Each year, the Content Marketing Institute (CMI) undertakes extensive research that provides valuable insights on how marketers have allocated their resources and conducted their campaigns over the past 12 months. Content marketing has become part of their core marketing strategy, with many of the largest companies investing more resources in the area during the past year. Here are three interesting takeaways from CMI’s latest research.
Marketing strategy has become very important
CMI found that 78% of B2B content marketers and 74% of B2C content marketers have developed a content marketing strategy. However, only 39% of B2B marketers and 33% of B2C marketers have documented those strategies. These figures suggest that content marketers could benefit from developing a more focused market strategy by documenting the strategy and having ways to measure its effectiveness.
Content is an effective way to instil loyalty with existing customers
A common misconception is that content marketing is only about securing new customers. This is certainly not the case, as 81% of B2C content marketers found that content was a decisive factor in maintaining the loyalty of existing customers. It’s good to keep in mind the 2014 report in the Harvard Business Review that the cost of acquiring a new customer can be 5 to 25 times more than the cost of keeping an existing one.
Technology is very beneficial
CMI found that 67% of B2B content marketers used some type of content marketing technology. However, only 5% of the firms that were the least successful were doing so, demonstrating just how important the use of technology can be. Common uses of technology included email marketing programs, content management systems, social media publishing, automation and collaboration tools, and analytics.
