Creating standards, guidelines, processes, and workflows for content marketing isn’t exactly the hottest job. But setting standards is the only way to find out whether something can be improved (with AI or something else).
Here’s the good news: All this non-sexy work frees up time and resources (human and technical) that you can then use to put your strategies and plans into action.
But in many organizations, content is still not treated as a coordinated business function. That’s one of the big takeaways B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends: Outlook for 2024 Research conducted by Content Marketing Institute with MarketingProfs and sponsored by Ray of hope.
Some symptoms of this reality emerged in the research:
As in the previous year, marketers cite the lack of resources as the biggest situational challenge.
Nearly three-quarters (72%) say they use generative AI, but 61% say their organization has no guidelines for its use.
The most commonly cited challenges include creating the right content, creating content consistently, and differentiating content.
I’ll walk you through the results. There’s a lot to read, so feel free to use the table of contents to navigate to the sections that interest you most.
Note: These numbers come from a survey of marketers around the world in July 2023. We received 1,080 responses. This article focuses on the responses from 894 B2B respondents. The Original version This article appeared on the CMI website.
Table of contents
AI: 3 out of 4 B2B marketers use generative tools
Naturally, we asked respondents how they use generative AI in content and marketing. As it turns out, most people are experimenting with it: 72% of respondents say they use generative AI tools.
How are content marketers using the tools today? About half (51%) use generative AI to develop new topics. Many use the tools to research headlines and keywords (45%) and write drafts (45%). Fewer say they use AI to outline tasks (23%), proofread (20%), generate graphics (11%), and create audio (5%) and videos (5%).
Some marketers say they use AI to do things like generate email headlines and email copy, extract social media posts from long-form content, compress long text into short form, etc.
Only 28% say they do not use generative AI tools.
Most people aren’t paying for generative AI tools (yet).
Of those using generative AI tools, 91% use free tools (e.g. ChatGPT), 38% use tools embedded in their content creation/management systems, and 27% pay for tools like Writer and Jasper .
AI in content remains largely unregulated
When asked whether their companies have policies in place for the use of generative AI tools, 31% said yes, 61% said no, and 8% were unsure.
Why some marketers don’t use generative AI tools
The lack of guidelines may discourage some B2B marketers from using generative AI tools. Other reasons include concerns about accuracy (36%), lack of training (27%) and lack of understanding (27%). A significant 22% cite copyright concerns and 19% require companies not to use them.
How AI is changing SEO
We also wondered how integrating AI into search engines is changing content marketers’ SEO strategy. Here’s what we found:
- 31% focus more on user intent/question answering.
- 27% are creating more thought leadership content.
- 22% create more conversational content.
Over a quarter (28%) say they do neither, while 26% say they are unsure.
Will the AI obsession ever end?
Many B2B marketers surveyed expect AI to dominate discussions about content marketing trends in 2024.
As one respondent says: “AI will continue to be the shining light in 2024 until marketers realize the commitment required to develop prompts, go through the iterative process and verify the results. AI can help you improve your skills, but it is not. “It is not a replacement solution for B2B marketing.”
Team structure: How does the work get done?
Generative AI isn’t the only issue affecting content marketing today. We also asked marketers how they organize their teams.
Of larger companies (over 100 employees), half report that content requests go through a central content team. Others say each department/brand produces its own content (23%), and departments/brands/products share responsibility (21%).
Content strategies integrate into marketing, communication and sales
Fully 70% say their companies integrate content strategy into overall marketing/sales/communications/strategy, and 2% say it is integrated into another strategy.
Only 11% say content is a standalone strategy for content used for marketing, and 6% say it is a standalone strategy for all content produced by the company.
Only 9% say they don’t have a content strategy, and the remaining 2% say they have a different strategy or are unsure.
Employee churn means new teammates; Content teams experience enlightened leadership
More than a quarter (28%) of B2B marketers say team members have quit in the last year, 20% say team members have been laid off, and about half (49%) say new team members have joined their ranks got used to the way of working.
Although team members come and go, understanding of content does not change: More than half (54%) strongly agree, and 30% somewhat agree that the leader their content team reports to understands the work they have done. Only 11% disagree. The remaining 5% neither agree nor disagree.
And remote work appears to be well tolerated: only 20% say collaboration has been a challenge due to remote or hybrid work.
Content Marketing Challenges: The focus shifts to creating the right content
We asked B2B marketers about the challenges of creating content and other content.
Content creation
Most marketers (57%) cite creating the Right Present content as a challenge for your audience. This is a change from recent years, when “creating sufficient content” was the most commonly cited challenge.
One respondent points out why understanding audience desires is more important than ever: “As the internet gets louder and AI makes it incredibly easy to create listicles and content that copy each other, companies need to stand out.” At the same time, we will see that as Millennials and Generation Z increase in number, B2B will become more entertaining and less boring. We never competed with just other B2B content. We’ve always competed for attention.”
Other content creation challenges include consistent creation (54%) and differentiation (54%). Nearly half (45%) cite optimizing search and creating high-quality content (44%).
About a third (34%) say they create enough content to keep up with internal demand, 30% say they create enough content to keep up with external demand, and 30% say that they create content that requires technical skills.
Other hurdles
By far, the most commonly cited challenge outside of creation is a lack of resources (58%), followed by aligning content with the buyer’s journey (48%) and aligning content efforts across sales and marketing (45%).
Fully 41% say they have trouble getting workflow/content approved, and 39% say they have difficulty accessing subject matter experts. 34% say it is difficult to keep up with new technologies/tools (e.g. AI); and only 25% cite a lack of strategy as a challenge, 19% cite data protection compliance and 15% cite technical integration issues.
Content types, distribution channels and paid channels
We asked content marketers about the types of content they produce, their distribution channels, and how they promote paid content. We also asked which formats and channels produce the best results.
Popular content types and formats
Like last year, the three most popular content types/formats are short articles/posts (94%, up from 89% last year), videos (84%, up from 75% last year) and case studies/customer stories (78%, up from 67% last year). last year).
Nearly three-quarters (71%) use long-form articles, 60% create visual content, and 59% create thought leadership e-books or white papers.
Less than half of marketers use brochures (49%), product or technical data sheets (45%), research reports (36%), interactive content (33%), audio (29%) and live streaming (25%).
Effective content types and formats
Which formats are most effective? More than half (53%) say case studies/customer stories and videos provide some of their best results. Almost as many (51%) cite thought leadership e-books or white papers; 47%, short articles; and 43% research reports.
Popular content distribution channels
When it comes to content distribution channels, 90% use social media platforms (organic), followed by blogs (79%), email newsletters (73%), email (66%), in-person events ( 56%) and webinars (56%).
Channels used by the minority of respondents include:
- Digital events (44%)
- Podcasts (30%)
- Microsites (29%)
- Digital magazines (21%)
- Branded online communities (19%)
- Hybrid events (18%)
- Print magazines (16%)
- Online learning platforms (15%)
- Mobile apps (8%)
- Separate content brands (5%)
Effective content distribution channels
Which channels perform best? Most marketers in the survey say in-person events (56%) and webinars (51%) produce better results. Email (44%), organic social media platforms (44%), blogs (40%) and email newsletters (39%) round out the list.
Popular paid content channels
What channels do marketers invest in when paying to promote content?
A whopping 86% use paid content distribution channels. Of these, 78% use social media advertising/promoted posts, 65% use sponsorship, 64% use search engine marketing (SEM)/pay-per-click and 59% use digital display advertising.
Significantly fewer invest in native advertising (35%), partner emails (29%) and print display ads (21%).
Effective paid content channels
SEM/pay-per-click produces good results according to 62% of those using paid channels. Half say social media advertising/promoted posts deliver good results, followed by sponsorships (49%), partner emails (36%) and digital display advertising (34%).
When asked which organic social media platforms offer the most added value to their company, B2B marketers by far choose LinkedIn (84%). Only 29% name Facebook as a top performer, 22% say YouTube and 21% say Instagram. Twitter and TikTok are mentioned by 8% and 3% respectively.
So it makes sense that 72% say they have increased their LinkedIn usage in the last 12 months, while only 32% have increased their YouTube presence, 31% have increased their Instagram usage, 22% have increased their Facebook presence and 10% have increased their LinkedIn usage X and TikTok usage increased.
Which platforms are marketers abandoning? Did you guess X? That’s right: 32% of marketers say they have reduced their X usage in the last 12 months. Of those surveyed, 20% said they had reduced their use of Facebook, 10% had reduced their use of Instagram, 9% had retreated to YouTube, and only 2% had reduced their use of LinkedIn.
Interestingly, there has been a significant increase in B2B marketers using TikTok: 19% say they use the platform – more than double last year.
Content management and operations
To find out how teams manage content, we asked marketers about their technology use and investments, as well as the challenges they face when scaling their content.
Content management technology
When asked what technologies they use to manage content, B2B marketers point to the following:
- Analysis tools (81%)
- Social media publishing/analytics (72%)
- Email marketing software (69%)
- Content creation/calendar/collaboration/workflow (64%)
- Content management system (50%)
- Customer relationship management system (48%)
But having technology doesn’t mean it’s the right technology (or that its capabilities are being used). So we asked if they felt their organization had that Right Technology to manage content across the organization.
Only 31% say yes; 30% say they have the technology but are not leveraging its potential; and 29% say they haven’t purchased the right technology.
Spending on content technology is likely to increase
Still, investment in content management technology seems likely in 2024: 45% say their company is likely to invest in new technology, while 32% say their company is unlikely to do so; 23% say their organization is neither likely nor unlikely to invest.
Scaling content production
We introduced a new question to understand the challenges B2B marketers face when scaling content production.
Nearly half (48%) say repurposing content isn’t enough. Lack of communication across organizational silos is a problem for 40%; 31% say they don’t have a structured process for creating content; 29% say they lack an editorial calendar with clear deadlines; 10% say scaling is not a current focus.
Other hurdles include difficulty finding digital content (16%), technology issues (15%), translation/localization issues (12%) and no style guide (11%).
Measurement and goals: Generate increases in sales and earnings
Nearly half (46%) of B2B marketers agree that their company measures content performance effectively; However, 36% disagree and 15% neither agree nor disagree. Only 3% say they don’t measure content performance.
The five most commonly used metrics to evaluate content performance are conversions (73%), email engagement (71%), website traffic (71%), website engagement (69%), and social media analytics (65th). %).
About half (52%) mention lead quality, 45% say they rely on search rankings, 41% use lead quantity, 32% track email subscribers, and 29% track cost of acquisition of a lead, subscriber or customer.
The most common challenge B2B marketers face when measuring content performance is integrating/correlating data across multiple platforms (84%), followed by extracting insights from data (77%), linking performance data to goals (76th). %) and setting organizational goals (70). %) and lack of training (66%).
When it comes to goals, 84% of B2B marketers say content marketing helped increase brand awareness in the last 12 months. A whopping 76% said it helped generate demand/leads; 63% say it helped acquire subscribers/audience/leads and 58% say it helped generate sales/revenue (up from 42% last year).
Success factors: Know your audience
To differentiate the top performers from the crowd, we asked B2B marketers to rate the success of their content marketing approach: 28% rate the success of their company’s content marketing approach as extremely or very successful; another 57% report moderate success; and 15% feel minimally or not at all successful.
The most popular factor for successful marketers is knowing their target audience (79%).
This makes sense when you consider that the biggest challenge is “creating the right content for our audience.” The logic? Top content marketers prioritize knowing their audiences in order to create the right content for those audiences.
Top performers also set goals that align with their organization’s goals (68%), effectively measure and demonstrate content performance (61%), and demonstrate thought leadership (60%). Collaboration with other teams (55%) and a documented strategy (53%) also help top performers achieve high content marketing success.
We looked at several other dimensions to find out how top performers differ from their peers. The top performers are noteworthy…
- Are supported by managers who understand their work
- They are more likely to have the right content management technologies in place
- Enable better communication across organizational silos
- Better measure content effectiveness
- They are more likely to successfully use content marketing to generate demand/leads, nurture subscribers/audiences/leads, generate sales/revenue, and grow a subscriber audience
When it comes to the adoption of generative AI tools and associated policies, there is little difference between top performers and their less successful counterparts.
Budgets and expenses: Stay stable
To examine 2024 budget plans, we asked respondents if they had knowledge of their organization’s content marketing budget/budgeting process. We then asked the 55% who had budget knowledge additional questions.
Content marketing as a percentage of total marketing spend
This is what they say about the total marketing budget (excluding salaries):
- About a quarter (24%) say content marketing accounts for a quarter or more of their total marketing budget.
- Almost one in three (29%) say that 10-24% of the marketing budget goes to content marketing.
- Almost half (48%) say that less than 10% of their marketing budget goes to content marketing.
Content marketing budget outlook for 2024
Next, we asked about their content marketing budget for 2024: 45% believe their content marketing budget will increase compared to 2023, while 42% think it will stay the same and only 6% believe it will will decrease.
Where will the budget go?
We also asked where respondents plan to increase their spending.
A whopping 69% of B2B marketers say they would increase their investment in video, followed by thought leadership content (53%), in-person events (47%), paid advertising (43%), online community building (33%) and webinars (33%), audio content (25%), digital events (21%) and hybrid events (11%).
Top Content Priorities for 2024: Leading with Thought Leadership
We asked an open-ended question about marketers’ top three content priorities for 2024. The responses show that marketers value providing thought leadership and becoming a trusted resource.
Other frequently mentioned priorities:
- Better understanding of the audience
- SEO
- Discover the best ways to use AI
- Increasing brand awareness
- Lead generation
- Using more videos
- Better use of analytics
- Conversions
- Reuse existing content
Content marketing predictions for 2024: AI is at the forefront
In another open-ended question, we asked, “What content marketing trends do you predict for 2024?” You probably guessed the most popular trend: AI.
Here are some comments from marketers on how AI will impact content marketing:
- “We will see generative AI anytime, anywhere.”
- “It will be difficult to determine the best use of generative AI in content marketing.”
- “AI will likely lead to a flood of poor quality typewritten content. The winners will leverage AI to automate the processes that support content creation while continuing to produce high-quality, human-created content.”
- “AI has made content creation so easy that there are and will be too many long articles on similar topics; most are never read or viewed. A sea of too many words. I assume that short content has to be the driver for this.” Eyeballs.
Other trends:
- Greater demand for high-quality content as consumers grow increasingly weary of AI-generated content
- Importance of video content
- Increasing use of short video and audio content
- Impact of AI on SEO
Under related comments:
- “Event marketing (webinars and video thought leadership) is becoming increasingly important as teams rely on AI-generated written content.”
- “AI will fundamentally change the industry and greatly influence the importance of SEO. Marketers must be ready to ride the wave or they will be left behind.”
- “The enthusiasm for AI-generated content will grow before it wanes as people realize that it is difficult to distinguish, validate, verify, attribute and authenticate. New tools, processes and roles will emerge to address this challenge.”
- “Long-form reports may see a decline. If that’s the case, we need a replacement. Logically, this could be a webinar or a video series that dives deeper into the insights.”
methodology
For her 14thTh As part of the annual content marketing survey, CMI and MarketingProfs surveyed 1,080 recipients around the world in July 2023 – from various industries, functional areas and company sizes. The online survey was sent via email to a sample of marketers using lists from CMI and MarketingProfs.
This article presents the results of 894 respondents, primarily from North America, who indicated that their company operates primarily in the B2B space and that they are either content marketers or work in marketing, communications, or other roles in connection with content.
Thank you to the survey participants who made this research possible and to everyone who is helping to spread these insights throughout the content marketing industry.
Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute
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The Content Marketing Institute (CMI) has one goal: to advance the practice of content marketing through online education and in-person and digital events. We create and curate content experiences that teach marketers and developers at large corporations, small businesses, and agencies how to attract and retain customers through compelling multichannel storytelling. Global brands turn to CMI for strategic advice, training and research. Organizations from around the world are sending teams to Content Marketing World, the largest content marketing-focused event, the Marketing Analytics & Data Science (MADS) conference, and CMI virtual events, including the ContentTECH Summit. Our community of over 215,000 content marketers fosters camaraderie and conversation. CMI is organized by Informa Connect. To find out more, visit www.contentmarketinginstitute.com.
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