According to Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs, who developed and conducted the study “B2B Content Marketing: 2012 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends,” even though the confidence gap is shrinking this year vs. last, regarding tactics used in content marketing, there is still more education that needs to be done.
For purposes of the research, the survey defined content marketing as follows:
“Content marketing/custom media (sometimes called custom publishing, custom content, or branded content) is the creation and distribution of educational and/or compelling content in multiple formats to attract and/or retain customers.”
Key findings in the study...
Just as last year’s survey showed, nine out of ten B2B marketers are using content marketing to grow their businesses, and on average, marketers use eight content marketing tactics to achieve their marketing goals. The most popular tactics are :
Marketers are using content marketing to support multiple business goals, led by:
Web traffic is the most widely used success metric (58%). And, this year, sales lead quality (49%) is the second-highest used metric (versus direct sales in the previous study). the least widely employed goal for content marketing is lead management/nurturing.
B2B marketers dedicate approximately 26% of their total budgets to content marketing initiatives. This year, a majority of marketers (60%) report they plan to spend more money on content marketing in 2012 (compared to 51% in 2011).
The greatest reported challenge is “producing the kind of content that engages prospects and customers” (41% of respondents). And nearly the same percentage of respondents in 2011 as in 2010 reports that “producing enough content” (20%) and “budget to produce content” (18%) are their greatest challenges in content marketing.
In general, B2B marketers are using the same mix of tactics as they did in the previous study (average of 8 tactics in both years). Some notable increases:
Article posting and social media (excluding blogs) are the most popular tactics and are currently used by 79% and 74% of B2B marketers, respectively. However, use of social media actually declined in 2011 by 5 percentage points. Some of the tactics, such as blogs, video and white papers are used much more frequently this year than in the previous study.
B2B Content Marketing Usage | ||
| % of Users | |
Tactic | 2011 | 2010 |
Articles | 79% |
|
Social media (no blogs) | 74 |
|
Blogs | 65 | 51 |
eNewsletters | 63 |
|
Case studies | 58 |
|
In-person events | 56 |
|
Videos | 52 | 41 |
White papers | 51 | 43 |
Webinars/webcasts | 46 |
|
Print magazines | 31 | 42 |
Traditional media | 30 |
|
Research reports | 25 |
|
eBooks | 16 | 9 |
Source:B2B Content Marketing, 2012 Benchmarks, Released December 2100 |
While in-person events and webinars are still seen as the most effective tactics, on average, the following ranked notably higher in perceived effectiveness compared to our last report:
Now that marketers have found ways to use some of these tactics to effectively achieve their goals, the next step is to gain confidence in their use of branded content, digital magazines, mobile content, and podcasts.
Confidence Gap: Effectiveness Ratings of Tactics Among Users | ||
Tactic | Believe it is Effective | Believe it is Less Effective/Ineffective |
Social Media | 51% | 50% |
Articles | 51 | 48 |
Microsites | 56 | 44 |
Blogs | 58 | 42 |
White Papers | 60 | 40 |
eNewsletters | 60 | 40 |
Videos | 51 | 39 |
Case Studies | 70 | 30 |
Webinars/Webcasts | 70 | 30 |
In-Person Events | 78 | 22 |
Source:B2B Content Marketing, 2012 Benchmarks, Released December 2100 |
To measure the effectiveness of content marketing, marketers are now relying on slightly different criteria than they did last year. While web traffic and sales lead quality still top the list, we see a 12 percentage point bump over last year in the number of marketers using SEO ranking to measure success.
Measurement Criteria for Content Marketing Success | |
Measurement | % of Respondents |
Web Traffic | 58% |
Sales Lead Quality (e.g., sales accepted leads) | 49 |
Direct Sales | 41 |
Sales Lead Quantity | 41 |
Qualitative Feedback from Customers | 40 |
SEO Ranking | 40 |
Inbound Links | 30 |
Source:B2B Content Marketing, 2012 Benchmarks, Released December 2100 |
The largest challenge (for 41% of respondents) is “producing the kind of content that engages prospects and customers” While a greater number of respondents are struggling with this in 2011 compared with last, this year’s respondents are also struggling with two challenges that go hand in hand:
Marketers were asked to explain what particular challenges they face within their own organizations.
For more information, please visit Marketing Profs here to download the PDF report, B2B Content Marketing.
A friend forwarded this article to me today and I sunk my critical claws into it. Here are some questions I believe need to be answered to help determine what works, versus what's popular.
What is the time frame of usage for those surveyed? IOW, have they been using these methods for a year? A month? Just started last week? What is the breakdown in conversion goals for those studied... 80% purchase? 10% SMM? connection, 10% email signup? Etc.. What is the breakdown in tactics used compared to the conversion goals?
BTW is this specific survey done annually?
Ref: "The greatest reported challenge is “producing the kind of content that engages prospects and customers” That's very interesting because 2 years ago it was all about getting viewers to engage and then last year it was determined that correspondence was not necessary and those companies using SMM (for example) had better results by being upfront instead of skirting through engagements. So this year it seems that 41% don't understand that... or 41% don't agree with that. If they don't agree with it, then I'd like to know why.