Is Your Content Marketing Program Keeping Up with Customer Demand?

A recent study from the Content Marketing Institute reported that 46% of buyers indicated they had increased their content consumption over the past 12 months.* That fact brings into focus whether B2B and life science marketers are resourced to fulfill these needs.

While 71% of the study’s participants said content creation is rising in importance, they admitted there are still challenges in implementing these programs. Marketers said they are still fighting for:

• Content marketing buy-in from management
• A content marketing strategy/strategic approach to content marketing
• More budget and additional staff
• More access to subject matter experts (SMEs)

The top content marketing goals revealed in the study were brand awareness, credibility/trust building, and audience education. Surprisingly, demand generation was well down the list. Three-quarters of the respondents said their investment in video content will continue to rise in 2023.

When it came to content distribution, marketers cited the following sources:

• Owned media distribution: websites, blogs, enewsletters, and email
• Organic (non-paid) media distribution: social media, speaking/presentations, and public relations
• Paid media distribution: social media promoted posts, search engine marketing

The study also reported the following findings:

• The metrics that marketers relied upon to measure content effectiveness were conversion, lead quality, and website engagement.
• Marketers struggled with creating content for the buyer’s journey and aligning content efforts across sales and marketing programs.
• Nearly half of those surveyed think their organizations will hire or contract with third-parties for content production in 2023.
• Marketers who are excelling by differentiating their content cite three key factors: producing with higher quality and greater customer value, covering topics/stories their competitors don’t, and actively promoting content across multiple channels.

The study summed up the findings by saying, “If one theme emerged from this year’s annual research, it was this: it’s time for organizations to finally give content marketing the investment it deserves, staff it accordingly, and reap the rewards.”