Why Content Marketing Is the One Thing B2B Companies Should Focus On
By B2B companies, B2B Marketing, content marketing
Content marketing has undoubtedly gained a lot of focus in recent years, especially since the reach of the distribution channels has increased tremendously. Being committed to this type of marketing can make a world of difference in generating awareness, educating prospects and even current customers about the products and services, and in turning prospects into customers or even brand evangelists.
Read on to find what a recent industry study has revealed about B2B content marketing, what channels you should focus on and what to expect after using it!
Content Marketing for B2B Tech Is Not a Matter of If but How
The number of B2B marketers thinking that content marketing can provide valuable information to anyone interested in specific companies increases year after year. Moreover, by being able to gauge the number of people subscribed to your sources of information, you can get a pretty accurate idea of what common characteristics they have.
How Popular Is Content Marketing with B2B Companies?
According to the 2018 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends survey by the Content Marketing Institute (CMI), as many as 91% of B2B respondents admitted that they use content marketing in one form or another. However, the nonusers are not completely against it, as 54% of them claimed that they would launch a content marketing initiative within the next year. Most notably, only 4% of the current nonusers had used in the past but stopped due to it being ineffective. That translates into 0.36% of all respondents, which is nothing short of impressive.
What Is The Most Common Content Marketing Team Size & Structure?
More than half of the respondents (53%) revealed that they used either a small team or even a single person for all marketing and content marketing efforts across the entire company. Next, 26% of B2B companies have a centralized content marketing group in charge of multiple brands across the company. At the opposite end, an equal percentage of respondents (4%) pointed out that either they rely on an unusual team structure, or that they have a content marketing team in charge of each brand.
Should You Choose an Internal or an External Team?
About 56% of the respondents claimed that they outsource at least one content marketing activity, which is not surprising at all. Out of all activities, content creation is the most outsourced, with 47%, followed by content promotion or distribution (23%), content marketing measurement (11%) and content marketing strategy (9%).
Depending on the complexity of the tasks and the budget that you are willing to invest, outsourcing content marketing might be preferable. That’s not because the activities are difficult, but because the experts know better what type of content would perform best on which channels.
How Committed Are B2B Companies to Content Marketing?
Out of all respondents to the survey, 56% were either very committed or extremely committed to content marketing, which arguably wouldn’t have been the case, hadn’t content marketing been effective. The reasons behind this choice range from building audiences (80%) and valuing creativity (74%) to having realistic expectations about what content marketing can achieve (62%) or just having ample time to produce content marketing results (59%).
What Channels Are the Most Effective for B2B Content Marketing?
When it comes to distributing content, B2B marketers prefer email (93%), social media (92%) and blogs (79%), followed by in-person events (56%) and webinars (55%). As for the social media platforms of choice, B2B marketers have a preference for:
- LinkedIn (97%)
- Twitter (87%)
- Facebook (86%)
- YouTube (60%)
- Instagram (30%)
- Google+ (28%)
The top 3 are in the same order when it comes to effectiveness, but B2B marketers have rated LinkedIn a lot more effective than the other platforms, emphasizing this way the B2B nature of this social network.
Because B2B marketers rely on tried and tested platforms to distribute platform, rather than on exotic ones, the difficulty of the task is moderate. A small team of experts who are knowledgeable of the best practices could easily overcome any challenges met along the way.
What Are the Effects of Content Marketing?
While not many (25%) agree that content marketing has decreased the cost of customer acquisition, the majority concluded that content marketing can increase:
- Organization’s sales (51%)
- Number of leads (72%)
- Audience engagement (77%)
To make such statements, each company needs to select carefully the key performance indicators (KPIs) to monitor. To give you an idea, B2B marketers have rated the alignment of their metrics with content marketing goals as:
- Excellent (3%)
- Very good (16%)
- Good (27%)
- Fair (24%)
- Poor (13%)
- Too soon to tell (8%)
- Unsure (4%)
- Don’t use content marketing metrics (4%)
Ensuring a perfect alignment between the goals and the metrics used for measuring the progress is essential in any aspect of the business, and content marketing makes no exception.
Do you represent a B2B tech company and are experiencing challenges while implementing content marketing activities? We’d love to hear from you in order to provide a solution that’s tailored to your needs. Get in touch with us!
Latest Posts
Categories
- B2B Marketing (190)
- blog (147)
- Social media marketing (68)
- social media (52)
- Marketing (42)
- Digital Marketing (41)
- Lead Generation (39)
- Marketing Strategy (34)
- Lead Generation (33)
- Press releases (27)
- B2B (26)
- Behind the Scenes (26)
- marketing automation (26)
- Content Marketing (23)
- Marketing (21)
- Strategy (21)
- b2b tactics (19)
- b2b business objectives (17)
- online marketing (17)
- SEO (15)
- content marketing (15)
- Business continuity (14)
- google ads (14)
- AI (13)
- AI Marketing (13)
- B2B Campaigns (13)
- B2B business (13)
- PR Communication (13)
- Business Growth (12)
- PPC (12)
- b2b lead generation (12)
- b2b strategy (12)
- B2B Blogging (11)
- Marketing News (11)
- Marketing Planning (11)
- B2B PPC Campaign (10)
- Conversion Rate (10)
- Employer Branding (10)
- Marketing Automation Tool (10)
- marketing tips (10)
- Social Media Strategy (9)
- White papers (9)
- artificial intelligence marketing (9)
- inbound marketing (9)
- B2B companies (8)
- B2B email marketing (8)
- Fractional CMO (8)
- b2b social media (8)
- crisis management (8)
- marketing automation for B2B businesses (8)
- online PR (8)
- E-books (7)
- HubSpot (7)
- Pinterest (7)
- SEO trends (7)
- Twitter (7)
- b2b sales (7)
- content strategy (7)
- marketing plan (7)
- social networks (7)
- ABM Strategy (6)
- Business Development (6)
- Facebook (6)
- SEO Strategies for B2B Companies (6)
- Webinar Recording (6)
- artificial intelligence (6)
- marketing objectives in b2b (6)
- sales prospecting (6)
- technology marketing (6)
- CMO (5)
- Digital Transformation (5)
- Email Marketing (5)
- Events (5)
- Facebook page (5)
- Google AdWords (5)
- IT (5)
- KPI measurements (5)
- Landing Page (5)
- Marketing Management (5)
- Marketing Trends (5)
- automated marketing (5)
- b2b best practices (5)
- b2b prospecting (5)
- b2b strategies (5)
- digital communication strategy (5)
- internationalisation (5)
- marketing automation systems (5)
- social media marketing campaign (5)
- social media trends (5)
- trends (5)
- B2B marketing campaigns (4)
- Cost per Lead (4)
- Digital Influence (4)
- HubSpot Certified Agency (4)
- Instagram (4)
- Lead Generation Trends (4)
- LinkedIn (4)
- LinkedIn marketing strategy (4)
- NNC Services (4)
- Paid Advertising (4)
- Tech Startup (4)
- Tech Startup Marketing Strategy (4)
- Uncategorized (4)
- Video Marketing Strategy (4)
- b2b sales plan (4)
- best practices during crisis (4)
- leading marketing automation tools (4)
- market entry (4)
- marketing content (4)
- personal branding (4)
- proactive marketing (4)
- B2B Marketing Budget (3)
- B2B marketing inbound (3)
- B2B marketing strategy inbound (3)
- Business Strategy (3)
- Conversion Rate Optimization (3)
- Financial (3)
- Google Analytics (3)
- Google+ (3)
- Internal Marketing (3)
- Linkedin Groups (3)
- Marketing Automation Migration (3)
- Online Events (3)
- Pardot (3)
- Pardot to HubSpot Migration (3)
- SMB international Business Models (3)
- Tech (3)
- Video Content (3)
- Webinar (3)
- abm (3)
- b2b blogging (3)
- b2b customer aquisition (3)
- b2b growth (3)
- barriers to entry (3)
- blogging (3)
- brand engagement (3)
- business plan (3)
- buyer persona (3)
- customer research (3)
- demand generation (3)
- doing business abroad (3)
- employer brand (3)
- employer branding strategy (3)
- inbound leads (3)
- marketing audit (3)
- marketing automation strategy (3)
- marketing leadership (3)
- marketing portfolio audit (3)
- online communities (3)
- online demand (3)
- outsourcing (3)
- prospects (3)
- storytelling (3)
- tech business (3)
- visual content (3)
- 4P’s (2)
- ABM sales outreach (2)
- Agile Marketing (2)
- B2B Contacts (2)
- B2B Email Marketing Campaigns (2)
- B2B Marketing Collaterals (2)
- B2B digital agency (2)
- B2B presentations (2)
- Business Intelligence (2)
- Channel Integration (2)
- Customer-Centric (2)
- DIY business (2)
- Facebook content (2)
- Go-to-Market Strategies (2)
- Hubspot Inbound (2)
- Hubspot Portal audit (2)
- Hubspot marketing portal (2)
- IT recruitment (2)
- Innovation (2)
- Integrated Marketing (2)
- Internship (2)
- Lead Gen Automation Tools (2)
- Microsoft Dynamics (2)
- PPT (2)
- Pay-per-Click (2)
- Product Marketing (2)
- ROI (2)
- RevOps (2)
- SMART (2)
- SMB (2)
- SME (2)
- Sales Automation (2)
- Sales Automation Tools (2)
- Salesforce (2)
- Search Engine Optimization (2)
- Telemarketing (2)
- Tumblr (2)
- action plan (2)
- b2b planning (2)
- b2b tradeshow (2)
- b2b video marketing (2)
- banking (2)
- business communities (2)
- business management (2)
- buyer journey (2)
- buyer motivation (2)
- celebrities (2)
- client presentations (2)
- company marketing (2)
- company presentation rules (2)
- context marketing (2)
- conversion tracking (2)
- corporate presentations (2)
- data driven (2)
- eCommerce Marketing (2)
- employee value proposition (2)
- employer value proposition (2)
- entertainment industry (2)
- free marketing tools (2)
- fundraising (2)
- gdpr (2)
- how to present in front of customers (2)
- how to write a presentation (2)
- marketing investing (2)
- marketing outsourcing (2)
- marketing segmentation (2)
- marketing upskilling (2)
- networking communities (2)
- nonprofits (2)
- omnichannel marketing (2)
- online strategies (2)
- outbound marketing (2)
- outsourced marketing (2)
- ppc ads (2)
- ppc management (2)
- ppc strategy (2)
- presentation structure (2)
- product audit (2)
- product portfolio (2)
- promotion (2)
- sales enablement (2)
- sales funnel (2)
- segmentation (2)
- service marketing (2)
- slideshows (2)
- succes management (2)
- supporters (2)
- targeting (2)
- tourism industry (2)
- tradeshow attendance (2)
- tradeshow objectives (2)
- tradeshow results (2)
- tradeshow strategy (2)
- webinar tips (2)
- website optimization (2)
- 2014 (1)
- ActiveCampaign (1)
- Ad Rank (1)
- AdidasOriginal (1)
- Android (1)
- B2B Case Study (1)
- B2B Digital Training (1)
- B2B e-mail copy (1)
- B2B e-mail marketing (1)
- BWBB (1)
- Blockchain (1)
- Blockchain Technologies (1)
- CTA button (1)
- Design Thinking Model (1)
- Direct Marketing (1)
- Dreamforce 2017 (1)
- Drip Marketing Campaign (1)
- Dynamics 365 (1)
- Dynamics 365 marketing (1)
- Dynamics Marketing (1)
- E-Commerce (1)
- Eastern Central Europe (1)
- Eastern Europe (1)
- Emotional B2B Marketing (1)
- Employee Feedback (1)
- Event management (1)
- External Marketing (1)
- Facebook Apps (1)
- Facebook marketing (1)
- Freemium SaaS (1)
- Go-to-Market (1)
- Google Ad Grant (1)
- Google Ads statistics (1)
- GoogleAdGrant (1)
- HR planning (1)
- Hubspot Outbound (1)
- IT marketing (1)
- IT outsourcing (1)
- IT service price (1)
- Intel (1)
- LeadGeneration (1)
- Machine Learning (1)
- Market Entry Strategy (1)
- Market Research (1)
- Marketing Metrics (1)
- Marketing Results (1)
- Marketing frameworks (1)
- Marketing vs Sales (1)
- Marketo (1)
- Medium Companies (1)
- Microsoft Dynamics 365 (1)
- NGO (1)
- Networking (1)
- Organizational culture (1)
- PPC statistics (1)
- PPC stats (1)
- Personalized messages (1)
- Pictures (1)
- Podcast SEO (1)
- Price (1)
- Recruitment Marketing (1)
- Revenue operations (1)
- Romanian content marketers (1)
- SaaS (1)
- Salesforce Partners (1)
- SharpSpring (1)
- Small Business (1)
- Social Proof (1)
- StopWar (1)
- Tactics (1)
- Target (1)
- Tech events (1)
- Template (1)
- Till Hahndorf (1)
- Types of Google Ads (1)
- Ukraine (1)
- VirginAmerica (1)
- Voice Search SEO (1)
- Work alternative (1)
- Youtube Ads (1)
- ads setting (1)
- app (1)
- artists (1)
- b2b benchmark (1)
- b2b buyer (1)
- b2b buying process (1)
- b2b buying trends (1)
- b2b customers (1)
- b2b marketing vs sales (1)
- b2b modeling (1)
- b2b price (1)
- b2b viral campaign (1)
- benghmarking (1)
- brand advocates (1)
- business (1)
- business growth course (1)
- buyer behaviour in b2b (1)
- buyer persona template (1)
- buyers (1)
- call to action (1)
- clients (1)
- cold-calling (1)
- company (1)
- competition (1)
- copywriting (1)
- customer segmentation (1)
- cybersecuritystrategy (1)
- dan schawbel (1)
- detailed buyer persona (1)
- differentiators (1)
- downloadable resources (1)
- e-mail campaigns (1)
- e-mail message and copy (1)
- employer brand experience (1)
- employer of choice (1)
- entrepreneurs (1)
- environmental marketing (1)
- fans (1)
- gdpr benefits (1)
- gdpr benefits for marketing (1)
- go-to-market channels (1)
- green marketing (1)
- growth marketing (1)
- hotel (1)
- how to find leads (1)
- how to sell (1)
- human resources (1)
- iOS (1)
- inbound marketing services (1)
- inbound marketing vs outbound marketing (1)
- international business (1)
- investment in marketing (1)
- investors (1)
- jamie oliver (1)
- lead generation results (1)
- leads (1)
- letter writing (1)
- like (1)
- market price (1)
- marketing benchmarking (1)
- marketing flywheel (1)
- marketing goals (1)
- marketing investments (1)
- marketing letters (1)
- marketing message (1)
- marketing objectives (1)
- marketing strategy for 2022 (1)
- mobile (1)
- mobile marketing (1)
- music (1)
- new business opportunities (1)
- online reputation (1)
- personal branding tips (1)
- personell issues (1)
- photos (1)
- podcast (1)
- positive employer brand (1)
- ppc click fraud (1)
- price debate (1)
- price negociation (1)
- pricing (1)
- pricing stratey (1)
- product cost (1)
- product price (1)
- promote (1)
- recession tactics (1)
- roadmap (1)
- sales (1)
- script (1)
- seo practices (1)
- service price (1)
- services (1)
- setting objectives (1)
- setting the price (1)
- smart bidding (1)
- social channels (1)
- social networking (1)
- social platform (1)
- social recruitment (1)
- startup (1)
- subscribers (1)
- sustainability (1)
- tailored experience (1)
- talent pool (1)
- tech hub (1)
- tech professionals (1)
- tools (1)
- updates (1)
- viral campaignes (1)
- viral marketing (1)
- viral videos (1)
- visual (1)
- voice search optimization (1)