Marketing Report survey results. Yesler Software Shortlist Maximizer Hanley Wood. Sponsored by

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1 Marketing Report 2013 survey results Sponsored by Yesler Software Shortlist Maximizer Hanley Wood

2 Introduction B2B buyer behavior has been changing dramatically over the last few years as buyers become more sophisticated, find new ways to gather information online and via social media. 90% of business buyers say when they re ready to buy, they ll find you. *DemandGen Reports Content marketing is going mainstream in B2B marketers are increasingly using content marketing tactics to engage B2B buyers with compelling content to educate, inform, entertain and guide them along their buying journey. But what s behind the buzz and growing popularity of content marketing? We conducted a survey with the 50,000+ member B2B Technology Marketing Community on LinkedIn to get answers to key questions like: What s working and what s not? Who is creating content and what are they creating? How do you measure content marketing results? We received over 700 responses and are excited to share the results with you. Thanks to everyone who participated in the survey! Holger Schulze Group Owner, B2B Technology Marketing Community hhschulze@gmail.com

3 SURVEY HIGHLIGHTS Top-5 Trends in Content Marketing Content marketing is going mainstream and becoming more sophisticated to help marketers generate more leads and enable thought leadership. The popularity of white papers as a content marketing format is declining relative to interactive, easily digestible formats such as video. More than 80 percent of B2B marketers are increasing their content production over the next 12 months. YouTube is gaining popularity as a social media platform to reach and engage B2B audiences Facebook is losing ground. Marketing automation is on the rise. 61 percent of marketers use marketing automation platforms, up from 43 percent last year 3

4 Q1 WHAT ARE THE GOALS of Content Marketing? The top-3 goals of content marketing: 1. Lead generation (71 percent) 2. Though Leadership & Market education (50 percent) 3. Customer acquisition (45 percent) Lead generation Thought leadership / Market education Customer acquisition Brand awareness Lead nurturing Website traffic Customers loyalty / retention Social media engagement Channel enablement 61% 49.9% 45.0% 41.0% 35.4% 27.8% 24.8% 13.1% 6.4% 71.3% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 4

5 Q2 HOW EFFECTIVE ARE CONTENT Marketing Tactics & Formats? Case Studies Customer testimonials In-person events Online articles Videos White Papers Product demos Webinars / Webcasts Social media Research Reports enewsletters Blogging Slideware / presentations Analyst Reports Press releases Infographics Polling / Research Virtual / online events Microsites ebooks Mobile content Community management / threading Visual content (cartoons, memes) Print Magazines Licensed / Syndicated Content Advertorials Branded Apps Podcasts Printed Books Games Case studies and customer testimonials are the most effective content marketing tactics White papers on the other hand experienced the biggest drop in relative popularity - moving from the number 2 spot in last year s survey down to number 5 today. The least popular content formats are online games, branded applications, and podcasts. Effective Ineffective I don t use it (tied at 89 percent). 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 5

6 Q3 WHAT ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT elements of effective content? So what are the ingredients of successful content? Content success starts with audience relevance (71 percent), followed by engaging and compelling storytelling (56 percent) that triggers a specific response (56 percent). Audience relevance Triggers a response / action Engaging and compelling storytelling Effectively delivers message Originality Re-usability Well-edited copy Custom content Written for SEO Easy to produce Low cost 24.0% 17.6% 15.7% 15.3% 15.1% 8.2% 6.3% 56.0% 55.7% 40.0% 71 % 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 6

7 Q4 HOW EFFECTIVE IS SOCIAL LinkedIn media in delivering content? LinkedIn YouTube Twitter SlideShare Facebook Custom developed communities Google + Vimeo Pinterest Flickr Tumblr Spiceworks tops the list of the most effective social media platforms again with 85 percent (although this number is likely skewed considering the majority of survey respondents came from the B2B Technology Marketing Community on LinkedIn). The runner ups are YouTube (impressive 73 percent, up from 53 percent last year) and Twitter (65 percent, down from 70 percent last year). Facebook on the other hand is quickly losing popularity with B2B marketers as a social media platform to reach and engage B2B audiences (down to 39 percent from 54 percent last year). Instagram Quora Foursquare StumbleUpon Effective Ineffective I don t use it 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 7

8 Q5 HOW DO YOU generate content? The vast majority of B2B marketers create content from scratch (93 percent). Create content from scratch 93% Curate or syndicate third party content 34.4% Encourage user generated content 30.0% License / Re-use existing content 27.5% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 8

9 Q6 WHAT METRICS DO YOU USE TO measure the success of your content? Traffic (63 percent) is tied with Views & Downloads (63 percent) as the top metrics used by B2B marketers to measure the success of content marketing. The next most popular metric is sales opportunities (51 percent). Web traffic / visits Views / downloads Sales opportunities Sales Lead Quality Sales Lead Quantity Sales / Revenue Social media sharing Customer feedback Search engine rankings Search rankings Inbound links Share of conversation Don t measure 51.2% 50.6% 46.1% 37.1% 33.0% 32.8% 28.6% 21.6% 20.5% 16.0% 4.5% 63% 63% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 9

10 Q7 WHO DETERMINES CONTENT marketing strategy? In most companies, Corporate marketing sets content strategy (58 percent), followed by Product marketing (38 percent), and the CEO / President / Owner (34 percent) in smaller companies that often don t have a dedicated marketing department. Corporate marketing Product marketing CEO / President / Owner PR / Communications Sales Demand generation Field marketing Product management External agency / consultant 24.7% 21.2% 17.2% 16.5% 15.4% 10.6% 38.1% 33.5% 58 % 0% 20% 40% 60% 10

11 Q8 WHO CREATES CONTENT? Corporate marketing is also the number one creator of content (56 percent), followed by Product marketing (47 percent) and PR / Communications (38 percent). Corporate marketing Product marketing Subject matter experts PR / Communications External agency / consultant Product management CEO / President / Owner Field marketing Sales Demand generation Nobody 13.9% 13.3% 0.2% 29.4% 24.0% 22.8% 18.6% 46.9% 42.9% 38.7% 56 % 0% 20% 40% 60% 11

12 Q9 WHAT PERCENTAGE OF CONTENT creation do you outsource? Content marketing is mostly done in-house. A majority of B2B marketers outsource less than 20 percent of their content creation. 25% 20% 20% 18.8% 15% 12.6% 10% 9.0% 8.8% 8.1% 5% 4.5% 4.3% 0% 0 3.0% 3.6% 1.7% 1.3% Don t know 12

13 Q10 WHAT CONTENT MARKETING The tactics do marketers outsource? Videos White Papers Research Reports Infographics Analyst Reports Case Studies Press releases Online articles Blogging Social media Webinars / Webcasts Polling / Research ebooks Microsites We don t outsource any Customer testimonials Visual content (cartoons, memes) enewsletters Licensed / Syndicated Content Mobile content Advertorials Virtual / online events Print Magazines In-person events Slideware / presentations Branded Apps Community management / threading Podcasts Product demos Games Printed Books 31% 29.3% 26.9% 26.7% 26.3% 22.5% 20.8% 20.0% 19.6% 17.5% 17.3% 15.2% 14.7% 14.1% 13.7% 12.0% 11.8% 11.6% 10.7% 9.9% 9.5% 9.1% 9.1% 8.6% 8.4% 8.0% 7.4% 5.9% 5.7% 4.8% 4.6% 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% most outsourced form of content are videos (31 percent) followed by white papers (30 percent) and infographics (27 percent). 13

14 Q11 WHO OWNS THE CONTENT marketing budget? For 56 percent of companies, corporate marketing owns content marketing funds, followed by the CEO / President / Owner (35 percent) in smaller companies. Product marketing owns the content marketing budget in 24 percent of companies. Corporate marketing CEO / President / Owner Product marketing PR / Communications Field marketing Demand generation Product management Sales External agency / consultant 15.3% 10.4% 8.2% 7.4% 3.8% 1.4% 23.9% 34.5% 56 % 0% 20% 40% 60% 14

15 Q12 WHAT PERCENTAGE OF MARKETING budget is allocated to content marketing? A majority of companies allocate about 20 percent of marketing budget to content marketing. 25% 20% 20% 19.7% 15% 13.3% 15.2% 10% 8.7% 5% 0% 2.9% 0 6.4% 3.9% 4.0% 3.7% 1.5% 0.6% Don t know 15

16 Q13 HOW IS CONTENT PRODUCTION activity changing? Over 80 percent of marketers are increasing content production over the next 12 months, 32 percent of them significantly so. 17 percent of marketers expect volume to stay flat. 80 % 49.8% Increases 32.0% Increases significally 16.8% Stays flat 1.4% Decreases 0% Decreases significally 16

17 Q14 WHAT ARE YOUR BIGGEST content marketing challenges? Time / bandwidth to create content Producing truly engaging content Producing enough content variety Talent to produce content Getting content delivered to the right audiences Measuring results Lack of budget to produce content Creating segment-specific content No consistent content strategy Inability to measure content effectiveness Understanding buyer personas and decision stages Buyers don t want to register to consume content Finding enough targeted contacts to offer the content to Lack of process and integration across marketing Poor content quality Finding domain experts Getting executive buy-in Buyers attention span too short Localizing content for international markets 49.2% 39.0% 35.3% 31.4% 27.6% 26.5% 26.5% 25.7% 25.5% 23.7% 17.8% 17.3% 14.7% 14.5% 14.3% 13.5% 12.9% 12.4% 55% 0% 20% 40% 60% The number one challenge is having enough time and bandwidth to create content (55 percent), same as last year. The next biggest content marketing challenge is producing truly engaging content (49 percent) followed by producing enough content variety to serve the needs of marketing programs (39 percent). 17

18 Q15 HOW TO SEGMENT AND personalize content? The most popular segmentation dimension is product category (46 percent), followed by vertical (41 percent) and buyer persona (41 percent). The least popular segmentation dimension is company size with 15 percent. And 16 percent of marketers don t systematically segment content at all (down from 20 percent last year). by product / service category by vertical by buyer persona 41.4% 46 % 41.2% by pain point by stage in buying cycle 28.9% 34.8% we do not systematically segment content by company size 16.2% 14.8% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 18

19 Q16 MANAGING THE COMPLEXITY of b2b content marketing What is a manageable number of unique segments, personas, and stages to produce marketing content for? We asked our B2B marketing community, and the magic number is 19

20 Q17 WHAT BUYING STAGES DO you use to categorize content? The most popular buying stages defined by B2B marketers are problem awareness (42 percent), need recognition (35 percent) and purchase decision (29 percent). Problem awareness Need recognition We don t categorize content by buying stage Purchase decision Vendor consideration vendor evaluation / validation (demo/eval) Vendor and solution discovery Vendor selection Requirement definition Advocacy / Loyalty Performance evaluation (post purchase) Procurement Priority shift 13.1% 10.1% 5.3% 34.8% 29.7% 28.9% 27.6% 26.6% 26.2% 23.0% 21.1% 16.2% 42 % 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 20

21 Q18 INTEGRATION WITH marketing automation Adoption of marketing automation is on the rise as platforms mature and vendors consolidate. 37 percent of marketers use marketing automation to generate leads, 36 percent use it for lead nurturing. Only 39 percent of B2B marketers don t use marketing automation at all significantly down from 57 percent last year. We don t use marketing automation We use marketing automation to generate leads We use mareting automation to nurture leads 36.1% 37% 36.7% We actively create content to feed automated campaigns We use marketing automation to engage with customers 26.0% 28.2% We sporadically use content for marketing automation campaigns 15.1% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 21

22 SURVEY METHODOLOGY The survey was completed by over 700 marketers in May and June of Here is a detailed breakdown of the survey participant demographics. What industry is your company in? Advertising / Marketing Software High Tech Consulting Professional services Manufacturing Business services (Other) Internet / Online services Telecommunication Publishing / Media Financial Services Healthcare / Medical / Pharma Government 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% Marketing / Advertising communications / PR CEO / President / Owner Sales Consultant Product Management Operations Engineering What is your functional role in your company? 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% What is your job title? How many employees work at your company worldwide? Manager Director Owner/CEO/President VP Specialist Analyst 30.9% Fewer than % % % 1,000-10, % 10,000+ Intern 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 22

23 THANK YOU Contact the Author Many thanks to everybody who participated in this survey. If you are interested in co-sponsoring upcoming surveys, or creating your own survey report based on the wisdom of the 50,000 member B2B marketing crowd in our B2B Technology Marketing Community, please contact Holger Schulze at or About the B2B Technology Marketing Community on LinkedIn With over 50,000 members, the B2B Technology Marketing Community is the single largest LinkedIn group exclusively focused on B2B technology marketing topics. This group is ideal for marketing professionals in B2B high-tech industries to enable networking, sharing of ideas, best practices and opportunities Holger Schulze B2B Marketing Professional Phone: Join the B2B Technology Marketing Community on LinkedIn Group Partner Technology Marketing 23

24 Sponsors We would like to thank our sponsors for supporting the 2013 B2B Content Marketing Trends Report: Spiceworks Called the future of media by Forbes, Spiceworks connects over 2.5 million IT professionals with 1,800 technology brands. An IT application, community and content all rolled into one, Spiceworks helps technology vendors reach IT pros as they re managing their networks, collaborating with each other, and researching the products and services they ll spend more than $450 billion on each year. Yesler Yesler is a B2B marketing agency that applies an integrated, end-to-end framework to the marketing challenges of technology companies to help them deliver predictable revenues, sustainable growth, and measurable results. We provide expertise in research and strategy, content marketing, marketing automation, sales enablement, customer engagement, and marketing analytics to make your marketing relevant and accountable to your buyers, to your sales team, and to the bottom line. Software Shortlist Software Shortlist is a trusted independent third party that provides free information and services to software buyers to help them find relevant vendors. We believe innovative growing businesses are the heart & soul of economic progress, and good software helps businesses improve their performance. We don t sell software. We don t develop it. We don t implement it. We focus solely on software selection. We provide a free shortlisting service for businesses, matching requirements with relevant vendors from an extensive & growing network. If you re thinking about how software could improve your business, or you work with a software vendor, let s talk. Maximizer Software Maximizer Software delivers Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software to meet the needs, budgets and access requirements of entrepreneurs, medium and small businesses and divisions of large enterprises. Easily configurable for organizations in any industry, Maximizer CRM optimizes sales processes, enhances marketing initiatives, and, improves customer service to ultimately boost productivity and revenue. Hanley Wood Today, more than ever, what enriches and sustains your audience connections and relationships is content. Valueadding information, interactions and experiences. Communications that inform, educate, even entertain. Hanley Wood Marketing (HWM) has nearly 30 years of experience supporting corporate marketers and communicators with content programs and services to reach and engage key audiences and accomplish big, measurable brand and business objectives. Attract customers and prospects into community and conversations. Keep sales funnels flowing. Empower sales reps and channel partners to be more efficient and effective. It s all about strategic content. And we re strategic content marketers at our core. 24