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Print in the Mix
B2B Attitudes Towards Channel Choices
Pitney Bowes surveyed 4,000 business-to-business (B2B) marketers—divided equally throughout the United States, United Kingdom, France and Germany—to uncover current B2B thinking regarding marketing channel choice and business communications in today's complex and challenging communication environment.
The survey finds:
• An average of 50 percent of B2B companies in the United States and 53 percent across the United Kingdom, France and Germany (EU) report it increasingly difficult to reach and influence customers as a result of media fragmentation.
• Examining standalone and multi-channel B2B marketing efforts for generating business:
—Direct mail comes out as the top standalone channel. In the United States, 19 percent of companies feel that standalone direct mail generates the most business for them. In the EU, 12 percent of companies report this.
—In comparison to standalone direct mail, 10 percent of U.S. companies favor solo e-mail campaigns (eight percent EU), and seven percent rely on standalone search engine marketing (six percent EU).
—In contrast, more respondents favor integrated marketing as the best approach: 30 percent of U.S. firms cited a combination of mail, e-mail and Web campaigns as generating the most business for them (27 percent EU).
• B2B marketers recognize the enhanced effectiveness of combining traditional and digital channels—58 percent of U.S. firms and 53 percent of EU firms feel that concentrating solely on electronic media would seriously damage their ability to generate leads.
To read this Print in the Mix Fast Fact and other print market research studies, go to www.printinthemix.rit.edu. Print in the Mix is a free and easily accessible clearinghouse of research on print media effectiveness, published by the Printing Industry Center at RIT and made possible by a grant from The Print Council (www.theprintcouncil.org).
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