When it comes to social media marketing in the B2B space, it’s no secret that content is king. For years organizations like the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs have reinforced this axiom with hard facts. The data from the newest generation of their research was just released yesterday. The findings do more than merely show this trend continuing.
In fact, content is bigger than ever before for B2B marketers. In their study B2B Content Marketing: 2013 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends–North America, MarketingProfs and the Content Marketing Institute have revealed that B2B marketers are creating more content, more often, and utilizing more of the budget to do so. If there’s one word to describe this study it would simply be ‘more.’
Here are a few key take-aways you can use today to help your B2B business or client plan their content marketing for the year ahead.
1. More Content in the Mix
91% of B2B marketers use content as part of their marketing mix in some form.
2. More Use of Certain Content Tactics
Year on year, certain content tactics such as videos, research reports, mobile content, and virtual conferences have seen double-digit increases in their use.
3. More Social Media Use
Social media continues to be the best strategy for B2B marketers to distribute their content.
4. More LinkedIn Use
Another exciting development is the fact that LinkedIn has surpassed Twitter as the social network B2B marketers are using most to get their content in front of the right decision makers.
5. More Budget
More than half of B2B marketers plan to increase the budget they have allocated for content marketing in the year ahead.
6. More In-House Content Creation
While B2B marketers continue to utilize a mix of internal and external resources for content creation, in-house content creation is up 18% compared to last year.
7. WANTED: More Content!
The final piece in the “more content” trend is the fact that creating enough content is now the number one challenge for B2B marketers, surpassing the previous challenge of creating engaging content.
Want More Great B2B Content Marketing Data?
You can find the complete study here. You can also check out their presentation embedded below.
What do you think? How do these facts and figures align with your B2B business’ content marketing plans, challenges, and results? How are you addressing the need for more content?
