• Brand/PR partners — 17%