Content Marketing: A Year-End Review

December is one of my favorite months of the year. There are the obvious reasons like celebrating the holidays with friends and family, drinking hot coffee next to a roaring fire, or anticipating all the new adventures in the upcoming year.

I also love December because it’s a great time to look back on the year and acknowledge the highlights. I’ve seen lots of organizations do the same exercise by compiling a “Top 10” list of the most popular things from the year: Top 10 TV Shows of 2015, Top 10 Cars of 2015, Top 10 Books of 2015, etc.

One of the really nice year-end compilations I recently came across (though not necessarily in Top 10 format) is the B2B Content Marketing 2016 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends report put out by the The Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs. The report is a summation of a survey that was conducted of over 1,500 organizations that use content marketing. The respondents range from small firms with under 10 employees all the way up to enterprise organizations. It’s really well donea really nice report. I suggest you take a few minutes to read it if any part of your job deals with content marketing. Here are a few observations that piqued my interest and why:

1) 30% of organizations say they are effective at content marketing
This statistic surprised me. The idea of content marketing has been around for some time. I first started thinking about content marketing years ago when I read Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah’s book Inbound Marketing, but , I know the concept has been around much longer than that. The report defines effectiveness as “accomplishing your overall objectives.” With 5+ years of content marketing being front-and-center for marketers, you would think that more than 30% of organizations would feel that they are being effective in their content marketing efforts.

It’s obvious that most organizations recognize the need to develop relevant content for their audience. I think where they go wrong is they fall into the trap of “more is better.” I have worked in several organizations where the marketers in charge of content were deemed successful by how much content they cranked out in a given quarter or year. “Last quarter we put out six white papers, let’s shoot for more than six this quarter.” That sort of thinking only produces content noise. You aren’t really making anything remarkable, but you’re sure producing a lot of it! How is that helping drive revenue growth?

For those of us who are tired of just putting out more chatter, it’s time to get serious about our content marketing efforts. We need to create a high- level content strategy and attach measurable KPI’s to each goal. Then, we need to implement a system (or systems) that helps develop the content so it stays on message, can be measured for effectiveness and then, the cream-of-the-crop, can be easily repurposed using various mediums and tweaked for different audiences.

2) 32% of organizations have a documented content marketing strategy
I have to assume that this statistic dramatically impacts the above statistic. Peter Drucker’s timeless adage applies here, “You can’t manage what you can’t measure.” If you don’t put in the diligence to define goals, KPI’s, and strategy, you’ll be hard-pressed to determine if you’re being effective or not.

If you know the importance of content marketing but aren’t really sure if you are doing it effectively, hHere are a few places I’d suggest as a starting you can start researching how you will better measure your content marketing success in 2016point: Content Marketing Institute, SFDC, CopyPress, Search Engine Watch, Search Engine Journal.

3) 76% of organizations say they will produce more content in 2016 than they did in 2015
Only 30% of organizations are effective at content marketing and only 32% have a documented content strategy, yet most organizations are planning on creating more content. There seems to be a disconnect here. It’s like we’re propagating a situation that Mark Shaefer calls “Content Shock”…a situation where there is too much content being created in an already crowded landscape.

New Years Resolution time! Raise your right hand. Repeat after me, “I resolve to create content that resonates with my audience and not just create more for the sake of creating more.” Well done! You will be served well by that resolution.

Here are some ways you can get better at creating content people want to engage with:

• Do a survey of your existing clients to figure out what topics they want to know the most about.
• Carve out a niche. Find a topic area that you know more about than anyone else and explore every aspect of that. Your audience will find you and become loyal fans. To see an excellent example of this, research the history of Marcus Sheridan of The Sales Lion. Marcus was obsessed with writing about pools and gained fans from across the globe. If you had a pool question, Marcus was the guy with the answer.
• Consider writing about unique topics that make people take notice. A great example of this is Pricenomics. They started out using tons of data to write compelling blog posts. The posts became so popular that they’ve had to expand their writing team to keep up with the demand for their content. They really do put out the most compelling blog posts I’ve ever seen. (BTW, their huge Content Marketing Handbook is excellent, and everyone should give it a read).
• Get better at telling stories. Rather than continuing to crank out sterile, fact- based content, find a way to tell someone’s story. For example, let’s say you make accounting software. You obviously need to have some content about the features and functions, but why not find a few examples of where your clients have used your software to do something outstanding? Did your software help catch a major tax-related issue? How about a non-profit that implemented your system to improve donor record keeping, which improved their ability to serve their mission? Is there a case where someone advanced their career because they were able to use your product? It’s moving from the “how something works” to the “why should I care?” story. Check out what Simon Sinek has to say about this topic.

4) 51% of organizations expect to increase their content marketing budget next year
This is great news for content marketers if the money is spent correctly. Simply spending money to churn out more of the same old content is not the solution. Taking a strategic approach to developing content that incorporates personas, buyer stage, and medium into a great plan of measuring for effectiveness is a much better approach.

I strongly suggest using some of this increased budget to buy a platform that will help you create better content while measuring the results. Shameless Plug Warning: I recommend Oracle Content Marketing. There are others out there, but I think Oracle has the most flexible tool on the market.

5) 60% of organizations say that producing engaging content is their biggest challenge. A close second is measuring effectiveness and being consistent with what’s being created.
If you don’t start with a plan that spells out what you want to do and how you will measure it, it’s no wonder these are the top concerns for marketers.

After reading this fascinating report, I am convinced, more than ever, that 2016 should be the year you seriously consider what it will take to move your content marketing strategy to the next level. Investing in a platform to help you manage, create, and measure your content marketing efforts is a great step, along with defining your objectives and making decisions about the type of content to create based off KPI’s.

To up your content marketing game, you need a well- documented process, KPI’s in place, the ability to repurpose and make your content work for different personas and channels, and the ability measure results. Once a content management platform is in place, you can start to maximize your spend and increase your content marketing effectiveness.

So, as 2016 knocks on our door, let’s raise a glass and ring in the new year with a resolution move into content marketing maturity and leave behind the old ineffective methods that waste time and money. Cheers!