Marketing Content - who care's wins

Oxbridge Media  |  
CEO  Adrian Burke  MBA  MCIM

Content Marketing

Good SEO and relevant content is an invaluable tool and an asset to B2C or B2B companies. I recently read an infographic which beautifully summed up the current “battlefield” in regards to budgets and allocation to their content marketing.

B2B and B2C

There is a a difference between fact and fiction and these figures dispel any doubts. A healthy 63% of all companies have a budget dedicated to content marketing. We can further break this down into two distinct trading groups, B2C companies which have 68% and B2B companies with 53%.

On a one-to-one basis, 61% of companies have a dedicated content marketing role and if not now, are certainly planning to invest in one in the near future. If I was a company marketing director, I would be quite alarmed at this low figure of 33% of contracted PR/Marketing agencies who actually understand the content needs of their audience, but more disturbingly 41% mostly understood it. 

In other wards, what ever agency you contract to create content whether blogs, social media or white papers, make SURE they understand what YOU want and it's contained within the brief.

In-House Skills

The next set of figures make interesting paradox of data, but worth mentioning. The question asked is content marketing essential to their business? A low 31% said yes, but 43% at board level stating it as a company priority, why so low?

However, these figures are rescued by social media, an astonishing 71% produced social media content for marketing and a healthy 53% viewed it as being highly effective way to communicate business products, ideas or blogs. A little figure that pops up and is important, 61% personally spend 4 hours a week on content marketing and their team the same.

The Consumer in Content Marketing

An interesting set of figures here for companies, so let's go!

A story tells a thousand words and a disappointing 23% use this fantastic medium infographics – we are by nature visual (we focus on images) and this is one of our strongest senses, so why not use it in marketing? 

The next figure, 30% produced video (with 12% seeing it as effective for business), blogging 34% crafted these (24% seeing it as a necessary/effective way to communicate) and interestingly 38% produced white papers (21% seeing this as most effective for their business).

Conclusion

What are the key benefits of good content marketing?

It depends what your strategic and tactical methods you use (Facebook/Twitter/G+/Linkedin), but if your a solely driving sales 67%, achieving customer retention 52% and the most important, but least understood by most large companies customer loyalty at 51%.

Lastly, content marketing has three core principles, Awareness, Consideration and Conversion with quality content refilling the marketing/sales funnel, loose traction of these; and it is at your peril.