Customer Insight is critical when putting together any marketing program. The audience information that media planners and buyers need in order to put together an effective media plan is pretty abundant when targeting consumers. But one of the challenges that we face in the b2b environment is a shortage of audience data. There are no television or radio ratings through Nielsen or Arbitron and qualitative syndicated research, such as Scarborough, does not exist. What b2b media planners rely on are third party circulation audits and web metrics. The third party audits have been around for over 50 years, through the BPA. Another auditing organization is the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

If you have ever looked at one of these audit statements, you know that most of them contain a good bit of detail regarding the specific business/industry, job titles and functions of the readers. Some publishers also choose to include supplementary data, such as the types of products their readers specify or buy. These print circulation audits are invaluable when it comes to deciding on the right publications for a b2b media plan.

When evaluating online and digital media channels, planners have a bigger challenge. Most b2b websites can provide the basics; average number of monthly visitors, page views, time on site, etc, but what is missing is the demographic breakouts of those visiting the website. There are a few b2b publishers that have taken the right steps in trying to collect this type of information. Some have done independent research; others have taken advantage of a complete channel audit. A fully integrated channel audit provides information on all the media channels a publisher offers, (print, e-newsletters, websites, webinars). I highly encourage publishers to invest in the BPA Brand Report, it is a great solution, and lends tremendous credibility to all the channels that a publisher offers.

B2B ad targeting companies like the BBN network and Bizo are ahead of most traditional publishers and have made the right moves in providing better online data that media planners need. To learn more about these networks, read Melinda Bauer's earlier blog.

In today’s media landscape, with social media growing and informational content available all over the web for free, publishers cannot afford to sit back and assume that media planners will continue to make decisions in the dark. Sure web analytics will provide information on the media channels that are getting clicks, but that isn’t the only thing we want to measure. We want to make recommendations based on the reach of a target audience.