The Content Marketing Institute has just released the latest figures on how B2B marketers are faring with their content marketing strategies as part of its new report, “B2B Content Marketing 2017: Benchmarks, Budgets, Trends.” The good news is that a majority of B2B marketers in North America are finding success with their strategies. In fact, 62 percent say that they are “more” or “somewhat more successful” than compared to last year.
Looking through the Content Marketing Institute stats, it’s possible to pull out a few key ideas for running the most successful B2B marketing campaign:
#1: Get management buy-in at the highest level
The top 22 percent of B2B marketers are “extremely” or “very” committed to their content marketing strategies. Moreover, out of all the B2B marketers surveyed, 63 percent are “extremely” or “very” committed to their strategies. As the Content Marketing Institute points out, commitment and buy-in at the highest level is perhaps the single greatest determinant to marketing success.
#2: Develop a comprehensive content marketing strategy
Overall, 37 percent of B2B marketers say they have a content marketing strategy in place. That figure continues to increase year-over-year, but it’s still only one-third of all B2B marketers. Everyone else seems to be just creating content haphazardly, distributing it on the web, and hoping that something sticks.
What may be holding back some marketers from creating a comprehensive strategy is the confusion of how inbound marketing (i.e. content marketing) differs from outbound marketing. The traditional approach, of course, is outbound marketing – plastering ads everywhere. The new approach is inbound marketing – creating the type of content that will “pull” prospects to you to investigate what you have to offer.
#3: Measure the ROI of that marketing strategy
A very impressive 72 percent of B2B marketers are now measuring the ROI from their content marketing efforts. It’s no longer just a matter of creating great content and then walking away – companies are learning what works, what doesn’t, and iterating from there. This ROI could be everything from “leads” to “sales.” The idea is that creating a lot of high quality, targeted content can go a long way toward attracting potential prospects.
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You can think of these three ideas as part of a virtuous circle – proving the ROI from a content marketing campaign (#3) can drive management buy-in at the very top (#1), which then leads to additional resources for launching the best possible B2B marketing strategy (#2).
What separates the top B2B marketers from everyone else, according to the Content Marketing Institute, are two key factors – these top marketers are doing a better job with content creation and they are doing a better job of developing and architecting a true content marketing strategy. Put that together, and it could be the fuel to make your content marketing strategy take off like a rocket ship.
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Dane
Dane Cobain is a published author, freelance writer, book blogger, poet and (occasional) musician from High Wycombe, UK. Before going freelance, he worked as a social media marker, now specialising in writing about publishing, technology and marketing.