• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, November 18, 2016

According to The Content Marketing Institute, from a new study Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends by Joe Pulizzi,last year the results of the annual content marketing survey indicated that manufacturing marketers were stuck when it came to content marketing, with fewer than 20% saying that their organization was effective at content marketing.

But, says the report, take a look at some of the reasons why manufacturers have made progress over the last year with content marketing…

1. They’re Getting Better At Content Creation

59% of manufacturing marketers say their organization has become much more or somewhat more successful at content marketing compared with one year ago. Of that group, 82% say their increased success is because they are doing a better job at content creation (producing higher-quality content, getting more efficient at content).

2. They’re Documenting Their Content Marketing Strategy

Last year, says the report, manufacturing marketers were merely “doing” content marketing, with no strategy to guide them. This year there’s a 72% increase over last year in the percentage of manufacturing marketers who have a documented content marketing strategy (31% this year vs. 18% last year). The research consistently shows that documenting your content marketing strategy is a key to success.

3. They’re Making Content Marketing A Greater Priority

62% of manufacturing marketers who report increased success over the last year attribute it to making content marketing a greater priority, says the report. Among those who said their organization is extremely or very successful at content marketing, 76% agree that their leadership team gives them ample time to produce content marketing results (compared with 49% of the total manufacturing sample).

Pulizzi notes that “… when we compare manufacturing marketers against the total survey sample of B2B marketers… many areas where manufacturing marketers lag… however… not the case with the ‘leadership gives us ample time’ finding… manufacturing marketers appear to be getting as much support from the top as their peers in other industries… many manufacturing executives are now buying into content marketing… lay(ing) the foundation for future content marketing success… “

4. They’re Growing In Their Content Marketing Maturity

According to the report, this year’s data indicates that some manufacturing organizations are growing out of the young/first-steps phase of content marketing (37% of this year’s manufacturing respondents say their organizations are in the adolescent phase of content marketing maturity vs. 29% last year).

At the same time, manufacturing marketers identifying themselves in the young/first-steps phase went down this year (42% this year vs. 50% last year), says the report. As more manufacturing marketers grow in their content marketing maturity, they gain experience with what works and what doesn’t.

Concluding, the report says that manufacturing marketers have come a long way with their content marketing. When the last manufacturing research report was released, Pulizzi said: “… our hope is that this report… is… a “bottom,” and that those who are committed to a content marketing approach… will begin to document, plan, resource, and make the hard choices necessary.

For additional information from the Content Marketing Institute, please visit here.