Only a few months are left till the end of 2018, so it’s a high time to finalize B2B marketing results and set the right strategy for the upcoming year.
One of the biggest shift of this year is a finding that 90 % of B2B content marketers put their audience’s informational needs over their business needs. 10 years ago prioritizing customers’ needs was a novel concept, while now it has become a common practice among the most successful content marketers.
In this post, we’ve put together some of the most important highlights presented in CMI and MarketingProfs’ ninth annual B2B Content Marketing 2019 report that will be sure to help you succeed in B2B content marketing in 2019.
A documented content marketing strategy is a key indicator of content marketing success
According to the research, 65 % the most successful content marketers are far more likely than their less successful peers (14%) to have a documented content marketing.
The content marketers believe that it aligns the team around a common mission/goals and makes it easier to determine which types of content to develop.
Content marketing techniques to reach the audience
B2B content marketers use mainly top three techniques for reaching their audiences such as sales team feedback, website analytics, and keyword research. Thus, they improve marketing-sales integration, understand better their visitors and improve the content.
Two methods B2B content marketers use to nurture the audience
Email campaigns and educational content are top 2 ways B2B marketers use to nurture their audience. However, it is important to keep in mind that audience’s preferences may change and content marketers should follow them.
B2B marketers have changed the use of content types
As shown in the chart, the majority of B2B content marketers (50%) increased their use of audio/visual content, written digital content, and images compared with one year ago.
Social Media as an integral component of content marketing
Some say that social media is stale. However, a research shows that 61 % of B2B marketers increased their use of social media for content marketing purposes compared with one year ago. The most popular social media platforms B2B marketers use are LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.
Increased spending on content creation
According to the report, 71% of the most successful B2B content marketers use paid methods to distribute content, compared with 55 % of the least successful. This means that marketers do not prefer to rely on organic reach and existing subscribers to get their content seen. The top reason why they use paid methods to distribute content are the following:
Two methods B2B content marketers use are sponsored content on social media and search engine marketing (SEM).
Goals B2B marketers achieve by using content marketing
The research has revealed that content marketing has helped B2B marketers, who have used it successfully over the last 12 months, to create brand awareness, educate the audience, build credibility/trust, generate demand/leads, and more.
Consequently, 96 % of the most successful content marketers agree that their audience views their company as a credible and trusted resource.
To sum up
Content marketing is gaining more and more popularity in a modern marketing tactic. With so many powerful benefits it presents, it’s easy to see why a lot of businesses are applying this strategy.
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