Most B2B Marketers Use Content Marketing, Outsource Activities

Study: Most B2B Marketers Use Content Marketing, Outsource Activities

B2B marketers recognize the value of content marketing and are committed to making their content marketing strategies work, according to the new report, B2B Content Marketing: 2012 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends, released earlier this month by MarketingProfs and the Content Marketing Institute.

Among the 1,092 marketers surveyed:

90 percent are using content marketing strategies, such as article posting (79 percent), social media –excluding blogs (74 percent), blogs (65 percent), e-newsletters (63 percent), case studies (58 percent) and in-person events (56 percent).
60 percent said they will increase spending on content marketing in 2012.

What’s more, outsourcing for content is in on the rise, as well.

This year, more than half (62 percent) of those who participated in the study said they use outsourcing for at least a portion of their content marketing initiatives. In last year’s survey, 52 percent said they used outsourcing.

Why the interest in content marketing strategies? According to the survey results, B2B marketers use content marketing to achieve a variety of different objectives, including:

Brand awareness (68 percent)
Customer acquisition (68 percent)
Lead generation (66 percent)
Customer retention/loyalty (61 percent)
Website traffic (56 percent)
Thought leadership (55 percent)
Sales (47 percent)
Lead management, nurturing (39 percent)

Last year, Marketing Profs and the Content Marketing Institute found a confidence gap between tactics used and their effectiveness. This year, it appears as though that gap is closing. For example, these four tactics ranked significantly higher in their perceived effectiveness compared to last year: