• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, April 30, 2008

Most Marketers Go-It-Alone For Custom Content Spending

A new Junta42 Match survey, in conjunction with BtoB magazine, a survey of marketers' custom content spending habits and industry knowledge, shows that business-to-business marketers are spending 29.4% of their budgets on custom content and custom publishing initiatives.

Of the 22 types of custom projects in question, a majority of marketers reported producing e-mail newsletters (69%), white papers (50%), and case studies (48%). Other popular formats were:

• Internal communications via Intranet (36%)
• Employee newsletters (29%)
• Custom events & road shows (39%)
• Webcasts/webinars (31%)
• External newsletters (28%)
• Blogs (28%)
• Microsites & online portals (27%)
• Online videos (22%)
• External custom magazines (18%)

Despite this healthy dependence on custom content, says the report, marketers tended to fall short in their knowledge of custom publishing industry websites. When participants were asked to rate their familiarity with industry web portals and associations dedicated to "custom publishing" and "content marketing," four of the five outlets listed received a majority of "Not Aware" responses.

Joe Pulizzi, founder of Junta42, said "... Business marketers continue to invest more in their own content marketing, but knowledge of the industry or the practice doesn't seem to have budged. Clearly there is a need to educate marketers looking to deliver relevant and compelling content to their customer and prospect base."

The study shows that, although 30% of their marketing budgets are going toward the production of custom content, 44% of marketers surveyed said they would not be willing to invest in a third-party online service to find the most qualified content providers for their custom initiatives. Only 6% would spend over $100 for a possible service.

Marketers currently find their content providers via:

• Online searches (30%)
• Asking a colleague/friend (28%)
• Reading an industry publication (13%)
• Using internal resources to produce content in-house (15%)
• Going to their agency of record (11%)
• Hiring a consultant (3%)

Detailed findings from this study are available here.