Executive Summary Content is an essential component of marketing. Buyers self-educate more deeply into the sales cycle than every before. Content marketing is an essential strategy to attracting, engaging and acquiring customers during this self-education process. Yet only 13% of respondents believe their content strategy is very successful at achieving important objectives. What will content marketing success look like in the year ahead and how will marketers achieve it? To find out, Demand Metric in partnership with Ascend2 fielded the Content Marketing Survey and completed interviews with 521 marketing and sales decision-makers and practitioners from around the world. We thank these busy professionals for sharing their valuable insights with you. The charts in this report compare the strategies and practices of small and mid-size businesses (SMB) with large enterprises. This research has been produced for your use. Put it to work in your own marketing strategy planning and presentation materials. Clip the charts and write about them in your blog or post them on social media. Please share this research credited as published. Table of Contents - Executive Summary - Content Marketing Objectives - Current Content Marketing Success - Obstacles to Content Marketing Success - Premium Content Usage - Content Type Effectiveness - Content Type Execution - Content Campaign Resources - Content Marketing Software Usage - Channel Effectiveness for Content - Content & The Sale Cycle - About Marketo - About Demand Metric & Ascend2 - Appendix - Survey Background Research Methodology Surveys are conducted online from a panel of more than 50,000 Ascend2 research subscribers, representing US and international marketing and sales decision-makers and practitioners in a range of contact roles, company types, sizes and geographic regions. The questionnaire used incorporates standardized research practices across all studies while maintaining a proven 3-minute survey format. Survey findings are examined in a quantitative context by experienced analysts and reported objectively. The Demand Metric and Ascend2 2014 Content Marketing Benchmark Report was administered online in January 2014. During this period, 521 responses were collected that were qualified and complete enough for inclusion in the analysis.

1. © 2014 Demand Metric Research Corporation in Partnership with Ascend2. All Rights Reserved.
Benchmark Report
Content Marketing in 2014:
Sponsored By:

2. TABLE OF CONTENTS
3
4
5
6
7
8
Executive Summary
Content Marketing Objectives
Current Content Marketing Success
Obstacles to Content Marketing Success
Premium Content Usage
Content Type Effectiveness
12
14
15
Channel Effectiveness for Content
About Marketo
About Demand Metric & Ascend2
10
11
Content Campaign Resources
Content Marketing Software Usage
16Content Type Execution Appendix – Survey Background9
13 Content & The Sales Cycle

3. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Content is an essential component of marketing.
Buyers self-educate more deeply into the sales cycle than every before. Content marketing is an essential strategy to attracting,
engaging and acquiring customers during this self-education process. Yet only 13% of respondents believe their content
strategy is “very successful” at achieving important objectives.
What will content marketing success look like in the year ahead and how will marketers achieve it?
To find out, Demand Metric in partnership with Ascend2 fielded the Content Marketing Survey and completed interviews with 521
marketing and sales decision-makers and practitioners from around the world. We thank these busy professionals for sharing
their valuable insights with you.
The charts in this report compare the strategies and practices of small and mid-size businesses (SMB) with large enterprises.
This research has been produced for your use. Put it to work in your own marketing strategy planning and presentation
materials. Clip the charts and write about them in your blog or post them on social media. Please share this research credited as
published.
- Jerry Rackley, Chief Analyst – Demand Metric

4. 20%
28%
18%
27%
33%
31%
26%
43%
56%
20%
24%
24%
25%
26%
29%
32%
52%
53%
0% 20% 40% 60%
Increase social media engagement
Increase marketing ROI
Improve customer retention rate
Increase direct sales revenue
Improve organic search (SEO) rankings
Increase number of website visitors
Improve sales-readiness of leads
Increase brand or product awareness
Increase number of leads generated
Most Important Content Marketing Objectives
Enterprise SMB
Content Marketing Benchmark Survey, Demand Metric and Ascend2, January 2014, n=521
CONTENT MARKETING OBJECTIVES
As a strategy, content marketing is capable of delivering
each of the benefits listed in Figure 1.
This data makes clear that lead generation is the
current top objective for content marketing strategies
with companies of all sizes.
As a lead generation strategy, content marketing is more
effective when paired with other objectives on this list, such
as increasing website visits and improving organic search
rankings.
While these latter objectives are not highly ranked,
they also are top drivers of lead generation
performance.
4
Figure 1: Most Important Content Marketing Objectives

5. ABOUT MARKETO
Marketing Software. Easy. Powerful. Complete.
You want results and you want them fast. The Marketo platform is built by marketers, for marketers. Everything you need –
marketing automation, social campaigns, inbound marketing, sales apps, ROI reporting, - all in one place.
For more information, visit www.marketo.com

6. ABOUT DEMAND METRIC & ASCEND2
About Demand Metric
Demand Metric is a global marketing research & advisory firm serving a membership community of over 40,000 marketing
professionals, CEOs, and business owners with advisory services, 100+ research & benchmark reports, 20+ consulting
methodologies, 50+ training e-workshops & courses, and a library of 500+ practical tools and templates. Using Demand Metric
resources, members complete projects faster and with greater confidence, boosting respect for the marketing team and making it
easier to justify needed resources. Our 1,200+ corporate clients range from start-ups to consulting firms to members of the Global
1000. To learn more about Demand Metric, please visit: www.demandmetric.com.
About Ascend2
Ascend2 is a market research firm with over 50,000 research subscribers and survey panelists comprised of sales & marketing
professionals. Each month they field new research studies and generate reports that typically include 12 to 18 pages of charts and
analytical commentary. Demand Metric partners with Ascend2 to leverage their panel of research survey panelists and develop
additional benchmark reports for community members. Learn more about Ascend2 at www.Ascend2.com.
To read the rest of this Benchmark Report, become a Demand Metric member today!