By Lucy Hardaker, Published November 7, 2014
Excited to get your 2015 content marketing budget and plans signed off? Us too!
58% of B2B marketers are planning to increase their content marketing budget over the next 12 months. But with more budget, comes more content – 70% of B2B Marketers are creating more content than a year ago, even those who say their content is least effective and they have no strategy.
In order to stand out next year, you’re going to have to create innovative content campaigns that connect with your prospects AND deliver that all-important ROI – all on one budget.
So before you go diving head first into your funds…check out our top tips on where to invest your content budget to see real success.
Budget Tip 1 – Spend some cash on documenting your strategy
60% of B2B marketers who document their content marketing strategy say their content is highly effective. But according to the Content Marketing Institute, only 32% with a verbal strategy can say the same.
So first things first, if you want to create innovative content marketing in 2015 you need a way of documenting your strategy. You and your team should be able to document your strategy from initial ideas, all the way to distribution and analysis – all essential stages if you want to be successful and prove your content’s true value.
Make sure you allocate some budget for any necessary resources and training that enable you to do this – whether that’s off-site workshops, extra training, or even consultant services to help out.
Budget Tip 2 – Allocate some funds to fuse your digital marketing with content distribution
58% of B2B Marketers currently use search engine marketing to promote and distribute their content. Pure promotional ads are making way for gated content campaigns to provide real value and educate your target audience around the true benefits of your product.
Distributing engaging content to the right audience is essential if you want to see success and drive those all-important leads – and using paid advertising in 2015 may just be the way to do it.
Set aside some of your content budget to test your content distribution through different paid channels and segment as much as possible. Test, analyse and repeat, and you’ll be able to understand which platforms are truly going to deliver the best ROI for your budget investment.
Budget Tip 3 – Invest in the tools that will measure your success
Heading into 2015, measurement is still a key area for B2B Marketers, with only 21% of marketers saying they are successful at tracking ROI from content marketing.
Investing in tools that can accurately track and attribute sales revenue back to specific content pages will become essential as we move into a more analytically driven world next year.
For gated content campaigns, landing page tools like Unbounce are a powerful way of attributing leads back to a specific content download. Or consider a tool to identify your website’s best performing content pages. Use this insight to guide your content strategy based on real-time data.
The top priorities for marketers as we head into 2015 are to “create engaging content” and “measure the success” of the content we create.
By investing your budget wisely (and practically) in these three areas and you’ll be able to see real impact, and more importantly, prove your success in 2015 and beyond.
Want to become the Ultimate B2B Marketer and take your content strategy to the next level? Download the Ultimate Content Planner here.
What are your predictions for content marketing as we head into 2015? Tweet us with your ideas@LeadForensics #UltimateContent.
This blog was originally posted on the Lead Forensics website. Read the original article here.
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