Talk is cheap. So it should come as no surprise that when it comes to content marketing strategy, simply talking about it is not enough.
That is the big takeaway from the 2015 benchmarks, budgets, and trends study by Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs, sponsored by our own Rainmaker Platform.
According to the study, only 39 percent of B2B small business marketers have a documented content marketing strategy. The rest either have a strategy that they have only talked about (47 percent), have no strategy at all (12 percent), or are unsure (1 percent).
Here’s why this matters …
The most effective content marketers document their strategy
The data shows that the 39 percent of companies who do have a documented strategy are “more effective in nearly all aspects of content marketing than their peers who either have a verbal-only strategy or no strategy at all.”
The report breaks it down further:
60 percent of those with a documented content marketing strategy consider their organization to be “effective” at content marketing; only 33 percent of those with just a verbal strategy say the same.
62 percent of those with a documented strategy say that their strategy closely guides their content marketing efforts; only 29 percent of those with just a verbal strategy say the same.
The correlation between those two statements seems pretty clear.
And here is another interesting note: companies with a documented strategy are more than twice as likely to be successful at charting the ROI of their content marketing efforts than those with only a verbal strategy.
You get the idea …
Write. It. Down.
So … what should you be documenting?
The report provides insightful data that can help you make more informed strategy decisions as you document your strategy.
For example:
- Which metrics are other companies tracking? (Are you tracking them?)
- How much content are other companies creating? (Are you keeping pace?)
- Which content types and social media platforms are companies finding most effective? (Are you using them?)
- What percentage of their marketing budget are companies allocating for content marketing? (How does your budget compare?)
The study also includes charts that compare what the most effective content marketers are doing against what the least effective are doing. And you’ll find out what challenges small businesses are facing, and how they are overcoming them.
Every year we gain valuable insight from this report, and this year is no exception.
See for yourself.
View the full report below or (or click here to view it at SlideShare).
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