Some 75.6 percent of B2B marketing executives say they plan to increase their online budgets next year, according to BtoB Magazine's 2007 Marketing Priorities and Plans survey of 569 B2B marketing executives.

Moreover, 62.7 percent of B2B marketing execs plan to increase their overall marketing budgets in 2007, up slightly from the 60.7 percent who said so in 2006. BtoB's survey also found that customer acquisition is the primary marketing goal for 2007 (62.3 percent of survey respondents), followed by brand awareness (19.5 percent) and customer retention (11.0 percent).

The largest share of online marketing budgets (31.7 percent) will go toward website development, according to BtoB's survey. Email follows with 21.8 percent, search with 18.7 percent, and webcasts at 8.8 percent. Banner advertising will receive only 5.9 percent of B2B online marketing budgets, and sponsorships 5.5 percent.

Online video is expected to receive 2.7 percent of the online marketing budget in 2007. Blogs, RSS, product listings and lead-generation programs will together account for 4.9 percent.

Overall, some 50.2 percent of B2B marketers said they plan to increase spending on direct mail next year, and 44.1 percent said they plan to increase spending on events. Print, broadcast and outdoor advertising budgets will not be significantly upped in 2007, according to the BtoB survey.