Thursday, October 31, 2013

B2C Content Marketers Give Top Marks to Events

B2C content marketing tactics of all kinds are on the rise, but B2C marketers rate in-person events as the most effective in growing numbers, per the recent "B2C Content Marketing: 2014 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends" study from CMI and MarketingProfs. A range of content marketing tactics A-to-Z, from blogging to infographics to videos, have been adopted by 90% of B2C marketers today, with 60% of those surveyed saying they plan to increase their content marketing budgets in the next 12 months. Not only are use and spending up from the prior year, more B2C marketers consider themselves effective at content marketing: 34% this year compared with 32% last year. But they also rate some tactics as more effective than others. In terms of usage alone, social media (other than blogs) is the most popular (88% use social platforms), but B2C confidence in tactical effectiveness puts in-person events at the top, with 74% believing events are effective, followed closely by e-newsletters (73%). This is the second year in a row that in-person events have received top effectiveness marks from B2C marketers, plus confidence in events has grown significantly; the 74% effectiveness vote is up from 62% last year. For more on the study, go to http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2013/11873/2014-b2c-content-marketing-benchmarks-budgets-and-trends

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Comparing B2B Social Marketers to Trick-or-Treaters

It's Halloween time, and we can't resist the chance to compare B2B social marketers to costumed trick-or-treaters. Our thanks to Dennis Shiao for his post on Social Media Today. Shiao created the Halloween analogies from findings in the recent "Social Insights Report" by Leadtail and DNN, which analyzed 113,039 tweets (from 500 North American B2B marketers) for the June-August period to reveal social networking and content trends. The report shows, Shiao points out, where B2B marketers, like veteran trick-or-treaters, go for the sweetest results on social networks: 35% share content on LinkedIn, compared with just 3% on Facebook. They choose familiar sources for sharing of safer treats, which is why industry media make up 62% of the 100 most popular content sources. But B2B marketers know the value of creative costumes, so the most shared social sources are also visually oriented: The top five most shared are YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, SlideShare, and Facebook. Like the house with the spookiest decor on the block, if you want to lure a crowd, you'll need to offer an overall standout experience, observes Shiao, so check out the top-rated vendors mentioned by B2B marketers to see what they are doing right with their sweet content, including HubSpot, marketo, salesforce, ShareThis and Eloqua. For more treats from the article and a link to the report, see http://socialmediatoday.com/dshiao/1861616/how-halloween-reminds-me-b2b-marketers