There’s good reason for the rise of content marketing, and the numbers tell the story.
B2B marketers face specific content marketing challenges. Here are 50 things every B2B marketer needs to know if they want to be a real content marketing player:
1: 55% of B2B marketers aren’t sure what an effective or successful content marketing strategy looks like within their organization.
2: In 2014, 38% of B2B marketers felt they were effective content marketers. That number dropped to 30% in 2015.
3: 36% of content marketers meet with their team weekly to discuss their content marketing program.
4: 61% of the most effective content marketers meet daily or weekly to discuss their content marketing program.
5: 32% of B2B marketers have a documented content marketing strategy.
6: Around 48% of the most effective B2B marketers have a documented content marketing strategy.
7: 28% of content marketers are documenting their editorial visions for their content marketing programs.
8: 94% of B2B marketers include LinkedIn in their content marketing strategy.
9: 55% of B2B marketers consider SEM their most effective method of paid content marketing.
10: 85% of B2B marketers say lead generation will be their most important goal in 2016.
11: 60% of B2B marketers use web traffic to measure success.
12: 51% of B2B marketers use sales lead quality when measuring the performance of the content marketing program.
13: 45% of B2B marketers use social media shares when measuring the performance of the content marketing program.
14: 57% of B2B marketers are still using print or other offline media as part of the content marketing program.
15: 8% of B2B content marketers feel their content marketing program’s maturity is ‘sophisticated.’
16: 24% of B2B marketers feel that their content marketing program’s maturity is “mature”.
17: 29% of B2B marketers feel their content marketing program’s maturity should be rates as ‘adolescent.”
18: 27% of B2B marketers feel their content marketing program’s maturity should be considered “young.”
19: 11% of B2B marketers think their content marketing maturity is still in its first steps.
20: 60% of B2B marketers feel their top challenge in 2016 is to produce engaging content.
21: 57% of B2B marketers think producing content consistently will be their biggest struggle.
22: 67% of B2B buyers are relying more on content to make their decisions than a year ago.
23: An average of 28% of B2B marketing budgets are spent on creating content.
24: 51% of B2B marketers report they will increase their content marketing spending in the next year.
25: 92% of B2B marketers include social media in their content marketing program.
26: Only 5% of B2B marketers feel their content marketing program is ‘ very effective.’
27: 24% of B2B marketers feel their content marketing program is ‘effective.”
28: 44% of B2B marketers think their content marketing program is “neutral.”
29: 22% of B2B marketers worry that their content marketing program is “minimally effective.”
30: Only 1% of B2B marketers feel their content marketing program is “not effective at all.”
31: Infographics were the B2B content marketing tactic with the most significant growth between 2014 and 2015, shooting from 51% to 62%.
32: 47% of B2B marketers have dedicated content marketing groups.
33: 69% of the most effective B2B marketers have content marketing groups.
34: 83% of B2B marketers use content marketing for lead generation.
35: 84% of B2B marketers use content marketing to promote brand awareness.
36: 81% of B2B marketers use content marketing for engagement.
37: 75% of B2B marketers use content marketing to increase sales.
38: 74% of B2B marketers use content marketing for lead ‘nurturing.’
39: 69% of B2B marketers use content marketing to promote customer loyalty.
40: 52% of B2B marketers use content marketing for cross-selling and/or upselling.
41: Internal email is the most commonly used technology used technology in B2B marketing, used by 95% of B2B marketers.
42: 87% of B2B marketers distribute content on Twitter.
43: 84% of B2B marketers use Facebook to publish content.
44: 74% of B2B marketers post video content to Youtube.
45: Instagram is only a part of 29% of B2B marketers’ content marketing program.
46: Pinterest is a tool 25% of B2B marketers use to publish content.
47: Only 5% of B2B marketers use Snapchat to disseminate content.
48: 18% of B2B marketers report that utilizing the technology they currently have is there top content marketing challenge.
49: 42% of B2B marketers say getting a better understanding of their audience is a top priority.
50: 19% of B2B marketers say becoming stronger writers is a top priority.
