Based on the results of the B2B Small Business Content Marketing: 2013 Benchmarks, Budget, and Trends – North America, sponsored by Outbrain, it appears that more of them are doing content marketing — 94% of you, to be exact. Interestingly enough, the biggest increase in content marketing spending has occurred in companies of less than 100 employees: Micro companies (< 10 employees) are spending 42% more, while Small companies (10-99 employees) are spending 31% more than last year.
This means more of them are taking advantage of the story telling benefits of content marketing to get their story out there.
B2B Small Business Blogs More than their Enterprise Counterparts
Almost three-quarters of surveyed small businesses use their corporate blogs (76%), and have more confidence in them than their enterprise counterparts (60% vs 64%.)
They are Heavy Social Media Users
Eighty-six percent of small businesses like to use social media to connect with their audience and get their stories out there. They use an average of five platforms, but tend to stick to these three: LinkedIn (83%), Twitter (81%), and Facebook (80%). Enterprise B2B companies use fewer platforms overall (four), including: Facebook (80%), Twitter (76%), and YouTube (74%).
Small Business is More Concerned with Brand Awareness
Sure, small businesses are just as concerned with brand awareness as enterprise companies (82% vs 79%), however in general they’re more concerned with their top three goals than enterprise companies are.
They’ll Be Spending More on Content Marketing
Over half of B2B small businesses will be spending more on their content marketing efforts in the next 12 months (57%), yet only 41% of them outsource that content creation to freelancers. This is an interesting number, given how many small businesses have difficulty producing their content (64%), and how many of them consider their content marketing efforts effective (78%). Does this mean they’ll be hiring more in-house content producers?
Final Thought
It looks like B2B small businesses are relying more heavily on content marketing as part of their marketing campaigns. They’re big users of social media, are concerned with the same things the big boys are concerned about, and are generally more satisfied with their marketing efforts. Think these numbers will remain the same throughout the year? How about for B2B enterprise companies?
