• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, December 3, 2024

B2B marketing budgets are on the rise to some degree, with 41% expected to increase in 2025. But 25% will remain the same and 32% are decreasing, according to the 2025 B2B Marketing Mix Report from Sagefrog.  

Email is not one of the highest spending items, perhaps because the infrastructure is already in place.  The top areas of marketing spend are: 

• Marketing technology — 52%
• Direct marketing — 36%
• Content marketing — 34% 
• Branding — 29% 
• Artificial intelligence — 22% 
• Trade shows & events — 21% 
• Public relations — 13% 
• Paid social media — 12% 
• Email marketing — 11%
• Search engine optimization — 11%

Budgets aside, the top sales and marketing priorities for 2025? Again, email ranks down the list: 

• Artificial intelligence
• Account-based marketing
• CRM 
• In-person events
• Video marketing
• Content creation 
• Social media 
• Automation
• Marketing collateral
• Email marketing

Of the companies polled, 29% see email as a source of leads going into 2025, down from 32% in 2024. But that’s still higher than the 22% recorded in 2023.

Of course, the major source of leads, cited by 45%, is seen as in-person trade shows and events in 2025. That’s up from 33% in 2024 and 27% in 2022.

Virtual events and webinars will also see an uptick, to 35% compared to 21% in 2024 and 16% in 2022.  

Why events? The study points out that networking — whether in person or virtual — is crucial for developing leads.

Potential customers want to engage with real people, and creating these opportunities for interaction is essential.  

AI is also growing in importance, with B2B marketers are using it for:

• Content — 52%
• Coding — 39% 
• Presentations — 35% 
• Design — 30%
• Chatbots — 27%
• Website development — 25% 
• Productivity — 22%
• Automation — 16%
• Video creation — 8%
• Not applicable — 2% 

For this 18th edition of the report, Sagefrog surveyed 373 respondents between June and July of this year.