Content marketing is on the rise and relevant and timely content needs to be an integral part of your marketing strategy.
90% of marketers are already doing this but not all have realised the extent of content marketing or how to harness it to its full potential.
Though 60% of B2B marketers plan to spend more on content marketing, only 26% of those surveyed are actually doing it. With the rise of startups catering to the easy creation of content, this may create a shift in how marketers approach this area.
In 2011, Google's Panda update attempted to separate the good content from the bad so those creating high quality content are beginning to see improved site rankings. Another reason content will play a greater role in marketing.
This infographic by BlueGlass goes into more detail. It's interesting to see the variety of tactics and what rates highly for B2B marketers. Traditional marketing is further down the list than expected whereas eBooks are on the rise.
Does this reflect what you are doing in your company?
Infographic from BlueGlass Interactive
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Owner at Thomas Consultancy
3:02PM on 13th February 2012
What businesses fail to do is plan their content topics and strategy - think about buying cycles, relevant topics as well as ideas that are supportive to their service or product - plan for it all and pull a schedule together including all the social and content guises to account for preference of receiving and reading information.
I have been a content advocate across social and search and have blended the two for the past 6 years, it is a shame when clients do not understand the importance of content or see that they are already doing it in some way, shape or form.
head of sales and marketing at Sticky Content
5:42PM on 13th February 2012
@Katie. I agree, Katie. Many people think more about the short term and become reactive than planning for the long term. Good content marketing is more than just creating content - it’s taking an editorial approach to marketing. It’s about engaging users with generous information that positions you as an expert, speaks to your audience’s priorities and leaves them wanting to find out more. You can't do this without the planning. We've noticed a recent rise in the number of clients asking us to plan and create for this type of marketing. Our recent blog has some interesting stats about the market http://www.stickycontent.com/blog/94/content-marketing-by-numbers-new-from-content-confidential
Digital Marketing Manager at McLaren
8:59AM on 17th February 2012
Sian/Katie. Agree with comments and especially regarding planning. The reactive nature of content from client side is something that will need to shift to take a more strategic outlook, what messges do we wish to leave with customers, what are the bet channels to do this and what is the "long term" behavioural change we desire. Smaller businesses a better at this because the reduced internal layers increase speed of content, which is a nother critical success factor. I expect to see more content marketing agencies/specialists in 2012.