More and more companies are beginning to understand that traditional advertising, such as television, radio, and website banner ads are easy for consumers to ignore. Since these traditional marketing techniques so easily interrupt the activity in which the consumer is engaged, those ads become little more than annoyances to the consumer. Content marketing, on the other hand, grabs the attentions of those people who are actively seeking information, as long as that information is relevant and genuinely helpful. If the consumer find what she needs, she will make her way into the sales funnel by her own accord.
Content creation is no longer just a burgeoning trend. It has become necessary for all businesses, regardless of industry.There’s a lot of talk about content marketing these days, and just about everybody’s doing it, from the largest of corporations to the tiniest of small businesses. According to the Content Marketing Institute (CMI) and MarketingProfs, in their 2014 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends – North America, 93 percent of B2B marketers are using content marketing. Following are some other interesting statistics gathered from the report:
Increased Content Creation
Marketing professionals who understand how important content is, are making sure that they stay ahead of the competition. Consistently creating new content is a priority for roughly 78 percent of the top B2B marketers who, according to the CMI report, are creating more content than a year ago. The report also goes on to say that only 57 percent of the less successful marketing peers are doing the same. This trend is likely to continue well into 2015 and beyond.
Spending On Content Marketing
The average B2B company will spend around 30 percent of its marketing budget on content marketing in the coming year, but the best companies will spend a little bit more, right around 39 percent. Furthermore, 52 percent of B2B marketers plan to increase their content marketing budgets over the next 12 months. The reason for this, according to Kapost, is that the ROI or return on investment for content marketing produces three times more leads than other marketing channels.
Content-Marketing Challenges
Being prolific in producing content as well as creating quality content that engages potential customers are two challenges facing companies today. Finding the time for content creation is also a problem for roughly 69 percent of businesses. No matter the size of the company, the answer to both of these dilemmas is outsourcing at least part of the work. CMI says that, currently, 64 percent of companies who utilize content marketing outsource the writing, 54 percent outsource design and 22 percent outsource content distribution and syndication. In future months, the number companies outsourcing content creation, management, and distribution is expected to continue to increase.
In today’s content-hungry world, there is no substitute for information that solves a problem, gives advice, or adds some value to the reader’s experience. In order to stay competitive and capture a larger share of the information marketplace, a company must be in the content-creation business, no matter what product or service they sell.
If you’d like to learn more about content marketing and how you can benefit from outsourcing, contact us. We have content-creation solutions that fit any size business in any niche market.
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