Dive Brief:
- Thirty-two percent of U.S. tech marketing executives are now delivering new content at least daily if not hourly, according to a study from Dimensional Research and 10Fold Communications made available to Marketing Dive. Additionally, 75% plan on generating 3x more content in 2017 over last year and 42% will spend $250,000 or more on content over the next 12 months.
- Social media, video and webinars were cited as the best content types among all respondents; top execs preferred video as a content type. However, 44% cited lack of subject matter expertise as the main barrier to creating high-quality content.
- Breaking down where the content comes from, 99% of respondents use third parties to create at least 25% of their content; 83% report the third-party content is as at least above average in quality. Eighty percent use basic tools like Google Analytics to track and measure content's impact and 60% use marketing automation software.
Dive Insight:
Content has become an increasingly essential component of marketing strategies as consumers' desire for storytelling and mediums like digital video grows. Especially in B2B marketing, with its complex sale pipeline and often long buying cycle, the lead nurturing process is more often requiring a number of content assets in different formats in order to move prospects to a final conversion.
Dimensional Research and 10Fold Communications' findings underscore just how quickly the scale of production and budgets for content marketing are ramping up. But B2B and tech marketers must also narrow in on what type of content resonates most with their customers, along with gauging the appropriate volume level instead of focusing on quantity alone.
"We've heard for some time now that 'content is king,' but understanding the type of content that works best and knowing how frequently to produce that content are the next logical questions," Susan Thomas, founder and CEO of 10Fold, said in a statement.
Within marketing departments, content isn't a task handled by an individual, the study found. Thirty-seven percent of respondents said 10 to 20 people were tasked with creating content, and 31% said more than 20 people handled content creation. Interestingly, handing off 100% of content creation to third-party vendors was most likely at the smallest companies — defined as having less than $5 million in revenue — and the largest companies — more than $500 million revenue.
The groups also found 84% of respondents rely on a content calendar, and 95% deliver that planned content as specified in the calendar.
