HubSpot last week released the Marketing Data Box, a 3.4 megabyte, 65-slide data dump of marketing facts and statistics from a variety of sources. While there is some excellent information here, the wide range of topics covered (B2B, B2C, consumer demographics, TV, online, mobile, print…) ensures that while almost every marketer will find some information of value in the report, each reader will also have to sift through a bunch of figures and charts they don’t give a flying rat’s tail about in order to find those nuggets.

Here are some of the most interesting observations for B2B marketers:

Slide 10: B2B magazines continue to struggle. While print in general has taken a beating over the past decade, B2B publications have been particularly hard hit, leading to speculation about the future of B2B trade magazines (content marketing? Content aggregation?). Trade mags are struggling to maintain their value as they compete with industry analysts putting more content online, independent bloggers, and of course B2B marketers themselves publishing more of their own original content. The good news for B2B marketers is that these publications still reach a highly qualified audience, advertising prices have dropped (in some cases dramatically) and deals can be made.

Slide 11: Americans are increasingly going online for news. Though hardly a shocking revelation, this report nicely quantifies the shift. While most Americans still say they get their news primarily from television, that figure has declined to 66% from its peak of 82% in 2002. Over the same time period, radio has declined modestly, newspaper readership has plunged, and the Internet news audience has soared from 14% to 41%.

Slide 17: Websites and email dominate marketers’ time. The corporate website is the focus of marketing efforts (as Vanessa Fox suggests) according to 88% of marketers overall, but 93% of B2B marketers (see chart below). Email is the #2 priority. Social media is now in third place (for 61% of B2B marketers), having pulled ahead of B2B publications, paid search and banner ads.

 

Slide 21: Online costs per lead are lower. Not surprisingly, offline tactics (trade shows in particular) are viewed as costly by B2B marketers on a cost-per-lead basis, while online tactics are seen as more cost-effective. It’s important to keep in mind, however, that a mix of tactics remains the best approach. Direct mail, for example, can be highly effective if done properly. The higher cost per lead may very be justified by higher quality (close rate).

 

Slide 25: Google use is still higher than Facebook. As the report notes, “Overall, 40% more U.S. adults say they use Google in a typical week (60%) than have a Facebook page (43%).” Heavier use of Google than Facebook is even more pronounced among men (still the majority of B2B buyers) than women.

 

Slide 35: Nearly one-third of U.S. consumers own smart phones. As of December 2010, almost a third (31%) of U.S. cell phone users owned a smart phone. Marketers can no longer put off thinking about how mobile fits into their marketing mix. For example, marketers need to understand how QR codes work and different ways QR codes can be used in marketing. While execution is more urgent for consumer marketers, B2B marketers need to at least start thinking strategically about topics like apps, QR codes, and how their content appears on smart phones.

Slide 37: The most popular use of mobile Internet time? Email. Per this report, “Email represents a leading 38.5% of time spent (by mobile users online). No other activity comes close, with social networking coming in a distant second (10.7%).” News and current events account for roughly 7% of mobile online time, followed by search at 6%.

You can get all of the details by downloading the free HubSpot Marketing Data Box for yourself.