Content marketing has become a critical element of B2B marketing strategies. And for good reason: It can help build brand, authority, and awareness. Not to mention leads.

A well planned content marketing strategy—incorporating whitepapers, blogs, social posts, infographics, videos, etc.—is critical for reaching and leaving an impact on your target audience. If done correctly.

What does "correctly" mean? Fully 90% of top-performing B2B content marketers put the audience's informational needs first (as opposed to focusing on salesy copy), according to the most recent B2B content marketing benchmark study from MarketingProfs and Content Marketing Institute.

How do content marketers get their content out to their audiences? The top 3 organic (free) content distribution channels B2B marketers use are social media (91%), their organization’s website/blog (89%), and email (87%).

Moreover, fully 84% of B2B marketers use paid distribution channels for content marketing purposes; among that group, 72% use paid social media/promoted posts.

Those stats are among the many more from the MarketingProfs and CMI research that are highlighted in the following infographic compiled by marketing technology company Grazitti Interactive: