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Majority of B2B Marketers are Finding Success with Content Marketing

b2b-2017-research-coverContent Marketing Institute Releases New Research on State of Business-to-Business Content Marketing in North America

CLEVELAND–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The world’s most-cited B2B content marketing research is now bigger and better than ever. With redesigned research questions to better reflect what’s going on in the maturing content marketing industry, Content Marketing Institute, a UBM company, along with MarketingProfs just released the brand new B2B Content Marketing: 2017 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends—North America report which is sponsored by Brightcove. To see our analysis and download the full report visit:contentmarketinginstitute.com/2016/09/content-marketing-research-b2b

Majority of B2B Marketers Finding Success w/ #ContentMarketing NEW #research via @CMIContent http://cmi.media/b2b2017

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What did we find?

62% of B2B marketers in North America say that compared to one year ago, their organization’s overall approach to content marketing has been much more or somewhat more successful.

Success is attributed to these top two factors: doing a better job with content creation (85%) and developing or adjusting their content marketing strategy (72%).

“After analyzing the findings, I truly feel the momentum we are seeing in the industry is taking a turn for the better,” explains Joe Pulizzi, founder Content Marketing Institute and author of four content marketing books including Content Inc. “One important distinction among marketers who are consistently top performers is their level of commitment. Ninety-one percent of top performers are extremely or very committed to content marketing, compared to 63% of the overall sample and 35% of the bottom performers. It’s clear if you want to be successful with your content marketing you need to make it a priority.”

Other Key Highlights:

  • 22% of B2B marketers say their organization’s overall content marketing approach is extremely or very successful; these 22% are this year’s B2B top content marketing performers.
  • 63% of B2B marketers say their organizations are extremely or very committed to content marketing (compared with 91% of top performers).
  • 37% of B2B marketers have a documented content marketing strategy (compared with 61% of top performers).
  • 72% of B2B marketers measure content marketing ROI (compared with 88% of top performers).

“Content marketers are doing a great job, but they’re still up against some internal challenges,” says Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer, MarketingProfs and author of two books, including Everybody Writes, a Wall Street Journal bestseller. “For instance, 72% are more focused on building long-term relationships than on getting quick results from their content marketing, yet only half agree that their leadership team gives them ample time to produce content marketing results.”

The seventh annual B2B Content Marketing: 2017 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends—North America report reflects the findings from over 1,100 North American B2B marketers from diverse industries and a wide range of company sizes. This year we redesigned the survey, asking new questions and changing other questions, to help get clearer insights into the successes and challenges content marketers face.

For research charts, a video, quotes and more, check out this Dropbox.

To view all CMI research and to subscribe to our emails visit: contentmarketinginstitutecom/research

About Content Marketing Institute:

Content Marketing Institute is the leading global content marketing education and training organization, teaching enterprise brands how to attract and retain customers through compelling, multichannel storytelling. CMI’s Content Marketing World event, the largest content marketing-focused event, is held every September in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, and the Intelligent Content Conference event is held every spring. CMI publishes the bi-monthly magazine Chief Content Officer, and provides strategic consulting and content marketing research for some of the best-known brands in the world. Watch this video to learn more about CMI, a UBM company. To view all research and to subscribe to our emails visit www.contentmarketinginstitute.com

About MarketingProfs

MarketingProfs offers real-world education for modern marketers. More than 600,000 marketing professionals worldwide rely on our free daily publications, virtual conferences, MarketingProfs University, and more to stay up to date on the most important trends and tactics in marketing—and how to apply them to their businesses. Visit MarketingProfs.com for more.

Contacts

Content Marketing Institute
Amanda Subler, 216-941-5842
[email protected]