Thanks to the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs, a new report covering the latest trends in B2B content marketing has been published.

From documented content strategies vs no content strategy, to the most effective tactics, there is plenty of insight in this report to help guide B2B marketers with their content marketing direction.

It’s easy to understand why B2B marketers “get” that they need to produce more content as a significant part of their overall marketing mix, but they need to know more about how to produce engaging content and be able to measure its effectiveness.

There are many sharable nuggets in this report which you can view embedded at the end of this post.  I also thought it would be handy for others like myself that need to write up articles, reports and give presentations to break some of the findings out into one line stats that would make it easier to copy and share.

35% of B2B marketers have a documented content marketing strategy

 
What the most effective and least effective content marketers do

• 54% of the most effective marketers has a documented content marketing strategy
• 11% of the least effective marketers has a documented content marketing strategy

 

• 41% of the most effective marketers has a content marketing strategy but it’s not documented
• 44% of the least effective marketers has a content marketing strategy but it’s not documented

 

• 62% of the most effective marketers say content marketing strategy very closely guides efforts
• 16% of the least effective marketers say content marketing strategy very closely guides efforts

 

• 36% of the most effective marketers say content marketing strategy somewhat guides efforts
• 64% of the least effective marketers say content marketing strategy somewhat guides efforts

 

• 69% of the most effective marketers has a dedicated content marketing group
• 20% of the least effective marketers has a dedicated content marketing group

 

• 89% of the most effective marketers places high importance on engagement as a goal
• 70% of the least effective marketers places high importance on engagement as a goal

 

• 40% of the most effective marketers is successful at tracking ROI
• 5% of the least effective marketers is successful at tracking ROI

 

• The most effective marketers use on average 14 tactics
• The least effective marketers use on average 11 tactics

 

• The most effective marketers use on average 7 social platforms
• The least effective marketers use on average 5 social platforms

 

• 54% of the most effective marketers publishes new content daily or multiple time per week
• 23% of the least effective marketers publishes new content daily or multiple time per week

 

• 37% of the most effective marketers allocates a percentage of total budget to content marketing
• 16% of the least effective marketers allocates a percentage of total budget to content marketing

 

• 38% of the most effective marketers are challenged with producing engaging content
• 72% of the least effective marketers are challenged with producing engaging content

 

• 38% of the most effective marketers are challenged with measuring effectiveness
• 65% of the least effective marketers are challenged with producing engaging content

 

• The most effective marketers have an average of 15 initiatives that they are working on now
• The least effective marketers have an average of 11 initiatives that they are working on now

 

• The most effective marketers have an average of 6 initiatives that they plan to begin working on within 12 months
• The least effective marketers have an average of 9 initiatives that they plan to begin working on within 12 months

 

 

Documented vs Verbal or No Documented B2B Content Marketing Strategy

• 60% with documented strategy considers their organization to be effective at content marketing
• 32% with verbal strategy considers their organization to be effective at content marketing
• 7% with no strategy considers their organization to be effective at content marketing

 

• 62% with documented strategy believe that content marketing strategy very closely guides efforts
• 28% with verbal strategy believe that content marketing strategy very closely guides efforts

 

 

• 37% with documented strategy believe that content marketing strategy somewhat guides efforts
• 62% with verbal strategy believe that content marketing strategy somewhat guides efforts

 

• 69% with documented strategy has a dedicated content marketing group
• 40% with verbal strategy has a dedicated content marketing group
• 15% with no strategy has a dedicated content marketing group

 

• 35% with documented strategy is successful at tracking ROI
• 26% with verbal strategy is successful at tracking ROI
• 5% with no content marketing strategy is successful at tracking ROI

 

• On average 14 tactics used by those with a documented strategy
• On average 12 tactics used by those with a verbal strategy
• On average 11 tactics used by those with no strategy

 

• On average 7 social platforms are used by those with a documented strategy
• On average 6 social platforms are used by those with a verbal strategy
• On average 5 social platforms are used by those with no strategy

 

• 55% with documented strategy publishes new content daily or multiple times per week
• 37% with verbal strategy publishes new content daily or multiple times per week
• 25% with no strategy publishes new content daily or multiple times per week

 

• 36% with documented strategy have a percentage of total budget allocated to content marketing
• 25% with verbal strategy have a percentage of total budget allocated to content marketing
• 16% with no strategy have a percentage of total budget allocated to content marketing

 

• 45% with documented strategy are challenged with producing engaging content
• 57% with verbal strategy are challenged with producing engaging content
• 70% with no strategy are challenged with producing engaging content

 

• 38% with documented strategy are challenged with measuring effectiveness
• 51% with verbal strategy are challenged with measuring effectiveness
• 67% with no strategy are challenged with measuring effectiveness

 

• On average those with a documented strategy have 16 initiatives that are being worked on now
• On average those with a verbal strategy have 13 initiatives that are being worked on now
• On average those with no strategy have 9 initiatives that are being worked on now

 

• On average those with a documented strategy have 6 initiatives planning to begin working on within 12 months
• On average those with a documented strategy have 8 initiatives planning to begin working on within 12 months
• On average those with a documented strategy have 10 initiatives planning to begin working on within 12 months

 

Content Marketing Tactics

B2B marketers use an average of 13 content marketing tactics

• 92% social media content (other than blogs)
• 83% eNewsletters
• 81% articles on your website
• 80% Blogs
• 77% In person events
• 77% Case studies
• 76% Videos
• 69% illustrations/Photos
• 68% Whitepapers
• 65% Online Presentations
• 62% Infographics
• 61% Webinars/Webcasts
• 48% Research Reports
• 47% Microsites
• 38% Branded content tools
• 37% eBooks
• 32% Print Magazines
• 30% Books
• 30% Mobile Apps
• 27% Digital Magazines
• 23% Virtual Conferences
• 22% Podcasts
• 21% Print Newsletters
• 12% Games/Gamification

 
Content marketing tactics effectiveness

• 69% In-person Events
• 64% Webinars/Webcasts
• 60% Videos
• 60% Blogs
• 58% Case Studies
• 58% White Papers
• 58% Research reports
• 58% eNewsletters
• 55% eBooks
• 54% Microsites

 

B2B Content Marketing and Social Media Tactics

B2B content marketers use an average of 6 social media platforms with LinkedIn being used most often
 

• 94% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn to distribute content
• 88% of B2B marketers use Twitter to distribute content
• 84% of B2B marketers use Facebook to distribute content
• 72% of B2B marketers use YouTube to distribute content
• 64% of B2B marketers use Google+ to distribute content
• 41% of B2B marketers use SlideShare to distribute content
• 33% of B2B marketers use Pinterest to distribute content
• 24% of B2B marketers use Instagram to distribute content
• 20% of B2B marketers use Vimeo to distribute content
• 14% of B2B marketers use Flickr to distribute content
• 12% of B2B marketers use StumbleUpon to distribute content
• 11% of B2B marketers use Foursquare to distribute content
• 10% of B2B marketers use Tumblr to distribute content
• 9% of B2B marketers use Vine to distribute content
• 5% of B2B marketers use SnapChat to distribute content

 

Tracking ROI for B2B Content Marketing

• 21% are successful
• 35% of those who have a documented content marketing strategy are successful at tracking ROI
• 25% are not successful

 

Goals and Measuring B2B Content Marketing Performance

Top organisational goals for B2B content marketing

• 84% Brand Awareness
• 83% Lead Generation
• 81% Engagement
• 75% Sales
• 74% Lead Nurturing
• 69% Customer retention/Loyalty
• 57% Customer Evangelism
• 52% Upsell/Cross-sell

 
Metrics for B2B content marketing success

• 63% Website Traffic
• 49% Sales Lead Quality
• 48% Higher Conversions
• 43% Sales
• 40% Sales lead quantity
• 39% Time spent on website
• 35% Inbound links
• 33% qualitative feedback from customers
• 30% subscriber growth
• 23% Benchmark lift of company awareness
• 18% Benchmark lift of product/service awareness
• 16% customer renewal rates
• 6% cost savings

 

B2B Content Marketing Budgets

 

• On average 28% of B2B marketing budgets are allocated to content marketing
• 55% plan to increase their content marketing budget
• 32% will keep the same budget
• 2% will decrease their budget
• 11% are unsure

 

B2B Paid Advertising Usage

B2B content marketers use on average 3 methods to promote or distribute content

• 58% Search engine marketing (SEM)
• 52% Print or other offline promotion
• 49% Traditional online banner ads
• 48% Social ads (e.g., LinkedIn ads)
• 42% Promoted Posts (e.g., promoted tweets)
• 34% Native advertising
• 13% Content discovery tools

 

Effectiveness of B2B Paid Advertising Methods

• 52% Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
• 41% Promoted Posts (eg., promoted tweets)
• 38% social ads (e.g., LinkedIn ads)
• 36% Content discovery tools
• 36% Native advertising
• 30% Print or Other Offline Promotion
• 26% Traditional Online Banner Ads

 

Content marketing initiatives currently being worked on

• 69% Creating more engaging/higher quality content
• 63% Better converting visitors to website
• 55% Better understanding of what content is effective – and what isn’t
• 63% Finding more/better ways to repurpose content
• 60% Creating visual content
• 63% Better understanding of audience
• 58% Optimizing content
• 62% Organizing Content on website
• 46% Measuring content marketing ROI
• 54% Creating a greater variety of content

 

Content marketing initiatives planned for the next 12 months.

• 19% Creating more engaging/higher quality content
• 23% Better converting visitors to website
• 31% Better understanding of what content is effective – and what isn’t
• 23% Finding more/better ways to repurpose content
• 26% Creating visual content
• 21% Better understanding of audience
• 26% Optimizing content
• 21% Organizing Content on website
• 36% Measuring content marketing ROI
• 28% Creating a greater variety of content

 

Top challenges B2B content marketers face

• 54% producing engaging content
• 50% producing content effectively
• 49% measuring content effectively
• 42% producing a variety of content
• 41% lack of budget
• 34% gaps in knowledge and skills of internal team
• 32% finding trained content marketing professionals
• 30% lack of integration across marketing
• 29% lack of buy in/vision from higher-ups
• 20% technology related challenges

 
Check out the full CMI and Marketing Profs report below:

 
What trends do you see in the B2B content marketing space? Let us know in the comments below.