Marketing is all about storytelling. And content marketing uses storytelling to help marketers generate the leads they need to live happily ever after. According to IMN‘s “2013 Content Marketing Survey Report,” 78% of marketers surveyed say that they are somewhat or very familiar with content marketing, and 49% say that they have a formal content marketing strategy in place. Respondents deem social media (51%), website (44%), email (42%), and newsletters (42%) as the most effective content marketing channels, but only 22% of marketers surveyed have a different content marketing strategy established for each channel.
Although 90% of respondents categorize content marketing as a medium or high priority, there are still quite a few dragons they have to slay before being dubbed true marketing heroes. Budget is one of them. According to the report, 46% of marketers say that content marketing represents less than 10% of their budget. Likewise, 35% say that internal resource constraints are a main challenge in implementing a content marketing strategy. In addition, 44% of marketers say that finding and sourcing relevant content is their toughest battle. The report cites that 11% of marketers outsource their content development, 44% generate it in-house, and 46% use both internal and external resources.
And while marketers may wish that implementing a content marketing strategy could be as easy as waving a magic wand, it’s important for marketers to set specific goals and rely on metrics—not magic. According to the report, marketers list driving leads (44%), awareness (19%), and engagement (19%) as their primary goals and say that the primary ways they measure the success of a content marketing strategy is via incoming leads (49%), increased revenue (20%), and social following growth (20%).
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