In a new research study that polled marketers in the agriculture vertical, those business-to-business marketers revealed that they continue to spend the bulk of their marketing budget on events and print advertising. However, they expect print spending to fall, while digital spending will rise. And they are laying the groundwork for that change.

The research was sponsored by ABM's Agri Council and conducted by Readex Research. 145 ag marketing professionals from the United States and Canada participated. The results are available online. Here are three of the major takeaways from the research.

Traditional B-to-B platforms rate high — With other research, conducted by polling readers, revealing that media consumers turn to trade press for new product information, the research asked marketers to rate the success of a range of channels in building new product awareness. On a scale from 1 to 7, with 7 being "very successful," marketers ranked event attendance, print advertising and event sponsorship as the most successful ways to build new product awareness.

Traditional B-to-B platforms consume the majority of current ag marketing budgets — Marketers surveyed revealed that they are now spending about 27% of their marketing budgets on events and 25% on print ads. 15% of event spending is on trade shows and the rest of the event budget is spent on company-owned events. About 11% is being spent on company websites and another 11% is on other digital advertising. Overall, 83% of the respondents said they expect spend levels to stay the same or increase over the next 12 months.

Ag marketers are expecting to go digital — Only 20% of marketers surveyed are now putting nothing into digital advertising. Only 21% have done nothing with mobile optimized sites. And looking ahead to the next 12 months, 45% expect their mobile spend to grow, 41% expect their event spend to grow and 38% expect their website banner spend to grow. On the other hand, only 20% think their print ad budgets will grow.