• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, January 18, 2022

Email remains a potent force in B2B content marketing, ranked as the second-most-effective channel.  

Overall, 98% of marketers rate social media as effective, and 96% say the same about email, according to The State of The Content Marketer, a study released Tuesday by podcast audio-video platform Casted.  

In addition, email newsletters are ranked as good or very good by 95%, followed by webinars (92%), podcasts (86%), videos (87%), blog posts (86%) and whitepapers/ebooks (83%). 

One thing is clear: The role of the content marketer is not an easy one. The average content marketer has to cram in all the following tasks:

• Managing campaigns — 61% 
• Creating content — 54% 
• Social media — 52%
• Managing vendors and agencies they work with — 43%
• Serving as media liaisons — 41%
• Creating internal communications — 34% 
• Conducting customer and market research — 23%
• Producing marketing and promotional materials — 22%
• Managing SEO — 14%

That’s only part of it. In addition, 92% promote through their personal social channels: LinkedIn (86%), Twitter (82%), Facebook (74%), YouTube (39%), Instagram (28%), and through email or newsletters (91%). 

Content marketers spend 33 hours a week on content creation, leaving only 7 hours for everything else. 

Content marketers typically create social, email, blog, and video content at least once per month. 

However, email does not take up the majority of their time. “Of those who create content weekly, 93% spend time creating social media content, followed by 54% on blog posts. Email/newsletters and video content tied at 27% of the respondents.” 

Metrics are another matter. Of those polled, 89% track conversions by email, behind webinars (97%) and blogs (95%). In addition, 88% measure conversions by podcasts (88%), whitepapers/ebooks (81%), social media (65%). 

In addition, 89% measure email engagement, again following webinars (97%) and blogs (95%). 

And email ranks third again in measuring pipeline influence — at 84%, following webinars (87%) and whitepapers/ebooks (85%). 

What’s next for email newsletters? The move is toward using audio and video in email newsletters and blogs — 87% wish to do so.

“Content markers have one of the hardest jobs,” concludes Lindsay Tjepkema, CEO and co-founder of Casted. “Their role is constantly evolving, forcing them to keep up with impossible demands and expectations for engaging audiences with the right message  — especially as the digital landscape continues to be the driving source of information,” says Tjepkema, who adds that creating content is just half of the job.  

“Ensuring the content is used to its full potential is the other, and that part is where just over half of content marketers fall short.” 

What does Tjepkema advise? That brands amplify their marketing efforts and repurpose content, while “bringing the focus back to their audience’s needs. 

Casted surveyed 100 B2B marketers.