Nine out of ten business-to-business companies are now using content marketing according to a recent survey by MarketingProfs and Junta42. Content marketing is the creation and distribution of educational and/or entertaining content (as opposed to content that is primarily promotional) for the purpose of attracting and/or retaining customers.
Content marketing has become a core B2B marketing strategy because of dramatic changes in the B2B buying process. Today more than ever before, business buyers control the buying process. They are conducting research independently (mostly online), and they aren't very interested in the kind of highly promotional marketing materials that most companies have used for years. What business buyers are looking for - and what they are most likely to respond to - is content that helps them understand their problems, answers their questions, and shows them how to get an important job done.
Companies are using a variety of tactics and formats to engage in content marketing. The MarketingProfs/Junta42 survey found that, on average, B2B companies are using eight different content marketing tactics in their marketing programs. According to the survey, the eight most popular tactics are:
- Social Media (excluding blogs) - 79%
- Article Posting - 78%
- In-Person Events (seminars, etc.) - 62%
- eNewsletters - 61%
- Case Studies - 55%
- Blogs - 51%
- White Papers - 43%
- Webinars/Webcasts - 42%
The MarketingProfs/Junta42 survey also revealed that B2B companies are committing significant resources to content marketing. On average, survey respondents said they are spending about 26% of their total marketing budgets on content marketing initiatives. And 51% of survey respondents said they will increase spending on content marketing in 2011.
What are the major challenges for companies that are using content marketing strategies? Thirty-six percent of the respondents to the MarketingProfs/Junta42 survey said the greatest challenge is producing the kind of content that engages prospects and customers, while 21% said the biggest challenge is producing enough content to keep the marketing engine running.
These challenges create significant business opportunities for marketing service providers. Fifty-five percent of the survey respondents said they outsource at least some content creation work. Are you tapping into this new and growing source of revenue?
You can access the results of the MarketingProfs/Junta42 survey here.
Discussion
By Bryan Yeager on Sep 20, 2010
David, great post. Thanks for highlighting this study. I was looking over the results and one of the most intriguing findings is the perceived effectiveness marketer respondents had of each content marketing tactic. Even though social media is the most-used tactic by respondents, it is also perceived as the least effective.
Why is this? Low barrier to entry into social media, relatively low cost of participating in social media, and a wide array of social marketing management technology presumably all play a factor. Because it's so easy to "jump in", it also means that marketers may not have strategic goals defined for effectively leveraging social media. This point is extremely important for both marketers and service providers who are expanding their capabilities into the social media realm and beyond.
By David Dodd on Sep 20, 2010
Bryan,
Thanks for your comment. The authors of the study acknowledged that they did not have a firm explanation for the "confidence gap" that you described. As they put it, "We cannot be sure whether this lack of confidence is due to true ineffectiveness of any given strategy or simply the inability to measure effectiveness."
I suspect that many marketers just don't KNOW that certain tactics are effective, so therefore they don't have a great deal of confidence in those tactics. This could be particularly true for a "new" marketing tactic such as social media. Everybody's writing about it. Marketers all think they need to be doing it. But not many people know how to measure its value.
We also need to keep in mind that content quality plays a huge role in the success of all of these tactics. You may be using "articles" extensively in your marketing program, but if the articles are crappy, your program isn't likely to be successful. It's not just about using articles - it's about using GOOD articles. It's not just about using social media - it's about using good social media content.
By Joe Pulizzi on Sep 21, 2010
David...thanks for the shout out. Great conversation here.
I agree with you...marketers rate ineffectiveness for a variety of reasons - lack of strategy, insufficient content, lack of integration, lack of measurement, lack of consistency.
Most of the marketers we chatted with simply do not have a strategy for social media...more of experimentation than anything else. I think this will change as marketers begin to understand what works (let's hope so, right?).
Discussion
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