The popularity of whitepapers as a B2B content marketing format is declining in relation to more interactive, easily digestible formats such as video, according to a recent survey of the B2B Technology Marketing Community on LinkedIn.
Overall, B2B content marketing is seen as an increasingly effective strategy: More than 82% of survey respondents are planning to increase their content production over the next 12 months.
Other key findings from the annual report:
- YouTube is gaining popularity as a social media platform to reach and engage B2B audiences. Facebook is losing ground.
- 61% of marketers use marketing automation platforms, up from 43% last year.
- The vast majority (93%) of B2B marketers are creating content from scratch.
- Only 34% are syndicating/curating content, and just 30% are encouraging user-generated content.
Below, additional insights from the B2B Content Marketing Report, which was authored by Holger Schulze, the manager of the B2B Technology Marketing Community on LinkedIn.
The Most Effective Tactics
- Customer testimonials and case studies are considered the most effective B2B content tactics by survey respondents.
- Whitepapers suffered the biggest drop in perceived effectiveness from last year's survey—moving down from second place to sixth.
- Videos are now viewed as the fifth most effective content type to reach B2B audiences.
- The three least popular content formats are online games, printed books, and podcasts.
Top Goals of Content Marketing
Survey respondents listed lead generation (71%), thought leadership/market education (50%), and customer acquisition (45%) as their top content marketing goals.
