Seems everyone has been discussing and writing about content marketing for a while now. It’s one of those hot topics and buzzwords that catches everyone’s fancy and hangs around for a while. Sometimes these fads don’t even leave any evidence they were with us. However, now we have some evidence that content marketing is here to stay.
Recently, a survey on content marketing was published by Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs that sought to understand the current state of content marketing in businesses of all sizes. They surveyed 1416 North American companies and have been kind enough to share their results. Once you see the results, I think you’ll agree there’s a clear trend in these data that suggests we really are all becoming publishers.
You’ve heard the assertion before: All B2B companies must become publishers. They won’t be able to market unless they do. Personally, I already bought into the trend as I see it happening all over. This study makes it easy to show that trend. Here are three findings from the study that illustrate the trend:
Companies of all sizes are doing it. This chart shows the total percentage of the budget spent on B2B content marketing. The across the board average is 33% and the percent age is highest in the smallest of the firms, the “Micro” category of firms with less than 10 employees. That’s right, even firms are small a few employees are implementing content marketing and they are spending an increasing amount on it. The “Micro” firms spend nearly half (42%) of their total marketing budget on content.
The trend is toward taking content development in-house. Overall the percentage of companies that outsource content creation fell from 58% to 44%. While larger companies are more likely to still outsource content creation, the trend toward in-house occurred in every size category. This is clear evidence that we are all becoming publishers!
Producing enough content has become the biggest issue. When asked about the challenges B2B content marketers have, the top response was “Producing Enough Content.” Now that we have social media and lead nurturing systems, it increases the demand for content. Much of this content is very specific and for a targeted place in the sales cycle. Our increasing sophistication of content delivery is putting great demands on content creation.
So, I rest my case your honor. Content marketing is here to stay and has become important for B2B firms of all sizes. Your task is to develop the capability, both personally and within your organization, to develop this content. Good luck!
What type of content does your company produce? Is it done in house or is it oursourced?
All charts taken from “2013 Content Marketing Benchmarks-North America; CMI/MarketingProfs”
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