Eloqua Community. Produced in-house 93. White Papers / ebooks Webinars Videos. 66% Case Studies. 64% Presentations / SlideShare Decks 58%

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1 White Papers / ebooks Webinars 7 Videos 66% Case Studies 64% Presentations / SlideShare Decks 58% One asset every week 13% Eloqua Community Getting our target audience to engage with our content 24% Creating enough targeted content 23% Marketing 55% State of Content Marketing Lead generationlead generation 44% Digital marketing 39 Content marketing 36% 2014 Demand generation 30% Multiple assets per week Marketing systems 24% 29% One asset per month 28% Infographics 40 Surveys 35% Produced in-house % 12%

2 THE STATE OF CONTENT MARKETING IN 2014 Welcome Modern Marketers! at the Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs and Demand Gen Report s Content Preferences Survey are two of many incredibly helpful resources for the content marketing community. But like all surveys we suspect, there are always some questions missing, or even some questions that you wished they d taken further. For example, questions about the use of other people s content, about the alignment of content with the buyer s journey, about the use of metrics. And so, in a spirit of reciprocity, the team at LookBookHQ thought Well, why don t we ask them then? and share the answers back with the marketing community. Modern Marketers, marketers who are using marketing automation to take their marketing to the next level. After all, it s this community that is setting the pace. So we went to our friends at Oracle Eloqua, the home of Modern Marketers, and we re pleased to say that they thought it a great idea too. And this report is the output of LookBookHQ s and Oracle Eloqua s joint initiative. We had a fantastic 205 responses to our short content marketing survey from members of the Oracle Eloqua community and the full results to expand upon further in 2014 (watch this space!). But we re also sure that there are a whole host of things that we should have asked and didn t. So if you ve got suggestions as to what we should ask next time (assuming there is a next time!) then please don t hesitate to get in touch with us. We d love to hear from you. Nick Edouard LookBookHQ nick@lookbookhq.com Amanda Batista Content Marketing Manager Oracle Eloqua amanda.batista@oracle.com Sarah Facini Head of Awesomeness LookBookHQ sarah@lookbookhq.com

3 THE STATE OF CONTENT MARKETING IN KEY FINDINGS 29% of companies are producing multiple assets per week, while 54% are producing a content asset (excluding blog posts) every 2 weeks or less frequently 84% share other people s content, mainly via social media (56%), blog posts and their websites (41%) and s (38%) snackable content Nearly half (49%) of marketers say they are learning how to align content with the buyer s journey and plan to execute on that strategy within the next six months. Only 12% of marketers are sophisticated in our content alignment [with the buyer s journey] and measurement Only 37% of marketers track the time an audience engages with content while only 10% collect feedback from the audience Only 51% of companies are regularly producing content for sales enablement 44% identify content production (enough, enough targeted, or sales content) as the biggest challenge, although engaging the target audience is the #1 standalone challenge (24%)

4 No surprise here - Modern Marketers are regularly producing white papers, webinars, videos, and case studies. White Papers / ebooks 76% Webinars deos Case Studies Presentations / SlideShare Decks Infographics 40% Surveys 35% 74% 66% 64% 58% Answers from companies with marketing budgets >1M per annum increase across the board (apart from webinars which 1. What type of content are you currently producing regularly? (Multiple answers) 3

5 Content is regularly produced for use in demand/lead generation, nurturing, and brand awareness campaigns. Demand / lead generation 88% Lead nurturing 66% Brand awareness 58% Sales enablement 51% Channel partner or R education 21% 51% of Modern Marketers are producing content for sales. Other 3% 2. For which type(s) of marketing campaigns do you regularly produce content? (Multiple answers) 4

6 To augment in-house content production, nearly 50% use a third party agency. Pr 93% Outsourced to a third party 47% Share thir 21% These responses are broadly consistent across all companies regardless We don t produce original content 2% 3. Who produces your content? (Multiple answers) 5

7 Blogging is a mainstream modern marketing activity - 83% blog, 39% are blogging frequently. More than eleven blog posts per month 24% Six to ten blog posts per month 15% 39% publish over six posts/month. Two to five blog posts per month 33% One blog post per month 7% Less than one blog post per month 4% We don t blog 17% 4. On average, how many blog posts does your organization produce per month? 6

8 42% produce one or more content assets per week, but most produce an asset every two weeks or more infrequently. all companies). Data for this question does not include blog posts. Multiple assets per week One asset every week 13% 29% 42% produce at least one piece of content per week. One asset every 2 weeks 20% One asset per month 28% One asset per quarter or less 7% No original content, we only curate and/or aggregate third party content 2% No original content and we don t curate and/or aggregate 2% 5. On average, how much new content (excluding blog posts) is your company producing? 7

9 59% of Modern Marketers repurpose a content asset 2-5 times, with only 9% repurposing >10 times. 7% 9% 9% 16% Once Tw en times More than ten times We don t repurpose content 59% 6. Are you currently regularly repurposing content? If so, how many times does the average content asset get repurposed? 8

10 blogs, websites, and s. Tweet link / post to social networks 56% Write a blog post based on the third party content and link to it Share links to the third party content on our web site 41% Share links to the third party content in campaigns 38% We re not 24% 41% 12% of companies are using content curation platforms/ properly break through. Add to a content curation platform / service 12% Other 3% 7. How are you using third party content? (Multiple Answers) 9

11 Integrating third party content within my overall narrative 43% Third party content focused on my industry is sparse and hard to find 34% There s no easy way for me to highlight the key points in the third party content Our or s policy is to only share content that we produce 17% 29% Lack of time and resources/manpower as well as legal and/or regulatory concerns are cited as key reasons why companies don t share other people s content. Other 14% 8. What are the challenges you face in sharing third party content with your audience? (Multiple Answers) 10

12 Getting an audience to engage with their content and creating enough content are the primary challenges for Modern Marketers. Getting our target audience to engage with our content 24% Creating enough targeted content 23% Creating enough content 16% Linking content consumption to our sales process 15% Understanding what content our audience finds useful and interesting 14% 44% identify content production as their biggest challenge. Creating content that help our sales teams 5% Other 3% Coherently integrating third party content within our narrative 2% 9. What is the biggest content marketing challenge your company is currently experiencing? 11

13 - i.e. track the time that the audience spends with the content. Number of hits/downloads only 14% Number of hits/downloads, unique visitors 27% 63% do not record beyond the click data. Number of hits/downloads, unique visitors, origin of visits, link sources 22% All of the above, plus time spent with the content All of the above, plus feedback on content 10% 27% 37% record time spent with content and only 10% capture feedback. 10. Which metrics are you currently collecting about the content that you re sharing? 12

14 Content marketing effectiveness is primarily measured via quantitative metrics & CTA conversions. Tied to quantitative metrics/specific CTA/conversions 66% Feedback from audience that they find it useful 27% We don t have the tools to measure effectiveness 23% Feedback from sales post discussions with prospects 22% Length of sales cycles 9% Other 3% 11. How do you currently assess content marketing effectiveness? What are your key performance indicators (KPIs)? (Multiple Answers) 13

15 Nearly half of Modern Marketers are learning how to align content 3% 14% 12% 1 We are sophisticated in our content alignment and measurement 2 We understand how to align content but lack measurement strategy 22% 3 We are learning how to align content and plan to execute on our strategy within the next six months 4 We do not understand how to align content and measurement but r value in doing so 5 We have no plan to align content to the buyer s journey or measure success 49% 12. On a scale of 1-5, with 1 being the best assessment, how well do your sales and marketing teams leverage marketing automation to align content across the buyer s journey to present a more united front in communications? 14

16 Repurposing existing content to make it snackable 63% Delivering right time/real time content based on behavioural patterns 59% 75% Making our new content more visual and engaging 58% Sharing content (ours and third party) that our audience finds useful Using progressive profiling to build a better picture of our prospects 54% 46% of companies with marketing budgets >1M per annum are repurposing content to 13. Which of the following trends are influencing your content marketing strategy currently? (Multiple Answers) 15

17 Good news! 51% of Modern Marketers believe that engagement with their content is increasing. 20% Increasing 26% 51% Declining Neither (flat) Not sure 3% 14. Is audience engagement with your content increasing or declining? 16

18 But there is still room for improvement. More marketers agree than disagree that their content marketing has not been optimized. 6% 34% 10% 18% 1 Strongly disagree 2 Disagree somewhat 3 Neither agree nor disagree 4 Agree somewhat 5 Strongly agree 32% 15. We have optimized our digital marketing but not our content marketing do you agree? 17

19 Information about survey respondents. 100,000+ 4% 10% 12% 13% 11% 5% 23% 21% 65% 6% 1% 6% 23% Manager Director President 16. What how many employees does your company have? 17. What is your position within your company? Marketing Lead generation Digital marketing Content marketing 44% 39% 36% 55% 38% 15% 8% $1,000,000+ $500,000 to $1,000,000 $250,001 to $500,000 Demand generation 30% Marketing systems 24% Business development 9% 12% 13% 14% $100,001 to $250,000 $50,000 to $100,000 Under $50, What is the focus of your role? 19. What is your marketing budget? 18