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B2B Content Marketing:
It’s Not Just Lead Generation
Mike Hudson
Analyst
September 4, 2014
© 2014 eMarketer Inc.
Agenda
The current state of content marketing
– Optimistic outlook with budgets rising
– Widespread dissatisfaction with results
What’s causing this disconnect?
How to bridge the divide
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What we mean when we say “content marketing”
Blog posts, whitepapers, webinars, video and other
content …
distributed by digital means …
without an explicit sales pitch.
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The Current State
of Content Marketing
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Spending and expansion for 2014
In a December 2013 study by Advertising Age of US
business-to-business (B2B) marketers:
– 75% planned to increase their content budget in 2014
– 1.3% said they would decrease their content budget this year
Advertising Age “2014 BtoB Outlook: Marketing Priorities and Plans”
© 2014 eMarketer Inc.
Spending and expansion for 2014
In a fall 2013 survey
by Webmarketing123
of US B2B marketers:
– 69% planned to
increase content
spending in 2014
– 1% planned to
decrease content
spending in 2014
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Spending and expansion for 2014
In an April 2014 survey by Regalix, nearly 7 in 10 B2B
firms reported spending more than 20% of total
marketing budget on content marketing
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Rising budgets, lingering dissatisfaction
© 2014 eMarketer Inc.
Rising budgets, lingering dissatisfaction
42% of B2B firms said
they believe content
marketing efforts had
been effective
58% … not so much
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Content Marketing Institute “2014 B2B Content Marketing Trends”
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Rising budgets, lingering dissatisfaction
32% rated
content
marketing as
effective or very
effective
About half were
right in the
middle, giving it
a “so-so” rating
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Rising budgets, lingering dissatisfaction
In a July 2014 survey by Starfleet Media, 35% of
respondents said they “not been successful at all”
with content marketing efforts
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Confusion reigns
In a May 2014
poll by Contently
of US marketers,
only 9.4% were
“very confident”
about results
measurement
31.9% were ???
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The crux of the problem: Unmet expectations
“People are saying, ‛I’m increasing my
budget so I can execute on content, but
I’m frustrated because I can’t get
what I want.’”
—Robert Rose, chief strategist at
Content Marketing Institute
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In sum: The state of B2B content marketing is
marked by contradictions
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What’s Causing this
Disconnect?
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Lead gen and content marketing:
A legend of the game
Executives are involved with digital more than ever
They want new revenues from digital
Content marketing busted onto the scene with promises
of easy/cheap lead gen
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Leads are
most often
the goal of
B2B content
marketing …
… but content
marketing creates
more than just leads
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How’s the content marketing program going?
“Our video and webcast content last
quarter generated about 1,200 net
new names.”
—Mark Yolton, vice president of digital at Cisco
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Go beyond “squishy” metrics
“Our video and webcast content last
quarter ... also generated $13
million in sales qualified leads
from those new names.”
—Mark Yolton, vice president of digital at Cisco
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Hard to judge by leads alone
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Adding a step to ask questions first
“There’s a lot of ‘shoot first and
measure later’. [But ] it requires a step
in there to first understand the
purpose of content, ask what
success should look like and then align
measurement.”
—Robert Rose, chief strategist at Content
Marketing Institute
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Three Questions to Gauge
a B2B Content Marketing
Program
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Ask three key questions:
1. Does our content serve the audience?
2. Are we fully measuring our results?
3. Does our organization value these results?
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The audience is large and growing
B2B buyer funnel has
grown considerably
thanks to digital
It’s still growing
71% of B2B email
lists grew last year
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The audience is asking questions … but through
a familiar starting point
“B2B marketing was always clouded in
mystery. Now digital has opened up
the whole landscape, giving
prospective buyers a full view of
the world. And they’re looking for three
things: What the brand does, what the
competitors do and what other people say.
It starts with search.”
—Mark Kiernan, SVP of marketing at DigitasLBi
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Think of search as your main starting point
80% of B2B buyers began with search:
– 71.7% began with Google
– 5.5% began with Yahoo
– 2.8% began with Bing
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Pardot/Salesforce “State of Demand Generation”
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Assume a
significant portion
of research will
take place on
mobile devices
Mobile use among B2B
buyers:
42.9% in 2013
55.8% in 2014
Majority of smartphone
research activities are
content consumption
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Align your
content
accordingly
Consider content
that is short and
more visual
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Content promotion remains fairly conventional
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Make sharing
your content
easy
In a May 2014 survey of
US B2B buyers:
88% frequently used
email to share content
43% frequently used
LinkedIn to share
contente
35% frequently used
Twitter to share
contentTwitter – #eMwebinar
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Maximize trust
by creating
content that
encourages
dialogue or
user-
generated
feedback
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Ask three key questions:
1. Does our content serve the audience?
2. Are we fully measuring our results?
3. Does our organization value these results?
© 2014 eMarketer Inc.
Quantitative
or tangible
key
performance
metrics are
the most
popular
Think of each metric
as a goalpost along
the path to the
ultimate goal
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In part, satisfaction is a numbers game …
“We have 10 million social media
followers and fans, for instance. Leads
are really the ultimate of what we’re
searching for. But it’s important to
get that reach at the top of the
funnel in order to achieve the
revenue numbers at the bottom.”
—Mark Yolton, vice president of digital at Cisco
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© 2014 eMarketer Inc.
… but quality is as important as quantity when it
comes to leads
“If we’re expecting the same number of
inferior leads that we’re getting from our
outbound direct marketing program, yeah,
we’re likely to be frustrated. Perhaps the
leads are more expensive and there are
fewer of them, but they are so much
more valuable as they are worth more
dollars in new business in the long run.”
—Robert Rose, chief strategist at Content
Marketing Institute
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© 2014 eMarketer Inc.
Ultimately, each
organization must find a
way to measure in a way
they trust
Intangible
metrics are
high on the
measurement
wish list
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Make sure there is internal agreement around
intangible KPIs
“There’s an external group that actually
measures the quality and value of
different professional services firms.
When we started this effort we were
number 18 on their list. We’re now
number 2. What we sell is our ideas.
The content marketing gives people a
chance to sample our ability to deliver
insights.”
—Jonathan Copulsky, principal at Deloitte
Consulting
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Ask three key questions:
1. Does our content serve the audience?
2. Are we fully measuring our results?
3. Does our organization value these results?
© 2014 eMarketer Inc.
Internal
agreement
around
intangibles can
help overcome
measurement
challenges
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Be prepared for long turnaround times …
“In the end, if we are introducing the
concept, they are more likely to see
us as a leading resource when the
time comes for them to seek out such
services.”
—Chris Reed, Chief Marketing Officer at CDK
Cobalt Digital Marketing
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… especially where content programs focused
on brand awareness are concerned
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… especially where content programs focused
on brand awareness are concerned
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© 2014 eMarketer Inc.
Takeaways:
See the opportunity and the risk in this moment for
B2B content marketing
Ask three questions:
– Does our content serve our audience?
– Are we fully measuring our results?
– Does our organization value these results?
Twitter – #eMwebinar
© 2014 eMarketer Inc.
“This is a new muscle for many
organizations.”
—Joe Pulizzi, founder of Content Marketing
Institute
A ‘snackable’ takeaway:
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‣
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‣
‣
TRADITIONAL MARKETING DIGITAL EXPLOSIONDIGITAL GUT DRIVEN
MARKETING
Nothing has changed
‣
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‣
‣
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‣ B2B buyers are now
57% of the way to a
purchase decision
before engaging a
sales rep.
‣ Competitors can
steal prospects out
of your funnel!
BUY!
START HERE
INTEREST
AWARENESS
And your funnel is under attack…
Discover Content Opportunities
Optimize Content Distribution
Track Real-Time Progress
EARNED MEDIA TRAFFIC SEO TEXT ADS DISPLAY ADS CONTENT MARKETING EMAIL
TWITTER FACEBOOK PINTEREST INSTAGRAM YOUTUBE
GOOGLE+ TUMBLR
http://trackmaven.com/summit
© 2014 eMarketer Inc.
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Mike Hudson
B2B Content Marketing:
It’s Not Just Lead Generation
B2C Content Marketing 2014: More Money, More Pressure to
Perform
Shifting Video and TV Audiences: Tuning Out the Hype to
Understand New Viewing Habits
UK Content Marketing: Meeting the Challenge of Being Seen
and Shared
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