For content marketers, it’s now officially the most wonderful time of the year. No, that doesn’t mean the holiday season.
Every October, the Content Marketing Institute (CMI) releases its two most anticipated reports, tracking benchmarks, budgets and trends to illuminate the state of both B2B and B2C content marketing. (The former report can be found here; the latter here.)
Earlier this month, we took a look at CMI’s predictions for B2B content marketing. Now, it’s time to shift our focus to the B2C realm. Your time is precious, so we’ve done the heavy lifting for you by plucking out the major highlights. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the four most important takeaways from the report:
- B2C Marketers Must Have a Documented Content Marketing Strategy. According to the report, only 27 percent of B2C marketers said they have a documented content marketing strategy. Half of respondents indicated that while they engage in content marketing, they lack a detailed documented strategy. CMI found that companies with documented strategies were more effective in all aspects of their content marketing than those who didn’t.
- Less Than Half of B2C Marketers Have an in-house Content Marketing Team. Believe it or not, more than half of B2C marketers indicated that they don’t have an in-house content marketing team. While 21 percent said they plan to employ one in the future, 33 percent said they have no plans to have one anytime soon.
- Still, B2C Marketers Are Creating More Content This Year Than They Did Last Year. Despite the fact that a majority of B2C marketers don’t have an in-house team, CMI found that 43 percent of them are producing more content than they did in 2013. In fact, 26 percent are producing “significantly” more.
- It’s Difficult to Find Trained Content Marketing Professionals. Last year, 10 percent of businesses indicated that it was hard to find trained content marketing professionals. This year, that number jumped to 32 percent. With the need for additional content creation and a lack of in-house talent, many businesses are instead looking toward content strategy vendors to help with their content marketing initiatives.
At the end of the day, the numbers confirm what we’ve long since suspected: 2015 will be an epic year in the world of content marketing.
