Business-to-business firms can save themselves a lot of time and money by taking note of some recent content marketing research. The survey asked UK firms about their experiences with different content marketing tactics.
The research findings appear to have identified those tactics most effective in driving new business. Small businesses can save themselves a lot of hassle by taking advantage of these findings. Here’s a quick look at the results.
The content marketing tactics considered to be most effective
The diagram below shows the tactics found to be most effective amongst a sample of UK firms, in rank order. Case studies and research reports top the list followed by a string of other tactics:
Surprisingly, the research does not refer to corporate blogs as a technique and yet blogs are considered a valuable tactic in other studies. It’s possible that UK firms have yet to embrace the potential of corporate blogs.
Also, online articles (on own web sites and external sites) appear to rank lower than other studies suggest.
If you are a B2B firm wondering how to drive online performance using content marketing, you might want to start with the top tactics from this research. Take a look at this post for ideas on generating new case studies.
About the respondent sample
You should review the findings above in the light of some limitations regarding the sample.Respondents came from subscribers to the Content Marketing Institute and the Direct Marketing Institute in the UK. As such, they are likely to have a keener interest in trying different marketing tactics and have higher than average content marketing budgets. The sample consisted of 190 respondents as follows:
* 67% - B2B
* 18% - B2C
* 15% - Other (public sector / not-for-profit)
Breakdown by employee size:
* 50% had up to 99 employees
* 21% between 100 and 999 employees
* 29% more than 1000 employees
Industry profile:
* 46% marketing, media, publishing, online services
* 8% consulting and business services
* 5% banking, accountancy and financial services
* 5% software
* 36% other
Whilst the respondent profile may not match your business, the research is still useful as these respondents have probably put the greatest effort into understanding what content marketing techniques work best in the UK. It acts as a good start point for firms trying to decide where to invest their content marketing budgets for maximum effect. Get your marketing team busy conducting surveys and writing-up customer case studies!
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::
