What’s fueling the increase? One reason may be increased effectiveness among marketers using various tactics. Effectiveness ratings for blogs saw a 45 percent jump in 2011, while those for videos increased 36 percent. Case studies and webinars/webcasts also showed significant increases in effectiveness.
Overall, in-person events, webinars and case studies are seen as the most effective strategies (more than seven out of 10 respondents ranked these as effective). Social media was viewed as the least effective strategy, but scores improved significantly from 2011. Sixty-one percent more marketers ranked it effective in 2011 vs. last year.
With greater content needs, more marketers are outsourcing. Sixty-two percent of respondents use a mix of in-sourced and outsourced content, up from 55 percent in 2010. Outsource only strategies are rare at 4 percent. On average 25 percent of the content creation budget involves outsourced resources.
The content marketing strategies on the upswing are blogs (+11%), video (+11%) and whitepapers(+8%). While some tactics such as print magazine, print newsletters and ebooks showed declines.
As content marketing grows, marketers are developing new ways to measure effectiveness. While measuring web traffic (58%) and sales lead quality (49%) are still the most popular measures, SEO ranking jumped 12 percentage points in just a year with 40 percent of respondents using it to measuring results.
The survey was mailed electronically to a sample of B2B marketers from among members and subscribers to MarketingProfs and the Content Marketing Institute. A total of 1,092 responded worldwide with the majority based in North America. The respondents represent a range of functional areas, industries and company sizes.
How does this compare to your 2012 plans?
