The results from B2B Marketing’s latest Content Marketing Benchmarking Report are in. Gemma Huckle delves deeper into the findings and trends
ccording to the Content Marketing Institute, 95 per cent of UK B2B marketers are using some form of content marketing. That’s a lot of marketers churning out content, signalling a move by brands to position themselves as content producers. And last month’s news that Twitter is branching into brand journalism by hiring a head of news is hardly surprising as it becomes an increasingly relevant source of news. This is a trend Kenneth Connolly, head of content at agency Really B2B has picked up on: “I am seeing more of our clients turning to us for support in generating content. Some of whom have even stated they require a journalist for their brand to report on their products and services across multiple content formats.”
The growing emphasis being placed on content has meant it has become a core weapon in marketers’ armoury. The result? Everyone is creating a lot of noise in the market, pushing out more and more enewsletters, blogs, whitepapers, reports, case studies, infographics and videos etc.
But some marketers are failing to be bowled over by the content revolution, arguing that creating compelling content isn’t anything new, and brands have always been content producers. True, but maybe the way in which content is sourced, crafted, distributed, integrated and consumed is changing.
When asked about the skills needed to create content, the top one B2B marketers felt they needed to improve was understanding and implementing SEO (37 per cent), closely followed by social media at 31 per cent. Although, the most worrying statistic is almost one third of practitioners felt they needed to develop their understanding of their audience.
Mike Maynard, managing director of Napier, says generating content prospects want is a real challenge that requires a different set of skills than previously existed in marketing. On the other hand, marketers may not need to change their skills but how they use them, which requires a “180-degree change in thinking” according to Timo Kruskopf, managing director of ID BBN.
Our latest Content Marketing Benchmarking Report, produced in association with Circle Research, enables marketers to assess what their peers are doing and compare this to their own activities. An infographic, The State of B2B Content Marketing 2013 provides a graphic illustration of the key findings from the report.
Tactics
When it comes to strategy, content is generally seen as part of the overall marketing mix rather than requiring a separate strategy of its own. Seventy-six per cent of client-side respondents said content formed part of their general marketing strategy, while 13 per cent claimed to have a clearly defined strategy for content, and the remainder (11 per cent) admitted having no strategy at all. Paul Everett, director of marketing strategy at The Marketing Practice is worried about those adopting a separate content strategy, and says content is in the DNA of those businesses reaping the rewards.
Predictably, the level of importance marketers place on content is high. Eighty-seven per cent said it is a ‘critical’ or ‘important’ part of their marketing activity, and over three quarters of respondents expect it to become more imperative in the coming year.
Perhaps this forecast of intensified value highlights the shift in buyer empowerment, with prospects taking control over what content they consume in conjunction with the fact they seem to be educating themselves with online content prior to engaging with brands’ sales teams.
Objectives and challenges
When it comes to fulfilling broad marketing objectives, the biggest impact content marketing is having is on ‘brand and positioning’ (84 per cent), alongside ‘demand generation’ (70 per cent). Although exploiting content as a key demand generation tool does remain a challenge for client-side marketers.
Forty-two per cent said generating leads was one of their biggest obstacles, and around half of respondents admitted their business could do with significant improvement when it comes to lead generation. If content marketing is to make a tangible impact on lead generation, marketers need to ensure it’s as strategic as it is creative according to Mason Zimbler’s marketing strategy director, Alana Griffiths. She believes many brands simply aren’t aligning their content marketing output closely enough with lead generation goals, and an effective approach is to develop content tailored to well-defined pain points of the target audience. She adds: “When this content is viewed or downloaded, specific responses can be served to help drive leads into relevant business departments. Inbound leads typically convert at 67 per cent less cost than outbound, so it really is worth investing in progressive content.”
Trevor Salomon, business developer and marketing director at Europa Communications thinks marketers might be better off focusing on brand awareness: “I think the survey revealed that content marketing is hard to measure because while it can support lead generation, it is usually better at building brand awareness to make the selling process easier.”
Formats and channels
With such a broad range of content formats and channels available, the results were always going to make for interesting reading. Press releases and blogs came out on top in terms of usage – 55 per cent and 52 per cent respectively – despite their low effectiveness. This correlation suggests the continued high use of both content types boils down to the fact they are quick and easy to produce and distribute.
Newer digital techniques fared well. Infographics are outperforming their usage. Twenty-three per cent said they effectively engage their target audience, so why are only 16 per cent of B2B marketers making them? Video was also popular, with roughly a third of marketers using them to gain effective cut-through.
Mediums producing poor results included webcasts and podcasts, but how can marketers accurately rate their effectiveness if they simply aren’t using them enough?
Danny Turnbull, president/GM at Gyro thinks new digital formats have huge potential: “Perhaps it’s time to move away from standard content and into new territories, such as the video blog. Why not?” We’re now living in an age where content is currency, and any new, interesting ways brands can adopt to capture their target market’s attention may lead to more success.
One brand trying something different is marketing automation provider Marketo. It created a song to promote its ebook The Definitive Guide to Marketing Automation on YouTube. Not everyone is thinking about making their content ‘multimodal’ (e.g. turning a whitepaper into an infographic), according to Liz Smyth, marketing director EMEA, Marketo. “While there is a place for traditional content, whitepapers, case studies and blogs, they risk adding to the already burgeoning information overload. Like all new things, innovative tools, such as video and infographics, have both an adoption curve and a learning curve. Some traditional marketers still don’t fully understand the power of these new mediums,” she says.
The growing number of channels marketers have to choose from to disseminate content could be seen as a problem in terms of management, but this isn’t evident in the results of the report. The average number of channels practitioners are using is six – email (94 per cent), own website (87 per cent) and social media (83 per cent) are the most-used channels. Perceptions of channel effectiveness varies, with ‘events and seminars’ and ‘one-on-one meetings’ scoring highest – maybe because of their personal nature.
Twenty-nine per cent voiced concerns about their ability to implement an integrated approach, and if most of the respondents believe personal techniques are effective means of engaging their target audience, maybe these methods need to be used to distribute content.
Simon Nash, head of planning at Reading Room thinks social is the perfect complement to content: “In order to achieve a tangible return from your investment in engagement, you need to integrate content and social channels within your overall marketing plan and develop a connected and personalised experience across every touchpoint.”
Resources and ROI
Generally B2B brands are apportioning more time and budget to content with an average of 28 per cent of overall marketing budget allocated to content, and an average of 37 per cent of time resource invested in content.
But simply investing time and money in creating it doesn’t equal success, and raises concerns about marketing’s ability to cut through the noise. Many view content as the golden ticket to engage a target market without the obvious hard sell, but if the core elements aren’t right – selecting relevant topics, personalising content and choosing the right formats or channels (an obstacle for 25 per cent, 27 per cent and 23 per cent of respondents respectively) – marketers may fail.
Measurement and ROI on content marketing is generally pretty tricky, with only a fifth fully demonstrating success. Although, the good news is 76 per cent say they can prove ROI at least sometimes. There’s no doubt harnessing the ability to measure the impact of any content marketing initiative is a powerful advantage says Andy Bargery, director of Klaxon: “Assuming you use a suitable tracking and analytics package it should be straightforward to understand which content is attracting your audience and, importantly, contributing to converting browsers into leads. The key is to define what your return on investment criteria and measures are at the outset.”
Using marketing automation software is one way of determining outcomes and means marketing success isn’t just left to chance, says Adam Sharp, group MD of CleverTouch. He says: “ROI in B2B marketing is a bit of a myth in most companies, for the simple reason most communication and engagement strategies are not joined-up. It’s much better to focus on forecasting future marketing success, and with repeated programmes and marketing automation in place it’s so much easier to do.”
Authenticity
Those consuming the content often cite authenticity and industry insight as most valuable. When asked about subject matters, respondents revealed most of their content focused on ‘specific business challenges customers face’ (75 per cent) and ‘current/future trends in their industry/their customers’ industry’ (70 per cent). The two subjects were also voted as the most effective for achieving content marketing objectives.
Intelligent selection of content sources to target prospects can demonstrate to prospects/targets that you understand their pain points and offer solutions/discussion points.
Many marketers also face the challenge of intelligently selecting what pieces of content to really exploit as a demand generation tool against the complex decision over not giving too much insight away, something Bob Dearsley, chief executive at The B2B Marketing Lab points out: “Understandably it is hard to justify revealing your crown jewels of consulting advice. Yet it is crucial to share some intellectual property.” It’s a fine line to walk when deciding how much content to share, but trial and error is the only way to test out what works, and if the main business objective is to build brand awareness, then giving away content to encourage sharing isn’t a bad thing.
View our content infographic here>
