Editor’s note: Because research continues to be one of the most effective cornerstones of content marketing, Lisa Murton Beets updates her 2017 and 2018 articles on the subject.

Heading into the fall is a great time to evaluate your content marketing. How have you done so far this year? If your program isn’t yet where you want it to be, now’s the time to start making some tweaks.

Here are some key takeaways from CMI’s research over the last 12 months to help inform that work.

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The outlook for B2C content marketing looks bright if budgets are any indication. Fifty-seven percent of B2C marketers surveyed expect their 2019 content marketing budget to increase over 2018, and 29% of those expect it to increase by more than 9%.

We don’t yet know where those increases will be spent, of course. But our latest research reveals that 56% of B2C marketers who increased spending over the last 12 months did so in the area of content creation.

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Too many manufacturing organizations are still talking about themselves in the content they create.

According to our new research, Manufacturing Content Marketing 2019: Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends sponsored by IEEE GlobalSpec, only half of manufacturing marketers always or frequently prioritize their audience’s informational needs over their sales/promotional message while creating content.

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You’ve come a long way, content marketers. Today, nearly all top-performing B2B content marketers – 90% – put their audience’s informational needs ahead of their company’s sales/promotional message.

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Editor’s note: The 2019 version of the article is available here.

A little over halfway through 2018, you may be looking for insights on how to maximize your content marketing efforts. Or, maybe you need some great stats to help you build your business case for content marketing.

Take stock of what CMI’s annual research with MarketingProfs revealed about the state of B2B content marketing in 2018 – and what you can do to focus your efforts for the best return. (And stay tuned for new research results this fall.)

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I’ve been in the content marketing space long enough to be familiar with the saying, “If you create all this great content and yet no one sees it, what’s the point?”

This simple question helps those starting in content marketing stay focused on the big picture.

Today, though, that saying should go something like this:

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If you’re thinking about conducting original research to use the data for your content marketing, there are important questions to ask before you get started.

I’m talking about collecting data to produce various types of content (e.g., blog posts, e-books, webinars, videos) for content marketing purposes. It’s helpful (versus promotional) content. It’s research-informed content that can help position your brand as a thought leader and draw attention to your solutions.

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Are technology marketers moving away from creating content for the buyer’s journey?

The CMI research team found ourselves asking this question as we analyzed the data from our eighth annual content marketing survey. Here’s the finding that got us talking:

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