Blog posts and research reports have been named as the most effective forms of content marketing in a new study by online marketing services provider Ascend2. The study noted that many marketers are also still struggling to develop an effective strategy for their content creation efforts.
The 2016 State of Content Marketing Survey Summary Report aims to shine a light on what enterprises are doing to achieve content marketing success in the digital age. The survey asked 219 marketers from SMEs and large corporations about the significant barriers they face when attempting to achieve important goals and found that strategy was a common sticking point.
Almost half said that they still lack an effective content strategy, while 48 per cent believe that they don’t have enough resources to create the content they need to engage audiences. Budget constraints (47 per cent), inability to measure effectiveness (36 per cent), lack of cross-channel integration (31 per cent) and a dearth of compelling content ideas (25 per cent) are also cited as problems for marketers.
Despite these issues, marketers are confident that the effectiveness of their content efforts will increase in the future. More than half said that it is “increasing marginally,” and a further 35 per cent revealed that effectiveness is “increasingly significantly.” Just 11 per cent of those surveyed believe that their endeavours will become less effective.
Effective strategy
When it comes to the most relevant types of content for end users, research reports and blog posts lead the way. Research reports are the most effective for 46 per cent of respondents, though 62 per cent said that these reports are the most difficult content type to create. In contrast, 45 per cent claim that blogs are best, and just eight per cent believe that they are hard to craft.
Meanwhile, news and articles are the second-easiest content to produce and are named as the most effective by more than a third of marketers. While videos were seen as best by 40 per cent, it appears that making relevant clips is a tough task for enterprises, as 64 per cent said that this process is the most difficult.
A separate study published by Curata earlier this week showed that more organisations are set to appoint an executive responsible for content marketing during the next twelve months.
