The Content Marketing Institute (CMI) and The Association for data-driven marketing & advertising (ADMA) have teamed up to produce Content Marketing in Australia: 2013 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends. For the last three years, CMI has produced North American research, and we are excited to add Australia to the mix.
Content Marketing in Australia 2015: Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends
The results from the research are interesting, especially when you compare Australian content marketing practices to those in North America. Here are some of the key findings:
Australians have embraced content marketing more so than their North American peers have
Overall, 96 percent of Australian marketers use content marketing:
- Australian business-to-business (B2B) marketers (98 percent) use content marketing more often than their North American B2B peers (91 percent) do.
- Australian business-to-consumer (B2C) marketers (89 percent) use content marketing more often than their North American B2C peers (86 percent) do.
Australian marketers use an average of 12 content marketing tactics
Both B2B and B2C marketers in Australia use an average of 12 content marketing tactics. As is the case in North America:
- Australian B2C marketers use more mobile apps, mobile content, and print magazines/newsletters than their B2B peers do.
- Australian B2B marketers use more case studies, white papers, webinars/webcasts, and research reports than their B2C peers do.
Facebook and LinkedIn are the most popular social platforms
Australian marketers use an average of four social media platforms to distribute content — the same number of platforms that North American B2C marketers use (North American B2B marketers use five platforms). Australian B2C marketers use Facebook (85 percent) the most, while their Australian B2B peers use LinkedIn (76 percent) the most.
Australian marketers are investing significantly in content marketing
On average, 25 percent of marketing budgets in Australia are allocated to content marketing, with B2B marketers allocating a higher percentage (25 percent) than their B2C peers do (20 percent). While North American marketers (overall) allocate more budget (31 percent) to content marketing, Australian marketers are planning to increase their content marketing budgets more so than their North American peers are. Consider these comparison figures:
- Overall, 61 percent of Australian marketers (70 percent of B2C and 59 percent of B2B) plan to increase their content marketing budget over the next 12 months.
- North American B2B marketers plan to increase their content marketing budgets by 54 percent over the next 12 months.
- North American B2C marketers plan to increase their content marketing budgets by 55 percent over the next 12 months.
Challenges include producing engaging content, lack of buy-in/vision, and effectiveness
Twenty-one percent of Australian marketers say producing the kind of content that engages is their biggest challenge. And lack of buy-in/vision is a greater concern for Australian marketers than it is for their North American peers (13 percent of Australian marketers say lack of buy-in/vision is their biggest challenge, versus only eight percent of their North American counterparts).
In addition, Australian content marketers rank themselves lower in terms of effectiveness when compared with their North American peers (only 29 percent of Australian marketers rank themselves as “very effective” or “effective,” compared with 37 percent of their North American counterparts). However, the good news here is that Australian marketers seem determined to improve: Sixty-seven percent of those who rate themselves as least effective at content marketing plan to increase the amount of budget they allocate to content marketing over the next 12 months.
Want to learn more? Download our full report to get answers to more questions:
- What goals and metrics do Australian marketers use?
- What percentage of Australian marketers tailor content?
- Do Australian marketers outsource content creation or keep it in-house?
- What does the profile of a best-in-class Australian content marketer look like?
What do you think of the findings? Are they consistent with what you are experiencing? Let us know in the comments!
And, if you want to learn more, join us at Content Marketing World Sydney where we’ll talk about the research and have two days of sessions with experts like Jay Baer and Faustina Agolley (from The Voice). Use Promo code CMI200 to save $200 when registering.
