Dive Brief:

• About 89% of marketing influencers reported the effectiveness of their content marketing programs is increasing, according to demand generation firm Ascend2's “2016 State of Content Marketing” survey report.
• According to the survey of 219 marketers, the three main barriers to content marketing success were a lack of an effective strategy (48%), lack of content creation resources (48%), and budget constraints (47%).
• The top priorities for content marketing programs include increasing lead generation (58%), improving customer engagement (55%), and increasing brand awareness (46%).

Dive Insight:

In many ways, content marketing is the fuel that drives efforts in other marketing channels such as social media and even email, especially for B2B marketers conducting lead nurturing and support for the complex B2B sale.

Acscend2’s research highlights the primary issues facing marketers with content marketing. “Lack of an effective content marketing strategy and the resources required to create compelling content are often caused by the third significant barrier to success – budget constraints,” Todd Lebo, partner and CMO at Ascend2, told Marketing Dive about the barriers to success.

Respondents reported the most effective content marketing tactics included research reports (46%), blog posts (45%), and video/podcasts (40%), while at the same citing research reports (62%) and video/podcasts (64%) as the two most difficult tactics to execute. Blog posts were seen was the least difficult (8%) tactic to execute.

“Lack of an effective strategy is the top obstacle to content marketing success," Lebo said. "Planning an effective strategy requires a balance of what is most effective with what is realistic to create.”