Chicago, IL – December 7, 2007–B-to-B marketers plan to increase their marketing budgets next year, according to BtoB’s  “2008 Marketing Priorities and Plans” survey.

The recent survey found that 60.1% of marketers plan to increase their overall marketing budgets next year. The biggest budget increases will be seen in online marketing, with 79.1% of marketers planning to boost their online budgets next year, up from last year’s survey that found 75.6% of marketers planned to increase their online budgets in 2007.

Among the online areas that will see increases next year are Web site development (cited by 74.0% of marketers); email (70.1%); search engine marketing (64.3%); video (39.5%); webcasting (39.1%); banners (36.4%); sponsorships (29.6%); and social media (26.2%).

In addition to online seeing an increase, event marketing will also get a boost. 49.5% of marketers are planning a budget increase in this area compared to 44.1% last year.

In 2008 direct mail is expected to continue to see growth with 40.0% of respondents planning to increase their direct budgets next year, down slightly from 50.2% last year. Increases in print budgets will also be down. 27.8% of marketers expect to increase their print spending compared to 33.6% last year.

The survey also found that 69.4% of marketers plan to launch new ad campaigns in 2008 and 36.2% plan to hire additional staff.

The complete story, titled Marketing Budgets, online to rise in 2008, will be published in BtoB and BtoBonline.com on Monday, December 10, 2007.