Content marketing has become everyone’s favorite buzzword, but how effective is it for B2B marketers? That’s what Curata sought to find out.
Last month Curata surveyed more than 450 marketing professionals to understand the B2B marketing landscape, asking questions about best practices, current initiatives, and the tactics they’re looking to for 2013 and beyond. The results of their survey painted a pretty interesting picture about how B2Bs are using content marketing and what they are (and are not) doing with their efforts.
Given all the interest around content marketing, it’s not surprising that 87 percent of US B2B marketers report using content marketing in 2012, up 5 percent since last year. What I did find interesting is that based on the survey, 43 percent of marketers said they do not measure the outcome of their content marketing programs and therefore don’t know if it has increased inbound leads to their business. To me, that was somewhat troubling. It seems dangerous to invest in an area you’re not tracking and will be unable to decipher whether or not it brought value to your business. Especially since tracking content spread, brand awareness, links, and tagging your conversion funnel are all tangible elements small business owners could easily identify.
Another area of the survey I found noteworthy had to deal with challenges B2B marketers face when it comes to content marketing.
Sixty-nine percent of marketers say their biggest struggle is coming up with original content ideas. Another 65 percent said it’s finding the time to create that content.
This is something that, again, small business owners can fix.
How do you do so?
By taking the time to build out a content marketing plan before you get involved to help map out your efforts, keep you stocked with ideas, and allow you to fit content marketing into your existing schedule. This is something we not only do inhouse, but we help clients create content marketing plans, as well.
What should you think about when building out your content plan?
What types of content can you realistically work into our schedule?
- On-site blogging
- Guest blogging
- Industry surveys and research
- eBooks and other long form content
- Case studies
- Podcasts
- Apps
- Newsletters
- Infographics and data visualizations
- Interviews
- Videos
- Webinars
What you know the type of content you may want to provide, do some keyword research to understand what your users are searching for, use Google Suggest to let the search engine populate ideas for you, check your analytics to see what your customers want, and then survey them to get an understanding of the resources they need or what information is important to them. Once you have this information, create a list of titles or subject ideas that you can work off from and build an editorial calendar to help you pace out your efforts.
The hardest part of coming up with unique ideas for content marketing is understanding what your content needs and what will help them achieve their goals. Once you do that, you’re putting your company on the road to success.
Overall, I think the data offered by Curata shows an interesting glimpse in how B2B marketers are using content. While they seem to grasp its importance, they’re not measuring it or finding ways to make it part of their workflow. Of course, that presents a great opportunity for the marketers who are.
[hat tip eMarketer]
That makes no sense to me that companies would run a marketing program and then not even check to see if it is effective or not. Other than actually tracking the results, blogs are a great way to get feedback from your customers. It allow you to give a more human-like approach to your business. It’s also great for review management.
Ti Roberts
Great piece, Lisa. And, I agree with you Brittanie. It makes absolutely no sense not to manage your marketing efforts, especially with something that can be as effective as content marketing. This is truly one of the very best marketing strategies and in my opinion should be given more time and energy than any other marketing outlet. It’s an art, and if you can master it your business will be 1000x’s better off. Thanks for sharing this piece with our community, Lisa.
Ti
Colin Dawson
Great article Lisa! Content Marketing is a great technique that businesses can use to generate masses of traffic to there sites, however content marketing is only one of plenty of techniques that businesses can use to generate traffic.
Not many people know of the wide range of techniques that you can use to generate traffic to your site and in turn achieve a higher search engine ranking and secure leads.
[Edited by Editor]
I’m not surpised at all by these results. Many bsuinesses get started with new online marketing efforts and don’t measure at first. Once they get into a rhythm and feel good about the value they are providing, then measurement would enter the picture. What we don’t know about the survey results is at what stage the respondents are in. I suspect many of those not measuring are either early in the process or very small businesses.Anyway, interesting post!
Mike
Great article Lisa,
Content is KING on the web and in serious demand due to the 2 points above: lack of ideas and time.
Content marketing can totally be done in house if budgets are tight and time is available. The content marketing campaigns have to be analyzed and measured. Business owners need to remember that time is money and outsourcing is a viable option for content production, marketing, and tracking. The return on that investment is well worth it.
As we approach 2013, content will continue to be even more important as more companies jump aboard the train.