What's happening in content marketing?
For starters, an overwhelming percentage of companies is doing content marketing. We know this from the annual research that Content Marketing Institute, MarketingProfs, and their partners conduct for both B2B and B2C, and present annually as Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends.
Thanks to the same research, we also know companies are pursuing content marketing more voraciously than years past: 76% of B2B and 77% of B2C marketers are creating more content than they did a year ago.
Half of all marketers will increase spending. The average number of tactics (or types of content) used by B2Bs is 13. B2Cs average 12.
Whoa.
Suffice to say, content marketing battles are in full force.
Do content marketers know what to create?
Clearly, that is a more elusive question. Effectiveness ratings (see below) vary widely.
Interestingly, infographics is the tactic that had the greatest increase in usage (from 51% last year to 62% this year) for B2B marketers. Equally interesting, in the B2C spectrum, the use of blogging declined from 72% to 67% in 2015.
Determining the kinds of content your brand should create can be perplexing. Contently's Sam Slaughter suggests you begin by considering:
- Theme
- Length
- Volume
- Format
Content marketers exploring their options also might want to know...
- What are the leading benefits of the most popular content types?
- Where are their sweet spots in the digital marketing world?
- What will it cost to outsource production?
- How difficult is it to produce the content?
- What can you do to make your content type perform more powerfully?
Allow us to present some insights
Granted, some of these knowledge nuggets can be a bit subjective, but through a combination of reading, research, outreach, and experience, I did my best to address these issues to help you make informed decisions when selecting content types to create.
A great big thank to Venngage, the data visualization specialist and tool provider that collaborated with me on the design of the following infographic:
