Consider this: according to a 2015 survey conducted by the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs, about 93% of B2B online marketing companies and individuals use content marketing strategies when looking for lead generation ideas and usability testing approaches for B2B businesses. But despite this large percentage of marketers who use content-based strategies, the report also found that only 34% of B2B marketers believe that content-based B2B and online marketing strategies are effective. So what’s the deal?
Anyone familiar with the B2B industry and the B2C industry will know that content-based marketing campaigns are traditionally not used when dealing with B2B; instead, lead generation campaigns are easiest to measure and produce the most concrete results. Quite simply, the concept of using content marketing for B2B lead generation is very new and very risky.
For example, the 2015 survey found that about one-third (33%) of all B2B online marketing companies have a standard approach that they use for content marketing. But in this group, only 59% feel that their approach is effective. In other words, approximately 40% of all B2B marketing groups that use specific content-based approaches actually don’t believe that these approaches are effective.
It’s no secret that social media (a substantial aspect of content marketing) is difficult to combine with B2B campaigns simply because it’s not easy to measure and record leads through social media sites. It’s very likely that those B2B online marketing companies who don’t feel confident in their content marketing strategies just aren’t able to measure the success of these strategies.
The survey also happened to find that there are three top priorities for the average B2B marketer when it comes to content: creating high-quality content that engages the audience, gaining a better understanding of the audience, and converting clicks into actual leads.
Ultimately, it really doesn’t matter what approach you take to a B2B marketing campaign, and if you even use content marketing at all. What matters is that you take time to research and plan an approach, and that you follow through with it even if the initial results don’t seem too promising.