New Research Shows Increasing Reliance on Content Marketing to Drive Brand Awareness, Inbound Traffic and Sales

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--October 01, 2013-- 

A new study from the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs, and sponsored by Brightcove (NASDAQ: BCOV), shows that B2B marketers are increasingly using content marketing and distributing content across more social networks to help increase awareness and website conversions. The study shows that 93% of B2B organizations are marketing to customers and prospects with a range of content-based tactics and 73% are producing more content than they did one year ago. The success of these content marketing efforts is also growing, with 42% of B2B marketers indicating they are more effective at content marketing versus 36% last year.

“Heading into 2014, many B2B marketers are feeling more confident than ever about the effectiveness of their content marketing strategies,” said Joe Pulizzi, founder of the Content Marketing Institute and author of Epic Content Marketing. “Though the industry is still in the early adoption phase of content marketing, it’s clear that many are seeing success and are continuing to increase their tactics and devote more resources, and budgets, to producing great content experiences.”

According to the study, B2B marketers are using an average of 13 content marketing tactics (up from 12 last year), including social media (excluding blogs — 87%), articles on a company’s website (81%), eNewsletters (80%), blogs (76%), in-person events (76%), case studies (73%) and videos (73%). Infographics saw the largest year-over-year increase in usage, with 51% of B2B marketers using infographics this year versus 38% last year.

B2B marketers are also using social media more frequently than last year, using an average of 6 social platforms, up from an average of 5 last year. The most popular channels include LinkedIn (91%), Twitter (85%), Facebook (81%) and YouTube (73%). Social media platforms with the biggest increase year over year include SlideShare, Google+ and Instagram.

Other interesting findings from the report include:

   -- Brand awareness is the top organizational goal for B2B content marketing, 
      followed by lead generation and customer acquisition. 

   -- Web traffic and sales lead quality maintained their position as the top 
      content marketing metrics for the third consecutive year. Over the last 
      four years, direct sales have consistently decreased in importance as a 
      measurement criteria for B2B marketers. 

   -- 58% of B2B marketers plan to increase their content marketing budget over 
      the next 12 months versus 54% last year. 

   -- On average, 30% of B2B marketing budgets are allocated to content 
      marketing, down slightly from 33% last year. 

“It’s exciting to see how quickly content, and the ability to distribute that content to audiences via social channels, has grown in significance for B2B marketers,” said Steve Rotter, vice president of marketing at Brightcove. “Content marketing, and particularly video, helps brands to drive more demand, increase conversion rates and generate a higher return on their marketing investments.”