Content marketing is part of the marketing mix for nine out of 10 B2B marketers, but these same marketers are uncertain about the effectiveness of these channels. These findings are part of the recent “B2B Content Marketing: 2010 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends” report developed by MarketingProfs and Junta42. The report identified that marketers are facing a confidence gap—between the content marketing tactics they employ and their ability to measure their effectiveness. While 79 percent of marketers surveyed are using social media tactics (excluding blogs), only 31 percent of those who use social media tactics rate the tactic as effective.
Of those who cite that their content marketing efforts are effective, what are they basing this success on? What are the marketers’ objectives? Some of their goals were brand awareness, customer retention/loyalty and lead generation. In term of success, web traffic was the metric most reported by marketers.
At Hammock, we’ve been developing content marketing for clients for two decades—and we’ve learned not to type a word, design a spread or tweet a phrase until we’ve done our homework. And for us, homework means research and conversations with our clients about what they are trying to achieve. We then do an in-depth analysis of the research and our client’s objectives, which results in a strategy and a list of recommended media, tactics, and measurement plans. We don’t begin the creation and development of content until we understand what the driving objectives are for our client and know where we are headed.
This process, which we have refined year after year, ensures that our clients don’t have to suffer from the confidence gaps that so many other marketers report. Along with our initial engagement research and strategy assessment, we provide regular reporting to clients about the results of their content tactics, making adjustments each month based on performance.