News
Your Content Marketing Snapshot for 2015
April 21, 2015
As a BtoB publisher, it’s likely that you are no stranger to content marketing. But, do you ever wonder where you fit in? You probably feel the push and pull of where to focus your efforts in order to keep up with the ever-changing landscape and at times, you might feel a bit overwhelmed. So, it’s always good to look at the bigger picture.
Let’s do that, and talk about tactics you might want to engage in your quest.
The 2015 B2B Content Marketing Report from the Content Marketing Institute is a great place to start. Of the 5,000 marketers surveyed:
- 86% say they use content marketing which is defined as: “a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience—and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”
- 38% say they are effective at content marketing.
- 35% have a documented content marketing strategy.
- 48% have an undocumented content marketing strategy.
- Of those with a documented strategy, 60% rate themselves highly in terms of effectiveness.
- 70% of BtoB marketers are creating more content than they did a year ago.
Where do you fall in these statistics?
These numbers are just the yummy froth on top for the amount of information gathered in this report. But, they are a great place to start. Now let’s look at how that translates to action.
What BtoB Marketers Are Doing
1. Struggling to Track/Measure/Document: It’s quite clear that BtoB marketers see the value of documenting and measuring their efforts—but generally, many are behind the ball. What does this tell you?
- Document your strategy, to start with.
- Put solid measurement methods in place. It’s worth having someone on staff who specializes in this.
- Don’t beat yourself up if you aren’t “there,” but don’t sit back and relax about it either.
2. Focusing on Content Development: Creating engaging content is always the challenge and you are not alone if you face that daily. You know it is the foundation of your success and is what will ultimately grow your audience. So, keep up the efforts to create engaging, dynamic content. Make sure your Enterprise Publishing System is in place and up-to-date, so you can focus on the content, not the logistics of creating it. However, content marketing DOES NOT end with content development. Distribution is equally important.
3. Leveraging Infographics: Speaking of distribution, the form that content is delivered in often informs the level of engagement. You are probably familiar with the power of infographics. And, you are not alone. The greatest increase in usage was seen in infographics this year—62% up from 51% last year.
4. Embracing Social Media: Again, regarding distribution, social media is an ever-increasingly important method for distribution. Among BtoB marketers, surveyed, 94% of them use LinkedIn to distribute content. Leveraging social media not only increases organic usage, but leveraging paid social media advertising also bumps it up another notch.
5. Turning to Native Ads: There are ample examples out there among publishers for using native advertising—BuzzFeed, The New York Times and Forbes, to name a few—banner ads are becoming less effective while advertorials, sponsored content and branded content continue to demonstrate returns. Make sure you provide a range of advertising options to your advertisers and make a concerted effort to develop these channels.
6. Transforming SEO: Search engine marketing is the new SEO—in that better and more frequent content boosts the power of basic SEO—increasing links, shares and brand awareness. The point, don’t stick to basic SEO. Your content marketing is going to boost your rankings more effectively going forward.
Have you taken these 6 steps? If so, you’re on the road to effective , relevant, content marketing.