Across geographies and industries, content marketing was a hot topic in 2016. Over here we'll see how did companies fare in terms of drafting content strategies, tracking performance, creating content types that met the goals and overcoming the challenges.
Content Marketing Strategy
1) When it comes to B2B marketers 37% of respondents say they've a content marketing strategy in place and it's documented, according to B2B Content Marketing 2017 - Benchmarks, Budgets & Trends - North America.
2. For B2C marketers the number of marketers having a documented strategy is more, as per B2C Content Marketing—2017 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America.
3. In another survey by Top SEO Rankers, 94% of agencies said they've a content marketing strategy and 47.4% of agencies said they found the marketing strategies effective.
4. 96% of organizations currently investing in content marketing see it as core to their marketing strategy, as per State of B2B Content Marketing 2016.
5. Elements B2C marketers include in their content marketing strategy, as per B2C Content Marketing—2017 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America.
6. Let's see how B2B marketers responded when asked about their content marketing strategies.
7. Most companies have a centralized content team creating and implementing the content strategy, rather than enabling multiple teams to create content, even if they had input in the strategy, as per 2016 Digital Content Survey, Altimeter.
Goals
8. For B2B marketers, lead generation & brand awareness are the top goals, as per the B2B Content Marketing 2017 - Benchmarks, Budgets & Trends - North America.
9. Brand awareness & engagement are main goals for B2C marketers, as per B2C Content Marketing—2017 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America.
10. Lead generation, customer engagement & increasing brand awareness are the most important goals, as per 2016 State of Content Marketing Survey Summary Report - Ascend2.
Content Types
11. Fact-based content leads the pack when it comes to effectiveness of content, as per the Ascend2 report.
12. When B2B marketers were asked about the popular content marketing tactics used in their organizations - 83% replied social media content, 80% said blogs, followed by email newsletters and in-person events, as per B2B Content Marketing 2017 - Benchmarks, Budgets & Trends - North America.
13. For B2B buyers, white papers, E-books, case studies and webinars are the most viewed content types when making a purchase decision, as per 2016 Content Preferences Survey.
14. B2B marketers prefer content that's informational and useful, as per the survey B2B Content Marketing: What Content Marketers are Doing Now.
15. As per the survey by TopSEORankers - blog posts, infographics and email newsletters are working well when it comes to customer engagement and improving online influence.
16. Static images and native advertising were rated as the most engaging content types, as per 2016 Digital Content Survey, Altimeter.
17. When it came to zeroing in on the content type that B2B marketers felt would be indispensable to them in 2016, blog was on the top spot (20%), emailers fell in significance (13%); and videos rose in prominence from 9% (2015) to 16% (2016), as per State Of B2B Content Marketing 2016.
18. For B2C marketers, social media content and blogs are the most used content types, B2C Content Marketing—2017 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America.
19. The most difficult types of content to create are videos/podcasts (64%) and research reports (62%), as per the Ascend 2 report.
Metrics
20. Metrics B2C organizations use to determine how well their content marketing is producing results are - website traffic (73%), social media sharing (66% ), time spent on website (53%), sales (53%), higher conversion rates (50%), SEO Ranking (50%), as per B2C Content Marketing—2017 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America.
21. Over half the respondents in the Altimeter survey weren't sure about the business impact of content. One reason for this could be the over-reliance on metrics such as views, likes and shares, which are easier to track compared to business impact metrics such as direct sales or cost saving.
22. Metrics B2B organizations use to determine how well their content marketing is producing results, as per B2B Content Marketing 2017 - Benchmarks, Budgets & Trends - North America.
23. Website traffic (64%) and conversion rate (63%) are the main metrics used by B2B marketers for evaluating the success of their content marketing program, as per State of B2B Content Marketing 2016.
Challenges
24. Lack of an effective content marketing strategy and resources are top challenges that marketers face, as per the Ascend 2 report.
25. Not enough time devoted to content marketing, content-creation challenges, strategy issues (lack of strategy developing/adjusting strategy), management/HR (organizational changes, staffing issues), Content Marketing budget issues (inadequate budget,budget cuts), content marketing not prioritized highly enough, content measurement - are some of the challenges cited by B2C & B2B marketers.
26. 62% of B2B marketers mentioned producing quality content as their top content marketing challenge, as per State of B2B Content Marketing 2016.
27. Challenges companies face in creating content, as per Accenture Interactive State of Content.
Resources
28. 72% of companies outsource all or part of their content creation, which helps them access specialized resources and capabilities not available in-house, as per the Ascend 2 report.
29. 68% of companies with a content marketing team staff 3 or fewer people, as per 2016 Content Marketing Staffing and Tactics Barometer.
30. How is content marketing structured within B2C organizations?
31. How is content marketing structured within B2B organizations?
32. Skills missing from today's content marketing resources, as per 2016 Content Marketing Staffing and Tactics Barometer.
33. Although companies are still looking to hire content editors and writers, the most desired skill in 2017 is data analysis, according to 2016 Digital Content Survey, Altimeter.
Effectiveness
34. 89% of companies say the effectiveness of their content marketing program is increasing, with 35% describing it as “increasing significantly”, as per the Ascend 2 report.
35. 70% of B2C marketers rate their content marketing strategy as effective compared with one year ago, as per B2C Content Marketing—2017 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America.
36. Majority of B2B marketers say their content marketing strategy has become more effective when compared with a year ago.
37. 27% of marketers this year rated their organizations’ content marketing efforts as very effective, presenting a significant improvement over last year’s figure of 18%, as per State of B2B Content Marketing 2016.
Channels
38. Facebook and email still the most effective channels for content delivery, as per the Altimeter report.
39. For B2B marketers, email and Linkedin are the main channels.
40. Email and Facebook top channels used by B2C marketers to distribute content.
41. Email, LinkedIn & Twitter are the top channels for sharing B2B business related information, as per 2016 Content Preferences Survey.
Investment & Budget
42. The average proportion of total marketing budget that is spent on B2C content marketing is 26%.
43. 42% B2C marketers plan to increase their content marketing spending over the next 12 months, as per B2C Content Marketing—2017 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America.
44. 70% brands will be involving more departments in setting a unified content strategy. It's followed by increasing ad spend to amplify owned content.
45. 39% B2C marketers expect their organization’s content marketing budget to remain same in the next 12 months, as per B2C Content Marketing—2017 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America.
46. 29% of total marketing budget is spent on B2B content marketing, as per 2017 B2B Content Marketing Trends—North America.
47. 39% of B2B marketers to increase their content marketing budget in the next 12 months, as per 2017 B2B Content Marketing Trends—North America.
48. 73% of marketers surveyed in the Accenture report said they spend more than $50 million on content management, but only 45% are very confident about their content endeavours meeting business objectives.
Reuse & Repurpose Content
49. Only 29% of leading marketers systematically reuse and repurpose content, as per 2016 Content Marketing Staffing & Tactics Barometer.
50. Only 39% of B2B marketers “always” or “often” recycle content into other formats, as per B2B Content Marketing in 2016.
To know content marketing stats for different industries, check here