Successful B2B content marketers follow similar strategies. They have a documented content marketing strategy, stress creation of high-quality content, and measure content marketing performance, reveals the B2B Content Marketing: 2017 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends — North America.
B2B marketers believe content marketing is a successful strategy. Most (62%) of the B2B marketers surveyed say their content marketing has been much more or somewhat more successful than a year ago, according to the study by MarketingProfs and the Content Marketing Institute. Marketers named improved content creation and developing or adjusting their content marketing strategy as top reasons for more effective content marketing.
“After analyzing the findings, I truly feel the momentum we are seeing in the industry is taking a turn for the better,” explains Joe Pulizzi, founder Content Marketing Institute in a Business Wire press release. “One important distinction among marketers who are consistently top performers is their level of commitment. It’s clear if you want to be successful with your content marketing you need to make it a priority.”
Highlights of B2B Content Marketing
Some highlights from the report include:
- 22% of B2B marketers say their organization’s overall content marketing approach is extremely or very successful. That 22% constitute this year’s “top performers.”
- 63% of B2B marketers say their organizations are extremely or very committed to content marketing. That’s compared with 91% of top performers.
- 37% of B2B marketers have a documented content marketing strategy, compared with 61% of top performers.
- 72% measure content marketing ROI, compared with 88% of top performers.
- 49% of B2B marketers measure content marketing ROI at the top of the funnel, making it the phase of the buyer’s journey where they are most likely to measure ROI.
- 75% of B2B marketers agree that they team can demonstrate, with metrics, how content marketing has increased audience engagement.
“The news wasn’t all rosy, though,” writes Ann Handley, chief content officer of MarketingProfs. “For example, although 72% of B2B marketers are more focused on building long-term relationships than on getting quick results from their content marketing, only half agree that their leadership team gives them ample time to produce content marketing results.”
Top goals cited for the upcoming year include improving lead generation (80%), brand awareness (79%), and engagement (71%). Favorite metrics include website traffic (78%), sales lead quality (57%), and social media sharing (57%).
Marketers say the most important element of content marketing strategies is a plan to operate content marketing as an ongoing business process, not simply a campaign. Other key components include a content mission and a differentiated value to deliver, understanding of the target audience, and a measurement plan that provides insight and progress toward business goals.
The Best Focus on Measurement
An early survey by Curata, Content Marketing Tactics & Technology Study, asserted that successful marketers focus on measuring the impact of content as well as content creation and promotion.
“As the majority of marketers focus on improving their ability to scale their content supply chain through editorial calendars and better workflow, only the best of the best content marketers are working to measure the impact of their content on their sales pipeline,” writes Curata CMO Michael Gerard in a guest post for WebDAM. “This allows them to better manage their investment and demonstrate the impact of content marketing to upper management and across the organization.”
While most marketers tend to analyze the top of the sales funnel, more advanced marketers give more attention to metrics from the middle and bottom of the funnel, with the help of software and content marketing platforms, according to Curata.
When Content Marketing is Highly Profitable
Content marketing can be highly profitable, but only if you know how to measure, analyze, and improve your effectiveness, says Jose Vasquez, president and CEO of QuezMedia.com.
Some of the most important metrics to track include: organic traffic, search rankings, referral traffic, social traffic, popularity of particular blog topics, conversion rate and ROI.
“If you can accurately measure and understand these metrics, you’ll have a good understanding of where you stand in content marketing,” Vazquez writes in the Huffington Post. “Keep making adjustments, and adopt a mentality of ongoing improvement.”
Bottom Line: Most marketers say content marketing grew more successful over the past year. However, some teams are naturally more successful than others. Effective content marketing requires measuring ROI and progress toward goals, an adaptable strategy, and above all an erstwhile commitment to content marketing.
William J. Comcowich founded and served as CEO of CyberAlert LLC, the predecessor of Glean.info. He is currently serving as Interim CEO and member of the Board of Directors. Glean.info provides customized media monitoring, media measurement and analytics solutions across all types of traditional and social media.
