Social Media Tops for B2C Content Marketers
Content Marketing
October 15, 2013 -- A newly updated study, B2C Content Marketing: 2014 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends–North America, produced by Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs, examines the latest B2C content marketing trends.
Key findings:
USE OF B2C CONTENT MARKETING
- 90% of B2C marketers use content marketing, compared to 86% last year.
CONTENT MARKETING EFFECTIVENESS
- Nearly one-third (32%) of B2C marketers feel they are effective or very effective with their content marketing efforts.
- 60% of the most effective B2C marketers have a documented content strategy, compared with 12% of those deemed least effective.
- 85% of the most effective B2C marketers have someone who oversees content marketing strategy, compared with 50% of their least effective B2C peers.
CONTENT MARKETING TACTICS
- B2C marketers are use an average of 12 tactics, which is the same as last year.
- Infographics has seen the largest increase in usage (from 33% last year to 40% this year); Print newsletters saw the largest decline in usage (from 37% last year to 29% this year)
|
B2C Content Marketing Usage by Tactic, 2012 and 2013 |
|
|
Tactic |
% of 2013 Respondents |
|
Social media (excludes blogs) |
88% (84%) |
|
Articles on company website |
78% (84%) |
|
eNewsletters |
76% (78%) |
|
Videos |
72% (70%) |
|
Blogs |
72% (69%) |
|
In-person events |
65% (63%) |
|
Articles on other sites |
61% (61%) |
|
Mobile content |
46% (43%) |
|
Microsites |
43% (41%) |
|
Case studies |
41% (38%) |
|
Infographics |
40% (33%) |
|
Mobile apps |
39% (42%) |
|
Online presentations |
39% (- - -) |
|
Print magazines |
37% (42%) |
|
Branded content tools |
37% (40%) |
|
White papers |
31% (28%) |
|
Digital magazines |
30% (29%) |
|
Webinars/webcasts |
30% (32%) |
|
Annual reports |
30% (28%) |
|
Print newsletters |
29% (37%) |
|
Research reports |
28% (33%) |
|
Licensed/syndicated content |
25% (33%) |
|
Books |
24% (32%) |
|
eBooks |
23% (28%) |
| Podcasts | 19% (26%) |
|
Virtual conferences |
18% (21%) |
|
Games/gamification |
17% (17%) |
|
Source: B2C Content Marketing: 2014 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends–North America, Content Marketing Institute/Marketing Profs |
|
CONFIDENCE IN TACTICS
- B2C confidence in the effectiveness of all the tactics surveyed has risen-- with the exception of blogs, which is down two percentage points.
B2C Content Marketing: 2014 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends–North America: Content Marketing Institute/Marketing Profs
SOCIAL MEDIA
- B2C marketers use an average of six social media platforms; last year, B2C used four.
- Facebook was the most popular platform this year, used by 89% of B2C marketers, followed by Twitter (80%), YouTube (72%), LinkedIn (71%), Google+ (55%), Pinterest (53%) and Instagram (32%).
- LinkedIn had the biggest jump in B2C usage -- from 51% last year to 71% this year.
- Overall, B2C marketers rate Facebook as the most effective social platform; however, large B2C companies rate YouTube as the most effective.
- Facebook - considered effective by 63% of respondents
- YouTube - 52% believe it to be effective
- Twitter - 50% say its effective
- LinkedIn - 42% say its a useful platform
- Vimeo - 42% effective
- Pinterest - 37% believe it to be effective
- Instagram - 34% say its productive
- SlideShare - 27% consider it effective
- Tumblr - 24% - call it persuasive
- Google+ - 23% find it efficient
CHALLENGES
- The top three challenges last year were lack of budget (52%), producing enough content (51%), and producing the kind of content that engages the consumer (49%).
About: The fourth annual Content Marketing Survey was e-mailed to a sample of marketers using lists from Content Marketing Institute, MarketingProfs, Brightcove, Blackbaud, and more. A total of 4,397 recipients from around the globe—representing a full range of industries, functional areas, and company sizes—responded throughout July and August 2013. The B2C North America section reports on the findings from 307 (out of the total 4,397) respondents who identified themselves as B2C marketers in North America.
Source: Content Marketing Institute, 2014 B2C Content Marketing Research: Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends, accessed Oct 25, 2013.
