Content Marketing Institute Releases New Research on State of Business-to-Business Content Marketing in North America

CLEVELAND, Ohio, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Content Marketing Institute (CMI) research team is doing a happy dance over the newly released B2B Content Marketing 2019: Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends—North America report produced with our friends at MarketingProfs, and sponsored by Conductor. This is the ninth year for the research, among the most cited content marketing research in the world, which provides insight on how organizations can take B2B content marketing to the next level. We also made a significant change to our methodology this year to give us a more experienced pool of practicing content marketers to survey.

To see our analysis and to download the full report visit: https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2018/10/research-b2b-audience

What did we find?

90% of top-performing B2B content marketers say they put their audience’s informational needs ahead of their company’s sales/promotional message.
(Compared with 56% of the least successful)

“It’s terrific to see how many content marketers are putting the audience first,” says Lisa Murton Beets, Content Marketing Institute research director. “This was a novel concept to many traditional marketers 10 years ago when CMI Founder Joe Pulizzi co-wrote the book, Get Content Get Customers. Now that it’s a common practice among the most successful content marketers surveyed, we see how much marketers have adjusted their thinking.”

Another key finding is that B2B content marketers primarily use email (87%) and are providing educational content (77%) to nurture that audience. Additionally, 45% use storytelling and other ways to “relate” to nurture their audience.

“Nurturing an audience requires us to dig deep to understand who they really are – to be truly curious about them,” explains Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer, MarketingProfs and author of Everybody Writes. “When we speak with our customers with empathy, as their peers, we develop camaraderie – they are no longer just ‘target markets,’‘personas,’ or ‘segments.’”

Other Key Highlights:

• 96% of the most successful content marketers agree that their organizations have built credibility and trust with their audience.
• Well-researched personas can help teams create successful content; however, too few content marketers are actually talking with customers to understand their needs (42%).
• Content creation is the area of content marketing where there has been the most reported increase in spending over the last 12 months (56%).
• Changes to SEO/search algorithms is the top content marketing issue of importance to organizations (61%), followed by changes in social media algorithms (45%), and content marketing as a revenue center (41%).

To view all CMI research and to subscribe to our emails visit: contentmarketinginstitutecom/research

About Content Marketing Institute
Content Marketing Institute is the leading global content marketing education and training organization, teaching enterprise brands how to attract and retain customers through compelling, multichannel storytelling. CMI’s Content Marketing World event, the largest content marketing-focused event, is held every September in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, and ContentTECH Summit event is held every spring. CMI publishes the quarterly magazine Chief Content Officer, and provides strategic consulting and content marketing research for some of the best-known brands in the world. Watch this video to learn more about CMI. Content Marketing Institute is organized by UBM, which in June 2018 combined with Informa PLC to become a leading B2B information services group and the largest B2B Events organizer in the world. To learn more and for the latest news and information, visit www.ubm.com and www.informa.com

About MarketingProfs
MarketingProfs is the most trusted name in marketing education, giving marketers worldwide the tools and training they need to exceed their goals. Its on-demand training, live online events, and in-person conferences help individuals, small teams, and large teams increase efficiency, productivity, and (best of all!) revenue. Find out how learning can change your life: marketingprofs.com.

Press Contact:
Amanda Subler
Amanda.Subler@ubm.com

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