Brands are becoming publishers: Econsultancy

The online survey on content marketing drew over 1,300 global respondents between July and August 2012, including in-house marketers, those working for publishers, and those working for agencies or as consultants. More than half of the respondents (51 per cent) were from the UK.

Content marketing was defined in the report as “a broad spectrum of connected activity, from the creation of content and editorial processes, through to social media activity, search engine optimisation and PR".

The research found that although the concept of content marketing is not new, it has been growing in importance and is increasingly seen as its own discipline (64 per cent). The number of search queries for the term ‘content marketing’ has more than doubled over the past two years and brands increasingly see themselves as publishers, found the report.

Nevertheless, the majority of companies surveyed don’t have a defined content strategy. Only 38 per cent have a strategy in place and only 34 per cent have dedicated budgets for content marketing. Nearly half (46 per cent), however, have dedicated individuals for the task.

The report also found that less than half of all companies spend more than 20 per cent of their marketing budget on content, despite the fact that 88 per cent believe that “content marketing is more effective that advertising in driving sales".

This situation, said Econsultancy, should change over time as 55 per cent of respondents state that they are planning a defined strategy.

A major push for content marketing has been the rise of social media as it plays a crucial role in allowing content to be shared and amplified, increasing its potential reach through earned media. Indeed, 83 per cent of the survey’s respondents use social posts and updates for marketing, more than any other type of content. Social network engagement is the most popular tactic used to drive traffic to this content, used by 78 per cent of in-house respondents.

For in-house marketers, social posts and updates were deemed the second most effective after email, with 46 per cent stating it’s one of their three most effective types of content.

B2C marketers turn to content marketing primarily for increased engagement (52 per cent), increasing traffic to site (49 per cent) and raising brand awareness (38 per cent). While engagement tops the list of business goals for B2B marketers, lead generation (44 per cent) is a close second followed by increasing site traffic (34 per cent).

Surprisingly, increased sales only ranked fourth in the list of business objectives for both B2C and B2B marketers.

The biggest barriers marketers find to effective content marketing differ between inhouse and agency marketers. For inhouse marketers, their greatest challenges were lack of human resource (42 per cent), lack of budget (35 per cent) and company politics (30 per cent).

Agency respondents on the other hand were more likely to complain of a lack of understanding and training (46 per cent), lack of content creation skills (39 per cent) and lack of ROI (35 per cent).

“The common thread however is that the barriers listed most frequently are internal challenges, as opposed to external problems in the wider market,” said the report. “Individuals with the ability to overcome politics and win buy-in across the organisation will become more essential as a content-driven agenda.”

In this regard, brands should turn to publishers to glean insight into content marketing. Compared with in-house marketers, publishers are more likely to have a defined content marketing strategy in place (45 per cent versus 36 per cent for all companies). Publishers are also more likely to focus on financially orientated metrics, with more publishers citing increased sales and generating incremental revenue from content as a top business objective.

Furthermore, publishers bring with them editorial skills and experience that are essential to creating quality content and have had to think about adapting their content to the digital age with a greater sense of urgency, said the study.

“An opportunity presents itself in linking the skills and expertise of publishers with the content needs of in-house marketers,” suggested the report. “This opportunity is particularly worth exploiting as publishers look to diversify their sources of revenue and as brands seek to address the growing importance of content within digital and multichannel business.”