By Guest Blogger Ann Mullen
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="336" caption="Business-to-Business"]
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First we need to have some definitions. As defined by this study:
Next I discovered that there are approximately 20 content marketing tactics used by B2B (Business-to-Business) marketers while eight is the number used by most marketers. The top nine include: articles, social media other than blogs, blogs, eNewsletters, case studies, in-person events, videos, white papers, and webinars.
“Social media other than blogs” is defined as the use of Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Slideshare, Google+, and Flicker.
Who were these B2B marketers surveyed? The industry classifications and percentages of respondents used in the survey were: advertising/marketing consisted of 13%; banking/financial/insurance were 5%; business services 8%; computing software 17%; healthcare 5%; manufacturing services 7%; professional services 6%; and a hefty 39% called “other”.
Respondents included 29% of businesses with 10-99 employees; 25% with fewer than 10 employees; 25% with 100-999 employees; and 21% with over 1000 employees. I’d say that was a good mixture.
Some of the strange things I found in this survey include a confidence gap for social media excluding blogs where 50% believe it is effective and 50% don’t. At the same time between the last year’s survey and this year’s there are 61% more marketers perceiving social media as effective.
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="320" caption="Planning the budget"][/caption]
Looking at that confidence gap we see a difference between it and expected spending for this year in content marketing. You would suppose that the group that thinks social media is effective would correlate with the percentage of respondents who will increase spending, but the fact is that 60% of respondents intend to increase spending on content marketing in 2012.
Of those who consider content marketing “effective” or “very effective” compared to their competitors, these best-in-class marketers invest 31 % of their budgets in content marketing while those who felt it was “least effective” only allocate 18%.
One of two things is going on here. Perhaps those who are willing to pay more are getting better results or those who pay more say it is more effective because they have almost 1/3 of their budget invested in the process. An Armani suit costs a pretty penny. Even if the wearer doesn’t like it for some reason, he is less likely to say anything negative about it because of the investment.
Let’s have a summary: Content marketing includes everything from internet usage to offline traditional marketing. Social media excluding blogging is one facet of content marketing that includes Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Business-to-Business marketing is done by many different businesses. Half of these think that social media works and half don’t. At the same time more than half intend to increase their budgets for all content marketing. Those who are most impressed with content marketing put their money where their mouths are and allocate almost 1/3 of their budgets in it.
Got that? If you are a B2B company, where do you stand in this section of the survey?
For more information see “B2B Content Marketing--2012 Benchmarks, Budgets & Trends” published by Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs at http://www.contentmarketinginstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/B2B_Content_Marketing_2012.pdf.
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="336" caption="Business-to-Business"]
The more I learn about marketing the less I understand. I just got my copy of “B2B Content Marketing--2012 Benchmarks, Budgets & Trends” published by Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs, based on a survey of 1,092 marketers taken in August 2011. I learned quite a lot in a small space and found things I do not understand.
First we need to have some definitions. As defined by this study:
Content marketing/custom media (sometimes called custom publishing, custom content, or branded content) is the creation and distribution of educational and/or compelling content in multiple formats to attract and/or retain customers.
Next I discovered that there are approximately 20 content marketing tactics used by B2B (Business-to-Business) marketers while eight is the number used by most marketers. The top nine include: articles, social media other than blogs, blogs, eNewsletters, case studies, in-person events, videos, white papers, and webinars.
“Social media other than blogs” is defined as the use of Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Slideshare, Google+, and Flicker.
Who were these B2B marketers surveyed? The industry classifications and percentages of respondents used in the survey were: advertising/marketing consisted of 13%; banking/financial/insurance were 5%; business services 8%; computing software 17%; healthcare 5%; manufacturing services 7%; professional services 6%; and a hefty 39% called “other”.
Respondents included 29% of businesses with 10-99 employees; 25% with fewer than 10 employees; 25% with 100-999 employees; and 21% with over 1000 employees. I’d say that was a good mixture.
Some of the strange things I found in this survey include a confidence gap for social media excluding blogs where 50% believe it is effective and 50% don’t. At the same time between the last year’s survey and this year’s there are 61% more marketers perceiving social media as effective.
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="320" caption="Planning the budget"]
Looking at that confidence gap we see a difference between it and expected spending for this year in content marketing. You would suppose that the group that thinks social media is effective would correlate with the percentage of respondents who will increase spending, but the fact is that 60% of respondents intend to increase spending on content marketing in 2012.
Of those who consider content marketing “effective” or “very effective” compared to their competitors, these best-in-class marketers invest 31 % of their budgets in content marketing while those who felt it was “least effective” only allocate 18%.
One of two things is going on here. Perhaps those who are willing to pay more are getting better results or those who pay more say it is more effective because they have almost 1/3 of their budget invested in the process. An Armani suit costs a pretty penny. Even if the wearer doesn’t like it for some reason, he is less likely to say anything negative about it because of the investment.
Let’s have a summary: Content marketing includes everything from internet usage to offline traditional marketing. Social media excluding blogging is one facet of content marketing that includes Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Business-to-Business marketing is done by many different businesses. Half of these think that social media works and half don’t. At the same time more than half intend to increase their budgets for all content marketing. Those who are most impressed with content marketing put their money where their mouths are and allocate almost 1/3 of their budgets in it.
Got that? If you are a B2B company, where do you stand in this section of the survey?
For more information see “B2B Content Marketing--2012 Benchmarks, Budgets & Trends” published by Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs at http://www.contentmarketinginstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/B2B_Content_Marketing_2012.pdf.
Ann Mullen has been writing most of her life, some of it even for pay. She wrote as many as three columns a week for a newspaper in South Texas. For the last year she has been learning about websites, blogging and social media marketing. Lately, Ann has been a team member of BroadVision Marketing at http://www.broadvisionmarketing.com. You can contact her at mullenann4@gmail.com.
Related articles
- B2B Marketers Are All About Content Marketing (revenews.com)
- Six Social Media Trends for 2012 (antiworldnews.wordpress.com)
