eMarketer Webinar: B2B Content Marketing—It's Not Just Lead Gen

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© 2014 eMarketer Inc.
September 4, 2014
B2B Content Marketing:
It’s Not Just Lead Generation
Mike Hudson
Analyst

Agenda
 The current state of content marketing
– Optimistic outlook with budgets rising
– Widespread dissatisfaction with results
 What’s causing this disconnect?
 How to bridge the divide
Twitter – #eMwebinar

What we mean when we say “content marketing”
 Blog posts, whitepapers, webinars, video and other
content …
 distributed by digital means …
 without an explicit sales pitch.

The Current State
of Content Marketing

Spending and expansion for 2014
 In a December 2013 study by Advertising Age of US
business-to-business (B2B) marketers:
– 75% planned to increase their content budget in 2014
– 1.3% said they would decrease their content budget this year
Advertising Age “2014 BtoB Outlook: Marketing Priorities and Plans”

 In a fall 2013 survey
by Webmarketing123
of US B2B marketers:
– 69% planned to
increase content
spending in 2014
– 1% planned to
decrease content
spending in 2014

 In an April 2014 survey by Regalix, nearly 7 in 10 B2B
firms reported spending more than 20% of total
marketing budget on content marketing

Rising budgets, lingering dissatisfaction

 42% of B2B firms said
they believe content
marketing efforts had
been effective
 58% … not so much
Content Marketing Institute “2014 B2B Content Marketing Trends”

 32% rated
content
marketing as
effective or very
effective
 About half were
right in the
middle, giving it
a “so-so” rating

 In a July 2014 survey by Starfleet Media, 35% of
respondents said they “not been successful at all”
with content marketing efforts

Confusion reigns
 In a May 2014
poll by Contently
of US marketers,
only 9.4% were
“very confident”
about results
measurement
 31.9% were ???

The crux of the problem: Unmet expectations
“People are saying, ‛I’m increasing my
budget so I can execute on content, but
I’m frustrated because I can’t get
what I want.’”
—Robert Rose, chief strategist at
Content Marketing Institute

In sum: The state of B2B content marketing is
marked by contradictions

What’s Causing this
Disconnect?

Lead gen and content marketing:
A legend of the game
 Executives are involved with digital more than ever
 They want new revenues from digital
 Content marketing busted onto the scene with promises
of easy/cheap lead gen

Leads are
most often
the goal of
B2B content
marketing …
… but content
marketing creates
more than just leads

How’s the content marketing program going?
“Our video and webcast content last
quarter generated about 1,200 net
new names.”
—Mark Yolton, vice president of digital at Cisco

Go beyond “squishy” metrics
“Our video and webcast content last
quarter ... also generated $13
million in sales qualified leads
from those new names.”

Hard to judge by leads alone

Adding a step to ask questions first
“There’s a lot of ‘shoot first and
measure later’. [But ] it requires a step
in there to first understand the
purpose of content, ask what
success should look like and then align
measurement.”
—Robert Rose, chief strategist at Content
Marketing Institute

Three Questions to Gauge
a B2B Content Marketing
Program

Ask three key questions:
1. Does our content serve the audience?
2. Are we fully measuring our results?
3. Does our organization value these results?

The audience is large and growing
 B2B buyer funnel has
grown considerably
thanks to digital
 It’s still growing
 71% of B2B email
lists grew last year

The audience is asking questions … but through
a familiar starting point
“B2B marketing was always clouded in
mystery. Now digital has opened up
the whole landscape, giving
prospective buyers a full view of
the world. And they’re looking for three
things: What the brand does, what the
competitors do and what other people say.
It starts with search.”
—Mark Kiernan, SVP of marketing at DigitasLBi

Think of search as your main starting point
 80% of B2B buyers began with search:
– 71.7% began with Google
– 5.5% began with Yahoo
– 2.8% began with Bing
Pardot/Salesforce “State of Demand Generation”

Assume a
significant portion
of research will
take place on
mobile devices
Mobile use among B2B
buyers:
 42.9% in 2013
 55.8% in 2014
 Majority of smartphone
research activities are
content consumption

Align your
content
accordingly
Consider content
that is short and
more visual

Content promotion remains fairly conventional

Make sharing
your content
easy
In a May 2014 survey of
US B2B buyers:
 88% frequently used
email to share content
LinkedIn to share
contente
Twitter to share
content

Maximize trust
by creating
content that
encourages
dialogue or
user-generated
feedback

Ask three key questions:
1. Does our content serve the audience?
2. Are we fully measuring our results?
3. Does our organization value these results?

Quantitative
or tangible
key
performance
metrics are
the most
popular
Think of each metric
as a goalpost along
the path to the
ultimate goal

In part, satisfaction is a numbers game …
“We have 10 million social media
followers and fans, for instance. Leads
are really the ultimate of what we’re
searching for. But it’s important to
get that reach at the top of the
funnel in order to achieve the
revenue numbers at the bottom.”

… but quality is as important as quantity when it
comes to leads
“If we’re expecting the same number of
inferior leads that we’re getting from our
outbound direct marketing program, yeah,
we’re likely to be frustrated. Perhaps the
leads are more expensive and there are
fewer of them, but they are so much
more valuable as they are worth more
dollars in new business in the long run.”
—Robert Rose, chief strategist at Content
Marketing Institute

Intangible
metrics are
high on the
measurement
wish list
Ultimately, each
organization must find a
way to measure in a way
they trust

Make sure there is internal agreement around
intangible KPIs
“There’s an external group that actually
measures the quality and value of
different professional services firms.
When we started this effort we were
number 18 on their list. We’re now
number 2. What we sell is our ideas.
The content marketing gives people a
chance to sample our ability to deliver
insights.”
—Jonathan Copulsky, principal at Deloitte
Consulting

Internal
agreement
around
intangibles can
help overcome
measurement
challenges

Be prepared for long turnaround times …
“In the end, if we are introducing the
concept, they are more likely to see
us as a leading resource when the
time comes for them to seek out such
services.”
—Chris Reed, Chief Marketing Officer at CDK
Cobalt Digital Marketing

… especially where content programs focused
on brand awareness are concerned

Takeaways:
 See the opportunity and the risk in this moment for
B2B content marketing
 Ask three questions:
– Does our content serve our audience?
– Are we fully measuring our results?
– Does our organization value these results?

A ‘snackable’ takeaway:
“This is a new muscle for many
organizations.”
—Joe Pulizzi, founder of Content Marketing
Institute

‣
‣
‣
‣
‣
‣
TRADITIONAL MARKETING DIGITAL EXPLOSION
‣
‣
‣
DIGITAL GUT DRIVEN
MARKETING
Nothing has changed
‣
‣
‣
‣
‣
‣

And your funnel is under attack…
‣ B2B buyers are now
57% of the way to a
purchase decision
before engaging a
sales rep.
‣ Competitors can
steal prospects out
of your funnel!
AWARENESS
INTEREST
START HERE
BUY!

Discover Content
Opportunities
Optimize Content
Distribution
Track Real-Time
Progress
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Q&A Session
B2B Content Marketing:
It’s Not Just Lead Generation
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Mike Hudson
 B2C Content Marketing 2014: More Money, More Pressure to
Perform
 Shifting Video and TV Audiences: Tuning Out the Hype to
Understand New Viewing Habits
 UK Content Marketing: Meeting the Challenge of Being Seen
and Shared

eMarketer Webinar: B2B Content Marketing—It's Not Just Lead Gen

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