2013: The year lead nurturing took over - Three trends that affected B2B technology copywriters

2013: The year lead nurturing took over
Three trends that affected B2B technology copywriters

We write
marketing
content for
lots of top B2B
technology
brands
We’re Radix Communications
like
Rackspace,
Networks First,
Oracle, Tata
Consultancy
Services and
Spirent
(pleased to meet you)

Coming up
• Content marketing goes mainstream
• Lead nurturing takes off
• Visual content continues to rise
• Predictions for 2014

A lot happened in B2B marketing during
2013, but which trends have really
impacted B2B copywriters like us?

From lead nurturing to visual content, a lot
has happened since our 2012 look up from
the copywriting trenches.

Content marketing
became the new
norm...
... and B2B marketers
became more confident
with using it.

In the US,
93% of B2B
marketers now use
content marketing
(91% in 2012)
Number
of different
formats used 13
(12 in 2012)1
1
Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs - B2B Content Marketing: 2014
Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America
The
adoption
rate of content
marketing as a
strategy has
steadied

2
B2B Content Marketing: 2014 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North
America
This suggests that the number of content formats
used by B2B marketers has plateaued, as the
increase is only by 1, as opposed to 4 in 2012.2

42%
of marketers
say they’re
effective
at content
marketing
Compared
to 36% in
20123
3
America
With
increased
use has come
increased
confidence

In 2013, Radix saw
a 50% increase on
2012 in the number
of client content
marketing projects

In 2013 we wrote a huge range of content
In 2013, Radix saw increased demand for social media and infographics and decreased demand for
blog posts and enewsletters.
Social Media
23.26%
Infographics
15.43%
Blog Posts
10.87%
Video Scripts
10.65%
Account Specific Content
8.26%
eBooks
8.26%
Case Studies
6.09%
White Papers
4.35%
Brochures
2.83%
Datasheets
2.61%
eNewsletters
2.17% Web Copy
2.17%
Advertorial
1.74%
Comic Strips
0.87%
Placed
Articles
0.43%
Social Media, 17.26%
Infographics, 14.33%
Blog Posts, 18.24%
Video Scripts, 2.93%
eBooks, 9.45%
Case Studies, 9.45%
White Papers, 1.95%
Brochures, 1.95%
Datasheets, 5.21%
eNewsletters, 11.07%
Ezines, 2.61%
Advertorial, 1.95%
Worksheets, 1.95%
Checklists, 1.63%
2012-2013 2011-2012

The range of content used remained mostly unchanged in the wider
B2B community - here are the main tactics used in 2013.
B2B Content Marketing: 2014 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America

B2B Content Marketing: 2013 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America
And these were the main tactics used in 2012.

Marketing automation
has taken off
where 2012 saw our
clients only just realising
what they could achieve
with automation, in 2013
we saw a surge in its
use, especially for lead
nurturing.

53%
of B2B
marketers are
using it4
36.7%
are using
it for lead
generation
and 36.1% to
nurture5
4
Holger Schulze - Marketing Automation Report 2014
5
Holger Schulze - B2B Content Marketing Trends 2013
How
prevalent
is marketing
automation?

Radix has seen increased demand for different
subject line options as clients bring A/B testing to
their email marketing campaigns.

The next step for B2B marketers, now
that they are used to their marketing
automation systems, is to bring in greater
personalisation of content - creating really
relevant content for the person who’s
received it.

For
71%
of Holger
Schulze’s survey
respondents...
6
7
Audience
relevance
is now the most
important element
of effective content
marketing6 Taking
the top
spot from
‘compelling
storytelling’ in
20127

In 2013, Radix went
from producing no
account-specific
content to it
making up over 8%
of our output

Visual content
explosion
Visual content has
continued to increase in
popularity.

But
the biggest
increase was
infographics,
climbing from 38%
to 51% usage8
8
America
Videos
and
infographics
continue to be
popular 73%
of
marketers who
responded to CMI/
MarketingProfs
survey use
video

There has been an increase in the use and
variety of visual content by Radix’s clients,
with videos and infographics being joined
by comic strips.

Video script
output went
from 3% in
2012 to 10.7%
in 2013
Infographic
requests
climbed from 14%
to 15.4%

Radix almost
produced as
many video
scripts as it did
blog posts in
2013

9
Which is unsurprising when marketers in
2013 were more likely to outsource video
creation than any other form of content.9

So what does
2014 hold for B2B
copywriters?
There’s still room for
plenty of change.

“Now everyone’s on the content marketing bandwagon there’s this
huge sea of content out there. So the challenge for marketers is:
how do you still get noticed? I think what we’re going to see in 2014
is content becoming a lot more specific. It’ll be more tailored to
the buyer, and it’ll deal with specific problems the buyer may have.
That means creating more content, but each piece will be very
highly targeted – and therefore much more likely to get viewed,
downloaded or read by the right person.”
Hyper-specificity will rule
Fiona Campbell-Howes, MD, Radix Communications

“Content marketers will discover that it takes more than publishing
content to move the needle.”
Just having content won’t be enough
Ardath Albee, B2B Marketing Strategist, Marketing
Interactions, Inc.10
10
Content Marketing Institue - 50 Content Marketing Predictions for 2014
Distribution - getting
that content to the
right person at the
right time - will be
equally important

“The good news for content providers, is that prices are actually
going up in the corporate content market. That’s partly because so
many companies are piling into the space that the only way to stand
out is to create exceptional material, and that costs more.”
Marketers will start to realise the value of quality content
Dan Lyons, Marketer, Hubspot 11
11
Hubspot Blog - Contently, Riding Corporate Media Wave, Raises New
Funding

“For $1000, Debi gets 50 product descriptions, 20 blog posts, 2
videos and select graphic designs. She agrees that occasionally
it is necessary to retain professionals for high quality content. She
can’t churn out high-volume and low-cost content all the time. If the
company wants to demonstrate thought leadership, professionally
done content for videos and white papers is necessary.”
Pam Didner, Global Integrated Marketing Manager, Intel12
12
Pam Didner - How many content pieces can you create with $1,000?
Marketers will start to realise the value of quality content

“The pressure of more customers doing their own research further
into the buying process will finally force sales and marketing to
transform themselves into truly customer-centric cultures that
use data and personalization to deliver valuable, informative and
entertaining content.”
Marketing will need to be truly customer focused
Michael Brenner, Vice President Marketing & Content Strategy, SAP13
13
SAP Business Innovation blog - Top Marketing Predictions For 2014

Sources
Holger Schulze - Marketing Automation Report 2014
Content Marketing Institue - 50 Content Marketing Predictions for 2014
Hubspot Blog - Contently, Riding Corporate Media Wave, Raises New Funding
SAP Business Innovation blog - Top Marketing Predictions For 2014
Pam Didner - How many content pieces you create with $1,000?

About Radix
Radix is a copywriting agency for the content marketing era. We work
with marketers to develop programmes of content that guide customers
through every stage of the buying process.
We specialise in the B2B technology sector, with expertise in enterprise
hardware and software, networking and electronics.
We’ve written for innovative tech companies large and small, including
Fujitsu, GFI, Oracle, Rackspace, Salesforce and Spirent.
We have a monthly podcast that explores trends and issues in B2B
technology copywriting. You can listen to it here.

2013: The year lead nurturing took over - Three trends that affected B2B technology copywriters

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2013: The year lead nurturing took over - Three trends that affected B2B technology copywriters