• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, May 30, 2019

Content marketing may be a popular tactic. But don’t think brands are planning to throw more time and money at it this year. 

While 68% are moderately boosting their content budgets, only 19% will make significant increases, according to Content Marketing Engagement Survey Summary Report, a study by Ascend2.

But one could see that as good news: Add it up, and 87% are increasing their content budgets, the report notes. The term “budget” includes time, resources and expenses.

What’s more, only 13% are planning decreases and 5% are significant ones. 

What’s more, 39% rate themselves as very successful at content marketing engagement — or best in class. Another 56% say they are somewhat successful, and only 5% feel they are failing at it. 

Email newsletters come in a distant fourth among the most trusted forms of content — at least according to marketers.

Asked which types of content are the most trusted by their target audiences, 60% cite research/case studies. Second are photos/infographics (34%), followed by blog posts/articles (31%).

Email/e-newsletters are tied with videos/motion graphics at 30% apiece. Next are webinars/online events (28%) and traditional/digital PR (23%).  It’s not clear how the respondents determine trust.

The biggest direct results of increasing content marketing engagement are increases in:

• Sales revenue — 44%
• Lead generation — 28%
• Brand awareness — 22% 

But those achievements differ slightly from the primary goals, at least in terms of order. The main objectives are:

• Increasing brand awareness — 55% 
• Increasing customer conversions — 48%
• Increasing sales revenue — 46%
• Improving demand generation — 36% 
• Increasing web traffic — 32%
• Improving sales lead quality — 28%
• Improving search engine rankings — 15%

• Improving brand awareness — 42%
• Increasing sales revenue — 41%
• Improving sales lead quality — 33%
• Increasing website traffic — 31%
• Increasing customer conversions — 20%
• Improving search engine rankings — 17% 
• Improving demand generation — 16%

Given the slight disparity between the No. 1 goal and the No. 1 challenge and the fact that 95% claim some level of success, one might wonder how success is measured. We’re happy to report that the top metric is leads generated, not the number of opens.

• Leads generated — 51% 
• New/returning visitors — 50% 
• Conversion rate — 43% 
• Likes/comments/shares — 32%
• Time on page/views — 29% 
• Number of downloads — 25%
• Page/scroll depth — 10% 

As to how they do it, 63% use a combination of outsourced and in-house resources, 24% use in-house resources only and 12% rely totally on outsourcing. 

Ascend2 and its Research Partners surveyed 301 marketing influencers.