More than three-quarters of marketers are planning to produce more content, including blog posts, videos, e-books and infographics, during the next 12 months, according to new data published by the Content Marketing Institute.
The importance of standing out online is key for many brands and publishers in the digital age, and content marketing is central to this aim. The data shows that 88 per cent of marketers are currently using marketing, though just 30 per cent of business to business (B2B) marketers believe that they are doing it effectively, which is down from the 38 per cent figure from last year.
According to a post by Harvard Business Review, enterprises must optimise their content campaigns and ensure that they are not merely producing written words and video for the sake of it – each post and article must be targeted and meaningful for fans, followers and readers.
The data from the Content Marketing Institute indicates that more content is being produced, but fewer marketers actually have an official, documented strategy. Only 32 per cent said that they had an effective plan outlined, which is also lower than the 35 per cent figure from 12 months ago, despite the fact that those who document are shown to be much more effective in all aspects of their marketing endeavours.
Harvard Business Review notes that content marketing should be focusing on accomplishing these key business objectives: public relations, community building, branding, customer services and sales/lead generation, and it should answer simple questions such as what, when, where, how and when.
To ensure that content is best serving potential customers and clients, it needs to be “customer aware” and aim to solve a problem for the audience. Daily posts and articles are a great way to serve this need, but brands should identify what form of content resonates the most with their customers.
Whether a large corporation or micro business, enterprises are unlikely to have an unlimited content budget, so they should look to place a greater emphasis on high-quality content to cut through the noise online and broaden their reach and drive engagement. HBR also notes that a coherent and robust strategy is the best way to produce better content.
