According to new research in excess of 80% of B2B marketers are now using content marketing initiatives within their wider marketing strategies. The research was the result of an online survey of 365 B2B marketers that took place during August this year and was carried out by HiveFive for the ‘B2B Marketing Trends 2011 Report.’
The research states that content marketing is now more popular than search marketing, events and public relations. Interestingly for the vast majority (82%) of B2B marketers the priority is lead generation and engagement, although other popular objectives included driving sales, increasing web traffic and educating the market.
Whilst the survey revealed that content marketing was a common strategic element for many B2B marketers, it also highlighted that there are numerous challenges to enacting a successful campaign. Of these challenges 16% of B2B marketers said they were struggling to create new content and cited problems such as limited budget and staffing considerations as barriers to content creation.
The growing importance of content marketing in the B2B setting reveals the larger emphasis now placed upon generating and nurturing prospects through the sales pipeline and the value of engaging with customers as early as possible in the process.
