Tech marketers are ramping up the scale of production and budgets significantly for content marketing campaigns, according to a new report from 10Fold Communications and Dimensional Research, which shows that 75 per cent of brands in the sector will create three times as much content this year compared to the prior 12 months.
Content is now a critical part of marketing strategies due to its ability to drive so many positive business outcomes and results. In B2B, it is also particularly effective at moving clients and customers along the cycle to a final conversion, as complex sales pipelines and extended buying cycles continue to be a challenge.
The latest study suggests that most marketers now recognise the importance of using content to meet their goals, as three-quarters will ramp up their output significantly this year, while 42 per cent are planning to invest at least $250,000 (about £190,000) on varying types of content during the next 12 months.
Digital agencies are an essential part of the creative process, as 99 per cent of the tech marketers surveyed said that they now use third parties for at least a quarter of their content output. Also, 83 per cent claimed that the news, articles, videos and other resources created by these agencies is above average in quality or better.
It is now also common to see enterprises outsourcing 100 per cent of their content creation processes to digital agencies. SMEs with revenues of less than $5 million (about £3.8 million) and large corporations with revenues exceeding $500 million (about £380 million) are the most likely to pursue this strategy.
Content marketing is now becoming a storytelling medium – consumers desire engagement and entertainment, so it’s no surprise that top execs believe that video is the best content type. Meanwhile, tech marketers said that video, social media and webinars are their preferred formats. Additionally, 84 per cent of respondents also use a content calendar to plan their schedules.
“We’ve heard for some time now that ‘content is king,’ but understanding the type of content that works best and knowing how frequently to produce that content are the next logical questions,” 10Fold Communications founder and CEO Susan Thomas said in a statement.
