Industrial Marketers Anticipate Spending More Online in 2006: GlobalSpec Survey Also Reveals the Importance of ROI in Driving Marketing Decisions

April 18, 2006; 06:45 AM

TROY, N.Y. - Online marketing within the engineering, technical and industrial communities continues to grow as companies are allocating additional funds to online marketing channels in 2006 as compared to 2005, according to marketing professionals and corporate managers in the industrial and manufacturing sector. These views were discovered through a recent survey by GlobalSpec (www.globalspec.com), the leading specialized search engine and information resource for the engineering, industrial and technical communities.

Top areas for spending increases include search engine marketing, online directories/Web sites, company Web sites, and e-mail advertising, with more than 50% of survey respondents stating that they plan on allocating additional resources in these areas.

This shift of resources to comprehensive online marketing programs demonstrates the significant role that ROI potential plays in driving future marketing decisions within the technical and industrial communities. 70% of respondents to the GlobalSpec Marketing Trends Survey selected either customer acquisition or lead generation as their primary marketing goal in the year ahead, pointing to a trend of choosing programs and channels that deliver qualified leads and open new markets. Measuring, tracking and calculating ROI on these programs and channels will be essential to support marketing decisions.

Overall, survey findings indicate optimism in the marketplace. 56% of respondents are increasing their marketing spend in 2006; only 7% plan to reduce spending and 37% anticipate spending the same.

Additional findings from the GlobalSpec Marketing Trends Survey include:

-- Customer growth and acquisition is a top concern for marketers in 2006, as a significant number of respondents indicated that challenges in those areas (new market development, customer acquisition, lead qualification and follow-up, and lead generation) are greatest. This points to a trend of choosing programs and channels such as GlobalSpec that deliver qualified leads, open new markets and offer the ability to measure, track and calculate ROI.

-- Fewer than 40% of respondents indicate their companies offer searchable product catalogs, although previous GlobalSpec surveys show that many engineers and technical professionals rate this functionality as an important feature. GlobalSpec offers a solution for suppliers looking to include their product catalogs online with SpecSearch, a parametrically searchable database used by engineers and other professionals to source technical products and services.

-- Online marketing continues to grow within the industrial sector, as 35% of respondents indicated that they will spend upwards of 50% of their marketing budget online.

Results from the 2006 GlobalSpec Marketing Trends survey can be found at http://www.globalspec.com/GSMarketingSurvey0406.

About GlobalSpec, Inc.

GlobalSpec, Inc. is the leading specialized vertical search, information services and e-publishing company serving the engineering, technical and industrial communities. GlobalSpec users benefit from domain-expert search engines, a broad range of proprietary and aggregated Web-based content and over 40 product-specific e-newsletters - helping them search for and locate products and services, learn about suppliers and access comprehensive technical content. SpecSearch(R), GlobalSpec's trademarked search technology, allows users to search by specification more than 118 million parts in 1,600,000 product families from more than 18,000 supplier catalogs. For suppliers, GlobalSpec offers highly filtered sales and marketing opportunities, product promotion and brand advertising platforms, and a wide range of e-media advertising and marketing solutions.

GlobalSpec, SpecSearch, The Engineering Search Engine and The Engineering Web are registered trademarks of GlobalSpec, Inc.