June 11, 2013
Content marketing has received a lot of attention of late – it’s really coming to the fore for marketers, who are increasingly paying attention to its true value. I want to share with you this lovely infographic from Demand Metric, which highlights some interesting statistics relating to content marketing – illustrating the increased understanding and importance that is being placed on the practice.
To kick off, it states that 90% of organisations are already marketing with content – a very encouraging statistic. In fact, with marketers spending an average of 25% of their budgets on content marketing, and 80% stating they think that custom content needs to be central to marketing activity, the future of content marketing looks bright.
It’s also encouraging to note that the difference in B2B and B2C marketers who are championing content marketing is relatively minimal (91% vs 86%). B2B marketers were perhaps quicker off the mark initially in realising the opportunities offered by marketing through content, but it seems that B2C marketers are now also paying attention.
The challenge posed by content marketing is the resource that it demands; time is an essential requisite to the creation of quality, engaging content and with marketers already juggling a million and one things, it can be tricky. That’s why I’m not surprised to see that 62% of companies are outsourcing for support.
So why is content marketing so important?
With traditional advertising and marketing methods becoming increasingly ineffective in our digital age, content marketing provides an alternative means for marketers to engage their customers and prospects (in a way that isn’t so blatant or overly promotional). Successful content marketing activity must be backed up by a concrete strategy; marketers need to define their objectives, and think about how they are going to offer something unique, before embarking on the creation of content. To be engaging content needs to add value – so marketers need to work harder to retain the attention of the modern consumer.
As a final thought, before you peruse the infographic, I want to finish up with a nod to measurement and ROI. Marketers need to be clear about what they are trying to achieve through their content marketing activitiy from the outset – is it engagement, click-throughs or simply increased reach and eyeballs on branded content?
Let me know what you think, and enjoy!
Infographic courtesy of Demand Metric.