Yesterday I heard a presentation by Matt Egol, a partner at Booz & Co., on a new study they have recently completed for American Business Media (the trade association which represents B2B media companies like ALM) and the Association of National Advertisers.  The study focused on the marketing practices of leading B2B marketers -- that is, how those marketers are allocating their budgets and where they are focused as they attempt to sell their goods and services to other businesses.  Booz was interested in figuring out what marketing practices set the leaders apart from everyone else -- and what everyone else could learn from those leaders.

ABM's interest in this study (and ours) was in asking whether there are additional ways in which our B2B media businesses could better meet the needs of leading marketers.  If we know, for instance, that integrated marketing campaigns are becoming a more important part of the marketing mix, then we can work to ensure that our advertising proposals better reflect that trend.  Or if certain kinds of marketing services (e.g. marketing research or help in creating collateral materials) have become ones which marketers are looking to partner with others on, we can add those to our list of offerings.

The study was a broad one -- 150 in-depth interviews with marketers from across the spectrum of B2B businesses.  We're working with Booz on a project to go deeper in the legal category, to make sure in particular that we can compare law firm marketers with those in related industries like financial services and accounting.  But even the broad study can provide us with some insights.  The most important that I heard in the presentation yesterday concerned the value leading marketers put on partnering with others for data management (e.g. adding information to their customer information systems) and customer insight.  I think there is much we can do in both of those areas. 

Those involved in ad sales and marketing may find some good information in the study -- as ABM members, we have full access.  There will be a free webinar presentation on this research next Tuesday, August 17th at 2:00 ET.  For more information and in order to register, click here:

 http://www.americanbusinessmedia.com/assnfe/ev.asp?ID=209&SnID=422624256