The Content Marketing Institute’s latest report shows a continued upturn for content marketing as well as tips on how to make your output better
In its latest set of findings, the Content Marketing Institute (CMI) surveyed more than 1,100 B2B marketers in North America. The report, issued annually, looks at how deeply content marketing is engrained within B2B marketing as a whole, and the differing approaches of various enterprises.
Across the board, there has been an increase in content marketing.
89% of the B2B marketers surveyed are using content marketing at their organisation. In addition to that, 70% say they will produce more content in 2017 than they did in 2016.
With more content around than ever before, competition is fierce. But that hasn’t resulted in a lack of effectiveness for businesses invested in its production. 62% said that compared with one year ago, their organisation’s overall approach to content marketing has been much more or somewhat more successful.
Strategy
That success has been put down to a handful of different factors. And inevitably, quality counts. Among those who consider their approach to be successful, 85% put it down to doing a better job with content creation.
But developing and adjusting strategy was also cited, by 72%, as the prime reason for content marketing success.
In a relatively new industry, it is perhaps unsurprising that some enterprises suffer from a lack of strategy foresight. And things are improving – 37% of those surveyed say they have a clear content marketing strategy, up from 32% in last year’s report.
But on the other side, only 41% said they were clear on what effective content marketing strategy is – an obvious barrier to creating a harmonious and coordinated team effort for business growth.
A ‘differentiated story’
Another telling insight from the study was one relating to means of distribution.
Email (93%), LinkedIn (89%), Twitter (77%) and Facebook (76%) are the most common channels used to distribute – with businesses using an average of six channels overall.
Participants were also asked which tactics currently used by their organisations will be most critical for content marketing success in 2017. Blogs received 52%; email newsletters and social media got 40% whereas podcasts only got 3%, and print newsletters 2%.
Those results are somewhat skewed, however. The effectiveness is only measured for tactics already being used – print newsletters and podcasts remain much less used than other means, and so their scores are lower (at least for the time being).
In its editorial response to the survey, the CMI called upon businesses to adopt a “differentiated story” in their content marketing. The formula being one content type + one main platform + consistent delivery + long period of time = the base.
In this case, the CMI clarifies, consistency doesn’t mean publishing daily, or even weekly – rather publishing as little as you can while maintaining the same impact.
With these thoughts in mind, the content quality can be maintained, its consistency can create a sense of loyalty from those consuming it and the team itself can work in the same direction: creating engaging content to drive interest in the business.
[Image: Content Marketing Institute]
