Business-to-business direct marketing sales grew by 11% annually between 1994 and 1999, according to recently released statistics from a WEFA Group study commissioned by the Direct Marketing Association.
While the two largest categories, telephone and direct mail sales, kept pace with the industry’s overall growth rate, the biggest percentage increase was seen in Internet-based sales. Telephone sales grew by 11% annually, from $183 billion in 1994 to $308.3 billion in 1999, while direct mail sales nearly matched the pace, increasing 10.9% each year, from $108.6 billion to $181.9 billion.
In the same time period, Internet-based B-to-B sales nearly doubled, increasing 195.1% on a yearly basis, from $30 million to $7.1 billion.
“Clearly, direct marketers have been quick to successfully employ the Web as a sales and marketing tool to businesses,” said DMA president and CEO H. Robert Wientzen.
The WEFA study forecasts Internet marketing as growing by a compound annual rate of 49.6% between 1999 and 2004. At that rate it would amount to $53.4 billion in annual B-to-B sales, and would surpass catalog-only mailings (anticipated at $49.7 billion in 2004), radio ($28.3 billion), and challenging magazine b-to-b sales ($58.6 billion).
Among other channels, newspaper B-to-B DM sales increased 10.4% annually between 1994 and 1999, growing from $46.7 billion to $76.7 billion; magazine sales jumped 10.5%, from $23.4 billion to $38.5 billion; and television and radio surpassed the industry average of 11%, growing by 11.7% (from $24.5 billion to $42.6 billion) and 13.6% (from $9.4 billion to $17.8 billion) respectively.
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