In the recent report, B2B Marketers’ 2008 Budget Trends Laura Ramos, VP and Principal Analyst for Forrester Consulting describes the 2008 outlook for business-to-business (B2B) marketing budgets as optimistic.

Ramos says that in order for the digital transformation to accelerate, “B2B marketers must ensure that three key tactics, corporate web site, search optimization, and email marketing programs, are unified and operating on all cylinders…the success of these tactics will provide the foundation from which to experiment with 2.0 media strategies while keeping the sales pipeline full and critics of further marketing investment at bay.”

Earlier this year, the American Business Media (ABM) engaged Forrester Consulting to research the trends and impact of B2B media on end-users, business decision-makers and marketers. The report entitled The Digital Transformation sheds light on Business Decision Makers use or intent to use Web 2.0:

90% use/or intend to use mobile/wireless
90% attended web-based events
86% read a blog
76% listened to a podcast
70-90% use an RSS feed from a news source, website or blog
69% visited a social networking site
59% read and/or posted to a wiki

Two other significant findings from The Digital Transformation:

1. Business-to-Business (B2B) marketers are turning to emerging media at a rate consistent with BDM’s growing interest.
2. In 2008-2009, B2B marketers plan to use more digital media including tactics like videos, web-based events and online community pages.

What’s a company to do? To start with, take the time now to tune up (or overhaul) your corporate web site, search engine optimization, and email marketing programs so you’ll be well on the road — to destination Web 2.0.