In business, it is always good to know what you are up against since many changes in the marketplace can interfere with your best plans, knocking you off course! According to the latest content marketing study of Marketing Profs and Content Marketing Institute, B2B marketers are spending more, using more tactics and distributing their content on more social networks than they have in the past years.
Since content is essential for your marketing and sales strategies, the study shows that B2B marketers are spending 33% of their marketing budgets on content marketing, which has increased from 26% last year - while 54% plan to boost content marketing spending next year. Content tactics are more commonly used today than they were a year ago, mostly due to the help of research reports, videos, and mobile. But the study also indicated that B2B entrepreneurs, marketing executives and content marketers this year are challenged with producing enough content. Previous findings showed that the top challenge was producing engaging content.
Social media communities such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, now play a more dominate role in B2B marketing. The study shows they are the most popular content marketing resource for information, while “producing enough content" is the biggest burden for many B2B content marketers. In addition to that, those needing educational and resourceful content typically use up to five social networking sites, with LinkedIn as the most popular. This is a big change, as Twitter had previously been the choice for content for the two previous years.
The full survey is available for you here: “2013 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends” Let us know what your thoughts are regarding the research found, and how this impacts – or will impact – your business.
Marketers often fail to launch a successful marketing strategy because it doesn’t begin with careful planning. Understand and anticipate the trends with case study, research and statistics, and use them as guidelines for strategizing and planning your marketing campaigns.
