60% Of Businesses Plan To Spend More On THIS In The Next 12 Months

May 17, 2012 / in Content Marketing, General Information / by Mic Johnson

Got ya, didn’t I? 

I bet you are wondering, “What is THIS? What is it that I should be doing that other businesses are doing? What’s the secret? How will it help me grow my business?”

Before I tell you, I’m going to warn you. It’s not sexy. It’s not easy. And it’s not free.

Ok, how many of you are still reading? 

Good, that means (1) you care, (2) you want your business to succeed, and (3) you know that the economy, and the way that people do business, and what consumers are looking for, is fundamentally changing.

So what is THIS? It’s Content Marketing.

I wrote a blog about this very topic nearly a year ago. Do yourself a favor and take a quick read of it and refresh your memory. If you already know and understand content marketing, you will still want to keep reading because THIS…what you are reading RIGHT NOW…these very words….Yep, you guessed it, THIS IS CONTENT MARKETING.

Even more importantly, you’ll want to READ THIS ARTICLE, a research report from the Content Marketing Institute (Who even knew such a thing existed, right?) on 2012 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgents and Trends. 

Some quick highlights to entice you: 

1. On average, 60% of respondents indicate that they plan to increase their content marketing budgets over the next 12 months.
    
2. 9 out of 10 organizations market with content marketing.
    
3. Most popular B2B content marketing tactics: Articles (79%), Social Media (other than blogs) (74%), Blogs (65%), and eNewsletters (63%).  
    
4. Blogging as a tactic increased 14% from 2010 to 2011.
    

5. Every social media channel is seeing increased adoption, often by 15-20%:

   • YouTube: 47% increase
   • LinkedIn: 39% increase
   • Twitter: 35% increase
   • Facebook: 30% increase
      
6. As content marketing budgets increase, so too does the percentage of companies that outsource.
    

Ok, the ball is in your court to read the articles I’ve highlighted in this post…and then to TAKE ACTION.

And remember, it’s not sexy. It’s not easy. And it’s not free. Plus everyone else is doing it.

Well, at least 60% of smart B2B businesses are.