b2b content marketing trends 2012

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20 1 2 SURVEY RESULTS Marketing Trends by Holger Schulze Sponsored by NetProspex | Optify | Maximizer Software | Solution Publishing

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Content marketing is a big buzz word. Most marketers will agree that the purpose of content marketing is to engage B2B buyers with compelling content to educate, inform, entertain and guide them along their buying journey. And while you want to help buyers make pragmatic and informed decisions, your ultimate goal is to persuade them to select your solution over competing alternatives. But what’s behind the buzz? We conducted a survey with the 30,000+ member B2B Technology Marketing Community on LinkedIn to get answers to key questions like: What’s working and what’s not? Who is creating content and what are they creating? How do you measure content marketing results? We received over 740 responses in less than 3 weeks and are happy to share the results with you. Follow me @holgerschulze

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Page 1: B2B Content Marketing Trends 2012

2012 SURVEY RESULTS

Marketing Trends

by Holger Schulze

Sponsored by

NetProspex | Optify | Maximizer Software | Solution Publishing

Page 2: B2B Content Marketing Trends 2012

B2B CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS | READ THE 2012 SURVEY RESULTS 1

Content marketing is a big buzz word in 2012. Most marketers will agree that the purpose of content marketing is to engage B2B buyers with compelling content to educate, inform, entertain and guide them along their buying journey. And while you want to help buyers make pragmatic and informed decisions, your ultimate goal is to persuade them to select your solution over competing alternatives.

But what’s behind the buzz? We conducted a survey with the 30,000+ member B2B Technology Marketing Community on LinkedIn to get answers to key questions like:

What’s working and what’s not? Who is creating content and what are they creating? How do you measure content marketing results?

We received over 740 responses in less than 3 weeks and are happy to share the results with you.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the survey!

INTRODUCTION

B2B buyer behavior has been changing dramatically over the last few years as buyers become more sophisticated, fi nd new ways to gather information online and via social media. 90% of business buyers say when they’re ready to buy, they’ll fi nd you. *DemandGen Reports

Holger Schulze

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Page 3: B2B Content Marketing Trends 2012

B2B CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS | READ THE 2012 SURVEY RESULTS

1. Content marketing is expanding dramatically in terms of tactics, forms and volume of content.

• 84 percent of marketers say content production is on the rise

• Over half of the participants are using 10 or more formats and tactics that they deem “effective”

• These same respondents are spreading content creation across 6 different functional roles

2. Content is at the heart of B2B marketers top 3 goals—lead generation, market education and brand awareness.

3. The fastest growing content format is Infographics, whose use increased 1.5x from last year.

4. Biggest challenge for marketers is time and bandwidth to create content.

• 94 percent of B2B marketers create new content from scratch

5. Most B2B marketers are trying to measure content engagement.

• Web traffi c, views & downloads and lead quantity & quality are the top 3 measurements

SURVEY HIGHLIGHTS

2

Top-5 Trends in Content Marketing

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Page 4: B2B Content Marketing Trends 2012

B2B CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS | READ THE 2012 SURVEY RESULTS 3

#1 Lead Generation

For 68 percent of respondents, the top goal for content

marketing is lead generation. This is up from 62 percent

in last year’s survey. No major surprises here considering

that content marketing has emerged as a critical B2B

strategy to drive inbound lead generation (in response to

outbound B2B tactics becoming increasingly ineffective).

In other words, lead generation is the ultimate promise of

content marketing.

#2 Thought Leadership & Market Education

The next highest content marketing goal is thought

leadership and market education with 50 percent of

responses (up from 37 percent in last year’s survey). This

pattern is also consistent with the promise of content

marketing as a strategy to educate and infl uence buyer

behavior in the vendor’s favor.

#3 Brand Awareness

Brand awareness, for 39 percent of respondents

(up from 34 percent last year), has replaced last

year’s number three content marketing goal, lead

nurturing.

WHAT ARE THE GOALSOF CONTENT MARKETING?Q1

Lead generation

Thought leadership/ market education

Brand awareness

Lead nurturing

Customer acquisition

Sales

Website traffic

Customer loyalty/ retention

Social media engagement

Channel enablement

What are your top-3-goals for content marketing?

0% 20% 40% 60% 80%

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Page 5: B2B Content Marketing Trends 2012

B2B CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS | READ THE 2012 SURVEY RESULTS 4

The leading content marketing tactics are case

studies (62 percent) followed by white papers /

ebooks (61 percent) and press releases (58 percent).

In contrast, the least commonly used content

marketing tactics are advertorials (11 percent),

community management & threading (12 percent),

and virtual events (18 percent).

WHAT CONTENT MARKETINGTACTICS DO YOU ACTIVELY USE? Q2

Case studies

White papers / ebooks

Press releases

e-newsletters

Blogging

Webinars

Videos

Social content

In-person events

Online articles

Slideware

Product demos

Infographics / images

Polling / research

Virtual / online events

Community management& threading

Advertorials

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

0% 20% 40% 60%

What tactics and forms of content marketing do you actively use?

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B2B CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS | READ THE 2012 SURVEY RESULTS 5

These content formats are considered most effective in engaging prospects and delivering message.

Marketers consider case studies most effective

(78 percent) — unchanged compared to last year’s

survey. This is also the most commonly used tactic

(see previous chart). White papers take the number

two spot with 73 percent (up from number three last

year), followed by live, in person events (72 percent

and down from the number two spot last year). The

least effective content formats are advertorials (18

percent), community management & threading (20

percent), and virtual events (31 percent). The fastest

rising content format are infographics with 43

percent compared to 28 percent last year.

HOW EFFECTIVE ARE CONTENTMARKETING TACTICS & FORMATS? Q3

Case studies

White papers / ebooks

In-person events

Online articles

Videos

Webinars

Product demos

e-newsletters

Blogging

Press releases

Slideware

Social content

Infographics / images

Polling / research

Virtual / online events

Community management& threading

Advertorials

How effective are the following content marketing tactics and formats?

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Effective Ineffective I don’t use it

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Page 7: B2B Content Marketing Trends 2012

B2B CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS | READ THE 2012 SURVEY RESULTS

So what are the ingredientsof successful content?

It starts with engaging and compelling

storytelling (81 percent), originality (52 percent)

and customized content (50 percent), followed

by professional writing (39 percent).

WHAT ARE THE THREE MOST IMPORTANTELEMENTS OF EFFECTIVE CONTENT?Q4

Engaging and compelling storytelling

Originality

Custom content

Well edited copy

Professional writing

Written for SEO

Low cost

High volume production

What do you consider the three most important elements of effective content?

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

6

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Page 8: B2B Content Marketing Trends 2012

B2B CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS | READ THE 2012 SURVEY RESULTS

LinkedIn tops the list of social media platforms

with 85 percent (although this number is likely

skewed considering the majority of survey

respondents came from the B2B Technology

Marketing Community on LinkedIn). The runner

ups are Twitter (70 percent), Facebook (54

percent) and YouTube (53 percent).

WHAT SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS DO YOU USE TO DELIVER CONTENT TO AUDIENCES?Q5

LinkedIn

Twitter

Facebook

YouTube

Sideshare

Custom developedcommunities

Google+

Pinterest

Flickr

What social media plataforms do you use to deliver content to audiences?

0% 25% 50% 75% 100%

7

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Page 9: B2B Content Marketing Trends 2012

B2B CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS | READ THE 2012 SURVEY RESULTS

The vast majority of B2B marketers create

content from scratch (94 percent). Other

tactics include curating third party content

(39 percent), re-using existing content (32

percent) and encouraging user-generated

content (30 percent).

Create content from scratch

Curate third party content

License / re-use existing content

Encourage user generated content

How do you create content?

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

8

HOW DO YOU CREATE CONTENT?Q6twitter Linkedin

Page 10: B2B Content Marketing Trends 2012

B2B CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS | READ THE 2012 SURVEY RESULTS

Web traffi c (64 percent) is the number one

metric used by marketers to measure the

success of content marketing. The next most

popular metric is views and downloads (59

percent), followed by lead quantity and lead

quality (tied with 52 percent each). Web traffic

Views / downloads

Lead quantity

Lead quality

Inquires

Opportunities

Sales / revenue

Customer feedback

Search rankings

Social media engagement

Inbound links

Share of conversation

Don’t measure

What metrics do you use to measure the successof your content marketing program?

0% 20% 40% 60% 80%

9

WHAT METRICS DO YOU USE TO MEASURE THE SUCCESS OF YOUR CONTENT?Q7

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Page 11: B2B Content Marketing Trends 2012

B2B CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS | READ THE 2012 SURVEY RESULTS

The next question is to find out where in

the organization content marketing strategy

is determined. In most companies

(55 percent), Corporate marketing sets

content strategy, followed by Product

marketing (38 percent), and the CEO /

President / Owner (37 percent) in smaller

companies that often don’t have a

dedicated marketing department. Corporate marketing

Product marketing

CEO / President / Owner

PR / Communications

Sales

Demand generation

Product management

Field marketing

External agency / Freelancer

Who determines content marketing strategy at your company?

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

WHO DETERMINES CONTENTMARKETING STRATEGY?Q8

10

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Page 12: B2B Content Marketing Trends 2012

B2B CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS | READ THE 2012 SURVEY RESULTS

Corporate marketing is also the number

one creator of content in most companies

(55 percent), followed by Product marketing

(47 percent) and PR / Communications

(38 percent). About one in three companies

relies on external agencies and freelancers

to create content.

Corporate marketing

Product marketing

PR / Communications

External agency / Freelancer

Product management

CEO / President / Owner

Field marketing

Sales

Demand generation

Who creates content at your company?

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

WHO CREATES CONTENT?

11

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Page 13: B2B Content Marketing Trends 2012

B2B CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS | READ THE 2012 SURVEY RESULTS

The most outsourced form of content

are videos (33 percent). They are hard

to produce and most companies don’t

have the required capabilities in-house.

Videos are followed by white papers /

ebooks (32 percent) and case studies

(26 percent). In contrast, the least

outsourced tactics are product demos

(6 percent), community management &

threading (6 percent) and slideware /

presentations (6 percent).

Videos

White papers / ebooks

Case studies

Press releases

Infographics / images

Online articles

Webinars

Blogging

Polling / research

E-newsletters

Social content

AdvertorialsVirtual / online events

In-person eventsSlideware / presentationsCommunity management

& threadingProduct demos

We don’t outsource any

Which types of marketing content or tactis do you currently outsource,or expect to outsource in the future?

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%

WHAT CONTENT MARKETING TACTICSDO MARKETERS OUTSOURCE?Q10

12

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Page 14: B2B Content Marketing Trends 2012

B2B CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS | READ THE 2012 SURVEY RESULTS

For 51 percent of companies, the

corporate marketing function owns content

marketing funds, followed by the CEO /

President / Owner (35 percent) in smaller

companies. Product marketing owns the

content marketing budget in 22 percent of

companies. Now let’s look at who clearly

doesn’t own content marketing budgets

in most companies: external agencies and

freelancers (1 percent), sales (5 percent), and

product management (6 percent).

Who owns the content marketing budget?

0% 10% 20% 30%| 40% 50% 60%

Corporate marketing

CEO / President / Owner

Product marketing

PR / Communications

Field marketing

Demand generation

Product management

Sales

External agency / Freelancer

WHO OWNS THE CONTENTMARKETING BUDGET?Q11

13

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Page 15: B2B Content Marketing Trends 2012

B2B CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS | READ THE 2012 SURVEY RESULTS

One of the most telling indicators of

the increasing importance of content

marketing is budget allocation. Last year’s

survey showed that the most frequent

budget allocation was 20 percent. In

our latest survey, it has moved up to 30

percent indicating a strong shift toward

content marketing.

What percentage of your marketing budget is allocated to content marketing?

25%

20%

15%

10%

5%

0%10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%0%

WHAT PERCENTAGE OF BUDGET ISALLOCATED TO CONTENT MARKETING?Q12

14

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Page 16: B2B Content Marketing Trends 2012

B2B CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS | READ THE 2012 SURVEY RESULTS

Now that we know that content marketing

spend is going up, let’s take a look at

what tactics receive the most budget.

The largest share of budget is allocated

to tradeshows and in-person events (23

percent). This is followed by the company

website (21 percent) and email marketing

(17 percent).

Tradeshows & in-person events

Company website

Email

Print media

Social media

PPC / Paid search

PR

Webinar

Blog

Organic search

Online Display Ads

Online directories

What percentage of your budget do you allocate to content distribution channels.

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25%

WHAT CONTENT MARKETINGTACTICS IS BUDGET SPENT ON?Q13

15

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Page 17: B2B Content Marketing Trends 2012

B2B CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS | READ THE 2012 SURVEY RESULTS

Over 84 percent of marketers are

increasing content production over the

next 12 months, over 30 percent of them

significantly so. 14 percent of marketers

expect volume to stay flat. In contrast, last

year, over 71 percent of respondents saw

an increase in content production — looks

like the pace of content production is

picking up steam.How is your content production volume going to change

over the next 12 months?

53.0% | Increases

30.5% | Increases significantly

15.0% | Stays flat

1.5% | Decreases

0.0% | Decreases significantly

HOW IS CONTENT PRODUCTION VOLUME CHANGING OVER THE NEXT 12 MONTHS?Q14

16

percent of marketers say content production is on the rise.

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Page 18: B2B Content Marketing Trends 2012

B2B CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS | READ THE 2012 SURVEY RESULTS

Top ChallengesContent marketing is complex and requires a very

different approach and skill set compared to traditional

outbound marketing tactics. We asked our marketing

community what they consider the biggest content

marketing challenges – here are the results:

The number one challenge is having enough time and

bandwidth to create content (56 percent), replacing last

years top challenge: producing truly engaging content (53

percent). The next biggest content marketing challenge

is producing enough content to serve the needs of your

marketing programs (45 percent). This points to a lack

of resources in B2B marketing organizations, which is

confi rmed by 33 percent of respondents who selected

lack of talent as their marketing challenge. The least

pressing problem for marketers is poor content quality

(12 percent) tied with fi nding domain experts (12 percent).

WHAT ARE YOUR BIGGEST CONTENT MARKETING CHALLENGES?Q15

17

Time / bandwidth to create content

Producing truly engaging content

Producing enough content

Measuring resultsTalent to produce content

Getting content delivered tothe right audiences

No consistent content strategyCreating segment-specific content

Lack of budget to produce contentUnderstanding buyer personas

and decision stagesFinding enough targeted contacts

to offer content toLack of process

Buyers don’t want to register toconsume content

Buyers’ attention span too shortLocalizing content forinternational markets

Getting executive buy-in

Finding domain experts

Poor content quality

What are your biggest content marketing challenges?

0% 20% 40% 60%

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Page 19: B2B Content Marketing Trends 2012

B2B CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS | READ THE 2012 SURVEY RESULTS

There are many different ways to slice and

organize marketing content. Should you

segment by product, pain point, buyer

persona, buying stage, or vertical – or all of

the above? Here is what the B2B marketing

community thinks:

The most popular segmentation dimension

is product category (50 percent), followed

by vertical (36 percent) and buyer persona

(28 percent).

The least popular segmentation dimension is

company size with 16 percent. And 20 percent

of marketers don’t systematically segment

content at all.

How do you segment and personalize your content?

60%

40%

20%

0%Product /

service categoryVertical Buyer

personaPain point Stage in

buying cycleWe don’t

systematicallysegment content

Companysize

HOW DO MARKETERS SEGMENTAND PERSONALIZE CONTENT?Q16

18

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Page 20: B2B Content Marketing Trends 2012

B2B CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS | READ THE 2012 SURVEY RESULTS

B2B content marketing is not trivial. Consider

the multitude of market segments you serve,

with multiple products, each with different buyer

personas that influence the buying decision.

And each buying process comprises a number

of stages that require content to guide buyers

to the next stage.

If you wanted to address all possible

intersections of products, markets, buyer

personas, buying stages (and have multiple

white papers, webcasts, eBooks, blog posts

for each intersection) – you would quickly

be overwhelmed by the sheer amount and

complexity of content and associated

marketing programs.

MANAGING THE COMPLEXITY OF B2B CONTENT MARKETINGQ17

19

So what is a manageable number of segments, personas, and stages B2B marketers can support?

We asked our B2B marketing community

and the magic number is …

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Page 21: B2B Content Marketing Trends 2012

B2B CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS | READ THE 2012 SURVEY RESULTS

One of the emerging trends related

to content marketing is marketing

automation as a way to get targeted

content in front of buying audiences. And

while adoption of marketing automation is

growing, only 26 percent of B2B marketers

are actively creating content to feed their

marketing automation campaign.

57 percent don’t use marketing

automation at all.

57.3% | Don’t use MA

25.5% | Actively create content to feed automated campaigns

19.0% | Sporadically use content for MA campaigns

How do you integrate content marketingwith marketing automation (MA)?

INTEGRATION WITHMARKETING AUTOMATIONQ18

20

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Page 22: B2B Content Marketing Trends 2012

B2B CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS | READ THE 2012 SURVEY RESULTS 21

The survey was completed by 740 marketers in 2012. Here is a detailed breakdown of the survey

participant demographics.

SURVEY METHODOLOGY

Fewer than 10

10-99

100-999

1,000-10,000

10,000+

What is the size of your company (employees)?

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30%

Marketing

Owner / CEO / President

Sales

Product Management

Consultant

What is your role in your company?

Engineering

0% 20% 40% 60% 80%

Manager

Director

Owner / CEO / President

VP

Specialist

What is your job title?

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 35%30%

High-tech

Advertising / Marketing

Business services

Manufacturing

Telecommunication

What industry is your company in?

Software

Professional services

Helathcare

Financial services

Government

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25%

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B2B CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS | READ THE 2012 SURVEY RESULTS 22

We would like to thank our sponsors for supporting the 2012 B2B Content Marketing Report:

IDG Enterprise | www.idgenterprise.comIDG Enterprise brings together the unique brands (Computerworld, InfoWorld, Network World, CIO, DEMO, CSO, CIO Executive Council, ITworld, and CFOworld) to serve the information needs of our IT and security-focused audiences. By leveraging the strengths of each individual brand, while simultaneously harnessing their collective reach and audience affi nity, we provide market leadership and media best practices for our marketing customers to engage their customers across our portfolio.

NetProspex | www.netprospex.comNetProspex drives B2B lead generation by providing marketers with targeted prospect lists, data cleansing, and powerful analytics to understand their data.

Optify | www.optify.netOptify helps professional B2B marketers reach more buyers and generate more demand. Optify’s Inbound Marketing Suite brings together enterprise-class SEO, social marketing, website analytics and tools that B2B marketers need to increase awareness, infl uence buyers across social networks, and engage with prospects at the earliest point of their buyer’s journey.

SPONSORS

Maximizer Software | www.maximizer.comMaximizer Software delivers Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software to meet the needs, budgets and access requirements of entrepreneurs, medium and small businesses and divisions of large enterprises. Easily confi gurable for organizations in any industry, Maximizer CRM optimizes sales processes, enhances marketing initiatives, and, improves customer service to ultimately boost productivity and revenue.

Solution Publishing | www.solpub.comSolution Publishing utilizes proprietary semantic technologies to deliver exceptionally relevant content to its permission based B-to-B audiences. Technology professionals and business leaders value our IT Solution Journal as a customized research department they rely on to remain current and explore business solutions. Technology marketers use IT Solution Journal for high quality lead and demand generation.

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B2B CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS | READ THE 2012 SURVEY RESULTS 23

About the B2B TechnologyMarketing Community

With over 30,000 members, the B2B Technology

Marketing Community is the single largest LinkedIn group

exclusively focused on B2B technology marketing. This

group is for marketing professionals in B2B high-tech

industries to enable networking, sharing of ideas, best

practices and opportunities.

Bottom line: Content marketing is rapidly moving along the adoption

life cycle and best practices are rapidly emerging. I hope

you enjoyed this survey report and found the data points

helpful for your own content marketing efforts.

THANK YOU

Join the B2B TECHNOLOGYMARKETINGCOMMUNITY

on LinkedIn

TechnologyMarketing

Group Partner

Many thanks to everybody who participated in this survey.

If you are interested in co-sponsoring upcoming surveys, or creating your

own survey report, please contact Holger Schulze at [email protected].

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B2B CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS | READ THE 2012 SURVEY RESULTS 24

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Our goal is to inform and educate B2B marketers

about new trends, share marketing ideas and

best practices, and make it easier for you to find

the information you care about to do your jobs

successfully.

Holger Schulze is a B2B technology marketing

executive delivering demand, brand awareness,

and revenue growth for high-tech companies.

A prolific blogger and online community builder,

Holger manages the B2B Technology Marketing

Community on LinkedIn with over 30,000+ members.

Holger Schulze is the author of the syndicated blog Everything Technology Marketing.

[email protected]

Follow Holger on Twitterhttp://twitter.com/holgerschulze

Subscribe to Holger’sTechnology Marketing Bloghttp://everythingtechnologymarketing.blogspot.com