Content Marketing Gets Social skyword

By Joseph McKendrick, Research Analyst Produced by Unisphere Research, a Division of Information Today, Inc. September 2013

Sponsored by

CONTENT MARKETING GETS SOCIAL2013 SURVEY ON CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS

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CONTENT MARKETING GETS SOCIAL: 2013 Survey on Content Marketing Trends was produced by Unisphere Research and sponsored by Skyword. Unisphere Research is the market research unit of Unisphere Media, a division of Information Today, Inc., publishers of Database Trends and Applications magazine and the 5 Minute Briefing newsletters. To review abstracts of our past reports, visit www.dbta.com/About_Us#Unisphere. Unisphere Media, 630 Central Avenue, Murray Hill, New Providence, NJ 07974; 908-795-3701.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Executive Summary ��3

Content Marketing Now a Strategic Initiative ��5

Social Media Emerges Within Multi-Channel Strategies ��10

Content Gets an “A” for Originality ��20

Needed: Greater Content Volume and Frequency ��24

Measuring Progress ��28

People, Process, and Technology��31

Demographics ��37

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Many businesses are struggling to connect with prospective customers and prospects. The traditional marketing approaches —exposing customers to product or service information within sales or advertising channels—are no longer working. However, the modern marketer is increasingly able to reach a targeted and relevant audience by applying inbound and content marketing best practices.

Today’s consumer has widespread access to information through online search and social media that he is using to form opinions and make purchase decisions long before he actually begins a transaction. Enterprises are ramping up their content marketing strategies to capture buyers’ attention through new approaches and to provide prospects with relevant content to improve thought leadership.

Providing the right content, at the right time, to the right customer enables organizations to rise above the numerous sites and digital pitches now competing for customer attention. However, at this time, marketing executives are struggling with ways to create more content, deliver it with greater frequency, and streamline its delivery. In addition, few organizations are measuring the results of their content marketing across emerging social media channels.

These are some of the findings of a new survey of 217 marketing professionals, conducted by Unisphere Research, a division of Information Today, Inc., sponsored by Skyword Inc. The new research confirms a movement toward engaging with a range of channels to better understand and interact with customers and markets.

The survey looked at two sides of content marketing efforts: first, how content is originated, and then how it is publicized or distributed. Along with looking at overall content creation efforts, we dove deep into the social media aspect and how that is shaping content marketing.

Respondents to the survey—who are among the readership base of CRM magazine and EContent magazine—represent a range of organization types and sizes. A total of 24% are in executive-level management, while another 17% are marketing managers or directors. Project managers and business unit managers are also heavily represented. About 15% of respondents come from very large organizations with more than 5,000 employees, but there is also a significant contingent of small-to-medium-size businesses represented in the survey. In terms of industry groups, the largest segment seen in this survey consists of organizations involved in business or consumer services, identified by 15% of respondents, with another 12% in the information technology business. (See Figures 48–51 at the end of this report.)

The survey uncovered these key findings:

Comprehensive content marketing strategies are gaining traction in enterprises. Close to half of enterprises in the survey report they have formal content marketing strategies, and 37% are considering such strategies. While a growing number of companies have employed content strategies, more measurement is needed. Only 25% actually measure the results of their content marketing at the individual content level.

More than two-thirds of respondents indicate that the primary objective of their content marketing program is to engage customers and prospects. In addition, nearly half respondents seek greater brand awareness was a primary objective. These results show that B2B and B2C marketers view content as a critical vehicle for developing and maintaining lasting customer relationships and establishing a trusted brand.

Social media is an increasingly important element of companies’ content discovery and amplification strategies. Seven out of 10 executives report they are employing social media to distribute content. Facebook and Twitter are now the leading platforms for content marketing and customer engagement. However, most companies are still only in the very early stages of measuring return from social media marketing activities and are not fully aware of the returns they are getting. Most measurements tend to be more directly tied to specific platform engagements, versus broader business value.

Close to nine-tenths of marketers say they create their own original content on-site. Marketers value information-rich delivery vehicles such as articles and videos, and they are expanding the scope of their content beyond product marketing. While product-oriented content is still the rule, a majority of marketing managers are just as likely to be developing in thought-leadership and other forms of value-added content. By far, articles are the most common type of digital content created as part of enterprise marketing efforts, followed by videos and blogs.

Marketers feel that content volume and frequency are too low for today’s always-on economy. Executives report their organizations currently produce 10 or fewer items a month, but they would like to step this up to 50 pieces a month. Ten items published a month equates to one fresh item every three days. To fill the gaps, 78% report they repurpose their existing

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content. In today’s era, customers need to be engaged with a regular, constant stream of content. The internet and social media worlds are active on a 24x7 basis, every day of the month.

Two-thirds of executives say their greatest challenge is to produce more targeted, relevant content to engage audiences. Another 53% say they can’t produce enough content to keep audiences coming back on a regular basis. Lean staffing resources may be part of the challenge—about half of respondents indicated they have people or teams dedicated

to content marketing; however, for the most part, these teams tend to be small. Still, enterprises with dedicated content marketing managers or teams post more content more frequently and report greater, measured benefits from their content marketing.

The following results of this survey highlight the opportunities and challenges marketing professionals face in generating and distributing content to their audiences.

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For marketers, it’s all about the customer, and this is reflected in the priorities explored in this survey. More than two-thirds, 68%, say their goal is to engage customers and prospects, while close to half seek to enhance brand awareness. This suggests that content marketing programs play a key role in maximizing the marketing value of digital channels such as social media. (See Figure 1.)

For another 38%, there is a direct bottom-line purpose— to acquire leads. A similar percentage say their programs are intended to acquire new customers and drive sales. This suggests there is still a large focus on acquiring new customers and leads, indicating that content is also linked to more concrete marketing objectives.

Many enterprises are coalescing their efforts around dedicated teams or departments. Forty-six percent of respondents indicate they have formal content marketing strategies within their organizations. (See Figure 2.)

Effective content marketing programs are making a significant difference in companies’ abilities to reach out to their customers and increase brand awareness. Overall, close to half of marketing executives say their efforts are delivering business benefits in the form of greater engagement with their customers and prospects. More than four out of 10 say they have seen gains in brand awareness among their target audiences. Another 28% say their efforts have helped acquire new customer leads. (See Figure 3.)

Companies with content marketing programs under way are far more likely to see these benefits in a tangible way. The

“leaders” in the survey (those indicating they have a strategy) are far more likely to report results, such as engaging customers (58% versus 21%) or increasing brand awareness (50% versus 15%). (See Figure 4.)

About half, 48%, have a dedicated content marketing manager. The fact that half of respondents still do not have dedicated managers in their organizations suggests that many lack clear lines of responsibility for managing and overseeing content marketing programs. (See Figure 5.) The presence of dedicated teams and leadership is directly tied to the availability of a comprehensive content marketing strategy as well. While 64% of the “leaders” in the survey—defined as those with formal content marketing programs—have such teams, only a handful, 9%, of the laggards have such dedicated personnel in place. (See Figure 6.) A majority of organizations with more than 100 employees have such positions in their ranks. (See Figure 7.)

Among enterprises with dedicated managers who oversee content marketing initiatives, the most popular title conferred is that of “content marketing manager.” At the same time, at least 16% of the titles identified are more senior positions—11% indicated the title of their team leader is director of content strategy, while another 5% even have a “chief content officer.” The prevalence of senior positions at about one out of six enterprises indicates that a portion of companies are aligning their content marketing efforts with the strategic focus of their companies. (See Figure 8.)

CONTENT MARKETING NOW A STRATEGIC INITIATIVE

Comprehensive content marketing strategies are gaining traction in enterprises: Close to half of enterprises in the survey report they have formal content marketing strategies, and 37% are considering such strategies. About half also indicate they have people or teams dedicated to content marketing. However, for the most part, these teams tend to be small, with no clear lines of authority.

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Figure 1: Primary Objectives of Content Marketing Programs

Engage customers and prospects 68%

Increase brand awareness 44%

Acquire leads 38%

Acquire new customers 37%

Drive sales 35%

Educate the market 32%

Improve customer retention/loyalty 29%

Provide thought leadership 23%

Increase web traffic 22%

Engage customers socially 20%

Improve search rankings 12%

Not applicable 5%

0 20 40 60 80 1000 20 40 60 80 100(Multiple responses permitted�)

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Figure 2: Have Content Marketing Strategy?

Yes 46%

Don’t know/unsure 2%Under development/ planning 37%

No 15%

Figure 3: Business Benefits Gained From Content Marketing

Engage customers and prospects 48%

Increase brand awareness 41%

Educate the market 29%

Acquire new customers 29%

Acquire leads 28%

Drive sales 26%

Improve customer retention/loyalty 21%

Increase web traffic 16%

Provide thought leadership 15%

Improve search rankings 14%

Engage customers socially 13%

Support SEO 11%

Not applicable 10%


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Figure 5: Have Dedicated Content Marketing Manager or Team?

Yes 48%

Don’t know/unsure 2%

No 50%

Figure 4: Business Benefits Gained—Leaders Versus Laggards

Leaders Laggards

Engage customers and prospects 58% 21%

Increase brand awareness 50% 15%

Acquire leads 34% 15%

Educate the market 39% 12%

Acquire new customers 33% 15%

(Multiple responses permitted�)

Figure 6: Content Marketing Team—Leaders Versus Laggards

Leaders* Laggards

64% 9%

* Defined as those respondents with formal content marketing programs� “Laggards” have no programs in place or planned�

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Figure 7: Have Dedicated Content Marketing Manager or Team? —By Organization Size

(Percent responding “yes”)

Figure 8: Content Marketing Leader Titles

Content marketing manager 29%

Director of content strategy 11%

Chief content officer 5%

Content strategist 3%


Other 26%


(Among respondents with dedicated content marketing managers)

1 to 100 39%

101 to 1, 000 54%

1,001 to 10,000 58%

>10,000 57%

0 20 40 60 80 1000 20 40 60 80 100

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Socially promoting website content is now the name of the game. More than seven out of 10 respondents say they actively promote their website content through social media channels. (See Figure 9.)

“Social media is very important to us,” says one respondent. “We use it to build brand awareness and credibility. It increases website traffic, generates leads, helps us convert more sales, and more. Usually we track website traffic against social shares to learn which pieces of content resonate with followers, so we know what to produce in the future.”

In terms of social media initiatives, executives consider a branded blog to be their most potent weapon in achieving a social media presence, as cited by close to two-thirds of respondents. LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook are vying for second place, with about three-fifths favoring one or all of these social platforms. (See Figure 10.)

On which channels do respondents promote their content? Facebook and Twitter are now the leading choices, cited by about four-fifths of respondents. Nearly two-thirds of respondents depend on LinkedIn. (See Figure 11.) In terms of sources of actual engagement, Facebook is clearly the leader, cited by a majority of respondents (55%). Close to half also say Twitter has the highest levels of engagement. (See Figure 12.) Facebook dominated as the type of social button included on respondents’ sites or blogs to promote social sharing of content. (See Figure 13.) In nine out of 10 cases, traffic for social media marketing comes from corporate websites. (See Figure 14.)

Who do business-to-consumer marketers target in their social media campaigns? The prime group at this time is Generation X (those born between 1965 and 1980), targeted by close to half of these executives. The Millennials (those born between 1980 and 2000) are next, targeted by 41% of B2Cs. Thirty-eight percent of consumer-facing marketers seek engagement with the Baby Boomers born between 1946 and 1964. (See Figure 15.) As one respondent put it, the youngest generations approach technology in a whole new way, and marketing must keep up: “Since our target customers were born in the 1980s or after, and blog sharing and online communities are part of their life, we are aware that social media marketing is one of the most valuable ways to reach them.”

In terms of social media commitments, for the most part, executives report they have social media teams with 10 or fewer employees. (See Figure 16.) About one-fourth of respondents rely

on outsourcing arrangements for social media marketing support. (See Figure 17.) Outsourcing is strongest among the largest companies participating in the survey. (See Figure 18.)

Some respondents have robust efforts under way, and they have been paying off. “Our community has more than two million unique visitors every month,” says one respondent. “We have a substantial team in place to support it. There’s also another group that is solely responsible for social media that supports the products and programs.”

Who handles respondents’ social media marketing in outsourcing situations? The leading types of services used are consultant/business partners or specialized digital marketing agencies. (See Figure 19.)

Right now, only a small fraction of marketing dollars support social media programs. The vast majority of respondents, 66%, say they allocate less than 10% of their budgets to social media; for the bulk of this group, that share represents less than 5%. (See Figure 20.)

What are the most important channels for marketing fresh content? Websites and email, which can now be considered more traditional channels, having been in use for close to two decades now, dominate as the leading vehicles for content distribution. Corporate websites are still considered the main purveyor of content, as indicated by nine-tenths of respondents. Websites are also recognized as the engines driving the majority of leads for companies.

Another three-fourths say they rely on email campaigns to get the word out on content, and a similar number will send their content through public relations channels. This data points to the importance of a hub-and-spoke model for content marketing, in which content ultimately directs consumers back to the corporate website (including the blog) to perform a desired action. (See Figure 21.)

Social media is also gaining a strong foothold as content distribution reaches a higher priority level – two-thirds of enterprise marketing managers consider this channel to be “very important” or “important” in distributing content.

A majority of respondents, 56%, indicate that they now pursue multi-channel strategies for content distribution. These executives indicate they leverage the same content asset across all marketing/media channels “all” or “most” of the time. (See Figure 22.)

SOCIAL MEDIA EMERGES WITHIN MULTI-CHANNEL STRATEGIES

Social media is an increasingly important element of companies’ content discovery and amplification strategies: Seven out of 10 executives report they are employing social media to distribute content. Facebook and Twitter are now the leading platforms for content marketing and customer engagement.

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Figure 9: Publish Content to Website and Then Socially Promote It?

Yes 71%Don’t know/unsure 8%

No 21%

Figure 10: Value of Social Media Initiatives

Branded blog 64%

LinkedIn 60%

Twitter 59%

Facebook 58%

Online communities 56%

YouTube 50%

LinkedIn Groups 48%

Google+ 31%

Pinterest 24%


(Percent rating value as either “extremely valuable” or “valuable”)

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Figure 11: Content Promotion Channels

Facebook 84%

Twitter 79%

LinkedIn 64%

Branded blog 55%

YouTube 50%


LinkedIn Groups 30%

Google+ 29%

Pinterest 22%


Other 4%


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Figure 12: Social Media Platforms With Highest Levels of Engagement

Facebook 55%

Twitter 45%

LinkedIn 39%

Branded blog 31%


YouTube 20%

LinkedIn Groups 19%

Google+ 10%

Pinterest 8%

Other 3%


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Figure 13: Social Buttons Featured on Websites or Blogs

Facebook 81%

Twitter 74%

LinkedIn 58%

Google+ 33%

YouTube 33%

Pinterest 20%

Other 4%


Figure 14: Where Social Media Traffic Is Driven

Company website 89%

Company blog 44%

Microsite 20%

Partner site 12%

Other 6%


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Figure 15: Targeted Age Ranges of Social Media Marketing


(Among business-to-consumer marketers)

‘Mature/World War II’ generation 11% (born before 1946)

Baby boomers (born 1946–1964) 38%

Gen X (1965–1980) 48%

Gen Y/Millennials (1980–2000) 41%

Not applicable 35%


Figure 16: Number of Employees in Social Media Marketing Team

0 20 40 60 80 100

None 12%

1 to 10 69%

11 to 19 8%

20 or more 9%


0 20 40 60 80 100

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Figure 17: Outsource Any Aspects of Social Media Marketing?

Yes 23%


Not applicable 4%

No 64%

Figure 18: Outsource Any Aspects of Social Media Marketing? —By Organization Size


1 to 100 21%

101 to 1, 000 17%

1,001 to 10,000 28%

>10,000 33%

0 20 40 60 80 1000 20 40 60 80 100

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Figure 19: Who Handles Social Media Marketing?

Consultant/business partner 38%

Digital marketing agency 36%

Contract specialists 29%

Internal social media group(s) 27%

PR/communications agency 24%

Decentralized throughout marketing 13%

Another business unit in your organization 11%

Other 4%


(Among respondents using outsourcing services)

Figure 20: Percent of Annual Marketing Budget Allocated to Social Media Marketing

0 20 40 60 80 100

None 13%

<5% 44%

6% to 10% 22%

>10% 8%


0 20 40 60 80 100

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Figure 21: Importance of Channels for Content Marketing

Company website 88%

Email campaigns 73%

Public relations 70%

Social media 68%

Search (organic) 64%

Company blog 52%

Search (paid) 43%

Online advertising 40%

Microsites 39%

Channel partners 37%

Offline advertising 37%

Third-party sponsorships 27%


(Respondents indicating channel is either “extremely important” or “important�”)

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Figure 22: Frequency of Leveraging Same Content Leveraged Across All Marketing/Media Channels

All the time 13%

Most of the time 43%

Some of the time 32%

Infrequently 6%

Not at all 2%


0 20 40 60 80 1000 20 40 60 80 100

56%

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Customized and original content is the most effective vehicle for reaching and engaging customers. Most marketing managers say they are producing their own original works, internally. Close to nine-tenths say they create their own original content, and about one-fourth also rely on their corporate communications departments. Another one-fourth receive content written or produced by contractors or outside services. (See Figure 23.)

While product-related content tops the list of content areas most important to marketers—77% consider such content to be either “extremely important” or “important” to their organization—an almost equal number value best practices and thought leadership content, tied at 71%. (See Figure 24.) This indicates the importance of not only disseminating product information, but connecting with customers through relevant insight and information on important themes in the marketplace as a key part of brand development and lead generation.

When asked about the types of content that deliver the greatest value to their enterprises, marketing executives say that editorial content is a very popular tactic. Articles top the list of content created in respondents’ organizations, as cited by more than three out of four respondents. Videos are also now a popular form of content, produced by 60% of companies in the survey. A majority, 58%, also see blog posting as an important form of content creation. (See Figure 25.)

Overall, the most widely shared types of content across social media pages, as cited by executives, consist of articles (82%), video (60%), photos (54%), press releases (54%), and blog posts (51%). (See Figure 26.)

Executives in the survey voiced a number of preferred approaches to increasing their content’s visibility through social media. Customer testimonials are seen as an area ripe with opportunity, with 52% seeking to raise the level of this content—up from 44% at present. There is also a desire to increase the sharing of infographics—now used by 34% of respondents, with 42% preferring to increase adoption. The fact that marketers want to increase the use of infographics shows recognition of the need to deliver bite-sized content on the social web that is easy to consume. Another 37% would like to increase their visibility through eBooks and whitepapers, up from the current level of 27%.

There is very little impetus right now to use partner or syndicated content for social media. A majority of respondents, 51%, indicate that they are creating original content for distribution across their social media channels. There is a recognition that marketing is all about differentiation, and it is difficult to differentiate with curated content. Only 14% say they are not employing any original content at all. (See Figure 27.) This is the same across all company-size categories. (See Figure 28.)

CONTENT GETS AN “A” FOR ORIGINALITY

Close to nine-tenths of marketers say they create their own original content on-site. Marketers value information-rich delivery vehicles such as articles and videos and are expanding the scope of their content beyond product marketing. While product-oriented content is still the rule, the majority of marketing managers are just as likely to be developing thought leadership and other forms of value-added content. By far, articles are the most common type of digital content created as part of enterprise marketing efforts, followed by videos and blogs.

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Figure 23: Content Sources

Creating own original content 87%

Corporate communications department 26%

Outsourced content producer 24%

Using curated content 17%

Third-party sponsorships 9% (co-branded white papers, etc�)

Other 1%


Figure 24: Content Areas

Product-related 77%

Best practices 71%

Thought leadership 71%

Industry news 57%

Corporate news 56%

Audience lifestyle 46%

Promotional/fun 44%

“Out-of-brand” or entertainment-driven 28%


(Respondents indicating content area is either “extremely important” or “important�”)

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Figure 25: Types of Digital Content Created

Articles 76%

Videos 60%

Blog entries 58%

Slide shows 33%

Infographics 26%

Other 6%


Figure 26: Types of Content Shared on Social Pages

Current Would like to increase

Articles 82% 53%

Video 60% 59%

Photos 54% 39%

Press releases 54% 37%

Blog post 51% 44%

Infographics 34% 42%

Customer testimonials 44% 52%

Promotions 41% 37%

eNewsletters 34% 37%

eBooks/whitepapers 27% 37%

Other 6% 2%

(Multiple responses permitted�)

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Figure 27: Creating Original Content for Social Media Channels?

Yes 51%

Don’t know/unsure 5%Under development/ planning 30%

No 14%

Figure 28: Creating Original Content for Social Media Channels? —By Organization Size


1 to 100 50%

101 to 1, 000 54%

1,001 to 10,000 54%

>10,000 53%

0 20 40 60 80 1000 20 40 60 80 100

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One of the keys to content marketing success is the ability to post an impressive volume of content frequently. This remains an area where many content managers struggle. A majority, 53%, say they produce 10 or fewer content marketing assets a month for posting across social media. However, a large segment, 44%, would prefer to shift this quantity upward, onto the range of 11 to 50. Another 14% would like to increase their volume to more than 50 a month—currently, only 4% have achieved this level. (See Figure 29.)

Companies with more than 100 employees report greater volume than their smaller counterparts. However, the largest organizations in the survey do not post an appreciable amount more than their mid-size counterparts, indicating that even large organizations struggle to produce the amount of content they would like to have. (See Figure 30.) Here, the identified leaders in the survey (those with formal content marketing programs) have an edge, with 41% producing more than 10 items a month— versus 26% of the laggards. (See Figure 31.)

For the most part, respondents are posting new, fresh content on a weekly basis. However, 40% would prefer to be able to post fresh content on at least a daily basis. (See Figure 32.) The “leaders” in the survey—those with formal content marketing programs — are twice as likely as the laggards to post original content through social channels at least once a day. (See Figure 33.)

Part of the approach in publishing frequent and fresh content is to work smarter and be able to leverage existing content in multiple ways. Seventy-eight percent of respondents says they repurpose or re-post content at least some of the time. (See Figure 34.)

When it comes to frequency of posting content on all marketing channels, social media—with its brief, 140-character snippets (at least in the case of Twitter)—wins out. Close to half the executives in the survey say they post to social media outlets five or more times a week, compared to only 28% posting this frequently to their corporate website, or 24% to blogs. (See Figure 35.) A marketer can post multiple snippets from one piece of content to social media whereas the same asset usually is posted only once to the website.

NEEDED: GREATER CONTENT VOLUME AND FREQUENCY

Content volume and frequency are too low for today’s always-on economy: Executives report that their organizations currently produce 10 or fewer items a month but would like to step this up to 50 pieces a month. While 10 items published a month equates to one item every three days, the internet and social media worlds are active on a 24x7 basis, every day of the month. In the digital era, customers must be engaged with a regular, constant stream of content.

Figure 29: Number of Original Content Postings Per Month Across Social Media

Current Would like to increase

1 to 10 new content marketing assets per month 53% 23%

11 to 25 assets 17% 22%

26 to 50 assets 8% 22%

51 to 100 assets 1% 8%

>100 assets 3% 6%

Not applicable 9% 9%

Don’t know/unsure 9% 11%

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Figure 30: Number of Original Content Postings Per Month —By Organization Size

1–100 101–1,000 1,001–10,000 >10,001

1 to 10 assets 65% 45% 44% 43%

>10 21% 34% 36% 34%

Figure 31: Number of Original Content Postings Per Month —Leaders Versus Laggards

Leaders Laggards

1 to 10 assets 43% 48%

>10 41% 26%

Figure 32: Frequency of Posting Fresh, Original Content

Current frequency Ideal frequency

More than once a day 4% 17%

Daily 21% 33%

Weekly 46% 37%

Monthly 16% 8%

Every few months 8% 1%

Not posting any content 2% —

Don’t know/unsure 2% 3%

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Figure 33: Frequency of Posting Fresh, Original Content —Leaders Versus Laggards

Leaders Laggards

Daily/more than once a day 36% 17%

Weekly 51% 23%

Monthly or less frequently 12% 43%

Figure 34: How Often Content is Re-purposed or Re-posted

Always 10%

Sometimes 68%Never 3%

Rarely 18%(Total does not equal 100% due to rounding�)

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Figure 35: High-Frequency Posting

Social media 44%

Company website 28%

Company blog 24%

Email campaigns 18%

Public relations 18%

Online advertising 17%

Search (paid) 15%

Offline advertising 12%

Microsites 11%

Channel partners 9%

Third-party sponsorships 6%


(Respondents posting five or more times per month)

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While there is clearly recognition that employing social media to amplify content is a key strategy in today’s connected world, few organizations are able to comprehensively gauge the results of social media efforts. Only one-fourth of respondents indicate they are measuring the results of their social media content marketing programs down to the level of individual pieces of content. (See Figure 36.) As noted earlier in the report, a majority of marketers are still relying on desktop productivity tools, such as spreadsheets, to organize their content marketing. The use of such manual methods means there is no “digital trail” with which to effectively track and measure results.

Measuring social media is an underutilized approach across companies of all sizes. While only 20% of the smallest companies measure social media results, this jumps to 33% among medium-size businesses. However, only 23% of the largest organizations in the survey do this. (See Figure 37.)

The impetus to measure results is far greater among enterprises that have a formal content marketing strategy under their roofs. These leaders are three times as likely to be measuring results—37% versus 11%. (See Figure 38.)

“There is a high expectation regarding social media but a very low understanding around measures to determine ROI versus

activity,” says one respondent. “I’m looking forward to more comprehensive tools to measure REAL performance.”

Even among respondents who do measure social media performance, the measurements tend not to be tied directly to business revenue or overall market share. Rather, they are primarily related to more platform-specific metrics, such as levels of engagement (67% count comments or shares), website traffic (62%), and “likes” on Facebook or endorsements on LinkedIn (47%). Only 42% begin to tie social media content success directly to business gains, via direct responses or downloads, and 31% make a connection to sales and revenues. (See Figure 39.)

Direct responses and downloads provide a valuable means for translating web activity into new business, one respondent states. “The most important metric for us is conversions- how many people downloaded a white paper or our product trial by clicking through a link on a social channel,” the respondent explained.

Another summed up the importance of measuring engagements on various levels. “We understand the value, but need to prioritize our efforts in content development and sharing across social networks, as well as measurement. We don’t do as good a job at tracking the value of our efforts as we should be,” the respondent admits.

MEASURING PROGRESS

Content marketing strategies provide an opportunity for competitive advantage, but more measurement is needed. Most companies are still in the very early stages of measuring return from social media marketing activities and are not fully aware of the returns they are getting. Most measurements tend to be more directly tied to specific platform engagements versus broader business values.

Figure 36: Measuring Results of Social Media Content Marketing Programs Down to Individual Pieces of Content?

Yes 25%Under development/ planning 33%

Don’t know/unsure 11%No 32%

(Total does not equal 100% due to rounding�)

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Figure 37: Measuring Results of Social Media Content Marketing Programs Down to Individual Pieces of Content —By Organization Size


1 to 100 20%

101 to 1, 000 33%

1,001 to 10,000 28%

>10,000 23%

0 20 40 60 80 1000 20 40 60 80 100

Figure 38: Measuring Results of Social Media Content Marketing Programs Down to Individual Pieces of Content —Leaders Versus Laggards


Leaders Laggards

37% 11%

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Figure 39: How Social Media Success is Defined

Engagement (comments and shares) 67%

Website traffic (page views, 62% unique visitors

Number of Facebook and LinkedIn “likes” 47%

Direct responses/downloads 42%

Number of retweets on Twitter 36%

Tied to product or sales/revenues 31%

Daily/weekly/monthly shares of content 26% in social media

Daily/weekly/monthly social media 16% prospect lead conversions (forms completed)


Other 2%


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Nearly all content marketers are creating content using basic office tools including Microsoft Office and email, suggesting that more education is needed in the market about customized content marketing solutions. Almost nine-tenths of executives employ Word or Excel in their work. A majority have also migrated to online content publishing platforms, with tools such as Quark, Adobe Professional, and WordPress. (See Figure 40.)

Effective targeting of audience segments is the most challenging part of content marketing. When asked about the greatest challenges to effectively producing online content marketing efforts, two-thirds of executives say they want to produce more targeted, relevant content to engage audiences. Another 53% say they cannot produce enough content to keep audiences coming back on a regular basis. As mentioned above, most executives would prefer to cycle fresh content on at least a weekly basis. The quality of content is also a significant concern. (See Figure 41.)

How do executives gain insight into topics for targeted content marketing? Half reach out to their markets to conduct survey research to gather data on trends, while another 50% use

website and audience analytics to better segment their audiences. Keyword research is another approach cited by close to half of respondents. (See Figure 42.)

While nearly every company, 83%, has earmarked at least some money specifically for content marketing, this tends to be a small fraction of their overall marketing budgets. For the most part, less than one-fourth of budgets go to content creation, as indicated by the majority of respondents. (See Figure 43.)

Though content marketing staffs tend to be small, and budgets limited, marketing managers overwhelmingly rely on their in-house resources for most of their materials. A majority, 71%, say most of their content is created in-house. (See Figure 44.) This is the case regardless of organization size. (See Figure 45.)

Content marketing staff sizes are modest, usually with just a handful of employees. A majority, 51% have relatively small content marketing staffs—with no more than five employees. (See Figure 46.) Larger staffs are seen among the largest organizations in the survey—a majority of those respondents with organizations of more than 10,000 employees report they have staffs of more than 20 employees. (See Figure 47.)

PEOPLE, PROCESS, AND TECHNOLOGY

Two-thirds of executives say they want to produce more targeted, relevant content to engage audiences. Another 53% say they can’t produce enough content to keep audiences coming back on a regular basis. Lean staffing resources may be part of the challenge—about half of respondents indicated they have people or teams dedicated to content marketing; however, for the most part, these teams tend to be small. Still, enterprises with dedicated content marketing managers or teams post more content more frequently and report greater measured benefits from their content marketing.

Figure 40: Applications and Systems Used to Support Content Writers

Microsoft applications 89%

Online content publishing platforms 60%

Internally developed content development 25% systems

Content production platforms 9%

Other 2%


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Figure 41: Challenges to Improving Branded Content Marketing

Producing targeted, relevant content to 66% engage audiences

Producing enough content 53%

Challenges creating high-quality content 44%

Generating more sales leads 41%

Lack of budget 39%

Difficulty finding qualified writers 23%

Improving customer relationships 20%

Complex processes to manage writers 12%

Other 4%


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Figure 42: How Insight for Targeted Content Marketing Is Gained

Conduct surveys 50%

Website/audience analytics 50%

Search analytics/keyword research 46%

Sales teams 42%

Professional associations 42%

Analyst reports 40%

Professional networking groups 39%

Marketing personas 36%

Social listening tools 32%

Focus groups 31%

Other 4%


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Figure 43: Annual Marketing Budget Allocated to Content Creation

None 1%

<10% 35%

10% to 25% 27%

25% to 50% 14%

50% to 75% 5%

>75% 2%


Not applicable 4%

0 20 40 60 80 1000 20 40 60 80 100

Figure 44: Percent of Content Created by Internal Staff Versus Outside Resources

None 1%

<10% 3%

10% to 25% 5%

25% to 50% 12%

50% to 75% 21%

>75% 50%


Not applicable 2%

0 20 40 60 80 1000 20 40 60 80 100

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Figure 45: Content Created by Internal Staff—By Organization Size

(Percent indicating more than half content created in-house)

1 to 100 76%

101 to 1, 000 63%

1,001 to 10,000 65%

>10,000 74%

0 20 40 60 80 1000 20 40 60 80 100

Figure 46: Number of Employees Engaged in Supporting Content Marketing Initiatives

1 to 5 51%

6 to 10 15%

11 to 20 8%

>20 17%


Not applicable 3%

0 20 40 60 80 1000 20 40 60 80 100

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Figure 47: Number of Employees Engaged in Supporting Content Marketing Initiatives—By Organization Size

1–100 101–1,000 1,001–10,000 >10,001

1 to 5 75% 39% 28% 27%

6 to 10 10% 33% 28% 0%

11 to 20 6% 13% 9% 7%

>20 5% 8% 25% 56%

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DEMOGRAPHICS

Figure 48: Respondents’ Primary Job Titles

Executive management level 24%

Marketing manager/director 17%

Project manager 15%

Manager of a business unit 13%

Consultant 7%

Chief marketing officer 5%

Vice president marketing 5%

Vice president digital strategy 2%

Community manager 1%

Other 11%

0 20 40 60 80 1000 20 40 60 80 100

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Figure 49: Respondents’ Organization Sizes—By Employee Count

1 to 100 employees 41%

101 to 500 employees 17%

501 to 1,000 employees 7%

1,001 to 5,000 employees 12%

5,001 to 10,000 employees 7%

10,001 to 50,000 employees 8%

>50,000 employees 7%

Don’t know/unsure/prefer not to answer 1%

0 20 40 60 80 1000 20 40 60 80 100

(Includes all locations, branches, and subsidiaries)

Figure 50: Respondents’ Organization Sizes—By Annual Revenue

<$10 million 28%

$10 million to $50 million 21%




$500 million to $1 billion 6%

>$1 billion 17%

Don’t know/unsure/prefer not to answer 15%

0 20 40 60 80 1000 20 40 60 80 100

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Figure 51: Respondents’ Primary Industries

Business or consumer services 15%

IT services/consulting/system integration 12%

Retail/distribution 9%

Software/application development 9%

Education (all levels) 8%

Financial services/insurance 8%

Media 7%

Healthcare/medical 5%

Manufacturing 5%

Utility/telecommunications/transportation 5%

Government (all levels) 2%

High-tech manufacturing 2%

Other 14%

0 20 40 60 80 1000 20 40 60 80 100