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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Being committed to content marketing is a no-brainer requirement for success. But what may be surprising is how a small shift in commitment level can make a BIG difference in overall content marketing success.

This striking insight came from analyzing the U.K. data from our annual content marketing survey, as reported in today’s release of Content Marketing in the United Kingdom 2018: Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends sponsored by Tomorrow People.

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We’ve all known (and probably been part of) small, focused teams that seem to produce incredible results. Unless these teams hang on to their tight focus, though, even the most impressive typically hit a wall. The organizational pressure to do more too often outpaces the team’s ability to keep up.

B2C marketers may be about to hit that stage given the signs that popped up as we read through the survey data and fill-in responses to the latest annual content marketing research. (You can read the full results in B2C Content Marketing 2018: Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America, produced by CMI and MarketingProfs.)

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Like their peers in North America, Australian content marketers say their organizations are concentrating more on building audiences than they were a year ago.

As reported in Content Marketing in Australia 2018: Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends, 85% of Australian respondents agree that their organization is focused on building an audience versus 69% last year. That’s a 23% year-over-year increase, which is higher than the 18% year-over-year increase reported by North American B2B content marketers.

Growing your subscriber base is an important content marketing goal. However, long-term value is created by providing your target audience with valuable content they want to receive, and building trust over time – not just gathering email addresses.

While the increased focus on building audiences is great news, the data revealed additional opportunities for marketers to address for even better results.

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With each passing year, there are more examples of manufacturers doing impressive things with content marketing. Though manufacturers have been slower than those in other industries to adopt the practice of content marketing, CMI’s annual survey a year ago indicated a breakthrough: 59% said their organization’s overall approach to content marketing was more successful compared with one year before, and most (82%) attributed that success mainly to doing a better job with content creation.

Even so, many manufacturing companies are in the young/first steps phases of content marketing maturity, as reported in today’s release of Manufacturing Content Marketing 2018: Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America sponsored by IEEE GlobalSpec Media Solutions.

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It’s my favorite time of the year – time to report on the findings of the annual content marketing survey. Now in our eighth year partnering with MarketingProfs on this research, I never stop getting excited about sharing the new insights with you.

B2B Content Marketing 2018: Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America sponsored by Brightcove, indicates that B2B marketers continue to see content marketing success as they explore ways to work more creatively and build their audiences.

I’m thrilled that, like last year, nearly 65% of B2B marketers surveyed report more success with their overall content marketing compared with one year ago. How can marketers keep that momentum? How will you take your content marketing to the next level?

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Think about the last time you took an online assessment or used a web-based calculator. You were probably engaged and learned something useful. It was an “experience,” right?

According to Content Marketing Institute’s latest research, nearly half (46%) of marketers surveyed are using interactive content. Their top reason for doing so? Engagement – followed by educating the audience, creating brand awareness, and lead generation.

Here are some other key findings from CMI’s white paper, The Symphony of Connected Interactive Content Marketing, sponsored by ion interactive. The paper presents the results of a survey CMI conducted in January and February 2017. We conducted the same survey in 2016, so the paper explores how some things have changed over the last year and includes guidance for using interactive content for content marketing purposes.Continue Reading