Nine out of 10 B2B Orgs Now Market With Content

Content Marketing

October 24, 2012 -- The third annual content marketing study from the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs shows that B2B marketers are making content marketing a core part of their marketing process. Nine out of 10 organizations (91%) now market with content - regardless of company size or industry.
 
Highlights fron the B2B Content Marketing: 2013 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends:
 

• B2B organizations are using an average of 12 tactics. The most popular tactics are social media (87%), articles on a company's website (83%), eNewsletters (78%) and blogs (77%). This is the first year where social media is used more frequently than articles.

• All content tactics are being used more frequently than they were last year, with the use of videos, (70%) research reports (44%), and mobile content (33%) having increased the most.

• Social media usage is growing -- 87% of B2B marketers report using social media to distribute content, up from 74% last year. On average, B2B marketers are using 5 channels to distribute content, with the most popular channels being LinkedIn (83%), Twitter (80%) and Facebook (80%).

• Brand awareness, customer acquisition and lead generation remain the top content marketing goals.

• In rating effectiveness, B2B marketers rank in-person events (67%), case studies (64%) and webinars (61%) as most effective.
  
   

• 91% of B2B marketers are tailoring their content by basing customization on the profile of individual decision makers (59%), company characteristics (52%), stage in buying cycle (42%) and personalized content preferences (23%).

• On average, B2B marketers are spending 33% of the marketing budgets on content marketing, which is up from 26% last year. And, 54% plan on increasing content marketing spending next year.

• The top 3 challenges facing B2B content marketers: Producing enough content (645), Producing the kind of content that engages (52%) and producing a variety of content (45%).

• Just 36% of B2B marketers feel their organizations are effective at content marketing.

 

About: The third annual survey was emailed in August 2012 to a sample of B2B marketers from among members and subscribers of Marketingprofs and Content Marketing Institute. The survey represents the beliefs of a total of 1,416 marketers from North American companies, representing a full range of industries, functional areas, and company sizes. The study was sponsored by Brightcove.

Source: Content Marketing Institute, 2013 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends [Research Report], October 24, 2012.