B-to-B Direct Marketers High on Content

When it comes to putting serious content into e-mail, business-to-business marketers lead the way.

Two thirds of them use e-mail for education, compared with less than half for consumer marketers, according to a summer snapshot survey from Direct magazine.

And more than half the B-to-B players use e-mails to send editorial material, vs. less than a third for consumer direct marketers.

The B-to-B guys are also more likely to use e-mail to handle service issues and pursue sales opportunities. But consumer firms are more likely to deploy it for special promotions.

Overall, 84% of the B-to-B marketers surveyed use e-mail for marketing purposes—a 7% lead over consumer firms.

More than a third of B-to-B D direct marketers say they’re moving funds from traditional media to electronic alternatives, compared with just 26% a year ago.

Still, consumer firms typically have led the way in shifting DM dollars online, and this year has been no exception. Some 46% have done it, about the same as in 2005.

What are they spending it on? That seems to be changing.

For one thing, they’re buying more e-mail addresses. Nearly 39% append e-mail addresses to lists of existing customers, up from 22% a year ago. This aggressive growth comes from the consumer and B-to-B sectors alike. One in three business marketers use append services, as do 27% of those in the consumer end; both represent huge lifts from last year.

How else do marketers gather e-mail names? Nearly all try to harvest them from customers, and 30% get them from affiliate programs. But the use of rental names from outside lists has declined; only 21% do this, compared with 29% a year ago.