B2B sector told to up Web spend

Business-to-business marketers must increase their spend on their company websites, as decision-makers in UK companies are increasingly looking online for product and service information, according to new research.

But B2B marketers may be able to offset some of the costs involved – 17 per cent of UK business decision-makers have accessed paid content on a B2B website, a much higher level than the UK population as a whole.

According to the UK Association of Online Publishers (AOP), which commissioned the research, one-third of business decision-makers access B2B sites via online advertising. Iain Melville, managing director of Reed Business Information and chair of the AOP’s B2B research group, says that the findings should encourage B2B publishers, agencies and marketers to embrace the Web and “start taking it seriously”.

AOP director Alexandra White says: “The internet has shifted the way that businesses find and use information for work purposes.”

The research was conducted on AOP’s behalf by Ipsos RSL. More than 300 business decision-makers were surveyed about their online usage, and the quantitative data was backed up by qualitative interviews with the leading B2B strategic media planning agencies.