Information about marketing for technology companies always gets buried in the mountains of marketing information out there. In fact, I often have a hard time finding it because search engines just return results on “marketing technology”, and I end up with links to pages on useful software apps like Marketo and HubSpot.
Not that these products are bad, far from it. It’s just that’s not what I was looking for. That’s part of the reason I started this blog, as I wanted to produce content for marketers who work for Technology companies. To cut through all the content that didn’t apply to them, and share information that is relevant.
The Content Marketing Institute understands this too, and produces a report every year on B2B Tech Content Marketing that is very helpful to you, the Technology marketer. Let’s take a look at some of the stats in the report.
Overall Stats
62% of Tech marketers with a documented content strategy say they are effective.
46% of Tech marketers have a documented content strategy-they face fewer content marketing challenges because of this.
73% have someone who oversees their content marketing strategy. Do you?
78% of Tech marketers are producing more content than they did a year ago.
Tactics Used by B2B Tech Marketers
You’re using an average of 15 different content marketing tactics, everything from:
- Social Media (other than blogs)
- Case Studies
- Videos
- Blogs
- eNewsletters
- In-Person events
- Articles on your website
- Webinars & webcasts
- White Papers
- Articles on other websites
- Online presentations
- Infographics
- Research Reports
- eBooks
- Microsites
What’s Most Effective for B2B Tech Marketers
While they’re using an average of 15 tactics, it’s interesting to see what they find the most effective. The top 10 effective tactics are:
- Webinars/webcasts (70%)
- Videos (68%)
- Case studies (66%)
- In-person events (66%)
- Blogs (61%)
- White papers (61%)
- Research reports (60%)
- eBooks (58%)
- eNewsletters (56%)
- Infographics (56%)
Interesting to see that social media (other than blogs) isn’t in this list at all. Does this mean they’re not aware of how they can use it as an effective tactic? Are their prospects simply not on social media for business purposes?
What Are You Looking to Achieve?
Technology marketers have a number of goals with their content marketing, including:
- Lead generation
- Brand awareness
- Customer acquisition
- Thought leadership
- Website traffic
- Lead management/nurturing
- Engagement
- Customer retention/loyalty
- Sales
This is in stark contrast to other research CMI’s done, where other B2B marketers in other industries say that brand awareness is their top goal. Tech marketers focus on lead generation. Any thoughts as to why?
You’re Spending More Than Before
Tech marketers are spending more than ever before on their content marketing efforts, and 48% of them say they’ll increase their spending in 2014. 10% said they’re going to “significantly increase” their spending. Wow, I’d be curious to find out what that number is, wouldn’t you?
Who’s Writing All That Content?
Good news for all copywriters, freelance or in-house: there’s tons of work to go around. Curiously, Tech marketers that have a documented content strategy are more likely to outsource their content creation (63% of them do.)
Challenges to Producing Content
Most Tech marketers face challenges to produce their content, including:
- Lack of time (69%)
- Producing enough content (58%)
- Producing engaging content (55%)
- Producing a variety of content (42%)
- Inability to measure content effectiveness (40%)
- Lack of budget (40%)
What Are You Writing About?
- 69% of B2B Tech marketers create content about industry trends
- 63% of them profile individual decision makers
- 58% of them create content about their company’s characteristics
- 57% of them focus their content on the stage in the buying cycle
Most of the B2B Tech marketers surveyed tailored their content more frequently in these areas when compared to their peers.
Note: All images in this post provided by CMI’s Technology B2B Content Marketing: 2014 Benchmarks, Budgets & Trends North America report.
