Over 100 B2B Content Marketing Statistics for 2014

Thanks to Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs, each year there’s a new report covering the latest trends in B2B content marketing.

From insourcing vs. outsourcing�to the most effective tactics, there�is�plenty of insight in this report to help guide B2B marketers in the right direction.

As a blogger, public speaker and strategist, I know how convenient it can be for statistics in a report like this to be broken out. I did this once before with 100+ B2B Content Marketing Statistics for 2013 and it was well received. So here is the list updated according to the 2014 report.

93% of B2B marketers are using content marketing (2013 91%)

Content Marketing Effectiveness: 42% of B2B marketers say they are effective at content marketing (2013 36%)

9% 5 (very effective)33% 441% 314% 21% 1 (not at all effective)

What the Most and Least Effective Content Marketers Do

66% of the most effective marketers has a documented content strategy
11% of the least effective marketers has a documented content strategy

86% of the most effective marketers has someone who oversees content marketing strategy
46% of the least effective marketers has someone who oversees content marketing strategy

15 – Average number of content marketing tactics used by the most effective content marketers
10 – Average number of content marketing tactics used by the least effective content marketers

7 – Average number of social media platforms used by the most effective B2B marketers
4 – Average number of social media platforms used by the least effective B2B marketers

39% – The percentage of marketing budget spent on content marketing by the most effective B2B marketers
16% – The percentage of marketing budget spent on content marketing by the least effective B2B marketers

35% of the most effective content marketers are challenged with producing engaging content
61% of the least effective content marketers are challenged with producing engaging content

B2B Content Marketing Strategy

44% of B2B marketers have a documented content strategy48% of smaller B2B companies (10-99 employees) have a documented content strategy41% of large B2B companies (1,000 employees) have a documented content strategy73% of B2B organizations have someone in place to oversee content marketing strategy78% of small companies have someone who oversees content marketing strategy58% of large companies have someone who oversees content marketing strategy73% of B2B content marketers are producing more content than they did one year ago80% of B2B marketers who have a documented content strategy are creating more content than a year ago66% of B2B marketers without a documented content strategy are creating more content than a year agoContent Marketing Tactics

B2B marketers use an average of 13 content marketing tactics

87% Social Media (other than blogs)81% Articles on your website80% eNewsletters76% Blogs76% In-person events73% Case studies73% Videos68% Articles on other websites64% Whitepapers63% Online presentations62% Webinars51% Infographics44% Research reports40% Microsites38% Branded content tools38% Mobile content35% Print magazines34% eBooks30% Books28% Mobile apps27% Digital magazines26% Podcasts25% Syndicated content25% Virtual conferences24% Annual reports22% Print newsletters10% Games

Content Marketing Tactics Effectiveness

70% of B2B marketers rate in-person events as effective65% of B2B marketers rate case studies as effective63% of B2B marketers rate videos as effective63$ of B2B marketers rate webinars as effective62% of B2B marketers rate blogs as effective60% of B2B marketers rate eNewsletters as effective59% of B2B marketers rate research reports as effective59% of B2B marketers rate white papers as effective58% of B2B marketers rate articles on your website as effective57% of B2B marketers rate eBooks as effectiveB2B Content Marketing and Social Media Tactics

B2B content marketers use an average of 6 social media platforms

91% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn to distribute content85% of B2B marketers use Twitter to distribute content81% of B2B marketers use Facebook to distribute content73% of B2B marketers use YouTube to distribute content55% of B2B marketers use Google+ to distribute content40% of B2B marketers use SlideShare to distribute content34% of B2B marketers use Pinterest to distribute content22% of B2B marketers use Instagram to distribute content22% of B2B marketers use Vimeo to distribute content16% of B2B marketers use Flickr to distribute content15% of B2B marketers use StumbleUpon to distribute content14% of B2B marketers use Foursquare to distribute content14% of B2B marketers use Tumblr to distribute content14% of B2B marketers use Vine to distribute content

 

Goals and Measuring B2B Content Marketing Performance

Top Organizational Goals for B2B Content Marketing

82% Brand Awareness74% Lead Generation71% Customer Acquisition68% Thought Leadership64% Engagement57% Customer Retention57% Website Traffic47% Lead Management/Nurturing45% Sales

Metrics for B2B Content Marketing Success

63% Web traffic54% Sales lead quality50% Social media sharing48% Sales lead quantity44% SEO ranking40% Time spent on site39% Direct sales39% Qualitative feedback from customers34% Inbound links32% Subscriber growth29% Benchmark lift of company awareness24% Benchmark lift of product / service awareness21% Increased customer loyalty14% Cross-selling6% Cost savingsContent Marketing Budgets58% of B2B marketers plan to increase their content marketing budget32 will keep the same budget8% are unsure1% will decrease their budgetOn average, 30% of B2B marketing budgets are allocated to content marketingB2B Content Marketing Insourcing & Outsourcing56% of B2B companies create content in-house only1% of B2B companies only outsource content creation43% of B2B companies use both in-house and outsourced content creation resources

Which content marketing tactics are outsourced?

64% of B2B marketers outsource writing54% of B2B marketers outsource design30% of B2B marketers outsource content distribution22% of B2B marketers outsource editing13% of B2B marketers outsource measurement & analytics8% of B2B marketers outsource content planning & strategy5% of B2B marketers outsource buyer persona creationHow B2B Companies Customize Content65% Industry trends59% Profile of individual decision makers55% Company characteristics43% Stages in the buying cycle21% Personalized content preferences11% Competitor�s content4% NoneTop Challenges B2B Content Marketers Face69% Lack of time55% Producing enough content47% Producing the kind of content that engages39% Lack of budget38% Producing a variety of content33% Inability to measure content effectiveness26% Lack of integration across marketing25% Inability to collect information from SMEs25% Lack of knowledge and training23% Lack of buy-in / vision15% Lack of integration across HR10% Finding trained content marketing professionals

�Check out the full CMI and MarketingProfs report here:

What overall trends are you seeing in the B2B content marketing space? If you’ll be at the B2B Content2Conversion Conference this week, I hope to discuss with you in person! I am presenting Tuesday, May 6th at 2:45pm on working with B2B Influencers to create content that’s socialized and optimized.

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