Content marketing’s effectiveness at engaging target audiences and promoting meaningful relationships has made it a popular choice for B2B marketers. To help guide B2B marketers for 2019, here are 10 content marketing charts that are worth looking into as we start the year.

These charts are from Content Marketing Institute’s ”B2B Content Marketing 2019: Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends”.

1. What are B2B marketers using to find their target audience?

What this means: Getting feedback from the sales team is the number 1 approach in order for marketers to learn more about their audience and deliver relevant content that resonates with them. But the reality is, marketing and sales teams have a long way to go in order to stop working in silos and start working harmoniously.

Marketers need to be able to find a way to talk to their audience more if they are to deliver relevant content that resonates with their audience.

It’s also interesting to point out that only 42% of B2B marketers use actual conversations with their customers.

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2.  What are B2B marketers using to nurture their audience?

What this means: Still one of the world’s preferred communication channels, email is also a smarter way to reach out to your target audience who are not ready to purchase from you yet and establish trust until they are ready.

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3.  What area in content marketing are marketers focusing on?

What this means: Many companies are already starting to see the importance of content creation in driving inbound traffic as it has been proven to generate 3x more leads than paid advertising, according to the Content Marketing Institute.

Content creation is the organised process of coming up with great topics that resonate with your buyer persona, deciding the form these topics take, and creating written or visual these content pieces.

Data from HubSpot points out that 96% of B2B buyers want content with more input from industry thought leaders.

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4.  What are content marketers’ preferred content formats?

What this means: Majority of B2B marketers are already shifting to use of audio, video, and written content, seeing how effective it is in driving awareness and engagement, which is crucial for a successful marketing campaign.

This year, consider adding audio and visual content to your marketing efforts to attract more people into your website.

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5. How are B2B marketers using social media?

What this means: Marketers have increased the use of social media to increase their reach and improve the success of their marketing initiatives. This year, ensure that everything you share online is aligned to your content marketing strategy.

Once you’ve defined your goals and your ideal buyer personas and nailed down your content calendar, it is easier to plan for your social media content.

6. What technologies are B2B marketers using to manage their content marketing efforts?

What this means: Around half of marketers surveyed still relied on a CMS to assist them with their content marketing campaigns. More than half have already adopted marketing automation and as high as 84% have made the most of social media and email marketing to promote their content.

Platforms that get the most engagement and traffic to your audience are still the most effective in driving success to your content marketing efforts.

7. What content types are B2B marketers using?

What this means: Majority of marketers have used long-form content, videos, and social media stories, which attest to earlier data that these three content types are the most successful in driving ROI. Long-form content, or content longer than 2,000 words, has been noted to perform better in SEO and social shares.

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8. What paid content distribution methods did B2B marketers prefer to use in 2018?

What this means: Sponsored content on social media and SEM are the top paid methods used, which shows that these two methods also have the highest rate of success in paid campaigns. Running paid social media ads also allows you to reach a larger audience at a lower cost.

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9.  How many B2B marketers are using personas for their content marketing purposes?

What this means: Using buyer personas for your content marketing enable you to appeal to prospective customers at every stage in the marketing funnel.

For 2019, marketers need to integrate the use of personas in their content marketing strategy. Personas allow you to nurture your audience and those who may be interested in your business, allowing you to gradually convert them along the way.

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10. What content marketing issues were important to B2B organisations in 2018?

What this means: For 2019, it is important for marketers to note that changing SEO/search algorithms is a top concern for 2018 and will need to be looked into. Keep in mind that Google’s updates are always aimed towards giving the best user experience so people would keep going back to Google.

Moving forward, make it your goal to always provide the best experience for your target audience, whatever form that takes — blog articles, videos, infographics, web content, etc.

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