There is no doubt that digital content marketing is popular, but there are still plenty of questions in marketers’ minds. What’s working? Should I be outsourcing? What are the most important attributes of content? Brandpoint (a CMI benefactor) and the Content Marketing Institute set out to answer these questions in the 2012 Digital Content Marketing Survey. We queried 389 marketing decision-makers and found some interesting insights.
Here are some of the key takeaways from the survey:
Social content and blogging are popular and effective
Similar to what we found in the 2012 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends Report, the most common types of content marketers use are social content (90 percent) and blogging (75 percent). Marketers see the best results from social content, e-newsletters, and blogging.
Are you in the majority of content marketers using social content and blogging? Here are some ideas on how to effectively use these types of content:
The rate of outsourcing is increasing
Seventy percent of marketers plan to outsource at least one form of content in the next 12 months. Video is the type of content marketers most often outsource, followed by images/infographics and online articles.
If you are outsourcing, check out these ideas from our contributors:
- 3 Things to Look for When Hiring a Journalist for Content Marketing
- Looking for Help with Content Marketing? Tips on What to Outsource
Engaging content and storytelling are paramount
Marketers consider three attributes of written content to be of the greatest importance when they use an outsourced partner to create content: engaging and creative storytelling, custom content, and professional-level writing.
If you are looking for some additional guidance on creating engaging stories, these CMI posts can help:
- Your Kick-Start Guide to Engaging Content [Free eBook]
- Content Marketing Storytelling: Secrets from the Big Screen
What are your favorite results from the survey, or what questions do you have?